------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Sellafield link to births dismissed
Nuclear Fuels loses £337m
Acid escape at Sellafield costs BNFL £75,000
Where the risks have been real
Disaster fear after blast hits N-plant
Ronald Gausden
Big surge of nuclear waste in Sellafield shellfish
Coolers 'fanned the flames' of Windscale fire
Chernobyl cancer risk to babies
Dounreay safety work costs £200m
Robot arm to dismantle defunct Sellafield reactor
Chernobyl radiation leak as scientists tell of mutation fear
Lessons of Chernobyl 'ignored'
Sellafield 'did not cause leukaemia'
China whistleblower says FBI harrassment was payback
Beijing Voices Agreement over U.S.-Russia Nuclear Missile Reductions
Veterans misled about depleted uranium poisoning, say experts
Convention on nuclear disarmament ends
Downer to push security concerns in N Korea
Putin Suggests Deeper Bilateral Weapons Cuts
Putin: Why not cut warheads beyond what treaties require?
U.S. Offers Cautious Welcome to Putin Nuclear Proposals

MILITARY
Iraq Chipping Away at Sanctions
One African diplomat said to another just outside the UN...
USS Cole Guards Told Not to Fire First Shot
Malls Targeted As Recruiting Ground

OTHER
U.S. Climate Plan Threatens to Deepen Summit Rift
EPA Says Little Biotech Corn Is Present in Food Supply
W.T.O. Sets Date to Discuss China's Entry
U.S. Spy Office Dying, Group Says

ACTIVISTS
November 30 is of course the one year anniversary of Seattle.
'96 CONVENTION RAID
Dam Protesters Battle Police to Meet World Bank Chief
Grassroots group takes digs at cell phone emissions
50,000 rally for independence in Aceh
Egyptian police fire on election protesters


-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Sellafield link to births dismissed

Tuesday 14 November 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=3SrKAuSM&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/11/14/ncanc14.html

CLAIMS that there was a link between radioactive fall-out from a fire at the Sellafield nuclear installation and the birth of Down's Syndrome children in the Republic of Ireland were dismissed by a report published yesterday.

The Down's Syndrome births were to women who had been pupils at a school in Ireland at the time of the fire in 1957. All the births were in and around Dundalk, Co Louth, which lies directly across the Irish Sea from Sellafield.

They have been a controversial issue over a number of years because of claims of a link with nuclear contamination. The report was published after a five-year study by Dr Geoffrey Dean, former director of the Medical Social Research Board.

Dr Dean said: "There is no question that there was a cluster of Down's Syndrome births, and it was a surprising cluster. But there is also no evidence that it was related to the fire at Windscale, as Sellafield was called at the time of the blaze.

"The cluster was due to some unknown factor, such as a possible infection that we do not know about which may have hit the school. I do not exclude some cause that we have not yet found. But it seems extremely unlikely to have been due to a flu epidemic that had hit the town or the Windscale fire."

Dr Dean's findings were disputed by Dr Mary Grehan, the Dundalk GP who is a leading anti-Sellafield campaigner. She said: "It is an absolute whitewash of the link with the fire."

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Nuclear Fuels loses £337m

15 September 2000:
By Roland Gribben
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/9/15/cnnuke15.html

STATE-OWNED British Nuclear Fuels plunged to a loss of £337 million in the wake of the scandal involving falsification of records and an increase in its de-commissioning bill following the decision to shut all its nuclear power plants.

Provisions of £411 million have been made to cover the catalogue of problems that almost brought the company to its knees and forced the government to delay privatisation until the second-half of 2002.

Top level management changes have resulted in compensation payments topping £500,000. John Taylor, chief executive, who paid the penalty for the quality assurance headache, has collected £300,000, the equivalent of a year's salary, and Ross Chiese, finance director, £274,000. Hugh Collum, part-time chairman, yesterday denied the increase in nuclear liabilities had tipped the business into insolvency and expressed confidence that it could be back on course to meet the new privatisation timetable.

Figures released yesterday in the company's annual report showed the financial depth of the crisis as the new management team tries to restore confidence and rebuild morale. The headline cost of shutting nuclear installations at the end of their working life has soared 26 per cent to £34.2 billion following the decision to shut the first generation Magnox power plants.

The company will have to foot £23 billion and estimates it will have to set aside £10.3 billion to generate the funds needed to meet the cost of liabilities over a 150-year period. Falsifying records for reprocessed fuel shipped back to Japan has resulted in a £113 million charge, including £40 million paid to Kansai Electric Power. Another £151 million has been set aside for revisions to earlier nuclear liability estimates and the early closures of the Hinkley nuclear power station.

Provision has been made for a further £131 million to cover losses on nuclear clean up contracts, largely in America where the company is attempting to restore its credibility with the US energy department. Turnover in the year to March 31 rose 32 per cent, to £2 billion following the Westinghouse acquisition in the US and although operating profits were up 16 per cent to £65 million the heavy provisions forced the company to dig into reserves to cover the full-year loss.

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Acid escape at Sellafield costs BNFL £75,000

3 June 2000
By Paul Stokes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/6/3/nbnfl03.html

BRITISH Nuclear Fuels was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £35,000 costs yesterday after an acid leak at Sellafield, the company's sixth health and safety breach in 10 years.

Two workers sustained slight burns and a firefighter inhaled toxic fumes after 60 gallons of concentrated nitric acid escaped under pressure through a valve. One of the workers was wearing a protective suit and the other was standing behind a safety screen. Damage estimated at £750,000 was caused at the company's solvent treatment plant. BNFL and its subsidiary, BNFL Engineering, had each admitted a breach of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.

After a previous acid leak in 1994, BNFL had pledged that the company would introduce new procedures by the end of 1996. Investigations into the incident in March last year, in which a feeder pipe to the valve had not been isolated, revealed that the procedures had not been fully implemented. The leak occurred during commissioning and maintenance work.

Judge John Phillips fined the companies £20,000 each with costs of £17,500 each at Carlisle Crown Court. The judge said: "There was an obvious and serious failure in isolation procedures as the valve should have been turned off. Those in supervisory positions should have ensured it was. It's clear there were other background causes other than the immediate causes.

There was a failure to train employees adequately in isolation procedures, a failure to provide a proper system of isolation procedures and a failure to provide a safety programme which had been agreed with the Health and Safety Executive." The court was told that BNFL had previous convictions, including three for breaching licence conditions and two for health and safety offences.

Nigel Monckton, a spokesman for BNFL, said that the company regretted the incident. He said: "The spill occurred in a plant that was not operating but was under construction. No radioactive materials were present. BNFL has already started strengthening the safety organisation at Sellafield and has recently announced enhancements to ensure safety remains the number one priority.

"We regret that such an event occurred. However, no one was seriously injured and the emergency response and safety systems we had in place prevented any acid escaping to the environment. Our own formal inquiry into the event identified a number of issues aimed at preventing similar events in the future. These improvements have already been instigated, together with improved training for staff."

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Where the risks have been real

1 October 1999: [International]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/10/1/wtok201.html

NUCLEAR accidents have given the technology a terrifying edge. Here are some of the worst examples.

Britain, Oct 7 1957: Fire destroyed the core of a reactor at the Windscale nuclear complex, since renamed Sellafield. An official report said the leaked radiation could have caused dozens of cancer deaths.

Soviet Union, 1957/8: A Russian scientist estimated that hundreds died from radiation sickness after an accident at a plant near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals

America, Jan 3 1961: Three technicians died in Idaho Falls at an experimental reactor.

Soviet Union, July 4 1961: Captain of the USSR's first nuclear submarine and seven crew died when a pipe ruptured.

America, 1965: A low-intensity radioactive cloud was produced over Los Angeles.

America, March 28 1979: Residents were evacuated after a partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant, Pennsylvania.

Britain, Nov 1983: The Sellafield plant discharged radioactive waste into the Irish Sea.

Soviet Union, Aug 10, 1985: An explosion at Shkotovo-22 nuclear vessel docks killed 10 people. Many died later from radiation exposure.

America, Jan 6, 1986: One worker died, 100 were injured at a plant in Oklahoma when a cylinder of nuclear material burst.

Soviet Union, April 26, 1986: An explosion at the Chernobyl plant killed 31 people and spewed radiation over Europe. Hundreds of thousands suffered ill-effects.

France, Nov 1992: Three workers were contaminated entering a particle accelerator in Forbach without protective clothing.

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Disaster fear after blast hits N-plant

By Juliet Hindell in Tokyo
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=psMMbMle&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/10/1/wtok01.html

MORE than 300,000 Japanese were told to stay in their homes last night after an explosion at a uranium processing plant north-east of Tokyo sent radiation spewing into the sky, injuring 19 workers, two critically.

As radiation outside the plant reached 10,000 times the normal level, the government conceded that an uncontained nuclear reaction appeared to be continuing inside the plant."That is a strong possibility," its chief spokesman, Hirma Nonaka, said of the country's worst peacetime nuclear incident. "It is a severe situation."

People throughout Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons, sat glued to their television sets as the drama unfolded. Traffic was banned for a two-mile radius around the plant at Tokaimura, 90 miles from Tokyo, and helicopter pictures showed that the zone was like a ghost town, with no cars or people. "If anyone goes out they should wipe off the rain," a plant official said as drizzle began to fall.

First reports spoke of a flash of blue light inside the plant. An alarm went off, warning of rising radioactivity. Workers had been mixing uranium with nitric acid to make fuel for a nuclear power plant. But they accidentally put too much uranium in the tank, setting off the reaction.

A spokesman for the plant's owners, JCO, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co, said that about 16 kilogrammes of uranium - nearly eight times the normal amount - was used. Workers normally use up to 2.3 kilogrammes in each procedure to prevent a "criticality" accident, he said. "Criticality" is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, similar to what happens inside a nuclear reactor.

The factory was not designed to block the escape of radiation, officials said, and the radiation was escaping freely through the outer walls. As television stations broadcast lists of the affected areas late into the night, there was a growing sense that once again the nuclear industry had at first concealed the scale of the problem. Eventually the company's president, Koji Kitani, bowed deeply at a news conference in Tokyo and conceded that a "a major accident resulting in a radioactive leak has happened. We apologise from the bottom of our hearts."

At first the installation was too contaminated for salvage workers to enter, even in protective suits. Hours later the authorities said that they had begun the first stage of an operation to try to contain the incident by extracting coolant water from a uranium processing plant.

As loudspeaker vans toured the city of 33,000 and a wide area around it, issuing warnings, the national defence force was called in and the government asked for help from American military personnel stationed in Japan.

The Americans said that they did not have the necessary equipment for such an incident. But Bill Richardson, the US Secretary of Energy, speaking from Russia, where he was on a visit inspecting nuclear facilities, said that an Russian-American mission could leave for Japan as soon as a formal request was received. "There is a lot of expertise between the two countries," he said.

The Japanese request for assistance is thought to be without precedent in the past 40 years. Even during the 1995 earthquake that devastated the city of Kobe and killed more than 5,000 people, the government did not seek military help from America. There are 41,000 American troops in Japan. "The situation is one our country has never experienced," the chief cabinet secretary, Hiromu Nonaka, said after a cabinet meeting called by the prime minister, Keizo Obuchi, to set up an emergency task force. A cabinet reshuffle planned for yesterday was postponed.

The three seriously hurt workers were flown by helicopter to hospital after the accident at the "conversion experiment building" of the plant, which processes highly-enriched uranium into an oxidised powder for burning at nuclear power plants.

Two were carried in on stretchers by medical staff wearing masks and white anti-radiation suits before being taken to a sterile isolation ward. Their white blood cell counts were sharply up and immune systems weak, a doctor said. "They show very strong radiation poisoning symptoms, including diarrhoea." The two most seriously injured were "barely conscious".

