------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Top priority for engagement with China
US, China Discuss Missile Exports
Abolition of missile program a matter of money, says Downer
Clinton meets Putin to discuss arms control
Putin's push
N.R.C. Faults Own Tests in Indian Point Mishap
U.S. Dominance in Arms Sales Unchallenged

MILITARY
The Wheels Turn In Army Strategy
Clinton Arrives in Vietnam
FROM THE HEARTLAND
Pentagon: No absentee ballot problems

OTHER
Spy Satellite Changes Sought
New documents shed more light on FBI's "Carnivore"



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- china

Top priority for engagement with China

The Hindu
Thursday, November 16, 2000
By C. Raja Mohan
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/11/16/stories/02160004.htm

NEW DELHI, NOV. 15. After engaging with the United States for about a year, India is getting ready for a diplomatic pas de deux with China. Highly-placed sources in the Government say that a new engagement with China is now at the top of India's foreign policy priorities.

India and China are both beginning to deal with each other, if only warily. Given the burdensome history of the relationship, it will be a while before the two Asian giants are locked in an embrace. But the indications are that India and China have begun to cautiously court each other.

The Government is carefully assessing political signals emanating out of China that Beijing may be in the middle of a serious review of its recent approach towards India.

Pointing to the ``noticeable difference'' in the tone and tenor of recent Chinese pronouncements, a senior Government official said, ``it is almost as if they are taking a new look at India''.

Recent statements from senior Chinese interlocutors and the commentary in official media suggest that the expanding Indian relationship with the U.S. and its allies as well as the renewal of the old ties with Russia may have made an impression on Beijing.

The Chinese leaders may no longer be able to avoid the conclusion that India has successfully wriggled out of the international isolation which it faced after the nuclear tests in May 1998. There are hints from China that it may be ready to acknowledge the reality that India is now a nuclear weapon power.

The slow but steady expansion of the Indian economic potential, and the advances in the field of information technology may also have helped re-shape Chinese perceptions of India.

New Delhi's ``big power diplomacy'' - as some in China are calling the recent Indian initiatives with the U.S., Europe, Japan and Russia - is being seen in Beijing as having the potential to alter the geopolitics of Asia.

The signals from India are that it is has no desire to replay the Cold War games in Asia and is ready for a productive engagement with China. Senior officials here insist India ``will not follow anybody else's agenda on China'' and hopes to develop Sino-Indian relations on their own merit.

Conscious of the new signals from China, India would like to see the Chinese leadership arrive at a definitive assessment of India and is ready to move forward without ``losing sight'' of India's long-standing concerns in its relations with China.

These relate to the long-standing boundary dispute, the continuing reluctance in China to acknowledge the accession of Sikkim to India, and the enduring strategic cooperation with China. On the border issue, India and China have agreed to expedite the clarification of the Line of Actual Control that separates the two nations on their disputed border. At a meeting of a bilateral Expert Group in this week, it has been reported that the two sides have exchanged maps on the border for the first time.

Indian officials are still evaluating the results from these meeting. If the assessment is positive, it can be hoped that the experts will meet more frequently and negotiate with greater purposefulness.

India's concerns on Sino-Pak. nuclear and missile cooperation are being discussed in a structured security dialogue between the two nations. The second round of the security dialogue is expected to take place in the coming weeks in Beijing.

Meanwhile, with China's likely entry into the World Trade Organisation and the new liberalised rules taking effect from next April will significantly increase Chinese economic presence in India. Indian manufacturing industry is anxious about competition from its Chinese counterpart, and the Government is under some compulsion for the first time to come to terms with a whole new economic dimension to Sino-Indian relations.

---

US, China Discuss Missile Exports

Associated Press
November 16, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Clinton-China.html

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) -- President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin made progress Thursday toward curtailing Beijing's missile exports and resuming talks on human rights, State Department official said.

The leaders met on the sidelines of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, an annual summit of Pacific Rim countries. It was the last scheduled international gathering for Clinton, who leaves office Jan. 20.

Meeting with Jiang, Clinton raised long-standing U.S. concerns about China's missile exports. ``There was some progress made but I'm not going to detail it,'' said Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. ``We'll have more to say in the days to come.''

He described the missile discussions as general in nature, noting that talks have been held recently among experts from both countries.

China severed the dialogue on human rights, as well as contacts between the Chinese and U.S. militaries and talks on security issues and arms proliferation, following NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999. Since then, China has resumed or agreed to resume all the exchanges except human rights. The human rights dispute intensified last April when the United States, at a U.N. commission in Geneva, sought to censure China for human rights abuses.

Clinton told Jiang it would be helpful if the dialogue could be resumed. ``Interestingly, President Jiang responded by saying he agreed, that he thought dialogue would be a useful way to go,'' Roth said.

Roth characterized it as ``an agreement in principle rather than a specific agreement that the dialogue was going to be resumed at a specific date.''

Roth said the bombing ``did not come up in any context.''

