------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
Iraqi atomic scientist details bomb building
No Deal in US - N.Korea Missile Talks
United States-North Korea Missile Talks End Unresolved
Siberian weapons site spreading radioactivity
EBRD mulls Ukraine nuke loans but no announcment due
Feds poised to launch search for 1958 bomb
Cancer rates in Mesa County above state average, study says
Baldwin Seeks Radioactivity Tests
Wasted time found in Hanford waste cleanup
Hanford radiation back at pre-fire levels
Bush and Gore positions on top issues
USA Presidential Candidates on the Issues
MILITARY
The study of penguins
Reno sets investigation of aborted drug probe
Montgomery Priest Is Called an Addict
DRUG BOATS SEIZED IN CARRIBBEAN
Jury Clears Salvadoran Generals
JURY CLEARS GENERALS IN NUN MURDERS
Albright defends N. Korea detente
Divers Can't Search Kursk Command Area
The Hectic Life In Outer Space
NEXT, THEY'RE GOING TO REQUEST PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATES
Anti - Nuke Activists Back Taiwan's Embattled Chen
U.S., China Generals Discuss Taiwan
Target: Bin Laden
'Drastic cutbacks' hurt Navy readiness
FBI Probes Source of Explosives in Attack
OTHER
Indian desert state to set up solar power project
Biotech Corn Recall Expands in Stores, Restaurants
U.S. To Test Japan - Bound Corn
Md. Man Wins Police Abuse Suit
Panel Offers Suing, Firing Officers
Peru to Investigate Swiss Bank Accounts Linked to Ex-Spy Chief
Russian Espionage Trial Postponed
Spies will face mental health check
Nuclear terrorism: The next phase?
ACTIVISTS
Protest Comes Out of the Shadows in Vietnam
French navy offers alliance to Greenpeace foes
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- iraq
Iraqi atomic scientist details bomb building
Philadelphia Daily News
11/03/00
by Pauline Jelenik Associated Press
http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2000/11/03/national/WIRD03.htm
WASHINGTON - A former high-ranking official in Iraq's nuclear weapons program says he got American help in designing a bomb for Saddam Hussein: library copies of reports on the 1940s Manhattan Project.
"I found a nice gift from the U.S. Atomic Energy Project at the library - the Manhattan Project report," Khidhir Hamza, a nuclear physicist who defected in 1994, said yesterday in a rare public appearance.
One of only three or four nuclear physicists in Iraq when the bomb project began in the 1970s, he says he found the reports at Iraq's atomic energy library "in a corner with a pile of dust on them . . . sitting there telling me exactly what to do."
The Manhattan Project was the crash U.S. government program in which scientists developed the atomic bomb and produced the two that were dropped on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.
In a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Hamza did not say how the Iraqi library got the reports, which like much other nuclear information are readily available around the world now.
He has said previously, however, that Iraq had a program before the 1991 Persian Gulf War of searching open literature and getting close to people in the United States who had classified information. Specifically, Iraqi students in the United States combed university libraries for bomb-building information, and Iraqi agents and scientists collected data at American scientific conferences and elsewhere, he has said.
Hamza, who co-authored the just-released book "Saddam's Bombmaker," said Iraqi scientists and engineers concealed their work from international inspectors by simply locking doors and leading inspectors past them.
"We understood what the inspector's limits were. He was not allowed to ask outside certain limits," Hamza told a conference on nuclear proliferation at the Carnegie think tank. "So he would be taken to a set path, and he would be answered within the limits of what he was allowed to ask, and he would leave. And next door is where we would be working on whatever we were doing to enrich uranium or design a bomb."
Hamza said he believes Iraq could build a nuclear weapon "within months" if it got fissionable material from Russia or on the black market. Without that, he said, it would need to rebuild destroyed factories to produce its own material, which would require two or three years.
After his defection, Hamza worked for a time at the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington research group, and as a consultant to the Energy Department.
His assessment of how long Iraq would need to reconstitute the nuclear weapons program destroyed by the Gulf War comes from work he did with the institute.
-------- korea
No Deal in US - N.Korea Missile Talks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/03/world/03WIRE-MIS.html
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The United States and North Korea ended three days of sensitive talks Friday without agreeing on a way to curb the communist country's missile program -- the chief obstacle to a possible trip there by President Clinton.
Although progress was made, ``significant issues remain to be explored and resolved,'' said a statement from Robert Einhorn, U.S. assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.
No new talks were scheduled. The next move would be decided in Washington, the statement said.
The North Korean delegates remarked only briefly, offering no details.
``During these talks, the atmosphere was very constructive and serious,'' said Jung Sung Il, secretary general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry.
The dialogue over missiles are a key part of efforts to defuse the world's last major Cold War front and improve long-term hopes for peace in Northeast Asia.
The talks started Wednesday in a positive atmosphere after Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang last week.
Since then, both sides have refused to reveal details of the dialogue. The reticence underlines the sensitivity of the meetings, which are seen as the key that could encourage Clinton to visit North Korea -- long counted among the United States' most dangerous enemies.
It is unlikely Clinton would visit North Korea without substantive progress on the missile issue. The United States claims North Korea is the world's top exporter of missile equipment and technology to Pakistan, Iran and other nations.
A deadlock could also set back progress made since the leaders of North and South Korea met at a historic summit in June. The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945.
Negotiators had worked on proposals that North Korea curb its missile program and allow other countries to launch its satellites in exchange for promises of U.S. help for its devastated economy.
``The talks were detailed, constructive and very substantive. They covered the full range of missile issues under consideration by the two countries, including North Korea's missile-related exports and its indigenous missile programs,'' Einhorn's statement said.
North Korea has repeatedly said it needed missiles to launch scientific satellites and regarded its missile program as part of its right to self defense.
The last round of talks in July had deadlocked over the North's demand for $1 billion in compensation for stopping profitable missile exports -- something the United States has so far refused.
Very little time is left to plan a presidential trip to the North. If it happens, Clinton would be expected to make the visit this month, probably after planned trips to Brunei for a summit of Pacific Rim leaders Nov. 15-16 and then to Vietnam, an equally historic first presidential visit to a former U.S. foe.
--------
United States-North Korea Missile Talks End Unresolved
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/03/world/03WIRE-MIS.html
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 3 - The United States' talks with North Korea on Pyongyang's missile program ended on Friday in Kuala Lumpur with significant issues unresolved.
Analysts saw a link between the inconclusive outcome and the failure earlier this week of Japan and North Korea to reach agreement on normalising relations after two days of "serious and heated" talks in Beijing.
After the jarring notes sounded during the Beijing talks, analysts reckon Washington chose to go slow in Kuala Lumpur.
"The delegations further clarified their respective positions on the full range of missile issues and continued to expand areas of common ground, although significant issues remain to be explored and resolved," Robert Einhorn, Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation, said in a statement at the end of three days of talks in the Malaysian capital.
The United States, South Korea and Japan closely coordinate a trilateral approach to North Korea, whereby none of the allies get too far ahead of each other in cultivating better relations with the reclusive, Stalinist state. In contrast to the talks with Japan, the Kuala Lumpur meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, according to North Korean delegates. But Washington made it known during the three days of talks that it was in no hurry to wrap up the missile issue.
Korean analysts said a deal was there to be made as North Korea is desperate to become eligible for loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Economic ruin and famine has pushed Pyongyang towards ending decades of isolationism and relations with both South Korea and the United States are improving fast.
Japan, as a former colonial ruler of the Korean peninsula, has special problems in talks on normalising ties with Pyongyang.
ALL MISSILE ISSUES COVERED
The United States wants North Korea to commit to halting long range missile test launches and curtail exports of missiles to countries like Pakistan and some Middle East states.
But, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, whose visit to Pyongyang last week was the high point in relations so far with her country's long time foe, said on Thursday Washington would only strike an accord when the time and terms were right.
Washington's negotiators here appear to have stuck to the script.
"The discussions this week in Kuala Lumpur sought to clarify areas explored in Pyongyang. The talks were detailed, constructive and very substantive," Einhorn's statement said.
"They covered the full range of missile issues under consideration by the two countries, including North Korea's missile related exports and its indigenous missile programmes."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told Albright, during her visit to Pyongyang last week, that his country was ready to stop launching long-range missiles. In return North Korea wants U.S. help in launching its satellites.
"The delegations also explored in depth the idea of exchanging launches of DPRK (North Korean) satellites for serious missile restraint by the DPRK," Einhorn's statement said, adding that Washington would now decide on how to proceed from here.
Officials in Washington earlier played down the possibility of President Bill Clinton taking a quick decision to visit Pyongyang before he leaves office in January.
Washington still fears that within a few years North Korea could develop a missile capable of delivering a bomb over an American city, although Pyongyang last year said it would not proceed with further testing of its long-range Taepodong ballistic missile.
North Korea test fired a three stage missile over Japan's main island of Honshu in August 1998, sending shudders through the region and the United States.
-------- russia
Siberian weapons site spreading radioactivity
Irish Times
Friday, November 3, 2000
From Ian Traynor, in Moscow
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2000/1103/wor6.htm
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/glow03.html
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/russ033.shtml
RUSSIA: Radioactive contamination of rivers around a top-secret Russian nuclear weapons complex in Siberia has reached "staggering" levels, the worst ever monitored, and is out of "rational control", a joint team of Russian and American radiation monitors said yesterday.
Following a monitoring expedition in July and August to the closed plutonium complex at Seversk, outside Tomsk in western Siberia, the Russian and American nuclear watchdogs, Siberian Scientists for Global Responsibility and Government Accountability Project, said they had registered alarming levels of radioactivity in tributaries of the River Ob, one of the key Siberian waterways.
"We've never encountered such radiation. It's the worst contamination we've found," said Prof Sergei Pashchenko, a Novosibirsk-based expert in atmospheric pollution who headed the survey on the Russian side.
Mr Tom Carpenter, the director of the American watchdog, said: "We were shocked at the levels of contamination."
The environmentalists said they found levels of strontium-90 and caesium vastly exceeding safety levels in the rivers Tom and Romashka close to the "Siberian Chemical Complex", a sprawling top-secret facility established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s to manufacture weapons-grade plutonium for Red Army warheads.
But even more disturbingly, said Prof Pashchenko, plant life in the rivers contained high levels of phosphorus-32 which decays within a couple of weeks, meaning that the radioactive effluent was of very recent origin whereas the strontium and the caesium could date from the 1960s.
"The phosphorus-32 is a very short-lived isotope and this means they are very fresh," he said. The closed nuclear town of Seversk is effectively a suburb of Tomsk, a city of half a million in western Siberia.
Seversk was born in 1949 at the very onset of the then superpowers' nuclear arms race.
It ranked among the top three sites for the manufacturing of the weapons-grade plutonium and uranium enrichment for the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal throughout the cold war.
The plutonium was manufactured from five nuclear reactors commissioned between 1955 and 1967.
"They are very old reactors and very unsafe," said Mr Igor Forofontov, radiation specialist with Greenpeace in Moscow.
The three oldest reactors were closed down between 1990 and 1992 and under a 1992 agreement between Moscow and Washington aimed at halting plutonium production all five reactors were to have been closed down by this year.
But two reactors are still operating, providing heating and electricity to Tomsk and there is no sign of their closure. "The authorities have no intention of closing them," said Mr Forofontov.
There was an explosion at the plant in 1993 which resulted in large amounts of radioactivity being emitted.
Mr Forofontov also said lethal amounts of radioactivity were leaching into the earth and the water in the region. "The nuclear waste is being piped straight into the environment," said Mr Norm Buske, one of the American researchers who is an oceanographer and a physicist. The monitors were unable to pinpoint the source of the pollution because they were not granted access to the top-secret plant.