The Tokaimura complex is huge and sprawling. Residents knew there were risks, as many of them work in the industry and there have been previous alarms. But the chaotic nature of yesterday's alert brought home just how dangerous their home town was.

There was an immediate debate in Japan on the wisdom of relying on nuclear power for a third of the country's electricity. Television reports were quickly comparing the accident in levels of danger to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in the United States. Yesterday's accident was the 60th in the world at a nuclear plant since 1945, according to France's nuclear safety institute. Thirty-three have been in the United States and 19 in the former Soviet Union.

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Ronald Gausden
Manager of Windscale nuclear plant whose resourcefulness prevented meltdown of a burning reactor

31 January 1998
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/98/1/31/ebgau31.html

RONALD Gausden, who has died aged 76, was manager of the Windscale atomic plant in 1957 when it ran out of control; he successfully tackled a nuclear reactor fire like that at Chernobyl.

It was on October 10 1957 that Gausden, then group manager in charge of the reactor, became aware that there was a problem, though he later admitted that he had no inkling that he was on the verge of catastrophe.

The plant (later renamed Sellafield) was run by the Ministry of Supply and used for the secret manufacture of nuclear materials for military use. At the time it was going through its biennial safety service, involving the release of energy stored in the graphite surrounding the uranium core. The reactor was shut down for the work and artificially heated to the point where the process, known as the Wigma release, occurred.

An array of instruments kept a check on fuel and graphite temperatures. Gausden was in his office when word came through of a slow and unpredicted increase in temperature in the core. The instruments were checked but were found to be inadequate to give a true pattern of what was going on inside.

A few hours later, a report came from environmental staff that they had "picked up one or two odd particles in the atmosphere". "That was when the alarm bells really started ringing," Gausden recalled. "There was nothing else for it; we knew we had to look at the core."

Gausden and his staff removed the plugs in the wall of the atomic pile and "looked the monster in the eye". They saw the graphite glowing and the uranium beginning to burn. "The heat was tremendous," he recalled. "It wasn't a meltdown, but I knew I was looking at the start of one."

The fire burned fiercely for 48 hours. Initial attempts to blow it out with fans failed, turning it into something of a blacksmith's forge. It proved impossible to use gases to stifle the fire, and Gausden ordered those fuel rods unaffected by the fire to be withdrawn, in an attempt to isolate those that were.

Contaminated smoke was by now belching out of Windscale's chimneys and the only course left open to the scientists was to pour water into the reactor, something they did not relish doing because of its unknown effects. It was injected through nozzles in the roof of the containment vessel and to everyone's relief it worked, with relatively little contaminated steam emerging.

Critics of the nuclear industry later portrayed the incident as one of the world's worst nuclear accidents. Gausden pointed out that no one was killed or injured as a result; he remained a firm advocate of nuclear power throughout his life.

Ronald Gausden was born on June 15 1921. From Varndean Grammar School, Brighton, he went on to Brighton Technical College and Borough Polytechnic, where he qualified as a chartered engineer.

He joined the Civil Service in 1943, and after wartime service with the Royal Naval Scientific Service, went to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, where he worked on developing instrumentation for the nuclear industry.

In 1950 Gausden joined the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and moved to Cumberland, commissioning production reactors at Windscale. In 1952 he was put in charge of reactor group control and instrumentation, before being made assistant group manager, responsible for the safe operation of Windscale reactors and fuel handling ponds.

Gausden became group manager in 1957, taking on overall operational and technical control of reactors. It was shortly after this promotion that the Windscale crisis occurred.

Afterwards Gausden's experience proved invaluable when, in 1960, he joined the Inspectorate of Nuclear Installations as principal inspector for power reactors, responsible for all aspects of safety assessment of Magnox gas-cooled reactors in Britain's first nuclear power programme.

In 1963 Gausden became Assistant Chief Inspector to the Nuclear Inspectorate, overseeing all regulatory aspects of nuclear safety in connection with Magnox and AGR reactor programmes. In 1967 he represented Britain on an International Atomic Energy Agency panel which produced a code of practice on the safe operation of nuclear power plants.

Gausden was promoted to Deputy Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations in 1973, and, following the transfer of the inspectorate to the Health and Safety Executive, in 1976 became Chief Inspector of nuclear installations, a post he held until his retirement in 1981.

He continued to serve the nuclear industry as a safety consultant to national and international organisations including the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

When, in 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl ran out of control following an explosion, Gausden tried to gather information about the incident, but was dismayed by the secretiveness of the Soviet government. Based on his own experience at Windscale, he urged the Russians to use water to put out the reactor fire, but in the end this proved impractical and the reactor was brought under control after being encased in concrete - though not before it had released a wide range of radioactive products and caused huge loss of life.

Ronald Gausden was a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and was appointed CB in 1981.

He married first, in 1943, Florence Ayres, who died in 1987. They had three children. He married secondly, in 1988, Joan Simcock.

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Big surge of nuclear waste in Sellafield shellfish

14 December 1996
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/12/14/nnuke14.html

RADIOACTIVITY found in lobsters in the Irish Sea near Sellafield has increased 40-fold since 1993, prompting the threat of renewed protests over emissions from the nuclear plant.

Monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has shown that levels of the isotope technetium-99 are now 13 times higher than EU standards for contamination in food after a nuclear accident. The contamination is spreading throughout the Irish Sea.

According to the results of the tests, revealed in the respected environmental journal The ENDS Report, particularly high levels of technetium-99 have also been found in the seaweed bladderwrack.

Activity levels in scampi, mussels, winkles and limpets are now much higher than for any other isotope. Technetium-99 has a half-life of 210,000 years.

The pollution is likely to be highly embarrassing to the Government since it emerges from British Nuclear Fuel's £168 million EARP plant authorised at the same time as the controversial THORP reprocessing plant. It was supposed to reduce pollution from the reprocessing of fuel from Magnox reactors.

The discovery of high levels of contamination in seafood from a consented discharge will embarrass the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment Agency which, as HM Inspectorate of Pollution, approved the change in discharge consent.

The EARP plant removes significant radionuclides such as plutonium and americium but it is unable to remove technetium-99 which is present at high levels in wastes from Magnox reprocessing.

Releases of the radionuclides are running at record levels while EARP works through a 14-year backlog of waste.

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Coolers 'fanned the flames' of Windscale fire

11 October 1996:
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkjjZ41x&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/10/11/nwin11.html

THE accepted account of how engineers brought the West's worst nuclear accident under control, and what caused it, may have to be rewritten following discoveries made while dismantling its radioactive remains.

The blaze at Windscale pile one, at Sellafield, Cumbria, spread contamination over England, Wales and parts of northern Europe in 1957. Recent efforts to clear the fire debris have suggested that switching off the reactor's fans probably did more to contain the fire than smothering it with gas or swamping it with the five million litres of water, traditionally thought to have contained the blaze.

"There is now some doubt about what put it out and even what caused it," said Mr Barry Hickey, the programme manager responsible for the Windscale site, which is run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The fire was thought to have been caused by a failure to control "Wigner energy" - that is, energy that built up in the cylindrical graphite core of the reactor.

"But there seems to be little, if any, damage to the graphite of the core," said Mr Hickey.

"Perhaps it was the fuel that caught fire first rather than the graphite."

During the routine release of Wigner energy on the evening of Oct 9, 1957, temperatures soared to 400¡C, prompting the duty physicist to activate the cooling fans. At dawn on Oct 10, a surge of radioactivity was recorded at the top of the chimney stack, so revealing the fire. Fans were switched on to cool the fire but only served to increase the combustion rate.

The reactor was sealed after the accident until around ten years ago when radioactivity had dropped to about one hundredth of its original level and decommissioning could begin.

It was originally thought that water eventually quenched the fire. But Mr Hickey said: "The evidence is that the major contributory fact is that they turned the blowers off. There was a ton of air a second going through the core during the fire.

"It is instinctive that you turn the blowers on to cool the reactor down, but what you were doing was providing a lot of oxygen to the seat of the fire."

As a result of the fire, some 15 tons of melted and partly-burned fuel, of the original complement of 180 tons, lay in the centre of the No 1 reactor pile. There were also another five tons in the water and air ducts.

The reactor was sealed after the accident until around ten years ago when radioactivity had dropped to about one hundredth of its original level and decommissioning could begin.

The decommissioning effort is being backed by the Ministry of Defence, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Department of Trade and Industry. The initial phase of the demolition of the two piles began in 1987.

The current work programme aims to remove the five tons of fuel from the water and air ducts, and to decontaminate and drain the water ducts by the middle of next year at a cost of £20 million. "It is still fairly radioactive," said Mr Hickey.

Robots have been used for the clean-up. One of them, a tracked robot called Cyclops, was used in the air ducts. Another was used to pump sludge - most of which has now been removed. A third, called Norman, is now being modified by Harsh Environments Ltd, of Egremont, Cumbria. It has a manipulator arm that will be used to access areas of the ducts that are difficult to reach. A fourth vehicle equipped with a water jet will be used to decontaminate by scraping off a few millimetres of concrete.

"Once this is done, and the water ducts drained," he said. "It should be safe enough for people to enter."

Four people were arrested yesterday in a protest at, what Scottish CND claimed to be one of a series of nuclear warhead convoys serving the Trident submarine base at Faslane.

Scottish CND said the arrests took place near Balloch when four protesters halted the convoy for about 10 minutes.

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Chernobyl cancer risk to babies

25 July 1996
By Roger Highfield Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VD33wk6K&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/7/25/wcher25.html

UNBORN babies exposed to fallout from Chernobyl developed leukaemia at a rate more than two and half times greater than that in unexposed children, according to a study released today.

Outside the former Soviet Union, where the nuclear reactor exploded a decade ago, contamination was highest in Greece.

Leukaemia is the major malignancy of childhood in developed countries, accounting for around one third of all cancers diagnosed in children.

In the journal Nature, a Greek team, led by Dr Eleni Petridou, reports an increase in a survey of cases diagnosed throughout the country since 1980.

The fallout in Greece was around three times the level of background radiation, so the increase supports the view that most cases are caused by exposure during development of the embryo.

The investigation would not have significant implications for the UK, said Dr John Harrison of the National Radiological Protection Board, because the fallout produced a small increase over normal background exposure for a short period. "The amount of radiation was significantly less than background," he said.

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Dounreay safety work costs £200m

10 July 1996:
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VD33wk6K&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/7/10/nuke10.html

A PLUTONIUM contaminated waste shaft damaged in a 1977 explosion at the Dounreay nuclear plant needs £200 million of taxpayers' money over the next 20 years to make it safe, it was disclosed yesterday.

The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee said it was concerned that the shaft, only 10 metres from the shore, would begin to be breached by natural erosion in a few decades.

It favours excavating the 65-metre deep shaft and repackaging the intermediate level waste, which would then be entombed at the proposed Sellafield nuclear waste repository.

The cost has been estimated at £200 million by UK AEA, the state-owned company which owns the site. Capping the shaft would be cheaper at £100 million but the committee says that excavating the waste and repackaging it was the only option which met modern nuclear waste standards.

The committee's recommendations came after it mounted an investigation into the source of an average of 13 highly radioactive particles which turn up annually on Dounreay's beaches.

The most likely reservoir of the particles was the turf around the low cliffs near the shaft in the rock which would have been contaminated when a sodium and potassium mixture caused an explosion in 1977.

The particles were aluminium shards surrounding nuclear fuel rods which had been split up to be reprocessed. The committee said that AEA Technology, which is about to be privatised and is a tenant at Dounreay, was processing plutonium-contaminated sodium from an unnamed foreign fast reactor.