Clinton and Jiang met for 30 minutes and agreed that relations between Washington and Beijing were stronger now but that there were problems that needed to be addressed, Roth said. They covered oft-discussed topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and religious freedoms.

-------- korea

Abolition of missile program a matter of money, says Downer

Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 16/11/2000
By JOHN SCHAUBLE
Correspondent in Pyongyang
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0011/16/text/world11.html

North Korea is ready to give up its nuclear missile capability in return for money, the Australian Foreign Minister said yesterday.

"I have been somewhat encouraged that a resolution of the long-range and medium-range missile issue can be found," Mr Downer said on the second day of a historic visit to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

"The North Korean Foreign Minister was very frank in what he said to me on these issues. He was very expansive in describing both their concerns and the prospects."

Sales of missile technology to "rogue" nations are an important source of foreign exchange for North Korea. Mr Downer said Pyongyang had made it clear that it would need to be compensated for this before it would abandon the missile program.

No figure was put on how much Pyongyang would seek, and further talks would be needed between North Korea and the United States, Mr Downer said. It was not envisaged that Australia would be called on to contribute.

Fears of an explosive conflict on the Korean peninsula have dominated regional security thinking for decades.

"I get a real sense that they want to bring that to an end. This talk about dealing with the missile question, this talk about reunification, I think it is encouraging," Mr Downer said.

"I don't think we should overstate how well things are going, but I can tell you they are going a great deal better than they were two or three years ago.

"The rather positive messages that we have heard here will help build confidence not just for us as Australians in North Korea, but help build confidence throughout the Asia-Pacific region."

Mr Downer has held talks with the Foreign Minister, Mr Pak Nam-sun, and the acting Minister for Foreign Trade, Mr Pak Kil-yon, which he described as "satisfactory". He also paid a courtesy call yesterday on the President of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Yong-nam. He is due to leave North Korea this morning.

Mr Downer said he was impressed by the enthusiasm for reunification with the South.

"The answer I am getting from the North Koreans is that reunification is inevitable, it is going to happen, it is just a matter of time," he said.

But reunification did not mean North Korea planned to abandon its rigid communist system. Mr Downer said Pyongyang believed it was possible for a confederation to exist between the two Koreas.

"I don't get the sense that there is much enthusiasm in the North for going through wholesale reform," he said.

While Pyongyang acknowledges the need to establish new markets for its produce, Mr Downer said there was no sense that it wished to follow a path similar to China and embrace a new economic system.

During this visit, Australia pledged to provide North Korea with a further 12,000 tonnes of wheat as food aid this month, valued at $5 million.

Yesterday morning Mr Downer toured two food aid projects conducted by the World Food Program.

North Korea suffers from a scarcity of arable land, and food shortages have been made worse by floods and other natural disasters. It is estimated that 60 percent of the country's children are malnourished, and the World Food Program says it helps to feed almost 8 million of North Korea's 24 million people.

Prospects for further trade and training co-operation between the two countries have also been high on the agenda.

Mr Downer raised the matter of 12 Australian servicemen missing in action since the Korean War. The North Korean side expressed a willingness to help in any way to discover their fate.

-------- russia

Clinton meets Putin to discuss arms control

Irish Times
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Reuters
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2000/1116/wor8.htm

THE US: President Clinton pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to release an alleged US spy imprisoned in Russia and explored Russian hints about an arms control deal.

Meeting for their fourth time this year and perhaps their final face-to-face talks before Mr Clinton steps down on January 20th, the two also discussed Russian weapons exports to Iran and the Russian economy as well as regional flash-points such as the Middle East and the Korean peninsula in a 75-minute session.

Washington has repeatedly urged Moscow to release Mr Edmond Pope, a former naval intelligence officer turned businessman, who was arrested in April and went on trial on October 18th on charges of obtaining classified weapons information.

Washington says it has seen no evidence against Mr Pope, who has had a rare form of bone cancer, and has called for his release on humanitarian grounds.

"The President expressed his concern about Mr Pope's condition, in particular his health," a senior US official told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.

"We are concerned about the course of the trial and the President again urged release of Mr Pope on humanitarian grounds as soon as possible."

The official said Washington was interested in Mr Putin's recent statement that Russia wanted to retain the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty but was prepared to talk more and cut nuclear warheads to a previously offered 1,500 on each side.

"We're clearly interested in President Putin's statement," said the official.

"There are a few new twists that require further study and further discussion at the expert level and that's precisely what the President is committed to doing."

President Clinton earlier this year postponed a decision on whether to build a National Missile Defence (NMD) shield against nuclear missiles which Russia says would undermine the ABM pact and spark a new arms race.

----

Putin's push
Don't dismiss call for fewer nuclear weapons

Birmingham News
11/16/00
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/Nov2000/16-dismiss.html

Whether our next president is George W. Bush or Al Gore, the next occupant of the White House should seriously consider Vladimir Putin's suggestion to slash even further the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States.

The Russian president said he would support an even lower limit than the 1,500 warheads on each side that Moscow has been advocating. Right now, the United States and Russia are essentially committed to reducing the warhead count to 3,500 each under provisions of the START II arms reduction treaty.

