NUCLEAR
No Sense in Completing Russian-Technology Nuclear Plant
Russia's Putin Heads Home after Cuba, Canada Trip
U.S. and China: Frowns All Around
Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents
Pakistan Withdraws Kashmir Troops
Troops withdrawn from Kashmir border
India Extends Kashmir Truce, Pakistan Responds
Powell Sees End to Saddam's Regime
Route of 6th Japanese HLW transport
Clinton Trip to North Korea Is Mired in Transition Politics
Missile Defense?
Lots of rubles
Nuclear Power's Second Act
Bush pays visit to White House
Bush in Deep Waters on Energy Policy
Environmentalists Warn of Voinovich
A 'Humbled' Bush Visits His New Home
Bush Appears to Bypass a Moderate Ally Again
Sankei newspaper, Tokyo, on Bush's nomination for secretary of state:
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Mayor lends name to anti-Yucca letter
Yucca Mountain foes attack DOE documents
Reid vows to block possible energy pick
MILITARY
Pentagon 'diligent' on Gulf War illness
A Child's Vision of War
Senior Air Force Cadet Is Accused in Drug Sales
India and Pakistan Try to Ease Tension in Kashmir
India thinking about aerospace command
U.N. Confirms Liberia's Role in Smuggling of Diamonds
Tough Sanctions Imposed on Taliban Government Splits U.N.
Annan to Ask for Meeting With Bush
Editorial Roundup
U.N. turns up heat on Afghan regime
Hillary feted
Another Fatal Osprey Crash
OTHER
CAN'T GET CANCER FROM A CELL PHONE
Studies find no link between cell phones, brain cancer
Cell Phone Studies See No Link to Brain Cancer
BUSH NAMES MORE CABINET MEMBERS
U.S. Weather Follows Global Warming Trend
Plan to Restore River Causes California Furor
National organic standards released
Bush adds to Cabinet picks
Gas mileage hits 20-year low
The Indianapolis Star, on lawsuits against big hog farms:
New Regulations for Federal Contractors
POLLUTION CASE SETTLED
States
Congress passes pet projects along with budget
AN END TO PUBLIC EDUCATION AS WE KNOW IT?
Policeman Gunned Down in Barcelona
U.N. Police Station Attacked in Northern Kosovo
Officers in New Jersey Guilty in Beating Case
Kentucky
Those Who Spy
A Prediction Gap
ACTIVISTS
The Message and Media
Letter sent to Chief Ramsey Today
starcgrassroots Digest Number 259
TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING
Editorial Roundup
Turkish protesters halt London Ferris wheel
Bush meets with Clinton and Gore
-------- NUCLEAR
No Sense in Completing Russian-Technology Nuclear Plant
Russia Today
Dec 20, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=232062
HAVANA -- (Agence France Presse) The chairman of the Cuban National Assembly's economics committee has said it currently "makes no sense" for Cuba to try to complete a Russian-technology nuclear plant which is staunchly opposed by the United States.
The plant in Juragua, Cienfuegos province -- on which construction stopped in 1992 after a decade of work and a billion-dollar investment -- would be the first Russian-technology plant in the Americas and the first in tropical conditions. Washington argues it could pose safety risks.
"Investing in finishing an isolated nuclear reactor it is not called for at this time to develop electric power output in the country," economics committee chairman Osvaldo Martinez said in a televised roundtable discussion late Monday following last week's visit to Cuba by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It makes no sense" under current conditions, the lawmaker stressed, noting that another one billion dollars would have to be invested "and we wouldn't have electrical power output from it until six years after construction resumed." Monday, President Fidel Castro inaugurated the first phase of the Energas plant, built with Canadian partners, which uses gas produced while pumping crude oil.
When Energas is at full capacity, "it will generate theoretically as much as Juragua would if it were finished," Martinez said, underscoring that that would be achieved at a modest cost of 291.2 million dollars, compared to the nuclear plant's price tag.
Martinez, a former economy minister, added that the Juragua plant had been conceived not "as employing one isolated reactor, but rather as part of a more broadly developed nuclear program."
"It made sense as part of a nuclear development program, but it makes no sense when we speak about a lone, isolated nuclear plant," he said.
On a visit to Havana Friday, Putin acknowledged his disappointment at failing to resolve the future of a half-built power plant, for whose upkeep Moscow still pays, or the fate of Havana's 11-billion-dollar Russian debt.
"Our Cuban friends are not showing interest in the (nuclear plant's) construction, and we are not pressing the point," Putin said.
"But we must decide what to do with" the plant, staunchly opposed by the United States as one if its few security concerns in the Americas.
---
Russia's Putin Heads Home after Cuba, Canada Trip
Russia Today
Dec 20, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=232036§ion=default
TORONTO -- (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin headed home on Wednesday after visits to Cuba and Canada that produced few tangible results but extended the Kremlin's influence in Washington's backyard.
Putin's five-day stay in Cuba breathed new life into post-Soviet relations that had drifted into stagnation under predecessor Boris Yeltsin after three decades as Soviet-era allies and heavy subsidies for the Cuban economy.
Little progress apparently was made in resolving Cuban debts to Russia, thought to total $20 billion. But Putin and Cuban President Fidel Castro signed a declaration condemning the U.S. embargo of Cuba, calling for a multipolar world to offset U.S. influence and regretting the perils of globalization.
Since his election victory in March, Putin has embarked on frequent foreign trips, balancing ties with traditional European partners Britain and Germany with a pitch to revive Soviet-era ties with Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Canada, a NATO member, represents a middle ground, with good ties dating from the Cold War.
His three-day visit to Canada, which ended on Tuesday, similarly generated few concrete financial benefits, but saw Putin and his host, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, line up against U.S. proposals to abandon a 1972 arms treaty and build a National Missile Defense (NMD) system.
Putin used the last day in Canada to underscore the notion of a front opposed to Washington's suggestion of abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. U.S. President-elect George W. Bush favors just such a move to guard against potential missile strikes by countries such as North Korea and Iran.
"Developing a national anti-missile system and attempts to destroy the 1972 ABM treaty will produce nothing other than the collapse of the entire system of international security," Putin told 1,600 industrialists at a luncheon. "This concern of ours is shared by many countries."
PUTIN SUGGESTS CANADIAN ROLE IN MISSILE TALKS
Putin told Chretien in Ottawa that Canada, caught between Russia and the United States, could act as a go-between on the missile issue. Chretien made no effort to contradict him.
