------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Investigation launched after nuclear base is infilitrated - by lost pensioners
Test Shuts Czech Reactor
Seize the Moment, Ban the Bomb
Clinton Discusses Missile Defense

MILITARY
Arms for defense of Taiwan
6 key suspects held in Cole attack

ACTIVISTS
Thousands protest Army school



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Investigation launched after nuclear base is infilitrated - by lost pensioners

Independent
By Andrea Babbington
19 November 2000
From: Stephen Kobasa <skobasa@pop.snet.net>

An investigation is to be launched into security at Scotland's nuclear submarine base after guards apparently allowed a group of lost tourists to drive onto the top-secret site.

A security guard at Faslane base near Glasgow has been suspended while the incident - which happened on November 7 - is investigated, said a base spokesman. Faslane is home to Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent.

News reports said the driver of the car was able to get onto the base without being challenged. When security guards eventually stopped him, he reportedly asked for directions to a nearby town.

The base spokesman would not reveal how long the group, believed to be two men and two women in their seventies, spent inside the base before being escorted away, but said they had been spotted very quickly.

"For some reason, on arriving at the gate these people were permitted to enter despite not having the numerous passes needed before anyone is allowed on," said the spokesman.

"There is no suggestion that there was any criminal intent, but it was a breach of security and therefore it is treated very seriously."

-------- czech

Test Shuts Czech Reactor

November 19, 2000
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/19/world/19NUKE.html

PRAGUE, Nov. 18 - The No. 1 reactor at the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant close to the border with Austria was automatically shut down early today when its cooling system was being tested, a spokesman said.

The Temelin reactor, of Soviet design but with American safety features, was started up only last month and has stirred controversy with Austria, the only country in Europe to have built a nuclear power plant and then voted, in a national referendum, not to put it on line and to renounce nuclear power. Austrian protesters have blocked the Czech border, and the government in Vienna has hinted that it may slow Czech entry into the European Union.

The reactor at Temelin was shut down at 3 a.m. and posed no threat, said a spokesman, Milan Nebesar, without specifying what caused the emergency shutdown.

-------- russia

Seize the Moment, Ban the Bomb

Sunday, November 19, 2000
Los Angeles Times
by John O. Pastore and Peter Zheutlin
http://www.commondreams.org/views/111900-105.htm

While Americans were counting votes in Florida, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin dropped a proverbial bombshell, likely to receive little notice given the postelection chaos. Putin, too, is conducting a recount--of his nuclear weapons stockpile--and the numbers aren't adding up. With Russia's military spending down to about $5 billion per year (compared with U.S. military spending of approximately $300 billion per year), and his economy in tatters, Putin knows that trying to maintain nuclear parity with the U.S. is a losing proposition.

Today, 10 years after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia retain tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, many of which, astonishingly, remain on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched on a moment's notice. So last week, Putin went beyond previous calls for Russia and the United States to reduce their nuclear arsenals from current levels to 1,500 warheads per side. Without specifying a number, he said reductions could go well below that number. The U.S. should seize the moment.

The wrong conclusion to draw from Putin's offer is that the U.S. should hang tough and simply wait until Russia drops out of the nuclear weapon competition, clinging, perhaps, to a mere few hundred warheads.

First, even with a relatively small nuclear arsenal Russia could wreak incalculable devastation. Indeed, a 1998 New England Journal of Medicine study by Physicians for Social Responsibility reported that just 16 warheads fired at U.S. targets from a single Russian Delta-4 submarine could cause as many as 6 million immediate deaths, and just as many, if not more, injuries from radioactive fallout and other after-effects. Under what circumstances would the U.S. possibly take such a risk?

Second, Putin's offer, even if made out of weakness, stands on its own merits, and the U.S. should accept the challenge. Earlier this year, the U.S., Russia and the more than 180 other nations that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty reaffirmed their obligation under the treaty to abolish nuclear weapons, stating that elimination of nuclear weapons was "an unequivocal undertaking." And, as recently as two weeks ago at the United Nations, the U.S. voted in favor of a resolution that calls for complete nuclear disarmament under international agreement. While the very last steps in such a process are likely to be the most difficult, the U.S. can quickly move the world in that direction by reaching agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear arsenals to a few hundred.