Experts say the United States has about 7,500 nuclear weapons while the Russians hold 6,000 to 7,000.

Actually, the two countries have discussed shrinking the arsenals to between 2,000 and 2,500 weapons each, under what would be called the START III treaty. Formal negotiations won't begin until START II goes into effect. The Russian parliament ratified START II in April, but the U.S. Senate must still give its nod to conditions added by Russian lawmakers.

Putin said the 1,500-warhead level could be achieved by 2008, but only if the United States doesn't move for ward with the proposed national mis­ sile defense system. The Russians argue such a system would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

What Putin says certainly doesn't - nor should it - dictate whether the United States proceeds with a missile defense program. That, too, will be decided by the new man in the White House.

On that issue, the United States must continue to try to persuade Putin that a missile defense system doesn't jeopardize Russian security; rather it could - if it works as advertised - protect against nuclear threats from so-called rogue states. At the same time, however, the United States shouldn't dismiss any Russian overtures to speed up reduction of nuclear warheads.

The stockpiles must be reduced, and any discussion toward that end is worthwhile.

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

-------- new york

N.R.C. Faults Own Tests in Indian Point Mishap

November 16, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/16/nyregion/16NUKE.html

BUCHANAN, N.Y., Nov. 15 - The problems that led to a radioactive leak at the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant here have implications for the entire industry, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said today.

In its final report, released nine months after the accident, the agency summed up the lessons learned. It made 41 recommendations, most of them technical, to minimize the chances of another steam generator tube rupture like the one that shut down Indian Point 2 on Feb. 15.

Most of the recommendations are aimed at the regulatory agency itself and the industry at large rather than at Consolidated Edison, the owner of the plant.

The report said the surveillance and testing that was done at Indian Point - and found lacking - is common at other plants. "A high priority should be assigned to improvements," the report said.

In general, the report agreed with previous findings that blame Con Ed and the N.R.C. for allowing steam generator tubes to degrade and failing to detect the corrosion. The report repeated that the brief leak of radioactive steam into the atmosphere, which followed the rupture of the tube "did not impact the public health and safety."

The accident, the worst in Indian Point's 26-year history, nevertheless marshaled the public and elected officials, and forced Con Ed to discard the plant's aging generators.

New generators are being installed and the plant, which is 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, is expected to be back in operation next month.

A Mississippi company, Entergy Nuclear, has agreed to buy the plant for $602 million.

The report also said that the N.R.C. could do a better job of letting the public know how much of a health risk there is during an accident. It noted that while the commission had found that the tube failure was "risk significant," there were no health consequences.

"This distinction may not be understood," the report said. It recommended that the commission work on "risk communication and outreach to the public."

"Tube failures and ruptures have happened before and will likely occur again," the report said.


-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

U.S. Dominance in Arms Sales Unchallenged

The Center for Defense Information
Weekly Defense Monitor
November 16, 2000
by Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst, <rstohl@cdi.org>

Although the U.S. presidency remains up in the air, it's business as usual in Washington, DC. As the Clinton Administration winds down its tenure in office, last minute deal-making continues as policy makers hope to complete unfinished arms deals and implement defense reforms before the new President (whoever he may be) is sworn in.

In a real boost for the defense industry, the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), Air Force Lt. Gen. Tome Walters, announced last week that in FY 2000 U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) -- government to government sales -- were more than $12 billion, the second time in as many years the figure was that high. Lt. Gen. Walters also estimated that FY 2001 FMS figures could top $15 billion as "Congress has been notified of 77 pending arms and weapons systems sales totaling $25 billion that could become signed contracts over the next year or two." What's more, DSCA was confident of surging U.S. FMS sales even without major buys by Saudi Arabia, traditionally an important customer for U.S. weapons. Growing U.S. sales now rely on spare parts, upgrades, training, and support, as well as increased sales of secure communications and command and control equipment.

The U.S. is also eager to supply significant amounts of U.S. military aid to strategic allies before a new administration arrives in Washington. Israel, a major U.S. weapons customer, is now waiting for an additional $800 million in U.S. military aid beyond the $2.8 billion appropriated by Congress. The $800 million is based on a promise made by President Clinton to Israeli President Ehud Barak during the July Camp David peace summit. According to an Israeli Defense Ministry acting spokeswoman, "$250 million will cover costs associated with Israel's withdraw from Lebanon earlier this year. The remaining funds will be used for military modernization." Put another way, the Israelis will have $550 million to purchase new U.S. weapons and training.

In another case of the U.S. rushing to aid strategic partners in the waning days of the Clinton presidency, the U.S. has reached agreement on a "no-cost" transfer of surplus F-16s to Poland. According to press reports, "Poland would receive the 16 fighters at no cost per aircraft but would have to pay 'depreciation charges' to the United States over the span of the proposed five-year lease." The value of the deal is estimated at $250 million, including the transfer of the fighters, the upgrades, and a support package. The lease agreement allows the U.S. manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, to enter the Polish market and in turn encourages Poland to continue to "buy American" as it modernizes its military forces.