Some analysts suggested Putin had put Canada in an awkward position, at odds with its Cold-War-era image of fixer ready at a moment's notice to tackle international disputes.
"Canada must carefully weigh the concerns of both parties and decide what, if anything, it can or should do to bridge the gap," David Rudd, executive director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, told the National Post daily.
"By simply conveying Moscow's concerns to Washington or vice versa, we risk casting ourselves not as a mediator but as a messenger boy."
There was much talk of cooperation over the Arctic expanses that both countries straddle and Canada boosted Russia's drive for fast-track membership in the World Trade Organization.
Faced with annual trade levels expected to bounce back to a still paltry C$1 billion ($660 million) this year after Russia's 1998 financial collapse, Putin said he had done what he could during a year in office to generate an export boom.
That meant setting up seven regions overseen by presidential emissaries bent on eliminating discrepancies between local and federal law. A new liberal tax code had been approved as had moves to strengthen the legal system.
Few contracts were clinched in Canada -- a deal to involve Russian state airline Aeroflot in construction of a rapid transit line to Moscow's international airport and a pledge of $3 million from the Canadian International Development Agency to improve business practices and corporate governance.
In Cuba, larger projects awaiting completion had only limited hope on the horizon.
Within days of the visit, Cuban officials said Castro's government had abandoned completion of the Soviet-designed Juragua nuclear power plant. A second project to revive construction of a nickel-ore plant remained on the table with a Russian entrepreneur ready to put up the necessary funds.
------
U.S. and China: Frowns All Around
New York Times
December 20, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/opinion/L20CHI.html
To the Editor:
Re "Military Chief Seeks Money, Saying Forces Are Strapped" (news article, Dec. 15):
It is not surprising that Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that China has a "distrustful view" of the United States and is "aggressively modernizing" its conventional and nuclear forces.
Elements within Congress, the news media and various human rights groups have for years been trying to demonize China, pointing to China's military modernization, human rights record, crackdown on domestic dissent and so on as the basis for their position.
These elements may now be succeeding, as indicated by the Chinese stance reported by General Shelton. China, it seems, is now demonizing the United States in return. As we here are analyzing China, so China is analyzing us.
JOHN H. HOLDRIDGE Bethesda, Md., Dec. 15, 2000
The writer was assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, 1981-1983.
-------- depleted uranium
Presidential Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents
December 20, 2000
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/final_toc.htm
The Honorable William S. Cohen Secretary of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301
Dear Secretary Cohen,
In accordance with Executive Order 13075 and the Presidential Directive of January 31, 2000 (see Appendix B), I am submitting the Final Report of the Special Oversight Board.
The Board agrees that Vinh Cam, Ph.D., does not agree with certain sections of the report. Unlike the other board members, she did not respond to staff requests for input or inquire about the progress of the final report until she received a coordinating draft in November.
Dr. Cam's dissent details her concerns and contains several assertions with which the other board members disagree. Her comments and my response can be found in Appendix A.
Sincerely,
Warren B. Rudman Chairman
1401 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 401, Arlington, VA 22209 (703) 696-9464 (voice) (703) 696-4062 (fax) email: Gulfsyn@osd.pentagon.mil
Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents
Final Report
Honorable Warren B. Rudman Chairman
Honorable Jesse Brown Vice-Chairman
RADM Paul E. Busick
Dr. Vinh Cam
LTG Marc A. Cisneros
GSM David Moore
RADM Alan Steinman
This Report is Dedicated to the Memory of
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. (1920-2000)
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/memoryof.htm
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/executive_sum.htm
Chapter 1 - Mission, Charter, and Activities
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter1.htm
Chapter 2 - The Transition from OSAGWI to OSAGWIMRMD
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter2.htm
Chapter 3 - OSAGWI Case Narratives
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter3.htm
Chapter 4 - OSAGWI Environmental Exposure Reports
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter4.htm
Chapter 5 - Presidential Advisory Committee Special Report Recommendations
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter5.htm
Chapter 6 - Overview of Health Effects
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter6.htm
Chapter 7 - The Role of Stress as a Contributing Factor in Gulf War Undiagnosed Illnesses
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter7.htm
Chapter 8 - Ongoing Initiatives and Lessons Learned from the Gulf War
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter8.htm
Chapter 9 - Findings, Recommendations, and Observations
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/chapter9.htm
Appendices
A.Dr. Cam's Dissenting Comments and the Chairman's Response
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_a.htm
B.Presidential Documents: Executive Order 13075
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_b.htm
C.Charter of the Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_c.htm
D.Board Member Biographical Information
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_d.htm
E.Staff Member Biographical Information
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_e.htm
F.Key Gulf War Illness Studies and Reports
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_f.htm
G.Case Narrative Matrix
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_g.htm
H.Monthly Events and Meetings
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_h.htm
I.Special Oversight Board Special Report
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_i.htm
J.Chapter References
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_j.htm
K.Glossary
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_k.htm
L.Acknowledgements
http://www.oversight.ncr.gov/appdix_l.htm
---
A Review of the Scintific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses
Volume 7 Depleted Uranium
Naomi H. Hartley Ernest C. Foulkes Lee H. Hilborne Arlene Hudson C. Ross Anthony
National Defense Research Institute
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/cover.html
RAND
Contents
Preface
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.pref.html
Figures
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.figs.html
Tables
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.tabs.html
Summary
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.sum.html
Acknowledgments
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.ackno.html
Abbreviations
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.abbrev.html
Symbols
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.symbol.html
Chapter One: Introduction
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.chap1.html
Radiological Considerations
Chemical Considerations
Regulatory Standards
Methods of Detection and Analysis
Chapter Two: Health Effects
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.chap2.html
Overview
Internal Exposure
External Exposure
Clinical Discussion
Chapter Three: Concluding Remarks and Future Research
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.chap3.html
Radiation Effects
Heavy-Metal Toxicological Effects
Research
Appendix
A. Principal Decay Scheme of the Uranium Series
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appa.html
B. Principal Decay Scheme of the Actinium Series
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appb.html
C. Resuspension
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appc.html
D. Single-Particle Lung Dosimetry
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appd.html
E. Exposure to Radon (222RN) and Its Decay Products
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appe.html
F. UNSCEAR Tables
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appf.html
G. Measured Deep Dose Rates for M60A3 and M1 Tanks
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.appg.html
Glossary
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.gloss.html
References
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.refs.html
About the Authors
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/library/randrep/du/mr1018.7.authors.html
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors.