Third, the world's last, best hope of preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons lies in rapid progress toward a global ban on nuclear weapons. Ambassador Richard Butler, the Australian diplomat once charged with overseeing U.N. inspections of Iraq's nuclear weapons program, recently stated in Boston that all of his experience leads to the conclusion that as long as any nation has nuclear weapons, others will seek them. Jonathan Schell, writing recently in Foreign Affairs, described the status quo this way: "The current American policy is to try to stop proliferation while simultaneously continuing to hold on to its own nuclear arsenal indefinitely."

Under an international ban on nuclear weapons there is, of course, always the risk that a nation might cheat. However, the risks of defying the international norm would be great for a such a state, far greater than in a world where the international norm is a world divided between nuclear "haves" and "have-nots." Indeed, in a world where the current nuclear powers had agreed to abolish their nuclear arsenals, there would be great unity of purpose in stopping would-be proliferators, and ample conventional military power to enforce the international norm.

No treaty is perfect and all entail risks. A treaty banning nuclear weapons would be no exception. But which is the greater risk: to live indefinitely in a world where thousands of nuclear weapons are on hair-trigger alert and more and more nations seek nuclear weapons, or a world in which an outlaw nation may try to harbor a bomb in the basement?

Putin has put before the U.S. a bold proposal to significantly reduce the risk of nuclear war. The next U.S. president should say "da." It's time to ban the bomb.

John O. Pastore is secretary and Peter Zheutlin is associate program director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

-------- us nuc politics

Clinton Discusses Missile Defense

November 19, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Clinton-Interview.html

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) -- President Clinton said Sunday it is ``quite possible'' that the United States and Russia will agree to deeper cuts in nuclear arsenals and that he would support a missile defense system if it could reliably block weapons from striking American soil.

Clinton put off a decision to build a missile shield earlier this year, leaving it to his successor to explore whether the anti-missile system should be pursued. Moscow adamantly opposes the idea, pushing instead for more arms cuts.

Clinton said he deferred the decision to give the next president more time to talk with Russia, China, European allies and others ``to plot out a future that would leave us safer than we are today.''

In an interview with CNN at the end of a three-day visit to Vietnam, the president said he postponed the decision on a missile shield because he could not ``justify wrecking'' the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between Russia and the United States. To do that would have meant ``gambling that somehow, someday, some way the technology will be there,'' he said. ``We don't want to do that.''

The administration says it would have to seek changes in the ABM treaty, or abandon the agreement, to build an anti-missile system.

``If the technology existed which would give us high levels of confidence that one or two or five or 10 missiles could be stopped from coming into the country, it would be hard to justify not putting it up,'' the president said.

He said the best way to proceed was to do more research and find a way to ``bring these other countries in to this.''

A week ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia and the United States could make drastic cuts in their nuclear arsenals far beyond existing proposals. Putin, who is pushing to reduce a large and inefficient military 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.

Clinton said he did not want to compromise his successors options. But he said, ``I think it is quite possible that we could agree to go down to fewer missiles in our nuclear arsenal and theirs. I think that it's important that there also be fewer warheads.''

He said the United States should not return to the era of building ``highly dangerous, richly armed'' multiple warhead missiles.

``But what we have to do is to have a target design that we believe is adequate to protect the United States and that our missile component will serve,'' he said. ``And if we do that, then we could agree with them to reduce the number of missiles.'' He said he had hoped he could have done that.

On other national security issues Clinton said:

--He has not decided whether to go to North Korea before the end of his presidency but ``it's conceivable that there could still be a trip.'' He said the United States wants North Korea to end its long-range missile program and stop exporting missiles to other countries.

--The violence in the Middle East stands in the way of resuming peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. ``They might as well be on the other side of the globe, as long as all the shooting is going on.'' He said that ``you don't have to end every single instance'' of violence but there has to be ``a dramatic reduction'' before the parties can talk.