Prof Pashchenko and 10 of his colleagues were detained for six hours questioning by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, while conducting research around Novosibirsk last summer. - (Guardian Service)
-------- ukraine
EBRD mulls Ukraine nuke loans but no announcment due
UK: November 3, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8786
LONDON - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is still evaluating the possibility of loans for nuclear plants in Ukraine but no announcement is currently planned, an EBRD spokesman said yesterday.
A senior Ukraine official said earlier yesterday that they expected the EBRD to announce "on Friday or even later today", approval of a loan to complete two nuclear reactors to compensate for the closure of the troubled Chernobyl plant.
However, an EBRD spokesman in London said no announcement was planned.
"The EBRD is continuing to evaluate the possibility of making a loan for nuclear plants in Ukraine. EBRD President Jean Lemierre's visit to Ukraine is part of that decision-making process," said the spokesman.
EBRD President Jean Lemierre is due to arrive in Ukraine late yesterday to hold talks with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and other senior officials.
Ukrainian officials have said the talks will focus on a much-discussed loan aimed to help Ukraine complete two reactors at its western Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants.
Kuchma earlier this year named December 15 as the closure date for Chernobyl, site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986.
He stipulated that the shutdown would happen in return for aid to complete the two reactors and money to help resolve the social problems of the plant's staff.
Foreign experts estimate that completion of the new nuclear units might cost a total of $1.4 billion.
Last month, Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Serhiy Yermilov said the EBRD loan might total some $270 million.
"I'm sure the West will grant this loan because they are interested in the closure of Chernobyl," the official said.
Fourteen years after the Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine still relies heavily on nuclear-generated electricity, which accounts for half of all power produced by the nation.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Feds poised to launch search for 1958 bomb
Atlanta Journal Constitution
FRIDAY • November 3, 2000
Melanie Eversley - Staff
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/friday/news_a320865a6349620d0003.html
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=110300&ID=s874350
Washington --- A team of federal government experts could be traveling to the Savannah area as early as next week to try to find and evaluate an undetonated bomb sitting at the bottom of the Wassaw Sound.
But an Air Force official stressed that although the bomb shell contains some radioactive material, it is not an amount that would endanger public health. The Air Force has been told by a consultant that the only way the radioactivity from the bomb could hurt someone is if they ate it.
The update from the Air Force is the latest in the saga of the bomb that an Air Force pilot jettisoned into the sea in 1958.
That pilot and another were taking part in a military exercise when the other plane collided with the one carrying the Mark 15 bomb. The second pilot opted to jettison the device into the water rather than endanger anyone on land.
For two months after that, the military tried to find the sunken device, but had no luck and ultimately declared the bomb "irretrievably lost."
But recently, the owner of an ocean salvage company in the Savannah area raised questions about the device and asked whether it was a nuclear bomb.
The Air Force, in recent months and again on Wednesday, stressed that only the bomb casing fell into the ocean and that the bomb did not include its capsule of radioactive material, which would have allowed it to be characterized as a nuclear bomb. The Air Force official on Thursday, however, did acknowledge that there is uranium in the casing.
The official said a team of about a dozen experts would travel to the area as early as next week and would then offer up a recommendation to Air Force hierarchy.
He said he did not know when a recommendation would be forthcoming, but said, "I'll be very disappointed if we're not done inside a year."
U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) has kept up with the Air Force on the status of the bomb. Kingston, who was traveling Thursday, could not be reached for comment. But a military historian who has been following the developments said he was glad to hear of the trip the experts will make to the area.
"The real test will be now if they attempt to recover the bomb," said Doug Keeney in Louisville, Ky. "The technology is there."
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- colorado
Cancer rates in Mesa County above state average, study says
By GARY HARMON
The Daily Sentinel,
November 3, 2000
http://www.gjsentinel.com/auto/feed/news/local/2000/11/03/973264413.24013.4964.0054.html
Men in Mesa County are slightly more likely to develop cancer than are their counterparts across the state, according to a state study.
"All combined cancers in males in Mesa County is too high," Dr. Richard Hoffman, state epidemiologist, told a gathering of health-care professionals, cancer survivors and volunteers on Thursday.
The study covering 1996 to 1998 found cancer occurring in about 515 men per 100,000 in Mesa County. Statewide, the incidence rate was 452 cases per 100,000, "which tells us we've got a lot of work to do," Hoffman said.
The incidence of cancer among women in Mesa County also was slightly higher than the statewide average, 365 cases per 100,000 in the county, 341 cases per 100,000 statewide - not enough to be statistically significant, Hoffman said.
Higher rates of lung, colorectal and prostate cancer contributed to a cancer rate among Mesa County men that was 14 percent higher than the statewide average. The study found that higher lung- and breast-cancer incidences contributed to the higher incidence rate among women in Mesa County.
Hoffman said it was unclear why men in Mesa County were more likely to develop cancer than other men in Colorado.
"It could be lifestyle or diet," he said. It also might relate to a lack of physical activity or family histories "or the great unknown" - some unidentified factor or combination of factors.
The incidence of cancer in Colorado is about the same as the incidence nationwide, he said.
Overall in 1996 and 1997 in Colorado, 15,038 men and 14,660 women were diagnosed with cancer. In western Colorado, there were 1,729 new cases of cancer among men and 1,576 among women.
Incidence refers to the diagnosis of cancer. Mortality rates in Mesa County also are slightly higher than the rest of the state, but not significantly so, according to the report.
Mortality rates among men were 11 percent higher than the state average, and among women, mortality was 16 percent higher than average.
The incidence and mortality statistics were based on the residence of patients, so they don't necessarily reflect the possibility that cancers are detected and treated in Grand Junction, said Dr. Michael Ad- uddell, director of the Mesa County Health Department.
"So the question would be, if you already have medical problems, are you more likely to move to Mesa County?" Aduddell said. "I think that is a possibility."
Another factor, he said, might be the presence of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Grand Junction, where cancer also is diagnosed and treated.
Hoffman said people in Mesa County can reduce their chances of developing cancer by changing the way they live - exercising more, eating more fruits and vegetables, stopping smoking and using protective creams to reduce their chance of skin cancer.
He also urged people to take measures to catch cancers in their formative stages, and said in particular that colon cancers need to detected early.
"We're urging people to overcome their hesitation to get screened," he said. "It's not fun to have a colonoscopy, but it's only one day you're uncomfortable."
-------- new york
Baldwin Seeks Radioactivity Tests
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Alec-Baldwin.html
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Alec Baldwin is asking county lawmakers for at least $50,000 to help fund a project that tests baby teeth for levels of a radioactive isotope.
The actor made his request Thursday before a committee of the Westchester County Legislature.
``This contamination is the result of a government program and therefore the government should pay for the research to determine the level of contamination in the community,'' he said.
The Tooth Fairy Project tests baby teeth for strontium-90, known as a byproduct of nuclear explosions. Baldwin's organization, the Radiation and Public Health Project, believes the isotope is being emitted at dangerous levels from nuclear power plants, including Indian Point plants in Westchester.
They say studies show the higher the level of strontium-90 in baby teeth, the greater their risk of developing cancer before age 5.
The nuclear industry and some scientists dispute the claims.
``We know that there isn't enough strontium released from plants to do the sort of things that they're talking about,'' said Carl Patrick, spokesman for the state Power Authority, which operates one of the Indian Point plants. ``We also know that strontium in people's teeth comes basically from dairy products and produce.''
-------- washington
Wasted time found in Hanford waste cleanup
But authorities dispute the finding by federal defense audit agency
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, November 3, 2000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/hanf033.shtml
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=110300&ID=s874351
RICHLAND -- Employees who are supposed to be cleaning up the nation's biggest collection of nuclear waste were wasting more than 20 percent of their work time last summer, according to a preliminary draft of a federal report.
The findings were disputed by officials of the Energy Department, which operates the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the contractor in question.
The wasted-time estimate was based on observations of workers sleeping, Internet surfing, watching television, reading newspapers and magazines, balancing checkbooks, playing pingpong and putting on makeup, according to yesterday's editions of the Tri-City Herald, which obtained a September draft of a report by the federal Defense Contract Audit Agency.
The final report has not been released.
Auditors studied workers at private contractor Fluor Hanford in July and August, and concluded 21 percent of the observed employees were involved in activities that were obviously not work-oriented, the newspaper reported.
If there were any doubts about an activity, it was counted as work-related.
The draft report concluded Fluor could save about $56.6 million a year by decreasing non-work activities at the 200 Area and the K Basins.
Fluor conducted its own follow-up observations and found just 5.8 percent of work time going to non-work activity.
Jeanie Schwier, DOE's chief financial officer at Hanford, questioned the findings.
"We're not saying we don't have an idleness problem. But it's not to the degree in this report," Schwier said.
Fluor is the biggest contractor at Hanford, which for four decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons. The government is now engaged in a multibillion-dollar, multidecade effort to clean up the nation's most contaminated nuclear waste site.
"We take to heart what the DCAA has given us," Ed Penn, Fluor's vice president for business systems, added.
The Energy Department asked the agency to check on idle time among Hanford workers. It was a routine inspection to help DOE grade Fluor's performance as Hanford's lead contractor, Schwier said.
The DCAA made 555 visits to the K Basins, 200 East Area and 200 West Area in July and August to monitor workers. The observers did not go into any radioactive or hazardous materials areas that required extra protective measures. They concentrated on administrative and maintenance buildings and areas, including lunchrooms, offices and hallways.
The report extrapolated its figures to conclude each employee probably spent two hours and 22 minutes a day on non-work activities. That amounted to about 25 percent of work time. That was cut to 21 percent to account for work breaks.
Hanford officials said the findings are skewed because the observers did go into areas containing hazardous or radioactive materials.
---
Hanford radiation back at pre-fire levels
Feds say levels were never high enough to pose a health threat
Spokane Spokesman-Review
Friday, November 3, 2000
Nicholas K. Geranios - Associated Press
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=110300&ID=s874377
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/11/nw_61hanf03.frame
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/brfs0316.shtml
Radiation levels that rose after a 164,000-acre wildfire on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have returned to normal, state and federal officials said Thursday.
Firefighters who battled last summer's blaze were not exposed to detectable radiation levels, according to preliminary results of tests on urine samples, officials said.
Of approximately 700 firefighters on the June fire, about 200 requested kits to check for radioactivity and 111 of those kits have been analyzed, said Wayne Glines of the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees Hanford.
"None have shown any detectable levels of radioactivity," Glines said.
The Energy Department conducted an expedited study of air, soil and vegetation samples from the Hanford site in the month after the fire, and released its final report on that effort Thursday.
The state Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency participated in the study.
Hanford was established as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to make plutonium for atomic bombs during World War II.
The site, 120 miles southwest of Spokane, contains the nation's largest collection of radioactive waste. The wildfire, sparked by a vehicle accident, raged across Hanford from June 27-30.
Samples of air, vegetation and soil taken within a few days of the fire indicated elevated levels of radioactivity, though the levels remained low enough to pose no health hazards for firefighters or the public, Hanford officials said.
Air samples were collected from 76 fixed monitoring stations on the 560-square mile site.
Of those, 34 samples showed heightened levels of radiation, mostly from plutonium and strontium.
A second set of samples taken two weeks after the fire turned up only three samples with elevated levels of radiation, the report said.
A third set of samples taken about one month after the fire showed no elevated levels of radioactivity, the report said. Air samples taken from 40 places outside the borders of Hanford, some as far away as Yakima, showed no radiation above routine background levels, the report said.
Hanford officials are not sure what caused the heightened radiation levels immediately after the fire. Glines said it is believed that radioactive particles already on the ground were kicked into the air by firefighting efforts.