Even in military training, the Clinton Administration is implementing changes before it leaves office. For years, the Pentagon has been criticized for training some of the world's worst human rights abusers in its military-run programs. One of the most notorious institutions, the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), is undergoing a name and curriculum change to improve its program and address critics' concerns. SOA is closing on December 15th and will reopen on January 17th as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. It remains unclear if the U.S. Army will continue to run the Institute, whose curriculum topics will included "peace support operations, along with disaster relief and preparedness programs, as well as courses on democratic sustainment, and advance counter-drug operations."

Addressing human rights concerns borne out of SOA graduates accused of leading or supporting death squads and assassins, a Pentagon press release said: "The new institute will provide professional education and training to eligible personnel of the nations of the Western hemisphere. It will focus its training on the democratic principles set forth in the charter of the Organization of American States. The Institute will foster mutual respect, confidence and cooperation among the participating nations and will promote democratic values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding of U.S. customs and traditions among the students." Only time will tell if these changes are more than cosmetic.

The only major failing of current efforts is the Clinton Administration's inability to reach agreement on relaxing arms export requirements, primarily with the United Kingdom (U.K.). Negotiations with Australia are not yet complete, but are progressing in a much less contested way than those with the U.K. The defense export reforms are part of the Defense Trade Security Initiative (DTSI) announced this summer (for more information see, "U.S. Changes Arms Export Policy," Weekly Defense Monitor, June 21, 2000 at <http://www.cdi.org/weekly/2000/issue22.html#2>. The U.S. hopes to eliminate licensing requirements for U.S. exports to the U.K. and Australia, provided certain standards are met (including those outlined in this year's Security Assistance Act). According to reports in "Defense News," the U.S. has been unable to convince the U.K. to enhance its own export control procedures, a move that would run afoul of U.K. commitments to its European Union partners. While those critical of the DTSI process appreciate the lack of immediate agreement, DTSI and the export exemption regulations are in little danger of failing.

Even if the proposed changes in DTSI are not completed by January 20th, neither Presidential hopeful will significantly alter U.S. arms export policy. The major reforms under the DTSI will continue to be implemented by the bureaucracy. Privately, Defense and State Department officials have claimed that both candidates and their teams are committed to the DTSI process.

Even though the election remains muddled, one thing is brilliantly clear: the United States will continue to dominate the worlds arms market for the foreseeable future. The two candidates for U.S. president may have received a lukewarm reception from the American public, but the world appetite for U.S. weapons and military training remains high and unchallenged. No matter which candidate is inaugurated on January 20th, the worldwide presence of U.S. weaponry and military expertise will be sustained for a long time to come.


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

The Wheels Turn In Army Strategy

By Thomas E. Ricks and Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday , November 16, 2000
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27253-2000Nov15?language=printer

After decades of reliance on tanks, the Army plans to equip its newest armored units with lighter vehicles that move on wheels, a radical departure that reflects the Army's changing missions and has generated intense controversy inside the service, senior military and civilian officials said yesterday.

The decision may be announced as early as Friday, following notification of congressional leaders and final clearance by top Defense Department officials. The "Medium Armored Vehicles" will go to a model brigade formed earlier this year as the centerpiece of the Army's effort to leave the Cold War behind and transform itself into a force than can rush to trouble spots within days rather than weeks or months.

The embrace of wheeled vehicles comes after more than a year of contentious deliberations on the Army's future and involves much more than just a new piece of equipment. It will require changes in the way the Army trains, deploys and fights. Rather than preparing primarily for an all-out land war, as it did during the Cold War, the Army is reshaping itself for engagements in numerous smaller conflicts, peacekeeping missions and humanitarian relief assignments.

Supporters in the Army leadership describe the choice of a wheeled armored vehicle as a historic step comparable to the advent of the battleship and the machine gun, which revolutionized warfare in their time. Critics, who abound in the Army, especially in tank units, contend that soldiers' lives will be in danger without the firepower and protection provided by heavy tanks.

At an Army meeting last month, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the service's chief of staff, bluntly called for an end to the dissension. "If you chose not to get on board, that's okay, but then get out of the way," he said.

The selection reverses a half-century trend in which the Army, since adopting the tank between the two world wars, has bought ever bigger and heavier armored vehicles. Today's M-1A2 Abrams tank is considered almost unbeatable in open terrain--such as the plains of central Germany for which it was designed--but at 70 tons is so heavy that it cannot be transported quickly to most parts of the world and cannot cross small bridges or maneuver on narrow roads in places such as Kosovo.

Although the old Army, built around heavy-tank formations, proved its value in the Gulf War, "over the last 10 years the change in the strategic environment has required us to flex to meet additional demands," Shinseki said last month.