----------
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan Withdraws Kashmir Troops
Associated Press
December 20, 2000 Filed at 8:18 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Kashmir.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan made a peace overture to its rival India on Wednesday, announcing the withdrawal of some of its troops from the volatile border of Kashmir, the flashpoint of two wars between the South Asian nuclear powers.
The gesture came in response to India's offer to extend by a month a cease-fire with Islamic militants waging a bitter insurgency in the Indian-held part of the divided Himalayan territory.
Pakistan urged India to withdraw troops from its side of the Line of Control, the 1973 cease-fire line through Kashmir, which last year was the scene of fierce fighting between India and Islamic militants. Those clashes nearly escalated into another full-fledged war between the two countries.
``The fact is that we have withdrawn troops from the line of control and that is a very positive step and we would like to see India now reciprocate,'' Gen. Rashid Quereshi, a Pakistani army spokesman, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Concerns mounted over India and Pakistan's bloody rivalry over Kashmir -- which both claim in its entirety -- after the two countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They have fought two wars over the territory, divided between them after British rule in the subcontinent ended in 1947.
Pakistan has 25,000 to 30,000 troops deployed along the frontier, where they and Indian forces often trade fire. The army did not specify how many would be withdrawn, but it said the pullback already had begun.
The withdrawal ``manifests Pakistan's earnest and genuine desire to de-escalate the situation in order to facilitate the process of meaningful dialogue on the issue,'' the army said in a statement.
It comes on top of a withdrawal of some troops ordered by Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf soon after he came to power in an October 1999 coup. ``Those soldiers never returned to the Line of Control and this is more that we are withdrawing,'' said Quereshi.
In Washington, President Clinton welcomed the moves by both countries as steps toward reducing tension in the region.
India's ``initiative, along with Pakistan's announcement today that it will withdraw part of its forces deployed along the Line of Control and its earlier decision to exercise maximum restraint there, raises the hopes of the world community that peace is possible in Kashmir,'' Clinton said.
Islamic guerrillas battling Indian forces in Kashmir are demanding either independence or unification with Pakistan. India accuses Islamabad of fomenting the insurgency, but Pakistan said it gives only moral and political support to the rebels, many of whom are based on its soil.
India says it is willing to open negotiations with the guerrillas, but refuses to include Pakistan in the talks. It has refused separate negotiations with Pakistan over the broader issues of their rivalry until it halts support for the insurgents.
India called a unilateral cease-fire in Kashmir in early December. Though Kashmiri rebels rejected a truce, Pakistan responded at the time by calling a halt in hostilities along the Line of Control, and tensions were reduced.
On Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told Parliament the cease-fire -- due to end Dec. 28 -- would be extended until at least Jan. 26, India's Republic Day. He said that despite some fighting over the past weeks, the cease-fire had been a success.
``A distinctively different and more optimistic mood prevails. The constituency for peace has expanded significantly,'' Vajpayee said.
Kashmiri groups were skeptical about both India and Pakistan's moves.
One of the top guerrilla groups, the Pakistan-based Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, said it was monitoring the Pakistani withdrawal. Other militants dismissed it as a means to bringing peace. ``Such moves won't get the desired results. Jehad (holy war) will continue until Kashmir's liberation,'' said Yahya Mujahed, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir's main separatist alliance, reacted cautiously to the cease-fire extension, saying talks among India, Pakistan and the representatives of the Kashmiri people were essential to resolve the 11-year insurgency.
Hezb-ul Mujahedeen -- which currently chairs the United Jehad Council, the umbrella group of militant factions -- dismissed the extension as a ``bluff.''
``If India is serious it will go for three-way talks, release prisoners in its jail and reduce its army in Kashmir,'' said Salim Hashmi, a spokesman for the group. ``For us peace will come only with our freedom.''
At least 30,000 people have been killed in the disputed province since the Islamic uprising began in 1989. Human rights activists say the death toll is closer to 60,000.
------
Troops withdrawn from Kashmir border
USA Today
12/20/00- Updated 09:03 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed04.htm
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan made a peace overture to its rival India on Wednesday, announcing the withdrawal of some of its troops from the volatile border of Kashmir, the flashpoint of two wars between the South Asian nuclear powers.
The gesture came in response to India's offer to extend by a month a cease-fire with Islamic militants waging a bitter insurgency in the Indian-held part of the divided Himalayan territory.
Pakistan urged India to withdraw troops from its side of the Line of Control, the 1973 cease-fire line through Kashmir, which last year was the scene of fierce fighting between India and Islamic militants. Those clashes nearly escalated into another full-fledged war between the two countries.
''The fact is that we have withdrawn troops from the line of control and that is a very positive step and we would like to see India now reciprocate,'' Gen. Rashid Quereshi, a Pakistani army spokesman, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Concerns mounted over India and Pakistan's bloody rivalry over Kashmir - which both claim in its entirety - after the two countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They have fought two wars over the territory, divided between them after British rule in the subcontinent ended in 1947.
Pakistan has 25,000 to 30,000 troops deployed along the frontier, where they and Indian forces often trade fire. The army did not specify how many would be withdrawn, but it said the pullback already had begun.
The withdrawal ''manifests Pakistan's earnest and genuine desire to de-escalate the situation in order to facilitate the process of meaningful dialogue on the issue,'' the army said in a statement.
It comes on top of a withdrawal of some troops ordered by Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf soon after he came to power in an October 1999 coup. ''Those soldiers never returned to the Line of Control and this is more that we are withdrawing,'' said Quereshi.
In Washington, President Clinton welcomed the moves by both countries as steps toward reducing tension in the region.
India's ''initiative, along with Pakistan's announcement today that it will withdraw part of its forces deployed along the Line of Control and its earlier decision to exercise maximum restraint there, raises the hopes of the world community that peace is possible in Kashmir,'' Clinton said.
Islamic guerrillas battling Indian forces in Kashmir are demanding either independence or unification with Pakistan. India accuses Islamabad of fomenting the insurgency, but Pakistan said it gives only moral and political support to the rebels, many of whom are based on its soil.
India says it is willing to open negotiations with the guerrillas, but refuses to include Pakistan in the talks. It has refused separate negotiations with Pakistan over the broader issues of their rivalry until it halts support for the insurgents.
India called a unilateral cease-fire in Kashmir in early December. Though Kashmiri rebels rejected a truce, Pakistan responded at the time by calling a halt in hostilities along the Line of Control, and tensions were reduced.
On Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told Parliament the cease-fire - due to end Dec. 28 - would be extended until at least Jan. 26, India's Republic Day. He said that despite some fighting over the past weeks, the cease-fire had been a success.