Debra McBaugh of the state Health Department said that agency is testing the theory by taking samples during big dust storms since the fire, and hopes to have those results by the end of the year.
-------- us nuc politics
Bush and Gore positions on top issues
USA: November 3, 2000
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8792
WASHINGTON - These are the positions of Democratic nominee Al Gore and Republican candidate George W. Bush on some of the leading issues in the campaign for the Nov. 7 presidential election:
Abortion:
Gore supports a woman's right to have an abortion in all circumstances and opposes Republican efforts to outlaw a procedure of late-term abortions that opponents have called "partial birth abortion."
Bush opposes abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman. He would sign legislation outlawing "partial birth" abortion and cut federal funds for family planning services as well as banning overseas aid for organisations that provide abortion services. He has said he would not try to ban the recently approved RU-486 abortion drug.
Affirmative action/civil rights:
Gore supports such preference programmes intended to help women and minorities gain opportunities in education and employment. Backs federal "hate crimes" legislation to punish crimes motivated by racial, religious, ethnic or sexual intolerance. Backs the death penalty.
Bush opposes quotas and racial preferences. Opposes federal hate crimes legislation. Supports the death penalty.
Campaign finance reform:
Gore has backed legislation to ban unregulated "soft money" contributions from corporations and individuals and would provide candidates with public funding.
Bush wants to raise campaign contribution limits and improve disclosure regulations but opposes legislation to ban soft money unless union contributions are also banned.
Defence:
Gore would move ahead cautiously to examine limited missile defence programme, streamline Pentagon and work for steady increase in military spending. Would end "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals in military and allow homosexuals to serve openly.
Bush would increase funding on high-tech weapons systems, increase defence spending, give military personnel better pay and conditions. On missile defence, he would pursue ambitious programmes to protect the United States and allies from rogue nations, even if that meant withdrawing from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. Would retain "Don't ask, don't tell."
Education:
Gore would expand the federal role in school construction and invest in infrastructure and new teachers. Would offer tax credits for those pursuing "lifelong learning" and increase spending on early childhood education, to reach universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Would introduce testing of teachers.
Bush would provide $1,500 vouchers for students in failing schools that did not improve over three years. Would expand charter schools and end "social promotion" for students who do not reach required standards. Would encourage testing by states and boost spending on reading programmes.
Environment:
Gore supports the Kyoto global warming treaty, would encourage new energy technologies and provide tax breaks to companies and individuals switching to environmentally friendly homes, cars and businesses. Would preserve Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Preserve.
Bush opposes the Kyoto treaty, would give tax breaks for ethanol use and supports state efforts to reduce pollution from coal-fired power stations. Supports opening Alaska reserve toil and gas exploration.
Foreign policy/trade:
Gore backs free-trade agreements and international cooperation through the United Nations, supports the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Bush backs free trade but opposed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and would withdraw from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if necessary to pursue missile defence. Would reduce U.S. military involvement in international peacekeeping, take a tougher stance toward China, backs close defence ties with Taiwan. Has questioned U.S. military role in Bosnia.
Gun control:
Gore supports strong gun-control measures, including background checks of people buying weapons at gun shows, national licensing of firearms and mandatory child safety locks.
Bush support enforcement of existing gun laws, immediate background checks at gun shows but opposes any federally mandated national registration programme. Backs voluntary child safety lock programmes.
Health Care:
Gore would provide health insurance for all children and move slowly toward universal coverage, work for a Patients Bill of Rights allowing patients to sue health maintenance organisations, provide a $3,000 tax credit for home caregivers and provide a prescription drugs benefit for older Americans.
Bush would reduce the number of uninsured by subsidising their ability to buy private coverage, would expand medical savings accounts, make the cost of long-term care tax deductible.
Social Security:
Gore proposes using the budget surplus to reduce the national debt. That would cut interest payments in the budget and Gore would use the savings to extend the life of Social Security. Would offer workers supplemental tax-free retirement account.
Bush proposes allowing younger Americans to set aside part of their payroll taxes for personal savings accounts that they would then invest in financial markets.
Taxes:
Gore backs targeted tax cuts for middle-and lower-income Americans, including a $80 billion cut over 10 years for married couples, an increase in the earned income tax credit by up to $500 a year for families with three or more children and provide tax breaks for help finance college education.
Bush proposes a $483 billion tax cut package over five years, would simplify the income tax system eliminating one bracket, would cut rates for all Americans, increase child credits, phase out the estate tax.
---
USA Presidential Candidates on the Issues
The three leading candidates' stands on 12 key subjects.
Christian Science Monitor
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2000
by Mark Trumbull (trumbullm@csps.com)
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/11/03/fp3s1-csm.shtml
GEORGE W. BUSH (R) Governor of Texas
Taxes
Provide $1.3 trillion in tax relief over 10 years. Cut all income-tax rates. Abolish estate tax. Double the child tax credit. Expand charitable deductions. Keep Internet sales tax-free through 2006.
Foreign Policy
Work with allies to deal with the "challenges" of China and Russia. Favors China's entry into World Trade Organization. Opposes Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but would keep nuclear-test moratorium. For free trade, including a new hemisphere-wide deal.
Defense
Develop and deploy missile defense, while reducing the number of US nuclear arms. Focus military on ability to win wars. Shift toward new-generation weaponry.
Crime and Guns
Protect constitutional gun rights. Background checks at gun shows if they are instant. Raise to 21 the minimum age to buy a handgun. Strictly enforce US gun laws. Overall crime policy: tough enforcement; coordinated national and local policing. Supports death penalty.
Civil Rights
No racial preferences; favors "affirma-tive access" (e.g., admit top performers of each high school class to college). No civil union for homosexuals. Keep "don't ask, don't tell" policy in military.
Environment and Energy
Prefers market-based incentives for pollution prevention and cleanup; shift some environmental authority to states and cities. Open part of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Invest in "clean coal" technologies.
Campaign Reform
Ban corporate and union "soft money" contributions to political parties. Allow "issue ads" by advocacy groups. Favors "paycheck protection" law to give union members a say in political use of dues.
AL GORE (D) Vice president
Taxes
Add some $500 billion in tax credits over 10 years for earned income, child care, healthcare, education. Exempt more small businesses and family farms from estate tax. Keep Internet tax-free.
Foreign Policy
Deepen alliances and engage "former enemies," including China and Russia. Supports China's entry in WTO. Combat emerging threats: ecological disruption, epidemics, drugs. For Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. For free trade - with protection for environment and labor.
Defense
Develop missile defense, but deployment depends on impact on arms control and overall security. More open to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions abroad.
Crime and Guns
Step up gun control without affecting sporting uses. Mandate three-day wait and photo ID for handgun purchases. Ban cheap handguns. Do background checks at gun shows. Hire 50,000 police officers and 10,000 local prosecutors. Supports death penalty.
Civil Rights
For affirmative action. For a hate-crimes law. Not for homosexual marriage, but favors some contractual rights similar to those of married couples. Homosexuals should serve openly in the military.
Environment and Energy
Create $150 billion trust to promote clean energy and transport (including tax credits for efficient vehicles). Against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For ratifying Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which would mandate cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Campaign Reform
Ban soft money. Force more disclosure of issue-ad funding. Give free air time to candidates to answer attack ads. Expand public funding of campaigns. Against limits on use of union dues.
RALPH NADER (GREEN) Consumer activist
Taxes
Supports a "progressive" tax code, in which the rich pay a larger share. End "corporate welfare" tax loopholes. Use taxes to discourage sprawl. Tax sales on the Internet.
Foreign Policy
Mediate disputes and use "preventive diplomacy" that sides with workers, not dictators and oligarchs. Supports a global treaty banning land mines. Supports trade, with treaties for unions, consumers, and the environment. Opposes US membership in the WTO.
Defense
Sharply reduce US nuclear arsenal. Withdraw troops from Europe and elsewhere. Gradually cut military spending in half, while remaining the world's strongest country.
Crime and Guns
Require trigger locks and licenses on new guns. Crack down on marketing of weapons to criminals. Pursue corporate crime more vigorously, including a tenfold boost in antitrust funds and a moratorium on mergers valued above $10 billion. Eliminate the death penalty.
Civil Rights
Supports affirmative action and an Equal Rights Amendment for women. Favors restitution to native Americans (including land) and African-Americans. Supports civil unions for homosexuals.
Environment and Energy
Slash greenhouse-gas emissions, fund public transit, and launch a solar-energy program. Put a moratorium on national-forest logging. Phase out nuclear-power plants within five years. Opposes food irradiation. Seeks group buying-power for residential electricity customers.
Campaign Reform
Condemns the influence of special interests in policymaking. Favors a voluntary system of public campaign finance and a soft-money ban. Backs measures to boost third parties.
The report covers only candidates polling 2 percent or higher nationally. Source: candidates and their campaign Web sites; AP
-------- MILITARY
-------- britain
The study of penguins
USA Today
11/03/00- Updated 08:59 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nweird.htm
LONDON - Royal Air Force pilots have long been ridiculed, but remain adamant: fly above a penguin colony, they say, and the curious birds topple over like dominos as they stare up at the aircraft. Now, British scientists are traveling to the Falkland Islands to settle the debate once and for all. British Antarctic Survey researchers plan to spend one month aboard the HMS Endurance studying the phenomenon, which Royal Air Force pilots first recorded during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina. At least one scientist, however, isn't convinced. ''I'm afraid it's an urban myth,'' said Dr. Richard Stone of the British Antarctic Survey. ''Aircraft do have an effect on penguins, but not to the extent of birds falling over.''
-------- drug war
Reno sets investigation of aborted drug probe
November 3, 2000
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000113223215.htm
Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday ordered an investigation into accusations by five Houston police detectives who said they were pulled off a yearlong undercover drug probe after a key suspect in the case met with Vice President Al Gore.
Miss Reno ordered the probe amid accusations of "political interference" by the Houston detectives, members of a joint Drug Enforcement Administration/ Houston Police Department task force. The case was shut down two days after the probe's key target, Houston rapper James Prince, met with Mr. Gore at a Houston church.
She also ordered that DEA agents in Houston be removed from the case and replaced by "a new team of experienced special agents" from other offices - assisted by FBI agents, who also will be assigned to the investigation. She said the new team would be in place in a week.
"The Department of Justice and the DEA administrator find the DEA reports regarding the status of the Houston investigation disturbing," Assistant Attorney General Robert Raben said in a letter last night to the House Government Reform Committee, which had sought information on the accusations.
"Further, we take very seriously any allegation that an investigation has been politicized. For these and other reasons, the attorney general and the DEA administrator have asked the Office of Inspector General to investigate these matters," he said.
On Monday, the Houston detectives told House investigators that DEA Agent Ernest Howard, head of the agency's Houston office, said the probe had been shut down despite more than 20 arrests - with others pending. They said they were told not to conduct further inquiries or pursue new leads involving Mr. Prince, head of a music recording firm known as Rap-A-Lot.
One Houston detective told investigators, "It was a slap in the face to me . . .. The rug was pulled out from under us." The probe, dubbed "Rap-A-Lot," had netted several of Mr. Prince's employees.
House investigators want to know if there is a connection between a March 12 campaign visit by Mr. Gore with Mr. Prince at a Houston church to which Mr. Prince had donated $1 million and a decision two days later to end the probe. They also are looking into accusations that Mr. Prince offered $1 million to the Gore campaign prior to the vice president's visit.
Mr. Prince was not available yesterday for comment, although he told the Dallas Morning News, which first reported the undercover probe had been shut down, he had unfairly been targeted because he is wealthy and black. He has denied any wrongdoing and Federal Election Commission records show he has not contributed to the Gore campaign.