Dr Jack Abernethy, a member of the committee, said they had been surprised that the Scottish pollution inspectorate had granted an authorisation to AEA Technology for the destruction of plutonium-contaminated sodium coolant from a foreign fast-breeder reactor.

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Robot arm to dismantle defunct Sellafield reactor

26 April 1996:
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=QwHH9LxR&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/4/26/nsella26.html

A KEY stage in the project to decommission one of the country's oldest nuclear power stations was reached yesterday, with the announcement of a contract to dismantle its radioactive heart using a robot arm.

Magnox Electric was named by the UK Atomic Energy Authority as the contractor to dismantle the core of the Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (WAGR) in the Sellafield complex, Cumbria, a contract worth about £10 million.

Project WAGR is the UK's demonstration exercise for nuclear-station decommissioning and aims to show that a full-sized nuclear reactor can be taken apart safely, cost-effectively and with minimal environmental consequences.

Much of the early work by Magnox Electric, the part of Nuclear Electric to stay in the private sector following privatisation, will prepare the way for the Remote Dismantling Machine, a robotic manipulator arm that has been purpose-built at a cost of more than £8 million.

For safety reasons, the operation is controlled from a separate control room in a nearby administration building

The arm's extendable steel mast enables it to manoeuvre inside the core of the defunct reactor. A range of attachments can be fitted to the arm, including an oxy-propane torch capable of slicing stainless steel, and it carries a remote camera.

For safety reasons, the operation is controlled from a separate control room in a nearby administration building.

The cost of the work so far is about £80 million. Funding for it comes from the Department of Trade and Industry, European Commission and the British nuclear industry.

Low-level waste from the dismantled reactor will be transported 10 miles to British Nuclear Fuels' waste dump at Drigg. The intermediate-level waste will be stored at a purpose-built facility on site until a long-term repository for the UK, whose location is still to be decided, is available.

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Chernobyl radiation leak as scientists tell of mutation fear

April 26, 1996,
UK Telegraph
By Alan Philps in Moscow and Roger Highfield, Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=r9tt3FXX&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/4/26/wcher26.html

A NEW release of radiation was confirmed at the Chernobyl nuclear plant yesterday, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the explosion which spewed radioactive dust over much of Europe.

Officials at the plant in northern Ukraine say that radioactive filters used to clean the air around the remains of reactor No 4, which blew up in the early hours of April 26, 1986, were mistakenly left near one of the two remaining working reactors. A spokesman at the plant said radioactive dust contaminated four places, but there had been no irradiation of staff "beyond the norm".

Meanwhile, scientists have discovered that radiation-induced genetic mutations can be passed down from generation to generation.

The findings are provisional but, if confirmed, would suggest that chronic exposure to low levels of radiation have greater health effects than previously realised, and would have to be reassessed.

Genetic mutations appear to occur twice as often in children of families exposed to radioactive fallout and these mutations are in the germ line; that is, they represent permanent damage to the DNA that is passed down to those children's children.

This effect, which was not observed in the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was disclosed yesterday in Nature after a study of the Chernobyl disaster. The study was conducted by an Anglo-Russian team, including Dr Yuri Dubrova of the N I Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Moscow, colleagues at the Research Institute for Radiation Medicine, Belarus, and Sir Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University, pioneer of genetic fingerprinting.

The team screened mutations in children from the Mogilev region of Belarus, 184 miles from Chernobyl, analysing their genetic fingerprints for alterations caused by radiation.

The Chernobyl disaster killed 4,229 people in Ukraine, Mykola Makarevych, Ukraine's ambassador, said yesterday. Of those, 2,929 had taken part in the clean-up operation.

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Lessons of Chernobyl 'ignored'

9 April 1996:
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor

SOVIET-designed reactors throughout Eastern Europe are still potentially dangerous 10 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and urgent action is needed to avoid another serious accident, experts have warned western governments.

The European Nuclear Council, which represents the operators of Europe's nuclear power stations, and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, issued the warning in the run-up to a meeting in Moscow later this month between G7 countries and President Yeltsin and President Kuchma of the Ukraine to discuss nuclear safety.

The council, which includes members of the British nuclear industry, has told EU ministers that there has been insufficient improvement in the safety of the 57 Soviet-designed reactors still in use despite tens of millions spent on reports by Western consultants.

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Sellafield 'did not cause leukaemia'

28 March 1996:
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=psMMbB3e&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/96/3/28/nsella28.html

A LINK between radiation and the high rate of childhood leukaemia near the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria has been ruled out.

A report yesterday by the Government's Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) said that the incidence of leukaemia near the village of Seascale was unlikely to be due to chance. It blamed it, in part, on infections resulting from the influx of large numbers of workers to the area and the dumping of raw sewage.

There will now be an investigation to see if there is a link between outflows of sewage and the number of cases of leukaemia.

The report found that "environmental radiation exposure from authorised or unplanned releases could not account for the excess". A link with exposure to chemicals, or of workers to radiation, was "very unlikely".

It noted that only the population of Seascale had the leukaemia cluster in those aged under 25, while other small towns and villages nearby, also home to Sellafield workers, were unaffected. "We have, I think, ruled out radiation," said Prof Bryn Bridges, the committee chairman and director of the Medical Research Council's cell mutation unit at Sussex University.

The Government committee used research which showed that leukaemia clusters can occur when large numbers of people come to rural areas, altering social structure and mixing those carrying latent infections with those who may be susceptible.

COMARE said that Seascale might have been affected because of the large number of workers brought into the area. It established that Sellafield's sewage was discharged untreated into the River Ehen, which has an outflow a mile away from Seascale.

COMARE believes that some of the excess cases of childhood leukaemia originated in an infective process caused by a virus or an infection that stimulates the immune system of children at a critical early age.

Janine Allis-Smith, of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, said she still blamed radiation for the high incidence of leukaemia. "I am not convinced by the virus theory."

-------- china

China whistleblower says FBI harrassment was payback

November 14, 2000
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20001114223327.htm

Missteps and appeasement by the U.S. government helped China develop into a dangerous global power, according to "The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America" (Regnery), a new book by Bill Gertz, national security reporter for The Washington Times. In the second of three excerpts, he examines the case of an Energy Department official who was punished for exposing Chinese theft of nuclear secrets.

Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men. - Sun Tzu ancient Chinese strategist

Two FBI agents confronted Notra Trulock in his Falls Church, Va., town house. The tone of their questioning was hostile. "Do you have classified information in the house?" one agent asked.

For the former counterintelligence chief at the Energy Department, it was the ultimate insult. Mr. Trulock was being accused of disclosing classified information improperly in a manuscript he had submitted to the CIA for publication in its journal, Studies in Intelligence.

Instead of publishing the manuscript, the CIA referred it to the FBI for investigation - which is why the agents were in Mr. Trulock's home on this hot Friday evening on July 14.

When he asked to see a search warrant, the agents said they didn't need one. They said they had the permission of the property owner, Mr. Trulock's friend Linda Conrad, who worked in the Energy Department's intelligence office.

One agent went into a bedroom, started up a desktop computer used by Mr. Trulock and downloaded the contents of its hard drive to a disk.

For more than an hour, the agents asked accusatory questions about classified information. He told them the truth: He had none.

"Screwed, blued and tattooed," is how Mr. Trulock later described the incident, which came only days after his abrupt dismissal by defense contractor TRW Inc. - a move he is convinced was the work of political enemies.

"This is what happens to whistle-blowers who speak truth to power in the Clinton administration," he told this reporter.

In truth, Mr. Trulock had submitted the manuscript - the same one sought by the FBI - to the Energy Department for security review. But the department had declined even to look at it.

The FBI raid on his home was harassment for his role in exposing one of the most damaging espionage cases in American history: He had uncovered Chinese espionage in the heart of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.

Chinese spies had scored a major coup; they had walked off with information on how to build Chinese versions of every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. And the spying continues today.

FBI Director Louis Freeh authorized the Trulock investigation in consultation with Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, one of President Clinton's closest advisers.

Mr. Trulock suspected that they singled him out because the political journal National Review had just published a shorter version of his manuscript. The article was highly critical of the Clinton administration's utter failure to aggressively pursue Chinese spying.

The administration wasn't interested in catching spies. Its highest priority was repressing critics, especially those in U.S. intelligence who had exposed the deception and politicization within the national security community under Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Trulock had been a major target ever since he quit the Energy Department after being pressured into taking a meaningless job and having his judgment on intelligence questioned by an inspector general's report that went to great lengths to cover up the entire Chinese espionage debacle.

China steals the keys

The story actually began 18 years ago when the telephone rang at the home of Gwo Bao Min, a former nuclear weapons engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It was Dec. 2, 1982.

The caller was Wen Ho Lee, another scientist who designed nuclear weapons at a second Department of Energy laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.

The FBI, which was investigating Mr. Min, intercepted the conversation.

Mr. Min was in trouble. He had been fired from his job at Livermore under suspicion of passing nuclear weapons secrets to China. Mr. Lee guessed it must have been someone in China who revealed Mr. Min's identity to the FBI, and he promised to uncover the informant.

Mr. Min never was prosecuted and today lives in Northern California. But the exchange between the two men would be at the heart of the most damaging espionage case in U.S. history.

China had stolen the keys to unlocking the secrets of America's nuclear arsenal. This was more harmful to national security than the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of passing nuclear secrets to Moscow in the early years of the Cold War.

A grand jury indicted Mr. Lee in December on 59 felony counts of copying nuclear secrets from Los Alamos computers onto portable tapes. He was released after nine months in jail when his attorneys reached a deal with federal prosecutors. In the deal, Mr. Lee pleaded guilty to a single count of mishandling classified information and agreed to describe under oath why he downloaded nuclear secrets and what he did with the computer tapes.

The first hints about the extent of the danger came Sept. 25, 1992, when the ground shook beneath a test site for nuclear weapons in China about 120 miles north of Lop Nur, a town in the remote northwestern province of Xinjiang.

The explosion was the first successful test of a small, compact warhead similar in design to the U.S. W-88. The fact that China had succeeded in building so small a warhead so quickly shocked many officials inside the U.S. intelligence community.

A spy working secretly in China for U.S. intelligence revealed important details about the 1992 test. In short, China had made a quantum leap in the killing power of its nuclear forces. The spy said the Chinese had set off a relatively small, 150-kiloton explosion using an oval-shaped core. The shape of the core was the tip-off to analysts that China had discovered one of the most important secrets about U.S. nuclear weapons.

And the Chinese had succeeded in doing so through espionage. The spying occurred under several administrations. But the magnitude of the problem was kept secret and only became public in the late 1990s.

China's nuclear buildup

The official reaction to the espionage - or, really, the lack of a response - was the result of a pro-China policy that caused serious damage to U.S. national security interests. The inaction sent a signal to any would-be nuclear power: U.S. nuclear secrets are up for grabs.

Under the so-called "engagement" policy of President Clinton, the administration ignored, minimized and ultimately covered up Chinese spying. Nothing would be allowed to interfere with the deliberate policy of pretending China poses no threat to the United States.

The story of how Chinese nuclear spies stole nuclear warhead secrets is about the failure of the U.S. government to protect long-term national security interests.

China today is engaged in a major buildup of strategic nuclear weapons targeted at a single nation: the United States.

The buildup includes two new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Dong Feng-31 and the Dong Feng-41; at least four new strategic nuclear missile submarines; and a host of exotic, high-technology weapons such as lasers capable of shooting down or blinding satellites. The buildup also includes computer-based information warfare designed to launch crippling attacks on everything from electrical power to the computer networks used to keep commercial aircraft flying safely.