''A distinctively different and more optimistic mood prevails. The constituency for peace has expanded significantly,'' Vajpayee said.
Kashmiri groups were skeptical about both India and Pakistan's moves. One of the top guerrilla groups, the Pakistan-based Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, said it was monitoring the Pakistani withdrawal. Other militants dismissed it as a means to bringing peace. ''Such moves won't get the desired results. Jehad (holy war) will continue until Kashmir's liberation,'' said Yahya Mujahed, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir's main separatist alliance, reacted cautiously to the cease-fire extension, saying talks among India, Pakistan and the representatives of the Kashmiri people were essential to resolve the 11-year insurgency.
Hezb-ul Mujahedeen - which currently chairs the United Jehad Council, the umbrella group of militant factions - dismissed the extension as a ''bluff.''
''If India is serious it will go for three-way talks, release prisoners in its jail and reduce its army in Kashmir,'' said Salim Hashmi, a spokesman for the group. ''For us peace will come only with our freedom.''
At least 30,000 people have been killed in the disputed province since the Islamic uprising began in 1989. Human rights activists say the death toll is closer to 60,000.
---
India Extends Kashmir Truce, Pakistan Responds
Reuters
December 20, 2000 Filed at 11:56 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-kashmir.html
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India extended its unilateral cease-fire in Kashmir by another month Wednesday, a move which drew a response from Pakistan which said it was partially pulling back its troops from the disputed border.
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told parliament the government would also take exploratory steps to break the deadlock over peace talks with Pakistan.
A Pakistan military statement said its decision to partially pull back its troops was a follow up to its earlier decision to exercise restraint on the Line of Control (LOC). Islamabad urged New Delhi to respond to the move by withdrawing its troops.
``The move-back has already commenced and the troops have started moving toward cantonments,'' the statement said.
But Pakistan-based guerrilla groups poured scorn on the Indian move, with the frontline Hizbul Mujahideen dubbing it ''the second scene of the same old drama.''
Vajpayee told parliament there had been a decline in ''terrorist'' activity in rebellion-torn Jammu and Kashmir since India's unprecedented truce went into effect at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on November 28.
``After careful consideration of all aspects, the government has, therefore, taken a decision to extend the period of 'no initiation of combat operations' by another month,'' he said.
But despite the cease-fire, police in Srinagar said seven people, including a 12-year-old girl and three Indian soldier, were killed in militant attacks and shootouts in Kashmir in the past 24 hours.
Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed in 11 years of rebellion against Indian rule in the Himalayan region.
DECLINE IN FRONTIER CROSSINGS
Vajpayee said there had been a recognizable decline in attempts by ``terrorists'' to cross the Kashmir frontier from Pakistan into India, but added: ``They must cease entirely.''
India accuses its neighbor of arming and sending guerrillas across the international border and military Line of Control that divide the nuclear-capable rivals in the Himalayan region.
``As the initiator of the dialogue process with Pakistan, India remains committed to it,'' Vajpayee said. ``The existence of a suitable environment for such a process is self-evidently necessary.''
The government said in a separate statement there were 149 incidents of violence in Kashmir in the first 20 days of the truce.
Vajpayee said that as part of its commitment to past peace accords, India would initiate exploratory steps it deemed necessary for a resumption of the composite dialogue process.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to spell out what those steps might entail.
India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir, have not held any talks under their composite dialogue process since November 1998.
Last year they fought an undeclared war on the snow-capped heights of Indian-held Kashmir, and New Delhi has since refused to hold face-to-face talks until ``cross-border terrorism'' stops.
GUERRILLAS REJECT CEASEFIRE
Pakistan says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people's struggle for self-determination.
Vajpayee noted that there had been a ``marked improvement'' in incidents of exchange of fire and that relative peace had prevailed along the line of control, which was drawn after the last full-scale conflict between India and Pakistan in 1971.
The United Jihad Council, an alliance of guerrilla groups fighting India, rejected the extension of the cease-fire.
``If India is sincere in its offer, then it should agree to hold talks with Pakistan and Kashmiris...reduce its forces in Kashmir and recognize Kashmir as a dispute,'' said Mohammad Usman, vice-chairman of the council that unites at least 14 groups.
Kashmir's separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, was non-committal, saying ``more practical steps'' were needed by India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
Farooq Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, told Reuters he was not against the idea of a cease-fire but while civilians were still being killed it was not effective.
``I want the government of India to tell Pakistan that we are not going to tolerate the innocent killings that their men are continuing here,'' he said in Jammu.
-------- iraq
Powell Sees End to Saddam's Regime
Associated Press
December 20, 2000 Filed at 1:01 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-Iraq.html
WASHINGTON -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has outlasted five American presidents, and Bill Clinton will become his sixth a month from now. Colin Powell thinks that's enough.
``Saddam Hussein is sitting on a failed regime that is not going to be around in a few years' time,'' Powell said after President-elect George Bush nominated him to become secretary of state.
On most foreign policy issues, the outgoing and the incoming administrations differ only in emphasis. But the differences over Iraq seem broader and raise the possibility of a fresh approach after Jan. 20.
At a minimum, said Geoffrey Kemp, of the Nixon Center for Peace and Security, ``The rhetoric will be different.''
He said the Clinton administration ``has gone out of its way to avoid talking about Iraq because it didn't want its policy to be under scrutiny.''
Unlike Powell, Clinton administration officials don't talk about the possibility of Saddam's demise. And there has been no public discussion of whether Saddam, who expelled U.N. weapons inspectors two years ago, has been quietly building up armaments that the U.N. Security Council says he can't have.
Officially, the administration is seeking Saddam's overthrow through support of Iraqi opposition groups, but it is doing so in a low key way.
The administration is wary of saying why it is being cautious, but President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, once offered this explanation: ``If you encourage and almost incite people to rise up against their government, you incur a moral obligation to come to their defense at a moment of peril.''
That's the kind of commitment the administration does not appear ready to undertake.
Former senior aides to President Bush a decade ago have recommended a more proactive approach to Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz, who served in Bush's Defense Department, has urged U.S. recognition of a provisional government led by the Iraqi opposition.
Robert Zoellick, a one-time State Department aide, advocates taking away Saddam's territory by preventing his troops from using tanks in northern and southern Iraq, where Saddam's opponents dominate. This would supplement the current U.S.-led effort to keep the skies in these areas free of Iraqi aircraft, the so-called ``no-fly zones.''