James Kennedy, spokesman for Mr. Gore, dismissed the accusations as "baseless," saying the vice president had no knowledge of the Houston investigation.
But James C. Wilson, the committee's chief counsel, took exception to Mr. Kennedy's comment, saying that in view of the Justice Department investigation, "Mr. Kennedy's comments are nothing more than meaningless spin."
Committee Chairman Rep. Dan Burton asked DEA Administrator Donnie R. Marshall in a letter this week for information on whether "Mr. Prince was promising a large political contribution to the Gore campaign, the [Democratic National Convention] or any other political committee." The Indiana Republican wants the DEA to make nine agents involved in the probe available for interviews to determine if political pressure was brought to bear to end the probe.
Mr. Burton told the DEA that while Mr. Gore's role in the matter remained "unclear," the Houston detectives were certain why the probe had ended. He also said Mr. Howard, when questioned by House investigators, denied the case had been closed -a statement since contradicted by e-mails Mr. Howard sent to DEA headquarters in Washington.
One e-mail, sent two days after Mr. Gore's visit to Houston, said the undercover probe was closed due to political pressure. Mr. Howard also noted that Mr. Prince was present "with the VP at the church" during his March 12 visit and "undoubtedly had a picture session as well."
In another e-mail, Mr. Howard said the situation involving the probe "has only gotten worse" and he had decided "that the Houston Division will curtail any enforcement action against this subject." He also said he had transferred Agent Jack Schumacher, a veteran DEA official who headed the Rap-A-Lot probe, to a desk job, describing the order as "an unfortunate occurrence."
Mr. Howard, in another e-mail, said he had briefed former DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine on the probe "because of the potential political pressure associated with it," but that the investigation had been shut down anyway.
"Now we bow down to the political pressure anyway," he said. "If I had known this, I would have NEVER brought Jack into this case, nor would I have pursued it. But it is over now."
House investigators also have focused on what role Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, played in the matter. She had complained in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno that Mr. Prince was the victim of police harassment and was fearful for his life, demanding that Miss Reno intercede in the "questionable practices of DEA."
The DEA's Office of Professional Responsibility later investigated those accusations, interviewing Mr. Prince in her Washington office - along with his attorney and Mrs. Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, who grew up in the same Houston neighborhood as did Mr. Prince. OPR later ruled that the accusations were unfounded.
The site of the Prince interview, however, was questioned by investigators, who said the use of Mrs. Waters' office was unprecedented since she had brought the accusations against the DEA. They said the agency normally avoided contact with members of Congress until an internal-affairs probe ended.
Mrs. Waters did not return calls to her office for comment.
--------
Montgomery Priest Is Called an Addict
By Phuong Ly and Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 3, 2000 ; Page B04
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5137-2000Nov3.html
Police raided the rectory. Bond had been set at nearly $2 million. Yesterday, jailed in Montgomery County, the Rev. Travers C. Koerner confessed his addiction to the bishop of the Washington Episcopal diocese, a spokesman for the diocese said.
"In his conversation with the bishop, he did admit that he was a drug user, and he did admit that that he had brought shame upon the parish and was heartily sorry for what he had done," said the Rev. Canon Ted Karpf, speaking on behalf of the Right Rev. Ronald H. Haines, the Episcopal bishop of Washington.
On Tuesday, Koerner, 55, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in what police say was the county's biggest seizure of the drug in five years. Police said that in their raid of the rectory at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Laytonsville, they found syringes and packages of methamphetamine valued at $6,000 to $10,000.
Koerner, who was arrested in March after Arlington County police said they found methamphetamine in his car, told the bishop at the time that he had been framed, Karpf said. He never mentioned the arrest to his parish, as he was instructed to do, he said.
With Koerner's admissions yesterday, Karpf said, the bishop relieved him as rector of St. Bartholomew's and, pending the case's legal outcome, initiated the process of deposition, or permanent removal from the priesthood.
Koerner, a priest for 23 years who had worked in Mississippi and New York, had been free on $5,000 bond since his Arlington arrest. A Montgomery County judge set his bond at $2 million after the new charges were filed. Koerner was also charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Montgomery County police said they had been investigating Koerner since the summer, when the U.S. Postal Service became suspicious of the large amounts of cash that he was shipping across the country.
Methamphetamine, a stimulant commonly known as "speed," hasn't been seen in large amounts in the Washington region, although its use has been on the rise in California and in the Midwest, said Sgt. Kirk Holub, of the Montgomery police.
On Tuesday, investigators intercepted a package from California addressed to Koerner that contained numerous small bags of methamphetamine, according to court charging documents. An undercover officer later delivered the package to Koerner.
Holub said he saw dozens of welt marks on Koerner's arms and legs, a sign that the priest had injected the drug, which can also be snorted or inhaled.
Holub said police believe Koerner was a distributor because of the amount of drugs seized and the way the drugs were packaged.
"He was definitely leading a double life," Holub said.
Holub said police have been flooded with calls since Koerner's arrest. Parishioners from 200-member St. Bartholomew's, where Koerner had worked for nearly two years, told police that Koerner explained the welts on his body by saying he had hepatitis. Because of that, he always asked parishioners to take communion wafers from a plate, rather than placing them into their mouths, Holub said. Since March, when Arlington police impounded his car, Koerner asked parishioners to drive him around, Holub said.
Parishioners said they dismissed his strange behavior as idiosyncratic. "He betrayed a very basic trust to the congregation," said Bill Fitts, a member of the church's vestry. "We're basically being victimized by what he did as well as the negative attention he's drawing to the church. . . . It's hard to maintain a Christian attitude toward him."
After his arrest in March, Koerner was asked to tell the lay leaders of the congregation about the drug charges and to get psychiatric counseling to help deal with the allegations, Karpf said.
Karpf said the diocese did not contact the parish about the earlier charges in part because the diocese is reluctant to interfere in the relationship between parish and rector and because Koerner had not been convicted. "We've never had anything like this in the history of the diocese," he said. "What precedent did we have to fall back on?"
Staff writers Bill Broadway and Patricia Davis contributed to this report.
--------
From: David Morrock <davidm@morrock.com>
Subject: Morrock News, Weekend, Nov. 3-5, 2000
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 15:45:04 -0800
DRUG BOATS SEIZED IN CARRIBBEAN: U.S., Bahamian and Dutch Coast Guard and naval forces seized three boats in Caribbean waters, finding more than 5,000 pounds of marijuana and half a ton of cocaine aboard. The joint international effort led to the arrest of 11 people. Total street value of the drugs was estimated at $11 million.
-------- el salvador
Jury Clears Salvadoran Generals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Slain-Church-Women.html
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Two former Salvadoran generals living comfortably in retirement in Florida were cleared of responsibility by a jury Friday for the deaths of four American church women who were raped and killed by soldiers in El Salvador in 1980.
The women's families had sued the former military men for at least $100 million, hoping to disrupt their retirement and perhaps persuade the U.S. government to deport them to the Central American country.
But the federal jury in the wrongful-death case said it was unclear the two were responsible for the slayings, even though the men admitted knowing that thousands of innocent people were being killed by death squads and others during the country's 12-year civil war.
``We didn't have the smoking gun,'' said Robert Montgomery, a lawyer for the women's families. ``We didn't have an order from the generals .... We didn't have anything but circumstantial evidence.''
Former Salvadoran Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, former head of the Salvadoran National Guard, were not in the courtroom for the verdict. Garcia did not immediately return a telephone call, and Vides Casanova's number was recently changed.
After the jury left the room, the generals' lawyer, Kurt Klaus, solemnly shook hands with Bill Ford, brother of slain nun Ita Ford.
``He just said he was sorry for what happened,'' Ford said later. ``I thought the evidence was overwhelming.''
Ita Ford, nuns Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan were killed on Dec. 2, 1980, apparently because military-backed death squads suspected them of sympathizing with leftist guerrillas.
The crime outraged many in United States, in part because the U.S. government strongly supported the Salvadoran government during the 1980-92 civil war. Five Salvadoran National Guard members were convicted of the killings and sentenced to 30 years in Salvadoran prison; three have been released and two remain in jail.
Garcia, 67, and Vides Casanova, 62, retired to Florida in 1989 and were granted U.S. residency because they had never been convicted of a crime. One has a satellite dish in his back yard, the other a pool.
They lived quietly in middle-class neighborhoods until families of the slain women learned of their whereabouts from a reporter. The families failed in efforts to have the two tried in criminal court in their homeland, so they turned instead to the U.S. courts.
While the families sought $100 million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages, some relatives said they would be happy to see the generals go back to El Salvador. They also hoped the outcome of the trial would give U.S. immigration officials grounds to deport the men.
Lawyers for the families showed jurors declassified documents to illustrate the generals' failure to stop their soldiers from killing thousands of Salvadorans, including the country's Roman Catholic archbishop, six Jesuit priests, doctors and peasants.
Garcia and Vides Casanova said there was little they could do to stop the atrocities and denied knowing anything about the four Americans before they were killed.
Their attorney showed military-produced videotapes of Garcia asking soldiers to respect the human rights of fellow Salvadorans, and noted that both men were cited for their efforts to promote Salvadoran democracy.
U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley instructed the jury that Garcia and Vides Casanova could be found liable if the jurors concluded they knew or should have known their soldiers were killing civilians and did nothing to stop them.
Jury foreman Bruce Schnirel said the 10 jurors did not believe the former generals had enough control over their troops to be held responsible.
``It was presented to us as such a chaotic time,'' said Schnirel, a 50-year-old postal worker.
Sister Madeline Dorsey, who was in El Salvador when her friends were killed, said the trial served a purpose despite the verdict.
``The truth is out now,'' she said of the civilian massacres in El Salvador during the long civil war. ``We knew the truth at the beginning, and now the American people know the truth.''
The office of Salvadoran President Francisco Flores referred requests for comment Friday to the defense secretariat, which did not immediately return a telephone call. Many officials were on vacation for Day of the Dead celebrations, a centuries-old custom of contacting the dead with prayer, song and offerings of food and flowers.
--------
From: David Morrock <davidm@morrock.com>
Subject: Morrock News, Weekend, Nov. 3-5, 2000
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 15:45:04 -0800
JURY CLEARS GENERALS IN NUN MURDERS: A jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., said Friday that two former Salvadoran generals were not guilty of the deaths of three U.S. nuns and a lay churchwoman who were raped and murdered in El Salvador in 1980. The nuns' families had sued the two ex-generals, who retired to Florida, but the jury said the evidence presented did not allow them to attribute "command responsibility" for the slaughter to the defendants.
-------- korea
Albright defends N. Korea detente
November 3, 2000
By David Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000113221721.htm
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright yesterday defended recent U.S. overtures to North Korea's Stalinist regime but said the administration was "in no hurry" to nail down a deal to curb the North's missile program.
"The substance of an agreement matters far more than the timing," Mrs. Albright said in her most extensive public remarks to date on her talks in Pyongyang last month with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
"But if prospects for further progress develop, we will pursue them," Mrs. Albright told reporters at the National Press Club. "We would be irresponsible if we did not take advantage of an historic opportunity to move beyond 50 years of Cold War division and reduce the danger North Korean missiles pose to us and others around the globe."
Mrs. Albright gave no indication whether President Clinton will make the first visit by a U.S. president to North Korea later this month, a trip she and Mr. Kim discussed last month.
The trip may hinge on the course of three days of talks that wind up today in Malaysia between North Korean and U.S. officials.
The two sides are discussing a proposal first floated by Mr. Kim this past summer to give up North Korea's missile development and export programs in exchange for U.S. help in launching the North's communications satellites.