-------- MILITARY

--------- taiwan

Arms for defense of Taiwan

November 19, 2000
James Hackett
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-2000111919739.htm

Despite political deadlock in Washington, foreign policy and security problems continue and must be dealt with. The major flash point in the world today is the Taiwan Strait, where China may misjudge the likely U.S. reaction to its use of pressure or even military force against Taiwan. The leaders in Beijing persist in refusing to renounce the use of force.

To prepare, they are modernizing their armed forces by acquiring advanced Russian weapons. Just three months ago the Chinese press reported that Beijing intends to buy $15 billion worth of Russian arms, including hundreds of SU-27 and SU-30 fighter aircraft. Now, Beijing is following through with a deal to buy from Moscow four or five A-50 aircraft warning and control (AWACs) planes, with long-range radar that can guide up to 30 combat aircraft at a time over the Taiwan Strait.

This deal also includes two more Sovremenny-class destroyers armed with Sunburn supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, which pose a major threat not only to Taiwan's navy but also to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. China already has taken delivery of one destroyer of this class and a second is about to be delivered. Now, two more are being added. Beijing also wants to buy Moscow's Glonass satellite navigation system, which would give its missiles global accuracy without relying on the U.S. GPS system.

A Nov. 5 report from Moscow said a high-level delegation visiting Beijing urged China to pursue "strategic joint projects" with "high-tech sectors of Russian industry." The report noted that Beijing's dynamic economy has produced foreign exchange reserves of $155 billion, much of which could be spent for military purchases. The People's Liberation Army, the report noted, is seeking to buy 120mm and 152mm self-propelled guns, infantry fighting vehicles, multiple rocket launchers, radar systems, ship-based anti-aircraft missiles, electronic warfare systems and military helicopters, and wants more licenses to produce Russian military equipment.

Considering the drumbeat of warlike talk by China, the next president should move quickly to put Beijing on notice that this country will not allow democracy on Taiwan to be snuffed out. Providing advance warning is better than trying to defend after an attack. The rulers in Beijing see time running out as Taiwan becomes increasingly independent. They could misinterpret U.S. intentions just as the Japanese militarists in 1941 misread the U.S. will to fight. A clear signal to Beijing is needed. Selling Taiwan the arms it wants would send such a signal.

Congress made it easy by passing the Taiwan Reporting Requirement as part of this year's foreign operations appropriations measure. It requires the president to consult with Congress on arms sales to Taiwan. This unusual intervention in the executive branch was needed because the Clinton administration has ignored the role of Congress in protecting Taiwan from intimidation, as provided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

The Clinton White House has overruled the Defense Department and ignored Congress to reject or water down Taiwan's principal arms requests. Year after year, Taiwan tries to buy non-nuclear submarines and is turned down, despite what the Pentagon calls China's "overwhelming advantage" over Taiwan in undersea craft, and China's continuing purchase of submarines and technology from Russia.

Taiwan also asked for AIM-120 air-to-air missiles and was turned down until this year, when the administration approved the sale of 200 of these air defense weapons on condition they remain on U.S. soil. The administration apparently hoped that agreement would reduce congressional pressure to approve other items that Taiwan needs.

Last year, Taiwan asked to buy four Aegis destroyers to help protect its sea lanes and Patriot PAC-3 interceptors to defend against the mainland's ballistic missile buildup, probably the greatest single threat to peace in the world today. Taiwan now has Patriot PAC-2 interceptors and wants to add some of the new, longer-range, hit-to-kill PAC-3 models that have been highly successful in recent tests. The Aegis destroyers also could be upgraded later to include a layer of sea-based missile defenses. But China strongly opposes any missile defense for Taiwan, Japan or the U.S. mainland, and devoted a large part of the Defense White Paper it issued last month to attack missile defenses, which it fears would neutralize its most valuable offensive weapons.

Given China's aggressive intentions, it would be unwise not to defend against its weapons. The next administration should seize the opportunity provided by this year's legislation and consult with Congress early next year on the sale to Taiwan of Aegis destroyers, Patriot PAC-3 missile interceptors and conventional submarines, basing its decision on what Taiwan needs to defend itself and not on what might upset Beijing.

China is sending unmistakable signals that it intends to invade Taiwan. The next president should at an early date send unmistakable signals that an invasion will not be tolerated.

The current policy of ambiguity must end.