The Army's requirements for the new vehicles set the maximum weight at 19 tons to ensure that they can be carried by the Air Force's smallest and most common transport plane, the C-130. In the inevitable trade-off, the Army gave up some of the protection provided by heavy armor plating and the all-terrain capabilities of tank treads.

The new vehicles will come in a dozen variations, including an infantry carrier, a tank-like mobile gun system, a reconnaissance vehicle and a computer-laden mobile headquarters. By using a common chassis for all those variants, the Army hopes to trim the tons of logistical support and crowds of mechanics now required to keep mechanized units running.

The Army's new "medium-weight brigade" is being designed around just three basic types of vehicles--the wheeled armored vehicle, the Jeep-like Humvee and a military truck--compared with about a dozen in the service's current armored units.

More than 300 of the wheeled armored vehicles will be bought for the new combat brigade that was created over the past year at Fort Lewis, Wash. That brigade is supposed be declared operational--that is, ready to take on a real-world mission--in a little over a year.

Ultimately, five more similarly-equipped brigades are to follow, for a total purchase by the Army of roughly 3,000 vehicles at a cost of about $2.5 million each, or about $7.5 billion altogether, a Pentagon official said.

The new units are designed to be able to move anywhere in the world in 96 hours. That's a far cry from the agonizingly slow movement of "Task Force Hawk," a unit of Army helicopters and missile batteries that was sent to Albania during last year's Kosovo campaign but that never actually engaged in combat. Another incident that helped spur the formation of the new, medium-weight unit was a firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993 in which 18 U.S. troops were killed, some as they awaited a rescue mission that was delayed because the Army did not have any armored vehicles in the area.

The Army does not plan to do away with its monster main battle tanks just yet, but will keep them ready for conflicts with a major adversary, such as Iraq, whose heavy tanks could outgun the medium-weight brigades.

Starting in about 2010, the Army hopes to start fielding high-tech weaponry that has yet to be invented. It wants something as light as the wheeled vehicles but as durable and powerful as today's tanks. The Army's future vehicles are likely to be armored with ceramics rather than metal and may be armed with some sort of electric gun rather than a conventional cannon. But the battlefield tactics for this futuristic Army will be developed by the medium-weight brigades equipped with the newly selected wheeled vehicles.

Congressional reaction to the new vehicle appears to be generally supportive. "I don't see any problems," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Even so, there is some nervousness at the Pentagon about how Capitol Hill will react, in part because of the influence of companies that make tanks and other tracked vehicles.

In addition, the Marine Corps has watched with some concern over the past year as the Army has become more like the Corps, creating lighter, expeditionary units. Officially, the Marines have been supportive of the Army's transformation plan. But, in private conversations, Marine officers sometimes make comments such as, "We don't need two Marine Corps."

Another wild card is the presidential election. Texas Gov. George W. Bush vowed on the campaign trail to push the military to adapt to the post-Cold War world much faster than it has over the past decade. Richard Armitage, one of Bush's defense advisers, indicated in an interview yesterday that if the Republican candidate becomes president, he might want to review the Army's new direction.

While "Bush has made transformation a major element of his defense program," Armitage said, American history also makes it clear that "militaries should not be in charge of their own transformations."

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

Clinton Arrives in Vietnam

November 16, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Clinton-Vietnam.html

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- President Clinton began a historic visit Thursday to Vietnam, stirring painful memories back home of America's longest and most unpopular war and promising a former enemy ``to build a different future.''

Clinton arrived in the communist capital late at night, the first U.S. president ever in Hanoi, a city once bombed by American warplanes. The welcoming ceremony was put off until morning, but that didn't stop thousands and thousands of Vietnamese from turning out at midnight to catch a glimpse of Clinton's limousine and jam the square in front of his hotel.

Even though the visit received scant advance publicity, the Vietnamese lined the streets, some just looking on and others waving and clapping when the president's motorcade passed.

``This only happens once in a thousand years,'' said homemaker Tran Thi Lan, 50.

Clinton was to be formally welcomed Friday by President Tran Duc Luong at an honor guard ceremony in the courtyard of the French-built presidential palace on Ba Dinh Square.

Reaching out to a generation of students born after the war, Clinton will speak at Hanoi National University to describe his vision for a new chapter in U.S.-Vietnamese relations. State-run television, in an unprecedented move, was to broadcast the address live.

More than 50 U.S. corporations sent executives to Vietnam during Clinton's visit in hopes of gaining a foothold in what they believe is a vast untapped market of 78 million people.

As a young man, Clinton ``opposed and despised'' the Vietnam War, organized protest marches and avoided the military draft. As commander in chief three decades later, Clinton acknowledged that ``A lot of people still bear the wounds of war'' in both countries.

The war cost 58,000 American lives and tore the nation with suffering and turmoil. The U.S. military buildup began in 1961, growing to 60,000 combat troops within four years and to 543,000 by 1969. U.S. forces in 1973 made a humiliating withdrawal that still haunts the Pentagon. North Vietnam's army captured Saigon in 1975, leading to the unification of the country under communist control.

The losses to the Vietnamese people were staggering: 3 million dead and thousands missing.