The two sides met for about six hours yesterday, giving only the briefest hints of the progress of the talks. North Korean delegation members told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that the two sides "exchanged serious opinions about long-distance missile issues."
A July negotiating session in the Malaysian capital bogged down over a North Korean demand for $1 billion annually in compensation in exchange for curbing its exports of missile technology and weapons to Pakistan and a number of Middle Eastern clients.
Mrs. Albright indicated yesterday that even basic details of the missiles-for-launches trade-off -including where and how the satellites would be launched, what other types of economic aid North Korea is seeking, and compensation for a North Korean halt on weapons exports - were not discussed during her Pyongyang talks with Mr. Kim.
Administration critics such as Sen. Fred Thompson, Tennessee Republican, and many private analysts have cautioned against a presidential trip, saying Mr. Clinton, a lame duck, would provide a propaganda coup for a regime that routinely violates human rights and is listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.
The trip would also tie the hands of Mr. Clinton's successor, they say.
Mrs. Albright did not address the lame-duck argument yesterday.
But she said the "next president will have to choose whether to continue down the path we have begun. Respectfully, I hope he will and believe he should, because I am convinced it is the right path for America, our allies, the people of Korea, and the world."
The secretary of state also denied that Pyongyang's rapprochement with Washington was a ploy to divide the United States and South Korea, where some 37,000 U.S. troops remain guarding one of the last and most heavily fortified dividing lines of the Cold War.
She noted that South Korean President Kim Dae-jung already has visited North Korea in an unprecedented summit in June.
North Korea would also be more likely to improve relations with the South if U.S.-North Korean security concerns are eased, she said.
"Relations between the United States and South Korea have become 100 percent 'wedge-proof,' " Mrs. Albright said.
She said American policy-makers recognize that North Korea's human rights record is "not good - not good at all" but added that progress in curbing the North's dangerous missile program could open the door to progress on human rights and other issues down the road.
"I know that I didn't see anything in North Korea beyond what I was supposed to see," she said.
"I saw an empty city, and I saw a perfectly orchestrated, totalitarian performance of people all dancing in step. Only a dictator can manage to get 100,000 people to dance in step," she said.
But she also argued that "without dialogue, we are stuck with the status quo. And I believe the risks of trying to work with North Korea are less than the ongoing costs of confrontation."
-------- russia
Divers Can't Search Kursk Command Area
WORLD In Brief
Friday , November 3, 2000 ; Page A26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4287-2000Nov2.html
MOSCOW--Russian divers discovered that the third compartment of the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk was so badly damaged that they could not explore it further, navy officials announced yesterday. Video pictures from a camera inserted on a pole showed that the compartment "was very badly damaged as a result of a powerful explosion," Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said. Damage was so great the divers could not move around, he said.
The new data reinforced the theory that a major explosion ripped through most of the vessel's watertight compartments before it sank Aug. 12, killing all 118 aboard. The third compartment held key command posts and there was speculation that it would yield more bodies, but Navrotsky said divers would turn to the fourth compartment instead. The explosion was thought to have originated in the nose of the sub, the torpedo room, but there were signs of fire all the way to the stern.
Lt. Capt. Dmitri Kolesnikov, who left a note in his pocket describing how 23 surviving sailors huddled in the ninth compartment in the rear of the sub after the blast, was buried in St. Petersburg after a memorial service in the Admiralty building. Next to his coffin was displayed a plaque with part of the text of his note that was not made public last week: "15.45 [3:45 p.m.]. It is too dark to write here, but I will try and do it by touch. It doesn't look as if we have any chance. Ten to 20 percent. We will hope that at least someone will read this. Here is a list of the compartment staff, who are in the ninth and will try to get out. Best wishes to everyone. There is no need to despair."
(David Hoffman)
Russian: No Secrets Sold to American
MOSCOW--The director of the Russian military bureau that designed a high-speed underwater torpedo said the organization did not hand over secret materials to Edmond Pope, the American businessman and retired intelligence officer on trial here for spying.
Yevgeny Shakhidzhanov, director of the Region State Research and Production Enterprise, a leading designer of bombs and missiles, spoke to reporters outside the courtroom after testifying. "We did not hand over any secrets to him," he said of Pope, who is accused of trying to buy information about the design of the Shkval torpedo. "This technology itself is still unique, of its kind, and is worth a fair sum of money."
Pavel Astakhov, Pope's lawyer, quoted Shakhidzhanov as saying in the closed-door trial that information about the Shkval had been fully declassified.
Prosecutor Oleg Plotnikov told reporters that while specifications for the Shkval were published by Military Parade, a Russian arms export magazine, the technology and fuel remain secret.
Meanwhile, the court rejected a request by Pope's lawyer for a comprehensive medical examination for his client.
-------- space
The Hectic Life In Outer Space
Space Station Crew Moving Ahead With Heavy Workload Simplest Tasks Get Complicated In Close Quarters Slow But Steady Progress Nonetheless
CBS News
Nov. 3, 2000
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0%2C1597%2C245123-412%2C00.shtml
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., (CBS) Lighter than air? You bet.
Carefree? Not really.
The crew of the international space station is finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the hectic schedule of work that must be done to get the orbiter into shape as a functioning residence and research center.
Struggling to find needed equipment among the tons of supplies delivered by recent shuttle crews, station commander William Shepherd complained Friday about the grueling pace of work to complete initial assembly, activation and checkout of various station systems.
Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev docked with the space station Thursday after a two-day orbital chase. Shepherd promptly dubbed the officially unnamed outpost "Alpha," a radio call sign that is being used for the duration of this mission.
That's despite the fact that Russia isn't fond of the name, since Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and as such, the title implies that this ship - and not the Mir - is the first space station.
CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood reports the crew has let NASA managers know the schedule of work to be done is in for quite a bit of adjustment.
Living in outer space is still a relatively new idea and as a result, a lot of things that look simple on the drawing board are long and drawn out when it comes to the actual execution of the plan.
"Be advised the tempo of the planning is pretty ambitious," said Shepherd, in a message to mission control early Friday. "We worked really hard (Thursday) and we could not keep up with the timeline and we're way behind today, too. So you'll just have to be patient with us, we'll get it when we can."
"We understand," was the answer from Stephanie Wilson at mission control in Houston.
"I copy. Any influence you could have with the Russian side to kind of slow down the planning a little bit (would be appreciated)," said Shepherd. "Hooking up the food warmer was scheduled for 30 minutes and it took us a day and a half to finally figure out how to turn it on."
Despite the inevitable clutter in the station, Shepherd told flight controllers in Houston the outpost is as neatly packed with gear as possible.
The equipment that's sitting around now, waiting to be installed, will soon be joined by another shipment of supplies.
They'll be ferried up by space shuttle Endeavor, which was rolled onto a Kennedy Space Center launch pad on Tuesday.
Endeavor, which is scheduled to launch on November 30, is to deliver what will be the largest solar energy collectors ever deployed in space.
Endeavor will be the sixth shuttle to visit the space station.
The last shuttle to make the trip, Discovery, returned to earth last week at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and is being ferried home to Florida Friday, aboard NASA's Shuttle Carrier aircraft.
CBS News Space Consultant William Harwood has covered America's space program full time for more than 15 years, focusing on space shuttle operations, planetary exploration and astronomy. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood provides up-to-the-minute space reports for CBS News and regularly contributes to Spaceflight Now and The Washington Post.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com
---
NEXT, THEY'RE GOING TO REQUEST PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATES
DayTips' Strange News: 11/03/00
Fri, 03 Nov 2000 05:18:46 -0800
STRANGE NEWS
The first residents of the International Space Station wasted no time Thursday, christening their new home with a new name less than two hours after reaching it. American astronaut Bill Shepherd and his two Russian colleagues informed U.S. and Russian space officials of the fait accompli during their first live TV transmission from orbit. "The first expedition on the space station requests permission to take the radio call sign Alpha," Shepherd told NASA Administrator Dan Goldin. Only 15 minutes earlier, Goldin had told reporters that a real name for the orbital outpost wasn't exactly among his top priorities. As Goldin recovered from the initial surprise, he gave Shepherd and crew an informal blessing to their choice. Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev docked with the station on Thursday, beginning a four-month-long stay and possibly more than a decade of permanent human habitation.
THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND
Plans to film a sex documentary aboard Russia's Mir space station? Yes, according to an article in the latest edition of "Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly," a periodical edited by the University of North Dakota. The article -- titled "The Psychological and Social Effects of Isolation on Earth and in Space" and written by Peter Pesavento -- includes details of sex and space flight in the U.S. and Russian space programs. It also reportedly discusses allegations of adultery by two Russian cosmonauts and pornographic videos aboard space missions. Web site: <http://www.spacebusiness.com>
-------- taiwan
Anti - Nuke Activists Back Taiwan's Embattled Chen
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-taiwan-.html
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Nearly 1,000 anti-nuclear activists voiced their support for Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian on Friday, protesting against an opposition drive to remove the embattled leader from office.
The main opposition Nationalist Party, which has been pushing a bid in the legislature for Chen's dismissal, appeared to have put off its efforts to remove the president.
Nationalist legislator Chen Horng-chi said that for the time being the opposition has decided to focus on legislation relating to public welfare.
He did not specify when they would introduce the motion for dismissal in parliament, which had been expected this week. Other opposition members said they will push ahead with their effort to oust the president.
Chen has been embroiled in a constitutional crisis since last week, when his anti-nuclear cabinet scrapped a controversial nuclear power project that had been supported by the opposition.
Protesters from southern Taiwan, where support for Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been strong, wore yellow anti-nuclear headbands and chanted slogans.
``Support A-bian. Stabilize politics,'' they shouted.
A-bian is the popular name for Chen, who took office in May in Taiwan's first democratic transfer of power to end more than five decades of Nationalist rule.
CRISIS ERUPTED
The political crisis erupted after the decision by Chen's anti-nuclear Executive Yuan, or cabinet, to scrap a US$5.5 billion nuclear power plant, a pet project of the Nationalists.
In the southern city of Kaohsiung, dozens of activists threw eggs at a the local office of Wang Jin-pyng, parliament speaker and Nationalist party member.
They briefly clashed with Wang's aides.
In Taipei, protesters shouted angrily outside the Legislative Yuan, or parliament, and circulated a petition backing the government's decision to halt construction of the country's fourth nuclear power plant.
``I am so furious,'' said Huang Tsai-huang, 41, a worker from Chen's hometown of Tainan in southern Taiwan.
``How can some 100 legislators have the right to dismiss the president chosen by all of the Taiwan people,'' Huang said.
``If he is dismissed, Taiwan will immediately plunge into political turmoil.''
The opposition parties, which far outnumber the DPP in parliament, insisted they had not backed away from their dismissal bid, although attacks on Chen have been curbed this week after a deadly air crash and a devastating typhoon.
Chen has turned his attention to the twin disasters -- the crash of a Singapore Airlines jet that killed 81 people and a devastating typhoon that triggered flash floods and landslides and took 53 lives.
DISASTERS DIVERT ATTENTION
Some in the opposition feared that the disasters may divert public attention causing the dismissal bid to lose momentum.
The Nationalists, the People First Party, and the New Party said on Tuesday they had enough signatures from lawmakers to introduce a motion for dismissal, but they needed seven more votes to actually pass it.
Both sides are courting the nine independents in a bid to gather enough votes to win their causes.
A loose alliance of seven independent legislators told reporters on Friday they had not made up their minds.
If approved, it would force a popular vote on whether to dismiss Chen. If that passed a new election would be held.
Taiwan's stock market rebounded for a second day on Friday, closing 3.02 percent higher after a 3.71 rise a day earlier. Before Thursday, the index had shed 10 percent due to the turmoil.