But Kemp said the new administration should seek a common position with allies before acting unilaterally. ``There is great skepticism that unilateral actions by the U.S. are likely to do any good,'' he says.
Powell seems to believe that time is running against Saddam. ``The world is going to leave him behind, and that regime behind, as the world marches to new drummers, drummers of democracy and the free enterprise system,'' he said Saturday, with Bush at his side.
At the time of the Persian Gulf War, Powell was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and Richard Cheney, now vice president-elect, was defense secretary.
The efficiency of the American military that Powell and Cheney led was praised widely at the time, but the question still lingers: Why didn't President Bush finish off Saddam when the U.S.-led coalition of forces had him on the ropes?
The reason was that the coalition had a mandate only to liberate Kuwait and not to drive Saddam from power.
Saddam has remained in power and regained stature among Arab countries and some non-Arab countries, too. And with the breakdown of the Middle East peace process, ``outrage in the region is directed at us'' and not Saddam, says Kemp.
Unfazed, Powell says Iraq's feet should be held to the fire. He recommends that U.N. Security Council sanctions be kept in place until Iraq accounts fully for all weapons of mass destruction and other ``evil technologies.''
``We will work with our allies to re-energize the sanctions regime,'' he said. ``We're doing this to protect the peoples of the region, the children of the region, who would be the targets of these weapons of mass destruction if we did not contain them and eliminate them.''
EDITOR'S NOTE -- George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968.
-------- japan
Route of 6th Japanese HLW transport
Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:01:04 +0900
"Citizen's Nuclear Information Center" <cnic-jp@po.iijnet.or.jp>
SHIPMENT ALERT
6th Transportation of Japanese High-Level Radioactive Waste
The ship "Pacific Swan" carrying 192 canisters (8 casks) of Japanese high-level radioactive waste left France on 19 December 8 p.m. French Time (20 Dec. 4 a.m. Japanese Time) and is headed to the high-level waste storage facility located in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture. This is the 6th international marine transportation of Japanese high-level radioactive waste. According to a press release issued by the Tokyo Electric Power Company on 20 Dec. 2000, the ship will take the route around Cape Horn of South America and will arrive in Japan around the end of February 2001.
While certainly the strong statements against the transportation and concerns expressed by the Caribbean countries and Panama influenced the decision to avoid the route via Panama Cannel and the Caribbean Sea, parties involved in the transportation of Japanese radioactive waste (Japanese utilities, French company COGEMA, British Nuclear Fuel plc, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. and the governments of the three countries) claim that all three possible routes will continually remain as options for the transportation of Japanese nuclear materials including spent fuel, high-level waste, and MOX fuel. (see CNIC website http://cnic.jca.apc.org/ for information on possible up-coming shipments)
We encourage all who are concerned over the transportation of Japanese nuclear materials to contact the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japanese utilities, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., and others involved in this matter.
Parties involved in this particular shipment (all Japanese web-sites listed here have English sections):
Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPCO): (tel) +81 (0)3 3279 2180 http://www.fepc.or.jp/
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) : (tel) +81 (0)3 3501 8111 http://www.tepco.co.jp/
Chubu Electric Power Company: (tel) +81 (0)52 951 8211 ttp://www.chuden.co.jp/
Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO): (tel) +81 (0)6 6441 8821 http://www.kepco.co.jp/
Kyushu Electric Power Company: (tel) +81 (0)92 761 3031 http://www.kyuden.co.jp/
Japan Atomic Power Company: (tel) +81 (0)3 3201 6631 http://www.japc.co.jp/
COGEMA: (tel) +33 1 39 26 30 00 http://www.cogema.fr
Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. (PNTL): (tel) +44 (0) 1925 835620
Other contacts:
British Nuclear Fuel plc (BNFL) (tel) +44 1946 728 333 http://www.bnfl.co.uk/
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) (tel) +81 (0)3 3580 3311 http://www.mofa.go.jp/
For more information, contact Gaia Hoerner at CNIC
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center 1-58-15-3F, Higashi-nakano, Nakano-ku,Tokyo, Japan Phone: +81-3-5330-9520 Fax: +81-3-5330-9530 cnic-jp@po.iijnet.or.jp cnic@kiwi.ne.jp cnic@jca.apc.org http://cnic.jca.apc.org/
-------- korea
Clinton Trip to North Korea Is Mired in Transition Politics
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By JANE PERLEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/world/20KORE.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Anxious for a foreign policy victory in its last weeks, the Clinton administration is deciding whether to push ahead toward an agreement with North Korea that would shut down its missile program, which is regarded as a potential threat to the United States.
President Clinton briefed President-elect George W. Bush on the negotiations during a two-hour meeting today at the White House, most of which was spent discussing foreign policy, officials said.
Before their meeting, Mr. Clinton said he "may have a chance to put an end" to the North Korean missile threat. "If we can, I think we should," Mr. Clinton added.
To complete the missile deal, Mr. Clinton would have to go to North Korea in the next 35 days and meet with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, whose dictatorship oversees one of the last Communist redoubts in the world - a secretive nation and one with a dire human rights record.
Senior Bush foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State-designate Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser designate, were briefed by Clinton administration officials in the last several days on the negotiations.
In public, Bush officials said the decision to move ahead was up to Mr. Clinton, and they have remained neutral, neither dissuading nor encouraging the president. Privately, though, Bush foreign policy advisers have been scathing about the notion of Mr. Clinton going to North Korea, calling such a trip grandstanding and unnecessary.
A senior Clinton administration official said today that enough progress had been made with the North Koreans to make a deal tantalizingly close. But he acknowledged significant "gaps" in the negotiations. American and North Korean negotiators have not met face to face since holding talks in Malaysia just before the American election.
At issue for Mr. Clinton is whether he believes he can put a framework on a deal that the Bush administration would be left to brush in with details. The new administration could also choose to repudiate a deal signed by Mr. Clinton.
If Mr. Clinton wins an agreement with the North Koreans that he describes as enforceable, he would be undermining one of the chief rationales that the Bush campaign put forward for its national missile defense program, which is to meant to protect against a limited nuclear attack from possible enemies - specifically North Korea.
The Bush administration could repudiate a missile deal by pressing ahead with full deployment of an expanded national missile defense.
A senior Clinton administration official said today that the decision to push ahead with talks would be based on whether an agreement could "advance the process of serious missile restraint or whether it would be best left for the next administration."
In general, Republicans have been very skeptical of the North Korean government and have consistently questioned how a Stalinist state could be trusted to carry out the destruction of a missile program that has taken most of its funds and its best brains to develop.