``The best thing that we can do to honor the sacrifice and service of those who believed on both sides that what they were doing is right, is to find a way to build a different future, and that's what we're trying to do,'' Clinton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In a cautious rapprochement, Clinton lifted a trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994 and the next year restored diplomatic relations. He opened the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi in 1996 and in 1998 issued his first waiver of a law that bars trade relations with communist nations that deny citizens the right to emigrate. In July, the United States and Vietnam signed a sweeping trade agreement.

``I think it's a new chapter,'' Clinton said. ``The thing what makes America work over time is our ability to visualize new futures and achieve them.''

Even as Washington and Hanoi look to the future, the United States still searches for missing servicemen and pursues rumors of Americans left behind when the last known POWs went home. Clinton said that ``so far all the rumors and all the leads have turned up dead ends.''

The United States lists 1,992 Americans unaccounted for from the war. The Pentagon has stopped pursuing 646 of the cases, and the rest remain open.

Clinton on Saturday will go to a rice paddy outside Hanoi where experts are trying to recover remains at a site where it is believed Air Force Capt. Lawrence G. Evert, of Cody, Wyo., crashed in an F-105 jet on Nov. 8, 1967.

Clinton is the third U.S. president to visit Vietnam. Lyndon B. Johnson went to Vietnam twice as president and Richard M. Nixon once, in 1969.

Pete Peterson, the former pilot and POW Clinton sent to Hanoi as the first postwar U.S. ambassador in 1997, said Clinton would see a rapidly changing nation.

Peterson said Vietnam has made significant political and economic reforms even though it is one of the world's poorest nations, with a per capita annual income of $372. He said the Vietnamese are enjoying significantly greater individual freedom but human rights problems persist.

Clinton will not meet with political dissidents during his visit, Peterson said. ``Obviously we want to have as constructive a visit as we possibly can.''

``We don't need rose colored glasses here,'' Clinton said in the AP interview. ``We still have differences with the Vietnamese about the form of government they have. ... But I think it's time to write a new chapter here.''

Clinton was accompanied by his daughter Chelsea and mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Thursday from Israel where she delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Leah Rabin, widow of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Clinton flew here from economic talks in Brunei with Pacific Rim leaders. He met separately with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Clinton and Jiang made progress toward curtailing Beijing's missile exports and decided tentatively to resume human rights talks, a senior State Department official said.

--------

FROM THE HEARTLAND
Those Absentee Votes
The military may prevent Gore from staging a coup.

Wall Street Journal
Thursday, November 16, 2000 12:01 a.m. EST
BY THOMAS J. BRAY
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tbray/?id=65000626

Maybe duty, honor and country matter after all. Not to mention taxes.

While the fierce combat over recounting votes in Florida continues, up to 7,600 ballots may still be in the mail from overseas voters, according to a St. Petersburg Times survey of Florida's 67 county election office, which the paper published Monday. And because those votes are expected to come heavily from members of the military service abroad, who often declare residency in Florida because it doesn't have an income tax, those votes are expected to break heavily for George W. Bush.

Of the 12,590 domestic and overseas absentee ballots already counted, Mr. Bush beat Al Gore by 59% to 37% in the 57 counties that kept track of that statistic. Requests for absentee ballots by Republicans outnumbered requests by Democrats by 3,834 to 2,531 in the 25 counties that keep tabs on that.

There are some large unknowns, of course. Some Democrats maintain that the early returns have already accounted for most of the servicemen abroad. All military ballots from abroad go to the Miami post office, from where they are forwarded to county election offices across the nation. And the ballots seem to be trickling in by the dozens and hundreds, not the thousands. In addition, Democrats were counting on a large turnout by Floridians living in Israel, 80% of whom have voted Democratic in past campaigns.

But in the 1996 election, 2,300 overseas ballots arrived in the 10 days after Election Day. Of those, 54% favored Bob Dole, who nonetheless lost Florida. And the St. Petersburg Times says its analysis indicates that overseas returns in heavily Jewish counties don't appear to be substantial.

In addition, there is reason to think the military vote for Mr. Bush may be particularly large this year. "Everybody I talk to in the military is unhappy about this administration," says Elaine Donnelly, president of the conservative Center for Military Readiness in Livonia, Mich. "They have pushed the tempo of operations to the breaking point without providing the necessary men or resources. And they have tried to make a social experiment out of the military."

The American Legion this fall conducted an unscientific poll of its members and active-duty members of the armed forces. By a 9-to-1 margin, they favored Mr. Bush over Mr. Gore. Notes a spokesman pointedly: "Bush came to our convention. Gore didn't."

Military culture may be only part of the story. The Navy Times, the Navy's official newspaper, noted in an article recently that "Florida's tax laws may have put the selection of the next president of the United States into the hands of military voters." More than one in eight service members claim Florida as their legal residence--a pretty good example for the argument that taxes do make a difference to people's behavior.