The Taiwan dollar also firmed to T$32.204 by 0600 GMT, compared with Thursday's T$32.271 close.
----------
U.S., China Generals Discuss Taiwan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-US-Military.html
BEIJING (AP) -- Senior U.S. and Chinese generals discussed Taiwan on Friday, with Washington's top commander urging Beijing to seek peace with the island and China complaining that American arms sales made that difficult.
Differences over Taiwan punctuated meetings by Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the start of his four-day mission to improve ties between the countries' militaries.
Shelton is the first Joint Chiefs chairman to visit China in three years. His trip marks part of an effort this year to restore the military ties that Beijing severed 18 months ago after U.S. war planes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia during the NATO war over Kosovo.
Shelton's Chinese counterpart, Gen. Fu Quanyou, told the American commander that sales of advanced U.S. weaponry to Taiwan sent ``a wrong signal,'' China's Xinhua News Agency reported. China's defense minister, Gen. Chi Haotian, reiterated the concern, telling Shelton that the transfers increased the chances of conflict.
It was unclear how Shelton responded to the generals. He and his aides could not be reached for comment. But in a speech to Chinese cadets, Shelton called on Beijing to forgo armed action against Taiwan and said Washington wanted constructive military ties.
``The ultimate status of Taiwan is a matter for the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to resolve in a peaceful, I repeat, peaceful, manner,'' Shelton said in the speech at National Defense University.
The tough talk shows how Taiwan has bedeviled attempts to enhance U.S.-Chinese military relations.
Taiwan is among the most sensitive issues in China-U.S. ties. China and Taiwan split amid civil war 51 years ago, and Beijing has threatened union by force if necessary. Washington, in turn, is obliged by U.S. law to aid Taiwan's defense.
Shelton on Sunday will observe Chinese live-fire exercises held by the Nanjing Military Region, which is responsible for Taiwan should a war break out. Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily reported that the drills will simulate an assault on the island.
But Beijing also wants to improve military ties with Washington, both to undermine U.S. support for Taiwan and secure peace in the region so that it can focus on economic development.
In his speech at the military school, Shelton tried to refute a view held by many Chinese that the United States is seeking to dominate world affairs.
``Facts don't back that up,'' he said. China should join the U.S. and other militaries in joint search and rescue, peacekeeping and other operations, he said.
Debate rages in both Washington and Beijing over how far such contacts should go.
U.S. critics who regard China as a potential foe say such contacts help boost the Chinese military with little to show in return.
China, meanwhile, vehemently opposed to U.S. proposals to build anti-missile shields to protect the U.S. mainland and American forces and allies in East Asia.
-------- u.s.
Target: Bin Laden
November 3, 2000
Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
Notes from the Pentagon.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring-2000113213434.htm
The Clinton administration is quietly building a case for retaliation against terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his supporters for the bombing of the USS Cole. According to a well-placed administration official, "All options are on the table," including cruise missile attacks on bin Laden hideouts in Afghanistan, covert action military operations and even a possible snatch operation aimed at eventually putting the Islamic militant on trial.
The big problem is the failure of the Yemeni government to cooperate with the FBI. Yemeni officials were apparently put off by the more than 100 FBI and other U.S. government agents who showed up in Aden to conduct the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Yemenis have arrested more than a dozen civilians and security people. They include officials in the Lahij province north of Aden who are involved in producing government identity papers.
Abyan province, about 40 miles east of Aden, is a suspected redoubt of bin Laden. According to intelligence officials, bin Laden has invested in farms in the towns of Zinjibar and Jaar and also owns some commercial agencies and fuel stations.
Pakistan's press has been filled in recent days with official government statements warning the United States not to allow its Tomahawk cruise missiles to overfly Pakistani territory in any retaliatory strike on neighboring Afghanistan. Asked about the remarks, one official told us: "What can they do about it? Nothing."
Officers exit
A confidential Army briefing shows troubling trends.
Officers are quitting the service at faster rates than four years ago, say the documents obtained by Inside the Ring.
The most alarming is the fast pace of captains' exits. They were leaving at a rate of 6 percent in 1996, but quit at 13 percent this year. For colonels, it's 13.6 percent to 18.5 percent; for lieutenant colonels, it's 10 percent to 12.2 percent.
There is some good news. Lieutenants and majors are staying on at slightly higher rates. The bottom line: The Army is losing about 300 more captains per year than projected, meaning positions go unfilled and the talent pool shrinks.
The briefing was presented to Army major generals by Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude, deputy chief of staff for personnel. It also shows that lieutenant colonels and colonels are turning down scores of command posts thought to be plum assignments and a ticket to promotion.
What's going on? A decade of rapid-pace peacekeeping and declining combat readiness is discouraging officers, Army officials say privately.
"Chain of command struggling with forced distribution," the briefing states. "Officer corps still apprehensive."
Star power
The National Guard and reserves are finally getting some bureaucratic muscle to match an increased participation in overseas deployments.
Tucked inside the fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization Act is language ordering the Pentagon to increase the rank of each Guard and Reserve component chief from two stars to three. The components will now be led by lieutenant generals and vice admirals instead of major generals and rear admirals.
Ten years in the making, the promotions are a victory for the Reserve Officers Association of the United States. The group has pressed to get the Army and Air Guard components and the Army, Air Force, Marine and Navy reserves more clout inside the Pentagon. Combined, the five generals and one admiral oversee 1.3 million men and women, nearly equaling the active force.
"The reality is, in the Pentagon the more stars you have on your shoulders the more meetings you get into and higher up in the hierarchy you can participate in budget discussions," said Jay Spiegel, the Reserve association's executive director. "The Reserve chiefs have been in a lot more resource meetings, but they're still just two-stars."
The promotions were pushed by Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, Sen. Max Cleland, Georgia Democrat, and Rep. Steve Buyer, Indiana Republican and an Army Reserve officer.
The service chiefs are expected next year to nominate Guard and Reserve heads to the higher rank.
Grace period
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, Maryland Republican, has won his battle to make the Pentagon notify Congress in advance if it plans to open submarines to female crew members.
The just-completed fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization Bill contains language sponsored by Mr. Bartlett requiring a 30-day waiting period while both the House and Senate are in session. The pause would give Congress time to muster the votes to stop the sex integration of one of the Navy's only all-male career fields.
"Any policy change of this magnitude simply must undergo review by Congress and public debate," Mr. Bartlett said.
Mr. Bartlett proposed his amendment last spring after the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services recommended that female officers be assigned to strategic missile submarines.
CIA politicization
The CIA was stung mightily by our item last week revealing postelection plans by Republican national security officials for a thorough purge of the CIA's China analysis branch for bending its reports.
The Republican critics point to the fact that Congress for the second year in a row has passed legislation aimed at fixing what they regard as biased analysis presenting an overly benign view of China. The agency mounted a vigorous internal propaganda campaign aimed at reassuring all analysts, "from the newest recruit to our most senior office directors," as one internal memo put it, that there is no politicization on China.
Winston P. Wiley, the agency's top analyst, stated in the memo that our item's criticism was a threat to "not only our work on China, but all of the serious and high quality analysis" produced by the agency. "In my 30 years as an intelligence officer I consider this the most blatant and undisguised effort to intimidate and politicize intelligence that I have witnessed," Mr. Wiley said.
The best "defense against politicization," he wrote, is to be "meticulous in your use of evidence, explicit in your reasoning, mindful of mind-sets and preconceptions, and determined to call the shots like you see them."
Another analyst, Michael J. Morell, head of the Asia, Pacific and Latin America division, said our item was unfair because it "personally attacks Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence Marty Petersen, China Issue Manager Dennis Wilder, and . . . senior analyst John Culver," the senior analyst for the Chinese military.
"This article is a blatant attempt to intimidate us into seeing China a certain way," Mr. Morell stated. "It is ironic that the article is trying to do to us exactly what it accuses us of doing - politicizing our analysis."
Neither CIA official addressed what our item exposed: Questionable telephone conversations between Mr. Wilder, the top China analyst, and Kenneth Lieberthal, the White House National Security Council staff China specialist, that raised concerns about political meddling in CIA analysis.
The calls have raised politicization concerns inside the agency because Mr. Lieberthal is a key architect of the administration's pro-China policies. He has advocated lifting economic sanctions directed at the Chinese military. The sanctions were imposed after the brutal 1989 attack on protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Soon, we plan to show in more detail how CIA China analysis under Mr. Wilder has been politicized. Two examples: FBI and CIA reports highlighting the threat posed by China have been suppressed, while those backing administration policy of China being a "strategic partner" are given wide dissemination.
Mr. Wilder also has overseen an unprecedented public relations campaign involving pro-China CIA analysts that is aimed at dispelling the tougher line on China presented by Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and his national security advisers, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Armitage. That propaganda effort includes writings and conferences presentations by CIA analysts such as Mr. Culver, Richard Bitzinger and Paul Heer.
• Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough are syndicated columnists. Gertz can be reached at 202/636-3274 or by e-mail at gertz@twtmail.com. Scarborough can be reached at 202/636-3208 or by e-mail at scarbo@twtmail.com.
--------
'Drastic cutbacks' hurt Navy readiness
November 3, 2000
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000113231631.htm
The Navy has sent a message to Atlantic Fleet air units that states budget shortfalls and inadequate spare parts are reducing combat readiness.
The memo states a data cockpit display on the F-14, the Navy's front-line air-to-air fighter, breaks so often it is one of the "highest readiness degraders throughout the F-14 community."
The mission-capable rates for E-2 radar planes fell 12 percent in the last three months alone because the units lacked money to buy parts to keep all planes flying.
The October message also states that air bases at Oceana in Virginia Beach, and Norfolk began the new fiscal year Oct. 1 short $16 million to buy crucial spare parts and instituted "drastic cutbacks in spending."
"Present aviation spare parts funding is not adequate to support the level of planned aviation operations," reads the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
The message came from the Navy's Mid-Atlantic regional command and was sent to Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet. The command oversees 1,300 aircraft and their squadrons deployed on carriers at sea or stationed at naval air stations. The message focused on the woes of units in the Tidewater region awaiting a next deployment.
Mike Maus, a spokesman for Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet, said he did not know how many planes are not functioning due to parts cannibalization.
"We're still meeting our missions," he said. "We're not leaving planes behind for deployment because they can't deploy. Everything that is supposed to go on deployment is going."
He said the memo was meant to inform units they have to keep an eye on spending.
Combat readiness has become an issue in the presidential race, with Texas Gov. George W. Bush accusing the Clinton administration of mismanaging the military. Vice President Al Gore argues the military never has been in better shape.
One naval aviator who reviewed the message says it paints an "abysmal" picture.
Said another who read the memo: "The long and the short of this is that air crew aren't happy because they are not flying, and maintenance troops aren't happy because they are doing double work for half the results. This is what causes people to leave. Frustration."
The Navy's Atlantic command message is particularly critical of the F-14 fighter's "detailed data display," or DDD, which is crucial to firing the jet's weapons.
"Maintenance actions indicate the high rate of failure of numerous components in the DDD makes it one of the highest readiness degraders throughout the F-14 community," it reports. "This failure rate combined with known reliability of the DDD directly impacting overall fleet readiness."
Paying the bills promises to get even worse this fiscal year. The price tags for major components have jumped more than 50 percent for some items, the memo states.
A propeller for the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft has jumped from $156,000 to $211,000. A helicopter blade that cost $30,000 last year now is $49,000.
"Increased [operational tempo], more expensive parts and lower funding are driving up per-hour flying costs and reducing the number of days" aircraft are air worthy, the memo states. "The inability to replenish stock assets had a direct negative impact on the readiness of" units. "The shortfall in 4th quarter money required drastic cutbacks in spending to the point where only high priority requirements were requisitioned."