Intelligence analysts working at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote a classified analysis that said the nuclear device tested near Lop Nur in 1992 was shaped differently from any other known Chinese warhead. The device looked like an American warhead, and the scientists were concerned that the Chinese had obtained strategic secrets.

In April 1995, the Los Alamos analysts sent their classified memorandum to Notra Trulock, a political scientist by training who had worked at Los Alamos and who was director of intelligence for the Department of Energy. Four years later, Mr. Trulock would be hounded out of the department for his efforts to expose Chinese nuclear spying.

Chinese espionage efforts against the weapons laboratories were not new to security officials.

"But we were beginning to uncover the outlines of a broad and very successful Chinese intelligence assault against our nuclear weapons laboratories," Mr. Trulock said. "These labs are the repositories of the secrets underlying the U.S. nuclear deterrent, accumulated through decades of U.S. nuclear weapons experience at the cost of billions of dollars."

Mr. Trulock explained that he had tried to alert U.S. officials, ranging from his immediate superiors at Energy all the way to White House National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger. Their responses were always "appropriate," he said, but their actions never matched their expressions of concern.

Assessing the damage

The Clinton administration viewed Chinese nuclear spying as a mere inconvenience, since the only strategy was to "engage" China's communist leaders - a policy that was ridiculed by China's communist leaders as the abject weakness of a decaying Western society.

"If our assessments of their perspective on their deterrent in the mid-'80s were correct, I think the Chinese now are moving much closer to having what they consider to be a credible deterrent," Mr. Trulock said. "And if they think the credibility of their deterrent is solid again, then that to me seems to open up a lot of other options for them, like Taiwan. The whole idea behind their deterrent is to keep us from intervening in the achievement of China's regional objectives."

Energy Department intelligence analysts learned that China had acquired U.S. secrets on at least seven of America's most modern thermonuclear warheads. The damage was known to key officials in the Clinton White House, the CIA and the Pentagon, but the information was kept hidden from the public to protect the policy of engagement.

It took a select congressional committee, formed in 1998 to investigate Chinese acquisition of U.S. missile technology, to bring the story into public view.

The administration fought the committee for five months, trying to prevent release of classified intelligence information that exposed Chinese espionage. But in the spring of 1999 the committee's report finally was made public.

"The credentials of the scientists conducting the assessment, the nature of the evidence and the quality of the technical judgments made for a compelling case," Mr. Trulock said. "Some of the nation's most experienced nuclear scientists participated in this work. Their contributions have never been recognized or acknowledged by their government."

The CIA, supposedly the nation's premier intelligence service, was "politicized" in the debate over Chinese spying. Its analysts tried hard to play down, minimize and ignore the damage. The CIA even insisted that what the Chinese obtained by espionage could have been obtained in other ways, such as from leaks of classified information or from public documents.

But Mr. Trulock provided an inside account of the Chinese espionage case that showed otherwise. The real issue was not whether a damaging spy scandal had occurred, but how the White House managed to contain the political fallout so that it touched anyone but the administration.

The spin begins

The White House went into its "war room" mode of media damage control. James Kennedy, the White House lawyer who handled the president's impeachment, was put on the China spying story.

The spin: Chinese spying was not the Clinton White House's fault; it all happened in the 1980s. To influence news reporters and their coverage, Mr. Kennedy emphasized that the story was "old news," and if anyone were to blame it would be the Republicans who were in power then.

When the select committee's bipartisan report went public, the administration privately - and falsely - warned the major television networks that the report did not reflect the version based on classified information. If the media "went hard" with the story, the White House promised it had the means to discredit the report.

So there was no story - or, at least, little criticism of the administration.

"As the director of DOE [Department of Energy] intelligence, I was the talking head for the DOE group and bore most of the brunt of these attacks," Mr. Trulock recalled. "To his credit, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson did present me with a $10,000 bonus, but this didn't offset the fact that I had been demoted, relegated to a meaningless job and eventually forced out of the department. Routine stuff for whistle-blowers in this administration.

"But I also came under media fire of the type normally reserved for [independent counsel] Ken Starr or someone involved in the president's public scandals. I read that I was a 'dangerous demagogue,' a 'great impostor,' 'obsessed,' that my 'style' was abrasive and a host of other epithets. Reporters attributed a variety of motives to explain my involvement in this case, including imputations of racism and xenophobia. This was pretty heavy stuff for someone who has spent most of his career trying to stay out of the public eye.

"Of course, most of these allegations came from the very officials within DOE and the White House responsible for the cover-ups and stonewalling of the Congress, and who had fought so hard to kill any meaningful security reform at the labs. Many of these were the perpetuators, if not the creators, of the very security lapses that made Chinese espionage possible in the first place."

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.

Notra Trulock had dared to challenge the pro-China policies of Bill Clinton. He had spoken bluntly about the Chinese strategic nuclear threat to the United States. He had revealed China's decades of nuclear-related espionage - and that the spying continues today.

--------

Beijing Voices Agreement over U.S.-Russia Nuclear Missile Reductions

Agence France Presse
Nov 14, 2000
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=220266

BEIJING, -- China Tuesday expressed support for a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut Russian and American nuclear stockpiles, but indicated opposition to his overture to discuss with Washington the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

"China welcomes United States and Russia to continue to irreversibly reduce by a large amount their nuclear arsenals," foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said.

Putin's proposal, posted on the Russian government website Monday, called for slashing Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to less than 1,500 warheads each, while also expressing a willingness to discuss amendments to the ABM Treaty.

"China hopes the Russia and the United States can ratify immediately and implement the agreements they have reached, while quickly restarting nuclear reduction talks," Sun said.

He was responding to a question on Russian-U.S. discussions on amendments to the treaty.

China together with Russia has opposed any changes to the ABM Treaty with both nations referring to it as the cornerstone of a 30-year global strategic balance.

Washington hopes to amend the treaty to legally open the way for it to build a National Missile Defense (NMD) system that would shoot down incoming nuclear missiles.

The untried system if successfully built could make intercontinental nuclear-tipped missiles obsolete, but could also lead to a new arms race with Russia and China vowing to engage in a new arms race aimed at countering the system.

"As far as the U.S. National Missile Defense is concerned if we are to protect stability of the global strategic balance, then this system shouldn't be built," Sun said.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker Monday said Washington had read "with interest" Putin's statement, but declined to give a specific response or comment on whether the United States would be willing to engage Russia on the specific ideas proposed.

Sun also refused to comment on the ongoing talks in Beijing of deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Army General Victor Manilov with his Chinese counterparts.

State press reports said that Manilov was here as part of the fourth round of talks between the general staff of China's People's Liberation Army and the Russian armed forces.

Russian sources in Beijing said that in talks with Chinese military leaders, Manilov exchanged views on the proposed U.S. NMD system. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)

-------- depleted uranium

Veterans misled about depleted uranium poisoning, say experts

CBC News (Canada)
Tue Nov 14 17:23:27 2000
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/11/14/dnd_uranium001114

MANCHESTER, U.K. - Canada's veterans who think they were poisoned in the 1991 Gulf War and in the Balkans can't trust the government when it says they're fine, said scientists at an international conference.

Many veterans think they are being made sick by their exposure to depleted uranium, a nuclear waste product found in some weapons used by NATO countries.

The Department of National Defence says tests it performed show no contamination.

But when CBC showed the test results to scientists at the International Conference against Depleted Uranium in Manchester, U.K. last week, they all said the testing was inaccurate and the results are useless.

"They've not looked with the right instrumentation," said Dr. Malcolm Hooper, an adviser to Britain's Gulf War veterans. "They've not reported accurately their own results and they've used the wrong paradigm to interpret the data."

All of which is to say that the tests done on 85 urine samples - which DND says show the soldiers had less uranium in their systems than people in the general population have - are wrong from start to end.

The labs doing the testing weren't properly equipped to detect depleted uranium at all, said Hooper. Whole uranium occurs in the body naturally, and is easier to detect than depleted uranium.

"They're incompetent tests," said Rosalie Bell, a Canadian epidemiologist. "Our military men deserve better than that."

Dr. Chris Busby, another epidemiologist from Wales, says the tests and their conclusions are being "economical with the truth."

But that doesn't surprise Hooper, who says many governments are hoping to avoid the costs of providing compensation packages to people poisoned by depleted uranium.

-------- india / pakistan

Convention on nuclear disarmament ends

By Our Staff Reporter
The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/11/14/stories/02140008.htm

NEW DELHI, NOV. 13. The three-day National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament ended here today with the establishment of a National Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and a collective resolve to work for a rollback of India's nuclear weapons-related preparation.

Announcing the formation of a ``rainbow coalition'' at a press conference here today, the former Chief of Naval Staff and keen advocate of nuclear disarmament, Admiral (Retd.) L. Ramdas, said the Charter for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace adopted at the convention lays out the basic principles of the Indian peace movement's opposition to nuclear weapons. Besides presenting an alternative vision of human security, the charter also explains the peace movement's rejection of reliance on nuclear weapons.

The convention identified an agenda for India, and another for nuclear weapon countries and those on the nuclear threshold. As per the agenda for India, there should be no assembly of nuclear weapons, no induction and deployment of nuclear weapons, and no acquisition and development of nuclear weapon-specific delivery system.

Besides a no to explosive testing, sub-critical tests, and production or acquisition of weapons-usable fissile material tritium, the activists have called for putting a halt to advanced research into nuclear weapons.

The convention has also demanded similar immediate measures of nuclear restraint and rollback from Pakistan from where 50 peace activists had come to participate in the three-day-long deliberations that ended with a cultural appeal at Mandi House for peace and disarmament.

Further, the peace activists - including those from the developed world - have urged the Big Five to immediately de-alert their nuclear weapons systems, take a pledge of `no first use', and stop further research into advanced nuclear weapons. ``We demand the rapid, systematic and continuous reduction by the N-5 of their nuclear weapons down to zero level through unilateral, bilateral and multilateral commitments and pacts.''

And to keep up the momentum that the peace movement has succeeded in maintaining in India ever since the Pokharan-II tests, the Coalition has come out with a plan of action for the coming year. Since generating awareness is crucial for building an opinion against nuclear weaponisation, the Coalition has decided to set up a central ``clearing house'' of information. Also, an endeavour will be made to coordinate efforts of anti-nuclear weapon activists across the country.

The coming days will see the Coalition pressing for the institutionalising of ``Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Week'' from August 4 to August 11 every year to coincide with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Apart from networking with similar organisations on the sub-continent and across the globe, the Coalition will also try to interact at an official level with all political parties to edge the Government towards the road to nuclear disarmament.

-------- korea

Downer to push security concerns in N Korea

By LYNNE O'DONNELL 14nov00
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,1412016%255E421,00.html

ALEXANDER Downer will make his first visit to North Korea today, confirming Australia's role as a player in the emergence of the communist country into the international community.

The trip is the first by an Australian foreign minister since diplomatic ties with Pyongyang were severed in 1975. Relations were restored in May.

Mr Downer is expected to meet senior North Korean officials in Pyongyang, including his counterpart, Paek Nam-sum.

Before he left Brunei, where he has been attending the APEC ministerial meeting, officials were tight-lipped on whether Mr Downer would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Mr Kim has this year taken extraordinary steps to lead his country out of the diplomatic wilderness by opening up to South Korea and forging bilateral relations with a number of Western nations.

Most remarkable was the mid-June summit in Pyonyang when Mr Kim welcomed his South Korean counterpart, President Kim Dae-jung, easing 50 years of Cold War hostility.