Of course, given the Gore team's aggressive stance in Florida so far, it might try to dispute the overseas results as well. American Citizens Abroad, a nonprofit organization based in Geneva that describes itself as "dedicated to serving and defending the interests of individual U.S. citizens living worldwide," says it has been receiving phone calls protesting the difficulty of obtaining and filing ballots. It's estimated there are nearly four million American citizens living or traveling abroad.

The Florida recount effort thus far has proved to be a game of inches, a question of a handful of votes here and a handful of votes there. If Republicans find a way to hold off a wholesale count of ballots formerly rejected as defective, the election of the next president of the United States could well fall to the people who must consider most carefully who they would prefer to be their next commander in chief.

That would be Al Gore's worst nightmare.

Mr. Bray is a staff columnist at the Detroit News. His OpinionJournal.com column appears Tuesdays.

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Pentagon: No absentee ballot problems

RadTimes # 109 November, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
By Larry Wheeler and David Tortorano
Pensacola News Journal 11/16/2000

Pentagon officials have no evidence that overseas absentee voting by U.S. military personnel or civilians has been delayed or disrupted.

With the outcome of the presidential election apparently hinging on ballots sent from Florida residents residing or stationed abroad, lawmakers and others have turned their attention to this usually low-profile subset of voters.

U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough, R- Pensacola, requested that the House Armed Services Committee investigate complaints from some of his active-duty military constituents, who said they couldn't obtain absentee ballots. With Congress in limbo, the panel has yet to act on Scarborough's request.

Internet discussion groups and some online news services have carried reports of missing bags of ballots. Yet little real proof has been forthcoming.

``We're not aware of widespread or organized complaints concerning individuals who couldn't get ballots through,'' said Susan Hansen, a Pentagon public affairs official.

Responding to reports of delayed or missing ballots, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said he was informed that a few absentee ballots were returned from Navy ships involved in the USS Cole recovery operations.

``We're talking maybe a dozen,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Cate Mueller, a Navy spokeswoman.

Once found, they were quickly moved along, she said.

The high stakes involving the count of overseas ballots in Florida has put the military, which is prohibited from getting involved in partisan politics, in an unusual position. The Navy checked on some of its ships to ensure ballots were not still lying in mailrooms or other locations when they should be en route to county elections offices, where they must be tabulated by midnight Friday.

``There's been some reporting that there's been 3,000 ballots stuck out at sea. That's not true,'' Mueller said. ``Basically, the great majority of military people who were going to vote have done so.''

Beyond ``all this going on in Florida,'' the Navy has a strictly nonpartisan stance on elections, Mueller said.

``It's not our business to be monitoring our people's voting habits.''

She said the policy is reissued every election year so there's no mistake about the prohibition against partisan politics. It goes so far as to prohibit having a local politician on a base within a campaign period.

But the Navy this year has been inundated with calls, primarily in response to erroneous reports, she said. Most of the calls concern ``things they've read that have been incorrect.''

The Navy is not the only organization getting calls from people concerned about the election. Elected officials have received calls, and so have election offices.

``We did have some concerns from voters,'' said Lynn Kowalchyk, deputy supervisor of elections in Escambia County. She said the number on Election Day was normal, but it was the day after that was unusual.

``Normally after an election it's like a ghost town. But they (the telephones) haven't stopped ringing. We get a lot of calls about things that are in the news media, things about absentee ballots, recounts.''

Many of those calls are not about this area, but about what's going on elsewhere in the state. She said that's probably because people simply want to speak to someone who knows about elections.

``I've never seen it where you have so many people call and say, I just want to make sure my vote counts,'' she said.


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Spy Satellite Changes Sought

By Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday , November 16, 2000 ; Page A41
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29247-2000Nov15?language=printer

A blue-ribbon congressional commission on the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) warned yesterday that America's spy satellites could go "deaf and blind" without increased funding, streamlined contracting, renewed secrecy and direct presidential emphasis on technological innovation in space.

In what may be the first in a series of appeals for additional funds for intelligence and defense, the panel, appointed by the House and Senate majority and minority leaders, declared: "Failure to understand and support the indispensable nature of the NRO as the source of innovative new space-based intelligence collection systems will result in significant intelligence failures."

Expressing concern that the pioneering spy agency has "lost its edge," the 11-member panel recommended creating within the NRO a new, secret Office of Space Reconnaissance that would replicate on a smaller scale what the parent organization was years ago. The new office would have its own secret budget, secure facilities, compartmentalized document classifications and a cadre of military and CIA personnel whose operations would be exempt from standard Pentagon acquisition regulations.

The commission praised what it called the NRO's past "well-deserved reputation as the preeminent research, development and acquisition organization" in the intelligence community and the Defense Department. But the panel said the agency today has "lost its streamlined acquisition and integration capability and its ability to develop and apply new technologies rapidly."

"Some effort needs to be made to make certain that the NRO continues to do what it has done over the last 40 years, which is to produce one-of-a kind technology," Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), a commission co-chairman, told reporters at the National Press Club. "It may be that the next president can do it without having this special office. We concluded an office was going to be necessary in order to get that done."