The memo reports squadrons coming off deployment "are swapping parts at unprecedented levels just to maintain status quo."
When the carrier USS George Washington returns from deployment, the message states, "many of the jets are expected to require extensive repairs and maintenance from six months of carrier operations."
The memo also states Oceana Naval Air Station had to cut back on flight hours so planes could participate in Virginia Beach's Neptune Festival Air Show in September.
Said one aviator: "It doesn't seem to be the kind of thing we ought to see our guys do if we're having trouble fixing airplanes."
But Mr. Maus said such air shows are important to the Navy mission.
"Air shows and flight demonstrations are still a very vital part of the Navy," he said. "They are very, very beneficial to the recruiting effort."
Other alarm bells have sounded concerning the deteriorating state of Navy aviation, a decline attributed to increased overseas operations and spare parts shortages.
The Navy recently released an inspector general's report that said the aviation community has "big problems" primarily due to wear and tear on fighters and support aircraft.
Readiness woes also afflict West Coast-based aircraft.
Vice Adm. John B. Nathman confronted the problem during a speech as he assumed command of Pacific naval air forces.
"To me, the fact is that we have reached such a low level of funding it will soon be impossible to meet the expectations of this nation in executing our operational tasks and completing the mission," the fighter pilot said. "There is a fundamental disconnect between the value we provide and the willingness of the richest nation on Earth to pay for its demands."
------
FBI Probes Source of Explosives in Attack
By David A. Vise and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday , November 3, 2000 ; Page A08
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1130-2000Nov2.html
The FBI is probing the source of the C-4 military-style plastic explosives used by suicide bombers to kill 17 sailors aboard the USS Cole last month, attempting to track down the producer of the explosives as one way of identifying the attackers, sources said yesterday.
The use of C-4 is considered significant by some security experts who believe a sophisticated device composed of a large amount of military-style explosives indicates that a government hostile to the United States may have been involved in the operation.
However, a number of U.S. intelligence analysts continue to believe the Oct. 12 terrorist attack in the Yemeni port of Aden was masterminded by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden.
The use of C-4 also caught the attention of FBI investigators because several thousand pounds of the same explosive were used in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, in which 19 American servicemen died. The probe of who was responsible for that attack has not been completed.
Meanwhile yesterday, the two retired military officers conducting the Pentagon's inquiry into the bombing of the Cole described the damage to the warship as "horrific," saying that parts of the ship were blown clear across its 66-foot-wide midsection.
"This was a big weapon, and did an enormous amount of damage," retired Adm. Harold W. Gehman, co-chairman of the Defense Department's commission on the Cole, told reporters at the Pentagon. "Pieces of debris were thrown all the way across" the inside of the Cole, he added in a subsequent interview.
Gehman, who commanded a destroyer similar to the Cole before becoming an admiral, said he was surprised the ship, which was being refueled at the time of the attack, didn't catch fire.
"There are 21 fuel tanks on that ship, and the fuel was moving through pipes," he said. "We have no idea why it didn't light."
After identifying the type of explosives used in the deadly blast, the FBI has begun working with intelligence analysts to try to follow the trail to the producer of the explosives. That, in turn, could provide clues about who was behind the surprise attack on the Navy warship.
Residue from the explosives retrieved at the scene is being analyzed to determine when the explosives were manufactured, based on their chemical composition and other identifying characteristics. Experts said this is standard procedure and a necessary part of the effort to determine which parties played a role in the attack.
"Sometimes you can do it and other times it is difficult and becomes a dry hole," said Bob Blitzer, former head of counterterrorism at the FBI. "There are probably a limited number of manufacturers out there." It requires, he said, "a lot of shoe leather to [find out] where it was made, when it was made and who it was sold to. . . . Was it something that went to Russia and was captured in Afghanistan? You don't know. There are a thousand scenarios."
Some experts argue that the amount of C-4 used in the bombing, and the sophistication needed to attack a U.S. warship on a short port visit, indicated that the two men aboard the small boat that exploded alongside the Cole likely were backed by a government hostile to the United States.
"This wasn't just two guys getting a week's training in the mountains of Afghanistan," said one security expert.
"If I were betting, I would say Iran," said retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing, who led the Pentagon's review of the security lapses involved in the Khobar Towers bombing. But he added: "On the other hand, Iraq has strong ties in Yemen."
The FBI is also continuing negotiations with Yemeni authorities over what access FBI agents will have to suspects and witnesses detained in Yemen. The bureau wants its agents to work alongside Yemeni authorities during interrogations, but Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih has said he is opposed to having FBI agents question detained Yemenis. A possible compromise would be for FBI agents to be present while Yemeni authorities question witnesses and suspects.
"Negotiations between the FBI and Yemeni authorities are continuing to determine plans and procedures on how the investigation will continue," bureau spokesman Steven Berry said yesterday.
At the Pentagon, Gehman and retired Army Gen. William W. Crouch, co-chairman of the Pentagon's Cole commission, said that during their recent visit to the Navy's Mideast headquarters in Bahrain, they were impressed by the energy and attention that Navy commanders in the Gulf region have paid to "force protection," as the military calls its defensive security measures.
The Cole commission is one of four federal inquiries into the bombing. The main investigation, led by the FBI and including U.S. intelligence organizations, is aimed at uncovering who launched the attack and how. A Navy inquiry is looking into the conduct of the captain and crew of the Cole. A separate Navy-wide review is underway into what other security measures can be taken immediately aboard ships and installations.
Gehman and Crouch said they want to determine how the Pentagon and the rest of the Defense Department "supported" the Cole. To do that, they will look, for example, at what sort of intelligence information was available and whether it was conveyed in a timely manner to those who needed it.
Overall, they said, they are focusing on whether the Pentagon has paid adequate attention to the security of isolated forces in transit--solitary warships, charter ships and aircraft.
-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Indian desert state to set up solar power project
INDIA: November 3, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8787
JAIPUR, India - India's desert state of Rajasthan is planning to set up a 140-MW integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) power project in an effort to promote the use of solar energy in the region.
"The ISCC project has been envisaged as the first step in a long-term programme for promoting solar thermal power in Rajasthan, which would lead to development of similar systems in the country," said Sudhash Pant, managing director of Rajasthan State Power Corporation Limited.
Pant said the project, which will be located at Mathania near the tourist city of Jodhpur, will become operational in 2003.
He added the project was expected to include a naphtha/gas fired gas turbine of about 70 MW and steam turbines of about 70 MW.
The Global Environment Facility will grant $45 million to the project and the Indian government $15 million, while German development agency KFW has agreed to provide a loan of DM 500 million, Pant said.
The state government is planning to put in around 500 million rupees as equity in the solar power project in the northwestern state where the sun's rays are strong throughout the year.
-------- genetics
Biotech Corn Recall Expands in Stores, Restaurants
Associated Press
Friday , November 3, 2000 ; Page A05
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4265-2000Nov2.html
A nationwide recall of taco shells and other corn products because they contain an unapproved variety of biotech grain has reached stores and restaurants across the country, including Wal-Mart and Wendy's.
The manufacturer, Mission Foods Inc., estimated yesterday that the recall could cost the company as much as $10 million.
About 300 varieties of taco shells, tortillas and snack chips made by the Irving, Tex.-based company were affected by the Oct. 13 recall, according to a list released by the Food and Drug Administration.
The list includes tortillas and chips sold through such restaurants as Applebee's and Wendy's, and taco shells carrying the private labels of a number of supermarket chains, including Safeway, Food Lion, Kroger, IGA, Albertson's and Wal-Mart.
The products contain a genetically engineered corn, known as StarLink, which hasn't been approved for human consumption because of questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions. Federal officials say there is little, if any, health risk from the corn.
News of the recall also has affected sales of taco shells that aren't included in the recall. Stores in some areas have been forced to cut prices in order to sell the taco shells before their expiration dates, said Gene Grabowski, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America.
"We have not heard that it is widespread across the country, but only in certain markets . . . where taco shells are less of a staple in the diet," he said.
Mission Foods estimates that its recall involves 5 million to 6 million pounds. "That's going to cost us many millions of dollars," possibly as much as $10 million, company spokesman Peter Pitts said.
The recall was issued after taco shells containing StarLink corn were found in a Washington-area Safeway. Mission officials said they decided to recall their products that contain yellow corn and switch to white corn.
Company sales representatives are checking stores and restaurants to see whether they are complying with the recall. Pitts said he did not know how much of the recalled products had been returned or destroyed.
Stores have not reported problems selling Mission's replacement products made with white corn, Pitts said.
Kraft Foods Inc. also switched to white corn for its taco shells after it recalled its product in September because of a positive test for StarLink, but Kraft's white-corn taco shells aren't in stores yet, a company spokeswoman said.
The Kraft and Mission products were made with StarLink grown last year and mixed with other corn that was sold to millers.
Federal officials fear that some of this year's crop also may get into the food supply because they have been unable to trace about 1.2 million bushels, or 1.5 percent of the total StarLink harvest, that were shipped from farms.
The corn's developer, Aventis CropScience, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily approve the grain for food use so that no more recalls are necessary. The company says there is virtually no chance that anyone could be harmed. The EPA says it will review the request with scientists before deciding.
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U.S. To Test Japan - Bound Corn
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Biotech-Corn.html
WASHINGTON (AP ) -- The Agriculture Department said it would begin testing all Japan-bound corn exports for Starlink grain, the gene-altered corn that slipped into the U.S. food supply even though it is not approved for food use.
As the largest foreign buyer of U.S. corn, Japan accepted the testing plans on Friday, said Tim Galvin, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.
The testing will provide ``assurances that it's not going to find its way into the food supply in Japan,'' Galvin said.
StarLink, developed by Aventis CropScience, was never approved for human consumption in the United States because of questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions, and it is not approved for use in any foreign country.
A consumer group said last month that it found StarLink corn in snacks sold in Japanese stores and in animal feed. The Japanese government asked USDA for assurances the corn wouldn't be in any further shipments to the country.
``It was a market that we were very anxious to continue. We wanted to be able to find a way to accommodate the Japanese concerns and keep the grain moving,'' said Susan Keith, senior director of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association.
Corn bound for Japan will be tested for StarLink residue when it is loaded on barges and railcars, which will then be sealed until the grain is moved onto ships.
Japan imports about 16 million metric tons of corn from the United States -- about a third of total U.S. corn exports -- with about 5 million tons of that going for food use, primarily for corn starch.
Japan imports about 60 percent of its food, much of it from the United States.
The Agriculture Department, meanwhile, is still trying to track down all of the StarLink grown this year, an estimated 80 million bushels. About 1.2 million bushels has not been located; the rest is being stored or has been put to approved uses, USDA officials say.
Aventis has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily approve the grain for food use in the United States to avoid further recalls of corn products or shutdowns of processors.
Federal officials say that there is little, if any, health risk from the corn.
-------- police
Md. Man Wins Police Abuse Suit
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday , November 3, 2000 ; Page A01
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3584-2000Nov2.html
A jury awarded more than $900,000 in damages yesterday to a Hyattsville man after finding that he was beaten by a Prince George's County police officer who arrested him in a case of mistaken identity.
The jury award brought to more than $6 million the damages the county has been ordered to pay this year in lawsuits stemming from county police misconduct. That is believed to be a record annual awards total for such suits. Prince George's officials refuse to reveal the total that has been paid in settlements.
Kirk Simms, 36, an elementary school guidance counselor, testified that he was walking from his apartment to a convenience store just before midnight July 23, 1990, when he was surrounded by six squad cars from the Prince George's, Hyattsville and Mount Rainier police departments.