James T. Hackett is a contributing writer to The Washington Times based in San Diego.

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

6 key suspects held in Cole attack

USA Today
11/19/00
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwssun05.htm

ADEN, Yemen (AP) - In one portrait emerging from Yemen, the plotters who attacked a U.S. warship in the port of Aden came from across the region, inspired by hatred, hardened by war and determined enough to try again and again until they were able to strike a mighty target.

Yemeni sources close to the investigation of the Oct. 12 bombing say authorities have detained six Yemeni men they believe were key accomplices. Scores of people have been held so far, but the sources said these six are the first described as central players - including a main plotter.

The sources, who spoke late last week on condition they not be named, said no charges would be filed until the investigation was complete. Yemen's Interior Minister Mohammed Hussein Arab told 26 September, a state-run weekly newspaper, that charges would be referred to the judiciary ''in the next few weeks.''

The article, which ran in last week's edition, quoted the minister as saying 'several key suspects' had been arrested. It wasn't clear if those were the six referred to by the AP's sources.

The sources said the main accomplice was in charge of the operation in Yemen and coordinated between different cells involved in the attack. He reportedly told Yemeni investigators he received his orders from a man in the United Arab Emirates described as an Arab veteran of the U.S.-backed guerrilla war to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

Quoting Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Iryani, The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the two men who carried out the suicide bombing have been identified as Yemeni veterans of the Afghan war. But according to the AP's sources, the man believed to be a main plotter of the Aden bombing said one of the suicide bombers may have been from Saudi Arabia.

The sources also said two small American government planes left Aden for the United States Wednesday and Thursday carrying documents related to the case. Details about the documents were not known.

After months of careful planning, two suicide bombers brought a small boat laden with explosives alongside the USS Cole and detonated it. The explosion killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39.

The main accomplice reportedly told investigators he never met either of the two men and communicated with them through a third party. The plotters reportedly worked in cells of two or three people, and many suspects did not know each other.

Ed Badolato, a former U.S. government anti-terrorism official, said the plotters were organized in cell structures that point to at least three militant Islamic groups: Egypt's al-Gamaa al-Islamiya; Afghan war veterans linked to America's No. 1 terror suspect, Osama bin Laden; or homegrown Yemeni groups.

Both the Egyptian group, which aims to overthrow its country's secular government, and bin Laden's followers have historically had strong ties to Yemen, where they have found support among Yemenis able to provide them fake travel and identification documents - either out of sympathy for their cause or simply for cash.

''They are famous for doing this, not just for bin Laden, but for other groups,'' Badolato said.

Badolato said any government employees who may have helped the Cole bombing plotters were not sponsored by the government. Yemeni authorities have detained lower- and midlevel security officials in connection with the attack.

While Yemeni officials may soon bring charges against the suspects now in custody, the U.S. investigation will continue and it may take time before it leads to members of any broader conspiracy, said terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, an American.

''I think it will be plenty of time before we start pointing fingers,'' Bodansky said.

The Yemeni sources said the main accomplice was from Aden and three others were from Lahej, a Muslim fundamentalist stronghold 20 miles north of Aden. The two others were described as Yemeni with no further details.

The sources have said government officials in Lahej provided the suspected bombers with government cars for use within Aden and between Aden and Lahej.

Some of the government officials detained over the Cole attack are allegedly affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a group linked to bin Laden, a Saudi dissident living in exile in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Jihad is believed to have a worldwide network, including a few hundred members in Yemen. It is made up of veterans of the 10-year fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. These so-called Afghan Arabs then spread out to fight a new enemy seen as a threat to Islam - the United States.

The Cole was bombed after at least three other plots against American targets in Yemen failed in the past year, the sources have said.

In the first week of November 1999, Yemeni authorities discovered and defused explosives planted along a road near a hotel that was home to U.S. military personnel who were helping Yemen remove land mines planted during the civil war.

Later, the plotters planned to attack the hotel itself. No details were available on why that plan failed.

An attack similar to the one carried out on the Cole was aborted in January because the boat was overloaded with explosives and unseaworthy, the sources said.

After that attack failed, the Cole was targeted and the players changed for security reasons, the sources said last week.