A problem for Mr. Clinton as he makes the decision, say his advisers, is that the talks were stalled during the five weeks of election uncertainty in Florida.
Because of the significance of a possible agreement, the national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, wants the new administration to support Mr. Clinton's efforts in North Korea, the officials said.
The administration is in the dark about whether the North Koreans want to deal with Mr. Clinton or prefer to wait for Mr. Bush.
Among the unresolved problems is how the United States would verify a freeze on missile production, which the North Koreans offered during talks in Malaysia.
The North Koreans have declined to specify whether they would destroy the medium- and short-range missiles that they have already deployed. Those missiles can reach Japan and South Korea, both American allies. The South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, who devoted his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize last week to improved north- south relations, has urged Mr. Clinton to go to North Korea.
The administration says the North Koreans have agreed to freeze the development, production and testing of longer-range missiles, which have been considered the major future threat to the United States.
The North Koreans have also agreed to stop exporting missiles to Iran and other countries that have been their clients, the administration said.
Clinton officials appear to be somewhat mindful of not saddling the new administration with an incomplete deal that could become a major headache in the way that the dispatching of 30,000 American soldiers to Somalia by President Bush in the dying days of his tenure turned into a major problem for Mr. Clinton.
If Mr. Clinton goes ahead, he will be striving for what is known as a "framework" agreement, one that would need months of painstaking negotiating later to fill in.
Thus, even if Mr. Clinton found a formula to get verification of a missile production freeze, it would probably be up to Bush officials to negotiate the finer details of inspection.
One of the quandaries for President Clinton, says one of his foreign policy advisers, is North Korea's demand that Mr. Clinton go there to nail down an accord. The White House is aware that just by arriving in North Korea, Mr. Clinton would be fulfilling much of the North Korean agenda, officials say.
So administration officials say they want a deal written first, with only the signatures to be added.
Whether to send an advance trip will be decided by Mr. Clinton this week, the senior administration official said.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Missile Defense?
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, December 20, 2000
THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.iht.com/articles/4839.htm
The incoming Bush administration risks making an early mistake if it rushes to build a national missile defense. A hasty move in this area could quickly deplete the goodwill generally accorded a new president by foreign leaders, especially those of Russia, China and Washington's main European allies. George W. Bush should instead expand research and testing to determine what kind of defensive shield can best meet America's security needs.
A reliable anti-missile system could protect the United States against the future threat of nuclear missile attack from unpredictable nations like North Korea, Iraq and Iran. American intelligence agencies predict that North Korea could have the capacity to launch a handful of nuclear-tipped long-range missiles within five years and that Iraq and Iran could reach that point within a decade.
No workable shield now exists. The prototype interceptor missile developed by the Clinton administration has so far proved highly unreliable in tests. Mr. Bush and his advisers made clear during the presidential campaign that they considered the Clinton system flawed and inadequate. They promised to consider a variety of other technologies, including sea-based and space-based systems as well as the current land-based model.
Any of those alternative approaches would require rigorous study and testing before construction commences. While that evaluation proceeds, Mr. Bush's new foreign policy team should try to persuade skeptical countries that a limited defensive system can be built without wrecking existing arms control treaties or setting off a destructive new arms race.
Their biggest hurdle will be overcoming Russia's current refusal to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to permit limited national missile defenses. The ABM Treaty has been a keystone of the arms control efforts of the last three decades. If America abruptly withdraws from that treaty to build a defensive system, other agreements might begin to unravel, including the two primary nuclear arms reduction treaties signed by Mr. Bush's father at the end of the Cold War.
Those two treaties provide for a two thirds reduction in both sides' nuclear arsenals from their mid-1980s peak and for a total elimination of Russia's land-based, multiple-warhead missiles, Moscow's most dangerous weapons. Already progress in carry ing out the second of these treaties has been held up by disputes over missile defense rules.
China fears that even a limited U.S. missile shield might be able to deflect Beijing's small force of long-range nuclear missiles. In response, China, which is not bound by any nuclear arms limitation agreement with Washington, could be tempted to build hundreds of new intercontinental missiles.
The European allies of the United States do not wish to see the revival of a costly arms race.
Mr. Bush's foreign policy advisers have been around Washington long enough to know that few initial steps would be more divisive abroad than a decision to move ahead with installation of a missile defense system. Colin Powell, the prospective secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice, the future national security adviser, also recognize that construction of even a limited system would cost tens of billions of dollars. Until the technology is perfected, there is no point in incurring these diplomatic and financial costs.
---
Lots of rubles
December 20, 2000
Washington Times
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin
Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm
An embarrassed State Department is still searching for a missing laptop computer containing top-secret files on foreign nuclear capabilities. Now, a reward has now been posted on "B-NET," the State Department's in-house television network:
"A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the recovery of a black Dell laptop computer with a five-digit serial number ending in the letter 'Q' located on a sticker in the back near the ports. Call Diplomatic Security at 202-647-7277."
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Nuclear Power's Second Act
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/business/20NUKE.html?pagewanted=all
VERNON, Vt. - Nobody has ordered a new nuclear plant in this country in more than 20 years, but rising demand for electricity and prices for natural gas are forestalling extinction and giving aging reactors a new lease on life. Consider Vermont Yankee, on the banks of the Connecticut River here.
For years many people thought that the plant was at death's door. It is one of the oldest nuclear reactors that is still operating in the United States. The core shroud, a crucial internal part that holds the fuel in place and channels cooling water, is showing damage from age. The owners are short of money.
But now a bidding war is brewing among three eager buyers, and financial analysts say the winner is likely to invest even more to seek to extend its operating license for decades and possibly to raise its power output.
Similar decisions have quietly transformed dozens of plants around the country. While no one expects any American utility to order a new nuclear plant in the foreseeable future, the overall effect is a much-improved prospect for the long-battered industry.
Several factors are helping to turn nuclear white elephants into valuable heirlooms. The price of natural gas, the main source for new generation, has quadrupled in the last year. The market price of electricity has soared under deregulation, and the growing economy has led to shortages of generating capacity.
"Suddenly people realize that you can actually make money with these plants," said Ted Marston, the chief nuclear officer at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research consortium in Palo Alto, Calif., that has helped utilities obtain license renewals beyond the initial 40 years for which they were approved.
In March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a 20-year extension on a twin-reactor plant in Maryland, Calvert Cliffs, which is now owned by the Constellation Energy Group. Two months later, it did the same for the three-reactor Oconee plant, owned by Duke Energy, in South Carolina.