The officers forced Simms against a cruiser and handcuffed him because they thought he matched the description of a man wanted in an assault on a police officer, according to testimony. The police struck Simms in the head and knees, "pounding him to the ground," before realizing they had detained an innocent man, said Steven D. Kupferberg, one of Simms's attorneys.
After a two-day trial, a Prince George's Circuit Court jury found that one of the Prince George's officers, Cpl. Joseph Zeigler, had battered Simms and ruled that the officer and the county must pay $902,433 in compensatory damages, Kupferberg said. The jury also found that Zeigler had violated Simms's state constitutional rights.
Zeigler, 38, joined the department in 1986. A police spokesman said yesterday that he is still on the force. Andrew Murray, the county attorney involved in the case, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The verdict is the latest big jury penalty against the Prince George's police department. Last week, a federal jury awarded $319,500 in damages to a dozen people--including a 3-year-old girl--after finding they were illegally rounded up in April 1995 by police during a botched investigation into the slaying of a fellow officer.
On April 3, another federal jury ordered the county and three of its officers to pay a Temple Hills man $4.1 million after finding that he was beaten so badly after a traffic stop near his home in June 1997 that he lost his right eye and partial use of his left hand.
The same day, a different federal jury awarded a Salvadoran immigrant $647,000 after finding that two Prince George's officers violated his civil rights in August 1996 when they handcuffed him to a utility pole and drove away.
County attorneys have settled a number of other lawsuits against police officers this year but have refused to disclose the amount of money involved in those cases.
The jury decision in the Simms case came one day after the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it will conduct a civil rights investigation of the entire Prince George's police department to determine whether there is an ingrained pattern of brutality and racial discrimination on the force.
Simms was "elated and vindicated" by the verdict yesterday but did not want to speak with reporters, Kupferberg said. "It's been a long time coming," he added.
Simms, who has no criminal record, suffered torn cartilage in one knee and still needs surgery, according to his attorneys. He also suffered lacerations to his face.
Kupferberg said the other officers who were involved in Simms's arrest were dropped from the lawsuit before trial because they could not be conclusively identified. "We couldn't say for sure who was involved, and everybody denied responsibility," he said.
Zeigler denied any wrongdoing, testifying that Simms resisted arrest and that the officers were forced to place him on the ground, Kupferberg said. No other officers testified to corroborate Zeigler's account, Kupferberg said.
Simms sued the county in 1991, but the lawsuit took nine years to go to trial, partly because the attorney originally involved in the case died more than two years ago, Kupferberg said.
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Panel Offers Suing, Firing Officers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Police-Misconduct.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress should make it easier for people to sue abusive police officers, and police departments should fire immediately any officer caught using racial profiling, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said Friday.
In a report adopted by a 5-1 vote, the commission said police ``have made great inroads in reducing crime and use of deadly force,'' but attempts to reduce police brutality and misconduct through agencies like civilian review boards have largely failed.
``Communities of color do not want to choose between safety and civil rights,'' the panel said.
The report, ``Police Practices and Civil Rights in America,'' is a follow-up to the commission's 1981 report, ``Who is Guarding the Guardians?'' The new recommendations follow a year of high-profile allegations of police abuse in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
The Justice Department can bring civil suits against police departments under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, the report said, but private citizens cannot. It said Congress should provide a ``private right of action by individuals injured by police misconduct.''
Congress also should outlaw racial profiling, and ``any officer found to have engaged in racial profiling should be subject to immediate dismissal from the police force,'' the agency suggested.
Individual officers should also be subject to lawsuits for racial profiling, ``an egregious violation of civil rights,'' the commissioners said. ``Individual liability would be an effective deterrent to profiling.''
Mary Frances Berry, the commission's chairwoman, said not much has changed in the last two decades. ``We don't seem to be able to get on top of this problem,'' she said.
The Justice Department currently is investigating 14 police departments for civil rights violations, including Charleston, W.Va.; Riverside, Calif.; Orange County, Fla.; Prince George's County, Md.; Eastpointe, Mich.; New Orleans; Buffalo, N.Y.; Washington; and New York City.
In Los Angeles, the Justice Department just forced the police department to accept an independent monitor's supervision after a four-year investigation of police abuse in the city's poor and largely minority Rampart section.
More than 100 convictions were thrown out, and 20 officers left active duty, after officers were accused of shooting, beating and framing people in the area. Four former Rampart officers are on trial for allegedly conspiring to frame innocent people.
``The use of solicitors general, independent auditors and federal oversight present viable alternatives to the failed attempts that have been used in the past to control police abuse,'' the report said.
The commission found that civilian review boards are chronically underfunded and usually lack authority to act on their own. In addition, local prosecutors have to depend on the same police they are expected to prosecute, and the police are usually uncooperative, the report said.
Commissioner Russell Redenbaugh voted against issuing the report, disagreeing with its recommendation that special prosecutors be named to take over police abuse cases. ``I'm troubled by the conclusion that they aren't doing and can't do the job they were sworn to do,'' he said of local prosecutors.
The commission also urged:
--Greater diversity on police forces, while acknowledging that minority officers are also involved in misconduct.
--The federal government to collect national statistics on racial profiling, a practice where people are singled out for law enforcement scrutiny because of their race.
--Better training for officers, perhaps based on models in San Diego and Boston, where crime rates have fallen without an increase in brutality allegations.
--Giving citizen review boards new tools and more authority to investigate misconduct allegations.
``Civilian review boards need to exist, and they do need to be strengthened; otherwise they will be seen by the public as simply a sham operation,'' Berry said.
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Peru to Investigate Swiss Bank Accounts Linked to Ex-Spy Chief
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday , November 3, 2000 ; Page A25
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5125-2000Nov3.html
LIMA, Peru, Nov. 2 -- The Peruvian government named a special prosecutor to investigate revelations today that the country's former spy chief hid more than $48 million in secret Swiss bank accounts--cash that could have come from money laundering, Justice Minister Alberto Bustamante said this evening.
The discovery, which was brought to light by the Swiss government, prompted the administration of President Alberto Fujimori to appoint the special prosecutor, Jose Carlos Ugaz Sanchez Moreno, a respected independent lawyer, to investigate the accounts held in three separate Swiss banks.
"The Swiss government is inviting us to do everything possible to investigate what could be the existence of money laundering in these accounts, which we knew nothing about and which are quite staggering," Bustamante said after meeting with Fujimori.
He said the Peruvian government had "ordered the lifting of his bank secrecy both nationally and internationally."
The accounts could be the most significant evidence to date pointing to large-scale criminal activity by Montesinos.
The former spy chief, who helped bring Fujimori to power 10 years ago, is now in hiding in Peru as the president conducts a high-profile search to find and detain him. Montesinos was long an associate of the the CIA, despite persistent allegations that he was tied to drug money, death squads, political espionage and other illegal dealings.
In September, Montesinos was cleared in a major bribery scandal by an investigation that lasted less than one week, despite a videotape shown on national television that showed him paying an opposition congressman $15,000 to switch his allegiance to Fujimori. Analysts said that with the help of the independent prosecutor, who has an established reputation as a corruption fighter, the investigation into the newly uncovered accounts might prove the legal tool required to prosecute Montesinos.
Montesinos has been in hiding since his surprise return to Peru from Panama last week, a move that was prompted by his fears he would be arrested there on human rights charges. Montesinos fled the country to Panama amid rumors he was trying to foment a coup.
The spy chief was a key ally of Fujimori 10 years ago, but their close relationship deteriorated in September after Montesinos was tied to the bribery scandal and an arms-for-drugs deal involving Colombian guerrillas. The public outcry prompted Fujimori to not only sever ties with Montesinos, but call new elections in which the president promised he would not run.
Bustamante said this evening that the new information on the secret accounts was delivered in a diplomatic communique from the Swiss Embassy in Lima.
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Russian Espionage Trial Postponed
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-US-Prisoner.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- American Edmond Pope on Friday suffered his second bout of back and joint pain in a week, causing his espionage trial to be interrupted so prison doctors could examine him, his defense lawyer said.
The doctors determined Pope was fit to continue trial, Pope's lawyer Pavel Astakhov said, and the trial was to resume Saturday.
Astakhov said the pain signaled the return of Pope's bone cancer, which had been in remission. Presiding Judge Nina Barkina adjourned Friday's hearing and asked prison doctors to examine Pope, but she again refused to allow access to U.S. cancer specialists.
Pope, 54, a retired U.S. Navy officer from State College, Pa., suffered similar symptoms Tuesday, prompting Barkina to adjourn hearings for two days. Pope attended a court hearing Thursday.
``Now we are completely sure that this is connected with his primary illness (of cancer),'' Astakhov said Friday.
Prison doctors diagnosed Pope's aches as osteochondrosis, a form of arthritis, and rheumatic inflammation of the back and hip joints, Astakhov said. But he maintained they lacked the equipment or expertise to make an accurate diagnosis.
Astakhov said the authorities' treatment of Pope amounted to torture, and said the court's refusal to provide him treatment violated basic humanitarian principles.
Russia's Federal Security Service arrested Pope on April 3 on suspicion of trying to illegally buy plans for a secret high-speed torpedo used by the Russian navy. Pope has pleaded innocent, and his supporters say the plans were for 10-year-old technology that has already been sold abroad.
He is being held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison, and Astakhov said he was being barred from taking his medication. Russian regulations bar outside supplies of medicines to prison inmates, and Astakhov said Pope had been taking an advanced drug that is not licensed in Russia.
``This is already reminiscent of torture,'' he said. ``Any action by state officials that inflicts physical or psychological pain on a person is classified as torture.''
Pope's supporters say they have little hope of a fair trial or acquittal. Pope's wife Cheri has pleaded for a humanitarian release.
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Spies will face mental health check
RadTimes # 91 November, 2000
By Fran Abrams, Westminster Correspondent
3 November 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/spies031100.shtml
Britain's spies are to face rigorous mental health checks after a series of embarrassing security breaches culminated in a drunken agent leaving his laptop in a London taxi.
The incidents left secret agents' bosses wondering if the stresses of the job were proving too much for some of them. Now the neuroses of secret service personnel are to be spotlighted by American-style psychometric testing, a committee of MPs disclosed yesterday.
Concern over leaks deepened in March this year when an officer from MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, mislaid his laptop after a night at a tapas bar near the organisation's Vauxhall offices. The distraught agent was forced to place an advertisement in the London Evening Standard pleading for the safe return of his computer, which contained unencrypted information.
That incident came just days after an MI5 officer had his laptop stolen while queuing for a ticket at Paddington Station.
More seriously, security procedures had already come under review when David Shayler, a former MI5 officer, fled to Paris after claiming the running of the organisation was shambolic.
Tests being developed by MI5, MI6 and the Government's GCHQ listening centre would be able to identify potential culprits in advance by highlighting "adverse character traits", the Intelligence and Security Committee said in its annual report.
The security service accepted there was still "scope for significant improvement", the committee added.
Annual appraisals on all staff should be supplemented by home visits once every five years. While there, investigators could check for signs of unexplained wealth which might betray the sale of secrets.
A seven-point "risk-rating" system already in place at GCHQ provided a systematic means of identifying some character defects, the committee said, and should be adopted by MI5 and MI6.
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Nuclear terrorism: The next phase?
November 3, 2000
Yonah Alexander & Milton Hoenig
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-2000113165943.htm
The spectacular suicide attack on the USS Cole underscores once again the growing reality that modern terrorists are capable of carrying out "warfare-on-the-cheap" complex operations. This chilling reminder of America's vulnerability forces us to ponder the next phases of terrorism with grave concern.
In the short term, the United States has instituted "Threat Condition Delta" (the highe