"During my visit, I will convey to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea the importance of taking further steps to engage positively with South Korea and the region, especially the need to address security concerns, including missile and nuclear issues," Mr Downer said.

"My visit will add further weight to Australia's support for Kim Dae-jung's policy of engagement with the North."

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last month became the most senior international figure to visit North Korea. After Mr Downer's trip, there is a chance US President Bill Clinton will spend some of his last days in office in the North Korean capital.

Top of the agenda for Mr Downer will be the need to reiterate Western demands that North Korea abandon its nuclear missile development program. He also plans to address the issue of up to 40 Australian soldiers missing in action following the end of the Korean War in 1953.

-------- russia

Putin Suggests Deeper Bilateral Weapons Cuts

By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 14, 2000 ; Page A37
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12026-2000Nov13.html

MOSCOW, Nov. 13 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, not knowing who will be his next negotiating partner in the White House, said today that both Russia and the United States should drastically cut their arsenals of long-range nuclear missiles as part of an intensified disarmament effort.

He said Russia is ready to consider an even lower limit than the 1,500 nuclear warheads on each side that Moscow now proposes could be reached by 2008. At the same time, he reiterated Russia's opposition to a U.S. proposal to build a national missile defense system--a decision that President Clinton has left to his successor.

Putin's statement, issued by the presidential press service, broke no new ground. But Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, struck a different note, suggesting today in separate comments that Russia is resigned to the notion that the United States will build a missile shield.

Yakovlev proposed that offensive and defensive missiles might be considered together, with cuts of one offset by a buildup of another. "A country that wishes to increase one of the components will have to cut the other," he said.

U.S. and Russian analysts suggested that Yakovlev was not indicating a shift in policy but floating an idea. "Because of the strategic pause created by the presidential elections, all sides are thinking aloud," said Sergei Rogov, head of Moscow's Institute for the Study of the United States and Canada.

In Washington, State Department officials said they were still studying Yakovlev's comments, while spokesman Philip Reeker said Putin's remarks "largely restated the Russian position on strategic nuclear arms reductions." Reeker added, "We certainly share the Russian interest in lower levels of strategic nuclear arms."

Unable to replace its aging nuclear weapons, Russia has long favored deeper cuts than Washington in long-range missiles. The United States has tentatively agreed to a limit of 2,000 to 2,500 warheads. But Russia so far has not been willing to suggest an exchange of deeper cuts for the defensive missile shield that the United States wants to protect itself from from "rogue nations" such as North Korea.

"They tell us that the situation has considerably changed during the last three decades," Putin said. "The system has changed, but not to a degree allowing us to break the existing system of strategic stability by emasculating the ABM," or Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The concept of mutual vulnerability that underlies the 1972 treaty effectively rules out either side building a nuclear defense.

Vice President Gore has said he supports a limited missile shield designed to defend the United States; Republican nominee George W. Bush argues for a system that will protect U.S. allies as well.

Spurgeon Keeny, president of the U.S. Arms Control Association, called Yakovlev's remarks "a thought experiment." Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, said Yakovlev only made the proposal because "we know it will not be accepted."

Still, Sergei Kortunov, a foreign policy analyst with close ties to the Russian government, said the Russian position "may become more flexible." Russian officials recognize, he said, that "it is not enough for people to just repeat the same position."

-------- treaties

Putin: Why not cut warheads beyond what treaties require?
The Russian president urges the U.S. to join him in drastically reducing the nuclear arsenals.

Associated Press
St. Petersburg Times, published
November 14, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/News/111400/Worldandnation/Putin__Why_not_cut_wa.shtml

MOSCOW -- In a bold new arms control gambit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia and the United States could make drastic cuts in their nuclear arsenals far beyond existing proposals.

Putin, who is pushing to downsize a huge and inefficient military that Russia can no longer afford, said the former Cold War opponents need not stop at the 1,500-warhead limit Russia has been advocating until now. He did not propose any specific numbers.

"It's not the limit. We are ready to consider lower levels in the future," he said in a statement issued by the Kremlin.

"We don't see reasons which would hamper further deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. There should be no pause in nuclear disarmament."

Putin said the 1,500 level could be achieved by 2008 but only if the United States does not go ahead with a missile defense system that Russia says would undermine nuclear deterrence.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Philip Reeker, said Putin's statement "was read with interest," but he declined to say if the Clinton administration was ready to negotiate further cutbacks with the Russians.

"We certainly share the Russian interest in lower levels of strategic nuclear arms," Reeker said.

"That's something we've worked on for quite some time now, and we want to proceed in a manner that will also allow us to address new threats."

After years of delay, Russia's parliament in April ratified the START II arms reduction treaty, which would roughly halve arsenals to about 3,500 warheads each. As soon as the treaty goes into effect, the sides have tentatively agreed to go ahead with a START III treaty that envisages further cuts, to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads.

Analysts say the United States has roughly 7,500 nuclear weapons, while Russia has between 6,000 and 7,000.

START II has not taken effect because the Russian parliament added conditions not yet ratified by the U.S. Senate.

The cash-strapped Russian government is under intense pressure to cut military spending, which makes up one third of the federal budget even though Russia spends only about $5.1-billion on defense -- compared with annual U.S. defense spending of around $290-billion.

Last week, Putin approved a military reform plan that would cut the 3-million uniformed and civilian personnel in the overall military establishment by about 600,000, or about 20 percent.

Most experts think that Russia wants deep nuclear cuts because it can't afford to keep up its forces even at START II levels and wants to preserve nuclear equality with the United States. Russia has been able to build only a handful of nuclear missiles in recent years, far too few to replace the hundreds of weapons approaching the end of their service lives.

"It's very important for Russia to persuade the United States to also cut its arsenals, to avoid a unilateral disarmament," said Dmitry Trenin, an analyst for the Carnegie Endowment.

Trenin said Russia was likely to agree to some form of U.S. missile defense by agreeing to the changes in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic missile treaty that restricts such systems.

That's because Russia fears it doesn't have the money to respond if the United States unilaterally backs out of the ABM treaty.

"Russia will have to choose between some kind of agreement with the United States and the absence of one, which would put Russia in a most desperate political and economic situation," Trenin said.

U.S. negotiators have pressed for ABM changes to allow a limited missile defense against attacks from so-called "rogue states" such as North Korea. Washington says its defense system would not be able to blunt a Russian attack.

Putin, however, spoke strongly against any changes in the ABM.

"They tell us that the situation in the world has considerably changed during the last three decades.

"The situation has indeed changed, but not to a degree allowing us to break the existing system of strategic stability by emasculating the ABM."

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

U.S. Offers Cautious Welcome to Putin Nuclear Proposals

Nov 14, 2000
Agence France Presse
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=220099

WASHINGTON, The United States on Monday offered a low-key and cautious welcome to Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for the two countries to slash their nuclear arsenals and an indication that Moscow would be willing to discuss changes to a key anti-missile defense treaty.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington had read "with interest" Putin's statement in which he called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads by each country to less than 1,500 and pledged to try to end the standoff over the planned US national missile defense (NMD) system.

"Certainly we share Russia's interest in lower levels of strategic nuclear arms and we want to proceed in a manner that allows us to address new threats, something we've discussed for some time," Reeker said.

He noted that Putin's statement, published earlier on the Russian government's website, followed several bilateral initiatives on arms control agreed to this year on strategic stability cooperation.

"All of those things go into our review of these issues and we certainly welcome the continued engagement of the Russians on this and it's a subject we'll continue to work on with them," Reeker said.

However, Reeker declined to give a more specific response to Putin's statement or comment on whether the United States would be willing to engage Russia on the specific ideas proposed.

U.S. officials have in the past opposed Russian suggestions that a new arms control treaty lower the number of warheads on each side to 1,500 or less, citing earlier agreements in principle that the figure should be in the 2,000-2,500 range.

On NMD, which Moscow vehemently opposes, Putin said Russia was "prepared to pursue the dialogue begun more than a year ago concerning the ABM issues we disagree about."

"The obligation to examine all aspects of the ABM treaty is written into the agreement itself," he said.

Washington wants to amend the 1972 treaty, the cornerstone of Cold War nuclear deterrence to clear the way for NMD, which it argues is necessary to defend itself against a limited attack by states like Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Moscow believes the move could spark a new arms race and has threatened to tear up existing weapons accords and halt disarmament talks if the United States takes unilateral action.

In September, U.S. President Bill Clinton postponed a decision on whether to deploy the 60-billion dollar NMD system, saying his successor would make that call. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)


-------- MILITARY

-------- iraq

Iraq Chipping Away at Sanctions

November 14, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Iraq-Sanctions.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- With help from Russia, France and the Arab world, Iraq has ended a de facto air travel embargo. Now it's chipping away at 10-year-old U.N. economic sanctions and seeking more control over its oil riches.

Baghdad's high-profile campaign to end its long diplomatic isolation appears to be gaining momentum.

Long-closed borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia are opening up to U.N.-approved goods. Dozens of businessmen, officials, scientists, artists and athletes have traveled to Iraq for the first time since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Baghdad demanded -- and is getting -- payment for oil sales in euros instead U.S. dollars, the hated currency of an enemy state.

``They've stuck a little bit more of a wedge in the door to get it open,'' said Terence Taylor, assistant director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

The response from the United States, which is publicly committed to ousting strongman Saddam Hussein, has been muted -- something diplomats and analysts have attributed to a lack of desire in the Clinton administration to create an Iraq crisis during the presidential campaign.

But they don't expect changes in the wake of the election.

That's mainly because Washington's hard-line strategy to isolate and punish Iraq has almost no support at the United Nations and has been undermined by events on the ground, said David Malone, president of the International Peace Academy, a New York think tank.

Despite cracks in the sanctions regime, the United Nations still controls the billions of dollars in revenue from legal Iraqi oil sales -- and will until Iraq lets U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country and they declare that its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been dismantled.

The Security Council imposed economic sanctions to punish Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and to ensure it cannot wage war with weapons of mass destruction. Iraq maintains its weapons programs have been eliminated and wants sanctions lifted immediately. It has barred U.N. weapons inspectors who left Baghdad in 1998 from returning.

With a new team of inspectors trained and ready to go to Iraq, U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Baghdad to cooperate.

``The Iraqi leadership will achieve more through cooperation with the international community ... than through confrontation,'' Annan said Sunday at a summit of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, where Arab support for Iraq was evident.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said after meeting Annan on Monday that Baghdad would hold talks ``without preconditions ... to reach a comprehensive and final solution to the siege imposed on Iraq.''

But Taylor said Iraq is unlikely to allow inspectors back in because it is benefitting from the erosion of sanctions and increasing international recognition ``without having to concede anything with regard to their weapons programs.''

``The regime appears to be engaged in `regime survival,' and they have enough resources to do that without lifting sanctions,'' he said. ``It's benefitted greatly by high oil prices, gains in the spot market, and illegal oil sales, so it is not short of funds.''

Taylor and others believe Iraq has skillfully divided the Security Council, especially the five veto-wielding permanent members.

Russia and France have been in the forefront of promoting travel to Iraq. Regular international passenger service has not resumed, but U.S. adherence to the 10-year-old de facto travel ban is supported only by Britain.

Previously, 30 percent of Iraq's oil revenue went to pay victims of Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. But Russia in June objected to a $15.9 billion award to the Kuwait Petroleum Co., and France then spearheaded a compromise that cut the amount earmarked for Kuwait to 25 percent.

Now Iraq is pressing for more power to contest awards to victims of the Kuwaiti invasion and demanding the United Nations set aside money from every barrel of oil sold to help maintain its own oil industry.