Kerrey said the NRO's greatest obstacle in pursuing cutting-edge technology may be on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers responsible for defense appropriations had just cut virtually all funding for Discoverer II, the most ambitious satellite initiative ever proposed by the NRO and two partners, the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"You can't get good intel on the cheap," Kerrey said. "You simply can't do it."

Allen Thomson, a former CIA scientist who published an influential article in 1995 revealing how easy it is for terrorists to track U.S. spy satellites, said a return to greater secrecy would be a step backward for the NRO.

"I think it's quite the wrong way to stay on the edge of technology," Thomson said. "If they do it in the way that they want to, they are going to exclude a lot of outside people" with the best technical skills.

"I don't know that there are many fundamentally secret technologies out there for the NRO to develop," Thomson said. The most sophisticated satellites, Thomson explained, can't prevent terrorist truck bombings. "You see a truck with a satellite--so what," he said. "There are a lot of trucks in the world."

Receiving only scant mention in the commission's report were the financial problems that emerged in the mid-1990s that led to the firing of the NRO's two top officials and to the organization dropping its secret status.

At that time, it was discovered that the NRO had been able to build a $300 million headquarters building out of more than $1 billion in unspent funds that had been accumulated, thanks to the agency's secret status. The funding piled up because imaging satellites remained in orbit longer than originally planned, completed billion-dollar satellites were kept in warehouses and newer satellite production was delayed.

When the secret budget maneuvers became known five years ago, Congress criticized the high cost and "gold-plating" of NRO satellites, with the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence panels calling for smaller, cheaper space vehicles.

Two of the reforms that came out of that period--more public and congressional transparency and the integration of the NRO with the rest of the intelligence community--were implicitly criticized by the commission's report.

The commission, however, praised what it called the NRO's "performance over cost approach" and said its technological capabilities have resulted "in advances in the state of the art, both in terms of the targets in intelligence collection and in terms of higher performance spacecraft."

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New documents shed more light on FBI's "Carnivore"

CNET
November 16, 2000,
By Rachel Konrad Staff Writer, CNET News.com
mailto:rachelk@cnet.com
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3731884.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni

The FBI released additional documents about its controversial Carnivore technology Thursday, and critics immediately lambasted it as proof that the email-tapping program is more powerful and invasive than the government has disclosed.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which sued the FBI for the information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), said the batch of paperwork indicates that Carnivore can capture and archive "unfiltered" Internet traffic--contrary to FBI assertions.

http://www.epic.org/

"The little information that has become public raises serious questions about the privacy implications of this technology," EPIC general counsel David Sobel said in a statement. "The American public cannot be expected to accept an Internet snooping system that is veiled in secrecy."

Among the information included in the documents was a sentence stating that the PC that is used to sift through email "could reliably capture and archive all unfiltered traffic to the internal hard drive." The FBI document was dated June 5 and contained scores of deleted words and phrases.

EPIC did not offer additional details about the source or the purpose of this particular document.

The FBI has defended the surveillance system, assuring the public that it only captures email and other online information authorized for seizure in a court order. According to testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by FBI Assistant Director Donald M. Kerr, Carnivore uses a software filter to minimize the amount of data the government can collect.

An independent team from the Illinois Institute of Technology is due to file a draft "technical report" on the Carnivore system with the Justice Department on Friday.

The Carnivore system, which is installed at Internet service providers, captures "packets" of Internet traffic as they travel through ISP networks. The program sifts through millions of mail messages, presumably searching for notes sent by people under investigation.

Carnivore was conceived under the name "Omnivore" in February 1997. It was proposed originally for a Solaris X86 computer. Omnivore was replaced by Carnivore running on a Windows NT-based computer in June 1999.

While a useful tool for monitoring specific individuals, the program has caused an uproar in Congress and among privacy advocates who fear the FBI's ability to retrieve email belonging to people who are not under investigation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are among the elected officials who have publicly criticized the program and called for an independent investigation.

In late September, the House Judiciary Committee approved in a 20-1 vote a bill by Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., that would severely restrict the FBI's operation of Carnivore. The bill would give email the same protection awarded to voice conversations under federal wiretap law.

EPIC is one of Carnivore's staunchest foes. In October, the organization complained that the FBI's release of 565 pages of Carnivore documents contained little relevant information. In particular, EPIC bitterly decried the FBI's refusal to publish source code to the Carnivore system.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2917414.html

EPIC's FOIA request seeks the public release of all FBI records concerning Carnivore, including the source code, other technical details and legal analyses addressing the potential privacy implications of the technology.

At an emergency hearing Aug. 2, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the FBI to report back to the court by Aug. 16 and to identify the amount of material at issue and the Bureau's schedule for releasing it. The FBI subsequently reported that 3,000 pages of material were located, but it refused to commit to a delivery date.

The batch of documents released Thursday represents the second installment, and the FBI is required to release additional files at regular intervals until all 3,000 pages have been delivered to EPIC.

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