Since then, Mr. Marston said, the market value of nuclear reactors has increased tenfold.
The effect is visible here. In October 1999, the AmerGen Energy Company, a partnership between the PECO Energy Company, the parent of Philadelphia Electric and itself a unit of the Exelon Corporation, and British Energy, made a $23.5 million bid in a battle for Vermont Yankee.
But the state Department of Public Service, which represents the interests of energy consumers, said the price was too low, helping kill the deal. AmerGen is now offering more than $93 million, but a second company, the Entergy Corporation, based in New Orleans, has indicated it will offer more. Entergy recently announced a merger with the FPL Group, parent company of Florida Power and Light, which would create the nation's largest electric utility.
The Vermont Public Service board has told Entergy to file a bid by Jan. 12, and told the plant to cooperate with the company in due diligence. The board also told two other companies, Dominion, based in Virginia, which has expressed interest, and Constellation Nuclear, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy, that it would offer them similar accommodations.
The companies say they want to buy up reactors around the country, and through economies of scale and their extensive nuclear experience, run them better and make more money from their operations. AmerGen has already bought Three Mile Island 1, the undamaged twin of the reactor near Harrisburg, Pa., that experienced the nation's worst nuclear accident. It has also acquired Clinton, in southern Illinois, and Oyster Creek, in Toms River, N.J. Entergy has a deal to buy Nine Mile Point 2 and James A. FitzPatrick, near Scriba, N.Y., and Indian Point 3, in Buchanan, N.Y.
While Vermont Yankee has not yet applied for a license extension - its license is good until 2012, and the sellers are leaving that to a new owner - applications have been approved or submitted for about a third of the nation's 103 surviving reactors. In addition, in the last decade, 57 reactors have quietly received the commission's permission to increase heat output and thus electric production, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association in Washington. Some did it more than once. The capacity increase totals 2,200 megawatts, which is the equivalent of adding two huge reactors.
The independent company that owns Vermont Yankee says output could probably be raised by 15 percent at a cost of about $200 for every kilowatt of additional capacity, which is far cheaper than a kilowatt of capacity at a new natural gas plant. Making the investment only makes sense, though, if the owner believes that the plant will run for more than a few years.
The higher prices for reactors have pushed them roughly into the range of prices for fossil fuel plants, and do not approach a level that would lead to new nuclear construction. Still, it is a sharp turnaround from the idea that nuclear power would be phased out almost entirely over the next 10 or 15 years.
The recovery is visible not only on the balance sheet but in improved operations. Vermont Yankee, for example, now shuts for refueling once every 18 months, and finished the job in 1999 in 34 days. In the 1970's and 1980's, it would shut down every year, for 60 or 70 days.
"We did it under budget, under dose and under days," said Joseph P. Cox, who schedules engineering work at the plant, meaning that money, radiation exposure and time are all carefully watched.
And 28 years into its lifetime, "we're hitting the top of our game," said Michael Balduzzi, vice president for operations.
In the early days, emergency shut- downs came every couple of months or so; now they are so infrequent plant managers remember each one, and every manual shutdown. The last shutdown was in August. Before that, Vermont Yankee ran 285 days uninterrupted. The run before that was 372 days, a plant record.
The result of more powerful plants running more days of the year is that a reduced number of reactors is producing more and more power; in 1999, the 103 reactors produced more power than the whole industry did in the early 1990's, when the number of plants peaked at 110.
The turnaround has stunned opponents, like Debbie Katz, who lives in Rowe, Mass., near the now closed Yankee Rowe plant. Yankee Rowe was one of the four Yankee reactors built by New England utilities, with overlapping ownership and some shared engineering services; she expected them all to close. The other three did. And she pointed out that in 1992, Shearson Lehman Brothers predicted that within 10 years, 25 reactors could face closing because they were not economically viable.
Ms. Katz now tours Vermont with a camper emblazoned with the words, "No Nukes," and painted with the propeller-shaped logo that is the international symbol of radiation. In a reference to AmerGen's British partner, the sign also has a silhouette of Paul Revere on his midnight ride of warning.
Like many nuclear opponents, she was counting on nuclear power to fail the economic test. But deregulation, combined with the recent electricity shortage, has given the industry new life instead. "These reactors they are selling would have closed," she said. Speaking of the wild price swings, she said, "This is such a destabilized situation, it's like being in the Wild West all over again."
Ms. Katz and others say the sales of old plants are putting the job of decommissioning - for which money has already been set aside - into the hands of companies focused on profit, not safety; she likened it to an unscrupulous fortune-hunter marrying a rich widow and soon burying her cheaply.
Critics say the idea of a 60-year-old reactor makes them nervous. Vermont Yankee's shroud, a barrel- shaped structure around the fuel that directs the flow of water being boiled into steam, shows damage in places that were heated during welding. Metallurgists have diagnosed something called intergranular stress corrosion cracking, a process not understood when the part was made in the 1960's. They have added reinforcing rods around it.
But engineers, managers and operators insist that simple age is no barrier to performance.
"They have B-52's flying around that were flown by the pilots' grandfathers," said Michael G. Laporte, a work management supervisor here. A 20-year extension might make the same true for Yankee Rowe.
The owners have spent tens of millions of dollars modernizing and re-analyzing in order to address safety concerns. The control room is now full of digital readouts and a monitoring system that runs on Gateway personal computers, undreamed of in 1966, when work here began.
But Vermont Yankee and other plants still face problems, such as how to store the spent fuel, which is kept in a pool that will be full in 2008.
Immediate neighbors like the plant. "We've always been careful to watch it, but it is very, very well run, and a safe plant," said Patricia O'Donnell, who represents Vernon in the state House of Representatives and is also one of the five members of the Board of Selectmen, the town's executive body. Mrs. O'Donnell expressed her confidence from behind the counter at the clerk's office in town hall, a solid brick building that also houses a spacious library, less than a mile from the reactor that paid for it. The plant is 73 percent of the local property tax base. It is comforting to many here that the goose that lays the golden eggs may not, in fact, be getting too old yet.
In Brattleboro, William L. Morse saw it a little differently. His brother- in-law has worked at Vermont Yankee, Mr. Morse said, and in general, nuclear power "doesn't bother me any." Mr. Morse is the proprietor of Earth's Treasures, which sells Native American arts and crafts to tourists, and the shop is adjacent to one gasoline station and across the street from another, probably more of a hazard than the reactor down the road, he said.
But pondering the idea of running it for 20 years beyond its 40-year license, he said that they "better have a big shutdown and go through it really carefully."