``The Europeans have successfully maneuvered Washington into a box on Iraq,'' said Charles Duelfer, who was deputy director of the former U.N. weapons inspection agency and is now a scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A number of countries outside the United States have ``an increasing stake in retaining the current regime'' in Iraq for economic and other reasons, Duelfer said.

``So we're facing a point where there's going to be some serious friction between Washington and other capitals,'' he said. ``Whatever new administration comes in will have to think about that.''

-------- u.n.

One African diplomat said to another just outside the UN...

Earth Times
11/14/00
By MICHAEL LITTLEJOHNS
Earth Times News Service
http://www.earthtimes.org/nov/unnotebookoneafricannov14_00.htm

UNITED NATIONS -- One African diplomat said to another just outside the UN General Assembly hall Friday: "The mistake the Americans made in Florida was not asking for United Nations electoral observers. Ha, ha." They chuckled as they walked toward the Security Council, where Yasser Arafat was pleading in a closed door meeting for a multinational "protection force" to help along his claim to a Palestine state -- followed, one hopes, by elections that may be a bit less messy than the latest one in the US.

Representatives of small countries that for years have been badgered and lectured about the American democratic model watched in amazement the extraordinary drama unfolding in Florida in a presidential contest which, in CBS anchor Dan Rather's colorful phrase, was "as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '57 Chevy." Did those Cubans who fled to Miami because they couldn't stand Fidel -- but were comfortable with Fulgencio Batista and his goons and the Mob running the casinos and porn houses and Myer Lansky owning the Hotel Riviera -- actually make a banana republic of their adopted home? To some, it seems like it.

The current wave of intense UN interest in US domestic politics is a rare occurrence. More typically, diplomats in New York are not so much disinterested as uninterested observers, many of them consciously aloof from the ups and downs and occasional weirdness of the political system in the host country, as well as America's internal disputes like the fights over abortion rights and school vouchers.

Exceptionally, the Cuban missile crisis with its hair-raising prospect of nuclear warheads crashing into Manhattan from batteries 90 miles off Florida, as John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev tested which of them would blink first, got UN delegates' undivided attention. Some, fearing the city was about to be consumed, hustled nervous families off to presumed sanctuary in their homelands. Needless to say, this crisis is of an entirely different order, but the excitement around the UN today does offer reminders of 1962 -- minus, of course, the heart-stopping trepidation. Again, animated diplomats and officials have been exiting meetings and crowding around UN television screens while they speculated when and how the tumultuous affair will end.

Diplomats unschooled in US politics and distrusting the error-prone media are probably calling Richard Holbrooke, the UN ambassador, seeking guidance on what's really happening in this interminable election. (That Florida -- shades of Elian Gonzalez and all -- should be central to the crisis must have generated a powerful schadenfreude in President Castro, so long the object of US demands for free elections and the installation of democracy.)

No doubt, many in the UN also derive a malevolent pleasure from America's troubles. A few diplomats from poor states on the wrong side of the Digital Divide, could barely hide their glee. As some of them saw it, the US was getting a good dose of well deserved comeuppance. At the same time, media revelations about the way American methods for choosing presidents could not fail to astonish. Here was the richest, most advanced nation in the world using procedures that were already antiquated half a century ago; in some places, including New York City, relying on voting machines no longer in production and inclined to malfunction, and in others old-fashioned pen and ink to mark ballot papers.

But in all of the above and amid so much smug superciliousness, something important is being overlooked. For all its flaws, this is America; not Yugoslavia or the Ivory Coast or Zimbabwe (where Robert Mugabe is trying to place himself above the law); or even South Africa, where a massively unfair society persists after internationally monitored elections. Regardless of what's happened since Nov. 7, this continues to be a vital democracy founded on law and most sensible people recognize that.

No matter who wins in the end, Al Gore or George Bush, there'll be no attempt at a coup, the military will stay in their barracks and a free nation will eventually settle back and get on with its business. The immediate future may be difficult, given the photo finish, and Wall Street, where uncertainty is a special anathema, probably will tank some more. But the Republic will survive.

Americans are fond of locutions drawn from past eras, like "a time for healing" and "binding the wounds" -- terms that probably predate the War Between the States.There'll be need for healing when this remarkable episode has passed into history.

Meanwhile, the world witnessed the other day confirmation of this great and decent nation's enduring stability as well as its basic civility. The President and Senator elect Hillary Rodham Clinton had Lady Bird Johnson (LBJ's widow), Gerald and Betty Ford, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter and George and Barbara Bush visit the White House for dinner with 200 other guests in celebration of the 200th anniversary of this most famous of all world landmarks. For a night, the mutual mudslinging in which all of the present and past leaders have participated at one time or another was forgiven and forgotten.

In a movingly elegant address to the assembled political glitterati, former President Carter said it best, speaking of America's unparalleled strengths in the face of every vicissitude, and proclaiming his confidence that this too shall pass. In a warm tribute to Gerry Ford, who was appointed President to reconcile the nation after the trauma of Watergate and Nixon's resignation -- and whom Carter narrowly defeated in the subsequent presidential race -- he revealed that each of them now is the other's best friend. Hard as it may be to envision now, in the political heat of subtropical Florida, George W. Bush and Al Gore may wind up best friends, too.

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

USS Cole Guards Told Not to Fire First Shot

By Thomas E. Ricks and Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday , November 14, 2000 ; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61481-2000Nov10.html

The sailors on sentry duty aboard the USS Cole when it was bombed last month did not have ammunition in their guns and were not authorized to shoot unless fired upon, according to members of the ship's crew.

Even if the sentries had recognized the threat from a small boat approaching the guided missile destroyer in a Yemeni harbor on Oct. 12, their "rules of engagement" would have prevented them from firing without first obtaining permission from the Cole's captain or another officer, the crew members said.

Petty Officer John Washak recalled that shortly after the small boat blew a 40-by-40-foot hole in the destroyer's side, killing 17 sailors, he was manning an M-60 machine gun on the Cole's fantail when a second small boat approached. Washak said he pointed the machine gun directly at the boat to warn it off. But, he recalled, a senior chief petty officer ordered him to turn the gun away.

Washak protested, fearing that the ship was still under attack. But even in the aftermath of the bombing, "with blood still on my face," he said, he was told: "That's the rules of engagement--no shooting unless we're shot at."

The rules of engagement aboard a U.S. warship are set by its captain following Navy guidelines. Pentagon officials have declined to discuss publicly the specific rules in effect aboard the Cole, but senior officers said in congressional testimony that the ship had filed a detailed security plan, which they believe was followed.

Interviews with about 20 members of the ship's crew in recent days also revealed several other previously undisclosed aspects of the bombing:

* The Cole may have been boarded and surreptitiously surveyed by Islamic militants, possibly including one of the suicide bombers, as it passed through the Suez Canal a few days before the attack, crew members said they have been told by FBI investigators.

* The FBI also has been questioning crew members about the behavior of the Yemeni pilot who guided the Cole into port, which some described as "agitated." In addition, some crew members believe that Yemeni harbor workers acted suspiciously.

* The boat that exploded may first have attempted to tie up to the Cole's stern, then moved around to the side of the ship after being ordered away.

As the FBI tries to determine who was behind the suicide attack, the Defense Department and congressional committees are searching for broader lessons about how to protect U.S. ships. Overwhelmingly, crew members dwelt on the limitations placed on their ability to defend the Cole, especially in the paradoxical situation of visiting a supposedly friendly port during a time of extreme tension in the Mideast.

When it sailed into the Yemeni port of Aden, the ship was operating under "Threat Condition Bravo," the second-lowest on a scale of four threat conditions. Under this moderate posture, crew members said, the ship had a few guards on deck, but no one was posted on big machine guns near the bow and stern.

"It wasn't supposed to be a high-threat port," said Nathan Bair, a fire controlman on the Cole.

Kevin Benoit, a gunner's mate, said the sailors "weren't given any kind of instruction that it was dangerous" to refuel in Aden. "Nothing like that was put out. . . . It wasn't a big deal," he said, adding that he been surprised that the ship even had armed "rovers" patrolling the deck.

"I thought it was kind of far-fetched," he said.

Even now, members of the Cole's crew say they are hard-pressed to think of what they would have done differently as the small boat approached with no outward sign of hostility.

"If we had shot those people, we'd have gotten in trouble for it," said Petty Officer Jennifer Kudrick, a sonar technician. "That's what's frustrating about it. We would have gotten in more trouble for shooting two foreigners than losing 17 American sailors."

"It's kind of hard to say what we should have done," added Washak. "In the military, it's like we're trained to hesitate now. If somebody had seen something wrong and shot, he probably would have been court-martialed."

Benoit, who issued weapons for the security patrol during the refueling, confirmed that the guns were not loaded. He said he issued 9mm pistols to two sailors assigned as roving guards during the refueling, and that those sailors each carried two rounds of ammunition but did not load the weapons. "You can't fire unless fired upon," said Benoit. "We were in no kind of threat-con where we would fire."

But one of the Cole's officers added that the guards could have loaded and fired quickly if the threat had been more clear. "They were prepared to fend off any attack had it been apparent," said Lt. j.g. Robert Overturf. "They have a load that takes a second, and then they're ready to fire."

The threat from the small boat, however, was anything but apparent. Crew members who saw it approaching said "it looked like the boats that had assisted in the mooring" of the Cole to a refueling station in the middle of the harbor, according to Overturf, who was not on deck at the time. "We thought they were one of the boats we had hired."

Even after the attack, crew members said, they were told they should fire only warning shots in the air if strange boats approached.

The Cole's captain, Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, has declined to be interviewed since coming back to the United States with the unwounded members of his crew on Nov. 3. But a Pentagon official who has spoken with Lippold, and is familiar with what happened aboard the ship, said one reason for the order to fire only warning shots was that boats were approaching the stricken warship to offer help. "You didn't want sailors shooting up those boats," he said.

Cmdr. J.D. Gradeck, a spokesman for the Navy in the Persian Gulf area, declined to comment on the crew's accounts, citing the Navy's ongoing investigation of the incident.

Cole crew members also said they now realize that their ship may have been looked over by Islamic militants as it passed through the Suez Canal on the way to Yemen. While in the canal, the ship followed the Navy tradition of bringing Egyptian vendors aboard to sell souvenirs, they said.

Paul Riddle, an operations specialist who worked in the Cole's combat information center, said FBI investigators told him that "they think the Egyptians might have been doing a reconnaissance on us." And they told him that one of the two men who carried out the suicide attack may have been among those who visited the Cole, he said.

Crew members also disclosed that the boat that exploded may at first have attempted to tie up to the Cole's stern. Several sailors said they were told by a shipmate, Russell Dietz, that a small boat with two men aboard pulled up to the stern, where Dietz was working and keeping an eye on a larger scow that had made several trips to haul away the Cole's trash.

Dietz, who shipmates said was injured in the explosion, could not be reached for comment. But he told others on the Cole that he had asked the two men on the smaller boat what they were doing.

The men said they had come to help with the trash, and they may even have tried to throw a line to Dietz, one sailor said. Dietz then called the bridge, which told him to send the boat away. He did, and the boat quickly "veered away" to the port side of the ship, where it blew up, Nsilo Greene, an electronics technician, said he was told by Dietz.

Almost every member of the crew who was interviewed had heard talk that the Yemeni pilot who guided the destroyer into port was extremely anxious and tried to leave the ship earlier than usual. "I was told the Yemeni pilot was pretty much trying to jump ship before it was tied up," said Bair.

Riddle said he was told that the pilot "was real agitated and getting in arguments with the captain." The pilot was prevented from leaving the ship on the orders of an officer, several crew members said.

Kudrick, who met the pilot when he first arrived on the ship, said that he seemed "kind of huffy" but that she just assumed he did not like working with female sailors.