Relations between Yemen and the United States have reportedly been strained over the limited access U.S. investigators have had to Yemeni suspects and sources. But both sides insist publicly that they are cooperating well.

Yemeni sources said Yemeni investigators have asked Saudi Arabia and Egypt for help in identifying some of the people involved in the case. Yemeni investigators are also sharing information with Kuwaiti investigators to determine whether a case there is related. Kuwaiti prosecutors are preparing formal charges against six Kuwaitis suspected of plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. and other Western forces in Kuwait.

Both the Cole attack and the Kuwaiti plot followed Israeli-Palestinian clashes. These enraged Arabs across the region, who see the West as Israel's protector.

On Friday, an explosion in a possibly booby-trapped vehicle in the Saudi capital killed a British man and injured his wife. Following the Cole explosion, U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Gulf were placed on the highest alert level.


-------- activists

Thousands protest Army school

11/19/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndssun05.htm

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Police arrested 1,700 protesters who had marched into Fort Benning on Sunday demanding the closing of the Army's School of the Americas, a training center for Latin American soldiers.

About twice that number, including actor Martin Sheen, had entered the west-central Georgia post, chanting and carrying cardboard coffins and crosses, while others continued the protest outside the gates.

The demonstrations have been spearheaded for 11 years by Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest who served in Bolivia. Bourgeois blames the school for human rights abuses committed by some of the school's former students.

Army officials termed the charge absurd.

''I'd characterize it as false and as propaganda,'' Maj. Gen. John LeMoyne, the post commander, said at a news conference Sunday. ''Roy's thesis is based on emotion and falsehood.''

Wearing plastic parkas, many of the protesters shivered in near-freezing temperatures and occasional rain as they marched to a point where they were halted by military and civilian police.

Police officials estimated 6,500 people gathered outside the gate for the protest, about half the number that appeared last year. The group School of Americas Watch organizes the demonstrations each year near the anniversary of the Nov. 16, 1989, killings in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests. A United Nations panel found 19 Salvadoran officers involved in the slayings had been trained at the school, the group said.

Col. G.T. Myers, Fort Benning's provost marshal, said most of the protesters arrested Sunday were charged with trespassing, given a warning and released. Some who poured fake blood on the street were charged with damaging government property, he said. A few of those charged may be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office, Myers said.

Sheen, who plays the nation's president in the television show West Wing, was arrested, Myers said, but the colonel said he did not know what laws the actor was accused of breaking. Sheen has joined the protests for the past three years.

All those arrested were given letters barring them from visiting Fort Benning for five years. Those barred from the post who are charged with trespassing there again within that period could be subject to a year in prison.

Bougeois and Sheen gave brief pep talks before the march.

''I have a directive I mean to share with you,'' Sheen said. ''To the secretary of Defense: Dear Mr. Cohen, as the acting president of the United States, I want you to declare the School of the Americas closed.''

The School of the Americas is scheduled to close on Dec. 15 and be replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The new school will be run by the Defense Department, under guiding principles of the Organization of American States.

Shortly after Sheen's speech, he joined a procession that marched slowly through the post's main gate. At the front of the procession were demonstrators wearing white death masks, black robes and carrying coffins.

After they had advanced about one-quarter mile, they poured fake blood on themselves and ''died'' in the street. Police rushed in to tag them, photograph them and cart them off on stretchers to waiting buses.

Sister Mary Johnalyn, 68, of West Allis, Wis., said she was photographed, fingerprinted and given a ''ban and bar'' letter, meaning she is barred from Fort Benning for five years. She said she was charged with damaging U.S. property for spilling fake blood.

''I was a missionary in Mexico and I found those people so loving,'' she said. ''I don't want them to come up here and learn to be ugly murderers. I'm also here to honor those who suffered and died.''

Processing the large number of demonstrators could take until early Monday, Myers said.

That wasn't good news for John Dunn, 27, of Cleveland.

Dunn said he drove a charter bus with 50 passengers to Fort Benning and was expected to drive them back on Sunday night. He joined the demonstration impulsively.

''I'm taking my chances like everybody else,'' he said. ''It's a little more chancy for me because if I'm not there to drive them back, I'm in trouble.''

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