Along the same lines, many members of the crew believe that Yemeni harbor workers on the fueling station near the Cole ran into a cement hut just before the explosion. Kathy Lopez, a petty officer who was involved in the refueling operation, also said that in retrospect, she thinks it is suspicious that Yemeni workers conducted the refueling with unusual speed.

"They were pumping a whole lot faster from the fuel barge than they had for the last ship," said Lopez. In fact, she added, "They were pumping a lot faster than we thought they were capable of pumping."

On the other hand, no one who was interviewed claims to have actually seen the harbor workers run away or the pilot demand to leave the ship, so it is possible that those accounts may be no more than rumors that passed through the Cole in the traumatic days after the attack.

If the accounts are correct, however, they would indicate that knowledge of the impending attack was widespread. That would be consistent with evidence found by investigators that the attack was planned months in advance and that the original target may have been another Navy warship, The Sullivans, which visited Yemen in January. This, in turn, would raise questions about whether any Yemeni government officials knew of the attack and failed to stop it or to warn the United States.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker declined to comment yesterday on reports of tension between the FBI and the U.S. Embassy in Yemen over the possible involvement of well-connected Yemenis.

According to the reports, which surfaced last week in the Arab-language daily Al Hayat, the FBI wants to broaden the probe to include people close to the Yemeni government. The embassy, with backing from the State Department, is said to be concerned about the diplomatic consequences of such a move.

Lt. Ann Chamberlain, the Cole's navigator, said an FBI agent asked her about the actions of the Yemeni harbor workers. But, she added, "I think everything is being investigated," from solid fact to unfounded rumor.

Researchers Madonna Lebling and Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.

--------

Malls Targeted As Recruiting Ground

November 14, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Military-Recruiting.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon plans to set up recruiting stations in major shopping malls across the nation, opening a new ``front'' in its battle to attract young men and women, a senior official said Tuesday.

Bernard Rostker, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told reporters that in December the first of these new recruiting offices would be established in the Potomac Mills megamall outside Washington. It will seek recruits for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

``We'll try it in a number of other high-traffic malls throughout the country,'' he said, without mentioning any specific places.

Rostker described the planned recruiting stations as ``gee-whiz, high-tech'' offices, a departure from the military's usual approach of putting recruiters in low-rent, sometimes obscure areas with little pedestrian traffic.

``You look at our normal recruiting stations and ask, why aren't they in high-traffic areas,'' Rostker said. The reply he usually gets is that rents in such places are too high.

``You say, 'Why are the rents high?' And the answer is, 'Because a lot of people go there,''' he said, mocking the logic of past practice.

This new approach is part of a broader series of changes the Pentagon is making to strengthen its recruiting at a time when a more high school graduates are going directly to college rather than serving in the military first. The booming civilian economy also has made recruiting more difficult.

The military services are making more use of the Internet to get their recruiting message out, and the Air Force is making more use of television advertising. The Pentagon has established an Internet site, called Today's Military, to provide information on military service, including educational benefits.

In this past budget year, which ended Sept. 30, each service met its recruiting goals -- the first time in three years that all achieved their standard. In 1999, both the Army and the Air Force fell short, and in 1998 the Army and Navy fell short.

The recruiting effort has been helped over the past year by unexpected gains in retaining troops. That means fewer recruits are needed to fill the gaps. Despite the overall gains, the Air Force in particular is having trouble keeping enough pilots, despite offering bonuses.

``We cannot compete with the airlines on (financial) compensation,'' Rostker said.

In a related development, the Navy announced Tuesday a new program designed to protect sailors from ``lending predators,'' or loan sharks who target young people ill-informed about managing their money. The Navy will provide boot camp graduates with two days of instruction in personal financial management by civilian professionals, and Naval Academy midshipmen also will get special instruction.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

U.S. Climate Plan Threatens to Deepen Summit Rift

November 14, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-environ.html

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The United States charged ahead Tuesday with a plan that would help it meet targets for cutting greenhouse gases but deepen its rift with the European Union over how to check global warming.

The U.S. proposal is at the heart of a dispute at a two-week conference here over how to implement a 1997 U.N. climate change agreement that called for cuts in emissions of gases like carbon dioxide.

The U.S. plan would allow countries producing a lot of carbon dioxide to offset emissions against the ability of their forests and farmland to suck up the gas -- so that they could meet targets agreed in Kyoto in 1997 for cutting greenhouse gases.

The 15-nation European Union wants wealthy states to take a lead and implement cuts through tough domestic policies.

Scientists warn that increasing levels of greenhouse gases threaten significant climate change and rising sea levels that could wipe some small islands off the map.

``This proposal will help us become a party to the Kyoto Protocol,'' David Sandalow, head of the U.S. delegation, told Reuters.

Many senior U.S. Senators have vowed to kill any greenhouse gas plan they believe would hurt the economy. The current proposal, presented jointly with Canada and Japan, might overcome the domestic hurdle.

Opponents say they fear the United States and others want to make cuts only on paper.

``This is the one issue that if pushed to its maximum would totally undermine the protocol,'' said Frances MacGuire, policy coordinator for environmental group Friends of the Earth.

AT STAKE

As bickering between the richer nations continued, the G77 group of developing countries launched a blistering attack on the developed world's failure to tackle climate change.

``We are frustrated and we are distressed -- not only because these countries have failed to live up to their primary obligations and reduce emissions, they have, instead, increased them,'' said Mohammed Barkindo of Nigeria, which currently presides over the G77.

``We will be the ones impacted by climate change,'' he said.

Among the countries in the G77 are Mozambique, Bangladesh and Vietnam, recent victims of catastrophic floods that some scientists say are symptoms of a changing climate.

But the broad coalition of over 150 countries has major splits on other issues, membership which includes some big economies like Argentina and Brazil, and the OPEC oil producers.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has little in common with islands threatened by rising water levels and devastating storms, for example. But it has a strong financial interest in teaming up with them.

Saudi Arabia wants compensation for expected losses if oil consumption is cut -- essentially putting it in the same boat with developing countries needing help from industrialized states to develop environmentally clean industries.

``We would lose $25 billion a year by 2010 if the Kyoto cuts are implemented,'' said Mohammed al-Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation and senior adviser to Saudi's oil minister.

``There will be no outcome if our concerns are not adequately addressed,'' he said.

Failure to compromise during the conference could scupper any hope of implementing the Kyoto accord, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by over five percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

``So far, I haven't seen anyone move their position by one centimeter,'' said Raul Estrada, Argentina's special representative for the environment, and the chairman of the Kyoto meeting three years ago.

Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions will warm the Earth's temperature by up to six degrees this century, raising ocean levels by 20 inches and causing dramatic shifts in global weather patterns.

-------- genetics

EPA Says Little Biotech Corn Is Present in Food Supply

Associated Press
Tuesday , November 14, 2000 ; Page A13
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14368-2000Nov13.html

The chance of consumers eating an unapproved variety of biotech corn is "extremely low," but unresolved questions remain about its potential to cause allergic reactions, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

The crop's developer, Aventis CropScience, has asked EPA for temporary approval of the genetically engineered corn for food use to avoid snarling the grain and food industries. The corn, known as StarLink, has been found in taco shells made by three food processors.

In a preliminary assessment of the Aventis request, EPA said so little of the corn has intruded in the food supply that the risk of encountering it ranges from "parts per billion to parts per trillion" of food consumed by people most likely to eat it.

EPA estimated that 0.14 percent of the corn harvested this year and sold for use in food probably contains StarLink corn. Federal officials have been unable to locate about 1.5 percent of this year's StarLink corn, or about 1.2 million bushels.

EPA never approved the corn for human consumption because of the questions about its allergenicity, and the agency said in the report that it remains unsure despite new studies submitted by Aventis.

The EPA has scheduled a public meeting on the Aventis request Nov. 28 and expects to have a recommendation from a panel of scientific advisers by Dec. 1.

Aventis says there is "no potential" for the corn to affect people who suffer from food allergies, and there is too little of it in the food supply for people to develop sensitivity to it.

Groups critical of biotech food say the EPA has given them too little time to study the Aventis request and comment on it before the Nov. 28 meeting. "What we're seeing is an attempt to rush the scientific process," said Richard Caplan of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Meanwhile, South Korea and a U.S. food processor are disputing whether tortillas that may contain StarLink were shipped to the Asian country.

Mission Foods Inc. of Irving, Tex., recalled 300 corn products in the United States last month that may have contained the corn. Tortillas ordered recalled in South Korea late last week were on that list, K.T. Moon, health and welfare counselor for the Korean embassy, said Monday.

South Korea has recalled 32,000 pounds of tortillas out of 75,000 pounds exported to South Korea, Moon said. Most of the product has already been consumed, he said.

Mission Foods spokesman Peter Pitts said the company sells only wheat products to South Korea, not corn.

South Korean officials "haven't done any testing of their own. There may have been some confusion," Pitts said. "The products are safe and do not need to be recalled."

He said the company was notifying Korean officials that the recall was unnecessary.

Agriculture Department officials, who have been working with South Korea and other Asian countries to quell their worries about StarLink, said corn tortillas may have been exported to Korea through a third party. Pitts said that is possible but unlikely.

The USDA, meanwhile, has been trying to assure South Korea that StarLink corn is being identified and kept out of exports to the country.

"We've been providing them with lots of information over the last several days," said Tim Galvin, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.

Earlier this month, the United States and Japan agreed on testing procedures to ensure that corn being shipped to Japan to be used in food contains no StarLink.

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

W.T.O. Sets Date to Discuss China's Entry

November 14, 2000
By ELIZABETH OLSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/14/business/14WTO.html

GENEVA, Nov. 13 - The World Trade Organization has set a new date, in early December, to try to complete China's entry into the organization.

Negotiators plan to meet on Dec. 5 through 8 in the hope of sealing China's entry either by the end of this year or sometime early in 2001.

Before it can become a member, however, China must iron out agreements with its trading partners in a number of crucial areas, including intellectual property rights.

Long Yongtu, the Chinese negotiator, insisted that the agreement would be wrapped up during 2000.

"Given the kind of atmosphere and momentum we have generated, it's very likely," he said at the conclusion of last week's negotiating round on China's accession terms.

Participants said the atmosphere, gloomy during the last round in September, was congenial and productive at the gathering, which took place from Wednesday to Friday.

"China already has one foot in the place," said the W.T.O.'s deputy director general, Paul-Henri Ravier.

The amount of work still ahead, which includes synthesizing all of China's bilateral agreements into one comprehensive international accord, means, however, that the country might miss the goal of becoming a member by the end of the year.

Mr. Ravier, who is chairman of the talks, and Mr. Long said there was agreement on texts for accords in two crucial areas to assure foreign companies that China was complying with the organization's rules.

The first involves setting out rules for administering import tariffs, which cover the amount of goods that can be imported and the tariffs to be levied. The second accord covers procedures for independent judicial review of disputes involving foreign companies, providing explanations when import licenses are refused and uniform enforcement of the global trade rules across China.

Besides intellectual property rights, other important areas, like agriculture and anti-dumping duties, must be settled. In Beijing, a United States assistant trade representative warned publicly last week that counterfeiting of products in China was "out of control." In the mid-1990's, the two powers went to the brink of a trade war over such piracy until China signed an agreement pledging to tackle the proliferation of knock- offs of brand-name products.

The country also has yet to complete agreements on banking, insurance and other commercial services, which require changes in its domestic legislation. Showing the pressure Beijing is under, a team of Chinese bankers recently showed up unannounced in Switzerland, asking for guidance from Swiss banking officials for help in revamping their banking laws.

Diplomats were relieved that the end was near for China's 14-year pursuit of W.T.O. membership, a process that has been snarled in internal and international politics. No sooner did the United States Congress grant permanent normal trade status to China in September than the W.T.O. talks broke down in angry exchanges and accusations. Mr. Long, who is China's vice trade minister, complained that China was being asked to concede more in the trade arena than other developing countries.

In unusually blunt remarks, the former chairman of the talks urged the governments of member countries to re-examine negotiating positions before resuming talks. After his remarks, the United States trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, and the European Union trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, went separately to Beijing to jump- start the talks.

Also helping to move things along was China's announcement that it had settled its differences over insurance licenses with the Europeans and completed bilateral talks with Bolivia, Costa Rica and Venezuela. That leaves Mexico the main country yet to conclude a nation-to-nation trade deal with China.

-------- spying

U.S. Spy Office Dying, Group Says

Reuters
Wed, 15 Nov 2000 15:03:12 -0800
RadTimes # 106 November, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40179,00.html?tw=wn20001115

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. commission on Tuesday recommended creating an office cloaked in secrecy to pursue innovative technology for spying from space, saying the existing agency was not sufficiently clandestine for the task.

The National Commission for the Review of the National Reconnaissance Office said the NRO, the agency that designs, builds and operates U.S. spy satellites, had lost some of its luster since the end of the Cold War due to inadequate funding and declining attention from the president, secretary of defense and CIA director.

The commission, established by Congress in legislation that went into effect in December 1999, warned that if current trends continued the NRO might lose its edge in providing the nation its "eyes and ears" for monitoring the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and tracking international "terrorists."

"Without bold and sustained leadership, the United States could find itself 'deaf and blind' and increasingly vulnerable to any of the potentially devastating threats it may face in the next ten to twenty years," the report said.

Rep. Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, and Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat, served as co-chairmen of the 11-member bipartisan commission.

The panel did not recommend abolishing the NRO, but said the agency had "become a publicly acknowledged organization that openly announces many of its new program initiatives," which in turn hindered its ability to tackle intelligence problems.

The commission recommended creating a new Office of Space Reconnaissance to work on super-secret projects to gain technological advantage in space-related spying.

"Evolution is continuously moving forward in technology, and I think that those things should be done very discreetly and with boldness and risk-taking. And we need (is) to create a mechanism that can allow those things to happen," Goss, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.

"There are so many new things on the horizon that have such promise and they need to be pursued, but they need to be pursued in a way that we don't give the advantage to others of knowing about them, or sharing some of the things we've learned," Goss added.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which marked its 40th anniversary this year, has evolved away from its original mission "to go out and do things that had never been dreamed of before, and we need that," Goss said.

It also used to be given the highest level attention from the president and top U.S. officials, the congressman added.

"It's been taken for granted and it's lost some of its punch," Goss said of the NRO.

"We need to get on to the next generation," he added.

Budget constraints have delayed modernization while the proliferation of commercial imaging technologies has provided U.S adversaries with "unprecedented insight within our national borders, as well as into our overseas activities," the commission's report said.

"Equally problematic, widespread knowledge of the NRO's existence and public speculation on how NRO satellites are used has aided terrorists and other potential adversaries in developing techniques of denial and deception to thwart U.S. intelligence efforts," the report added.

In addition, other technologies such as fiber-optic communications "render certain NRO capabilities obsolete," the report said.

The report warned that the agency's resources were being stretched "and the result is a prescription for a potentially significant intelligence failure."

The NRO is overseen by the Defense Department and the CIA director.

An NRO spokesman said the commission's recommendations were "valuable" and the agency would look at them. The CIA declined comment.

-------- activists

November 30 is of course the one year anniversary of Seattle.

From:"Robert Naiman" <naiman@cepr.net>
Special Treat: N30: 1 year anniversary of Seattle in DC

As luck would have it, the movie "Trade Off" is showing in DC that evening at 7 pm (details below).

Continuing our trend of incredible good fortune, we may have a Special Protest Opportunity that afternoon. We have a highly placed mole in the pro-globalization camp, scheduling their events...

Drop me a line if you are interested in the Special Protest Opportunity.
Robert Naiman 202-293-5380 x212 naiman@cepr.net

'TRADE OFF', AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY ON WTO PROTESTS IN SEATTLE, IS COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU.

"Brothers and sisters, keep the struggle going. Make sure that the leaders of the governments around the world will never forget this day the 30th of November, nineteen hundred and ninety nine!" -- Leroy Trotman, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions at the anti-WTO Labor Rally in Seattle.

CELEBRATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THIS HISTORIC PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT, EXPLORE THE ISSUES BEHIND THE PROTESTS, EXPERIENCE THE MOBILIZATION IN SEATTLE

(SYNOPSIS AND LIST OF UPCOMING SCREENINGS ARE INCLUDED BELOW) ______________________________

"No film better captures the spirit, chaos, joy, power and meaning of the Battle of Seattle, than Shaya Mercer's Trade Off. Made under the most difficult of conditions, the film itself brings an articulate new voice to this historic chapter in American History." --Jerry Mander, International Forum on Globalization

WINNER -- GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE "BEST DOCUMENTARY" SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2000

OFFICIAL SELECTION -- SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, GLOBAL VISIONS FESTIVAL, CINEVEGAS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL...AND MORE

"Important and potentially incendiary..." Daily Variety

"Asks the right questions..." The Stranger (Seattle)

".a scrupulous detailing of the boundaries of the anti-WTO protests in Seattle." New City (Chicago)

"Goes above and beyond the media's portrayal of occurrences outside the convention." San Francisco Observer

"Shaya Mercer's exemplary document captures last year's WTO stand off... well shot... lovingly edited..." The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

"...points out the dangers of the global economy and the need to speak out..." Vancouver Sun _________________________________________________

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

WASHINGTON, DC UNION STATION 9 - AVENUE GRAND THEATRE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH - 7PM 50 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NE 202-842-3757 (UNION STATION METRO STOP) ______________________________________________________

Wright Angle Media presents TRADE OFF a film by Shaya Mercer

REMEMBER SEATTLE.

Trade Off tells the story of the five days in Seattle that shook the world - November 29 through December 3, 1999 - when the World Trade Organization's first meeting on U.S. soil was met with protests of tens of thousands of people from a broad coalition of diverse communities never seen before. Violent media images of "The Battle in Seattle" captured international headlines but did not answer key questions about what was at stake. Shot entirely on location, this balanced overview of the protests moves through rallies, marches, street actions, and press conferences providing a voyeuristic exploration of this important week of protest and the people's movement that continues to build across the United States and around the world.

Featuring activists, organizers, and policy experts who worked to raise awareness, mobilize the citizenry, and bring the world to the streets of Seattle - including José Bové (Farmers Confederation), Chris Desser (Funders Working Group on Biotechnology), Patti Goldman (Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund), Martin Khor (Third World Network), Jerry Mander (International Forum on Globalization), Mark Ritchie (Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy), Han Shan (Ruckus Society), Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology) and Leroy Trotman (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) - as well as politicians from both sides of the barricades - including Charlene Barshefsky (US Trade Representative), Bill Clinton (US President), Tom Hayden (Californina State Senator), Michael Moore (World Trade Organization), Paul Schell (Mayor of Seattle), Norm Stamper (Seattle Chief of Police), and Paul Wellstone (US Senator) - and music, poetry and satire from Michael Moore (Roger & Me), Jello Biafra (former Dead Kennedy), the Laura Love Band, Seize the Day, and Spearhead.

The issues raised by Trade Off are those faced by civil society - the effects of global trade policy on the environment and health, food and agriculture, labor and human rights, and the future of democracy around the world.

ONE TOWN. ONE WEEK. ONE MOVEMENT.

---

'96 CONVENTION RAID
CHARGED BY ACTIVISTS RED SQUAD SHADOWS SURFACE IN TESTIMONY IN FEDERAL COURTROOM

Chicago Tribune
November 14, 2000
By Courtney Challos Tribune Staff Writer
http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,SAV-0011140266,FF.html

Several members of political activist groups alleged in federal court Monday that Chicago police illegally searched their belongings, seized documents and videotapes and broke camera equipment during the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

The allegations came on the first day of a trial stemming from a 1997 lawsuit alleging that the actions violated a federal consent decree that virtually prohibited police from developing intelligence on private individuals or groups.

That consent decree, issued in 1981, was aimed at curbing the tactics of the city's infamous police Red Squad that became commonplace during the 1960s under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley.

The three groups that brought the suit are seeking $180,000 from the city and a formal finding from the court that police had violated the consent decree.

The groups include the Active Resistance Organizing Collective and the Autonomous Zone, which describe themselves as "anti-authoritarian" organizations that staged a counter-convention coinciding with the Democratic convention.

The suit was also brought by CounterMedia, a group of independent journalists who gathered in Chicago to cover the convention and protests.

Lawyers for the city maintained police didn't violate the decree. They said that during the convention, police were specifically trained about how to handle protests to ensure that 1st Amendment rights were protected.

Monday's testimony by members of the groups focused on an alleged raid at a building where some of the groups were meeting and the alleged destruction of video and camera equipment belonging to CounterMedia.

The police, who did not have visible identification, entered the warehouse and forced people to sit down, rifled through their belongings and seized papers without a warrant, Ed Koziboski, an attorney for the groups said outside the courtroom.

"The consent decree states that the city would not disrupt or perform intelligence," Koziboski said.

Lee Wells, who was working for CounterMedia at the time of the convention, testified that on Aug. 28, 1996, he was inside a van with other members of CounterMedia following a march.

Wells testified the driver of the van could not get the engine started. Police told the driver to move the van and then entered the vehicle, assaulting the driver and taking away Wells' camera, which later was returned, he testified.

------

Dam Protesters Battle Police to Meet World Bank Chief

From: Doug Hunt <dhunt@neerucc.net>
Tue, 14 Nov 2000
By Frederick Noronha

NEW DELHI, India, November 13, 2000 (ENS) - Over a thousand environmental protesters today stormed police barricades in New Delhi, and marched up to the offices of the World Bank, demanding they be allowed to meet with visiting Bank president James Wolfensohn.

They are led by India's most prominent environmental campaigner, the silver haired Medha Patkar. Patkar is a commissioner on the World Commission on Dams.

She leads the anti-dam group Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement), which has been protesting the Indian Supreme Court decision allowing the Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada River to be raised. The organization campaigns for the rights of the approximately 400,000 people likely to be displaced by the dam project.

The Supreme Court handed down a ruling on October 18 rejecting a six year old court appeal against the Rs 370 billion Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat, western India. Proponents of the dam say it will produce much needed electricity and flood control. Patkar and other critics point to the hundreds of thousands of people who will be displaced by the rising water and have nowhere to go.

Walking nearly nine kilometers (5.6 miles) in New Delhi to the World Bank's offices, protestors shouted slogans against the global project lender and demanded that it "quit India."

The World Bank has come under fire during the visit of president Wolfensohn to India, after the multinational lending agency seemed to change its stance on the dam project it had earlier declined to support.

Today's march to the World Bank office met with stiff resistance from the New Delhi police, who set up double barricades in the area. Leading the protesters, Narmada Bachao Andolan women battled with policewomen at the barricades, almost breaking these down.

Patkar told a World Bank staffer, who asked her to accompany him for a meeting with senior officers, "If the World Bank president can come here and meet the government and the Gujarat chief minister [in the region where the dam is being built], surely he can meet us here."

World Bank staffers said Wolfensohn was extremely busy with meetings, but protestors said they would wait for him, if necessary for days, blocking traffic in the national capital.

Wol