"You hear people say, `They closed those other plants down,' " he said. "Why run this one?"
-------- us nuc politics
Bush pays visit to White House
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Wed, 20 Dec 2000 4:15 ADST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-20dec2000-10.htm
President-elect George W Bush kicked off a meeting with President Bill Clinton at the White House that was to focus on the challenges he will face on assuming power.
Mr Bush defeated Vice-President Al Gore after a bitter 36-day battle over the November 7 election results in Florida. The two rivals were to meet at Mr Gore's official residence later on Tuesday.
"It's such a huge honor to come as the president elect ... I am humbled and honored and I can't thank the president enough," Mr Bush said of the traditional meeting.
Mr Clinton - who received the same courtesy from outgoing president George Bush, the president-elect's father, after the 1992 elections - said one of the key challenges he hoped to address was policy towards North Korea.
"When I had this meeting eight years ago with the president-elect's father, he told me the biggest problem we were facing was the nuclear program in North Korea, and we were able to build on the work they had done and put an end to that.
"Now the big problem there is the missile program. We may have a chance to put an end to it. And if we can, I think we should."
"This is something that I want to consult with the president-elect and his team about, and we'll see what the facts are. And I'll try to do what's best for the country," said Mr Clinton, who is considering a landmark visit to the Stalinist state.
---
THE POWER INDUSTRY
Bush in Deep Waters on Energy Policy
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and NEELA BANERJEE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/politics/20ENER.html?pagewanted=all
AUSTIN, Tex., Dec. 19 - With natural gas prices at an all-time high and Americans facing power shortages in some states, President-elect George W. Bush's plans for an energy policy have started to receive close scrutiny.
His most controversial idea during the campaign - opening Alaskan wilderness to drilling - has enraged environmental advocates. And debate over the drilling has overshadowed other ideas Mr. Bush is considering that could have much wider impacts on energy supplies and the environment.
Mr. Bush has never presented much of a detailed plan. Some in the energy industry hope he will take specific steps to open federal land in the lower 48 states for energy exploration, particularly for natural gas.
Industry officials said they also expected him to take steps to rejuvenate coal and nuclear power while considering ways to curb the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies, making it easier for energy companies to build power plants, refineries, natural gas pipelines and transmission lines.
"Stimulating natural gas production is probably the No. 1 thing" on his energy agenda, a Bush adviser said.
In his visit with Congressional leaders this week in Washington, Mr. Bush emphasized energy as well as tax cuts. "We must be concerned about shortages and at the same time, obviously, concerned about conservation," he said on Monday.
Mr. Bush did not talk about specific pieces of energy legislation in the meetings. But once in office, Ari Fleischer, the Bush transition spokesman, said, he plans to direct the Energy Department to review federal lands currently off limits for drilling.
Officials cite projections that such land could contain up to 137 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to supply the United States for six years.
Robert J. Allison Jr., chairman and chief executive of the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in Houston, said, "A lot of federal lands are off limits in a way that doesn't make sense and that can be developed in an environmentally friendly way."
"The most important thing," Mr. Allison said, "is that we have access to places to drill."
Natural gas fuels more than 90 percent of the nation's new electric- power generation plants. This year, high prices and low supplies have contributed to the threatened blackouts and high power prices in California and other Western states.
Oil and gas companies want to drill on millions of acres of federally protected lands in the Rocky Mountains, and there are significant deposits of natural gas and, to a lesser extent, oil, off the northern coast of California, the Carolinas, Florida and New England.
Mr. Bush has promised to oppose new drilling in the outer continental shelf of states that object, like California and Florida, said Senator John B. Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana, who met with Mr. Bush in Austin, Tex., last week, and for a time had been considered a candidate for energy secretary.
"The impression I have from talking to Mr. Bush," Mr. Breaux said, "is that he feels we do not have a national energy policy that is focused on developing our domestic resources. He wants to move in a lot of areas."
But some industry experts say it would be wrong to place too emphasis on finding gas and oil.
Lawrence Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, said, "We're increasingly dependent on a single source of fuel, natural gas, for power plants, and what's happening in California could be happening in the Northeast."
Mr. Goldstein and other industry officials said that a Bush administration might be more willing to focus on nuclear and coal as fuel sources.
Continued high energy prices may improve political support for new gas drilling in some states, but winning approval to open 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be difficult, should Mr. Bush choose to pursue it.
Republicans on Capitol Hill said the spike in energy prices had bolstered public opinion toward opening the reserve, but they were still not certain Congress would approve it.
Industry officials also said Mr. Bush was expected to balance the needs of energy production and the environment more fairly than the Clinton administration did, but environmental advocates fear he will go too far.
Dan Becker of the Sierra Club in Washington, said, "There's a lot of oil out by Santa Barbara, but do you want to run the risk of ruining the coast of California while you search for it?"
Mr. Fleischer said Mr. Bush would be sensitive to environmental concerns, and added, "We recognize there will be from some an attempt to create controversy, but America cannot afford to be put through another energy crisis."
With the problems in California, some consumer advocates have talked about re-regulating electric utilities and trying to cap natural gas prices.
But Curtis L. Hébert Jr., the only Republican on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a candidate for the chairmanship, attributes California's problems to excessive regulations that stymied construction of power plants. New price caps would only discourage construction, Mr. Hébert said.
The $150 per megawatt-hour price caps recently instituted in California will come under review again in four months, industry analysts said, and that may prove a test of the Bush administration's approach to deregulation.
---
Environmentalists Warn of Voinovich
New York Times
December 20, 2000 Filed at 5:31 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Clean-Air-Swap.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Environmentalists are sounding alarms over the prospect of Ohio Sen. George Voinovich overseeing the retooling the Clean Air Act through a new committee position.
``With Senator Voinovich in that position, the Clean Air Act will clearly be in jeopardy,'' Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Trust said Wednesday.
At the request of Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Voinovich will take over the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's subcommittee on clean air, wetlands, private property and nuclear safety, now headed by the more senior Inhofe.
Inhofe, who will assume the gavel of the transportation and infrastructure subcommittee, said it will put him in a better position to influence important transportation issues, including changing the system for distributing gasoline tax money to the states and gaining support for an Oklahoma project.
While Ohio's governor, Voinovich aggressively lobbied against plans to tighten air standards under the Clean Air Act, the nation's main air pollution law.
He clashed with New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman -- who may be in charge of all pollution issues as head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Bush administration. Whitman wanted the federal government to crack down on pollution blowing from the Midwest to Northeast states like hers.
Earlier this year, O'Donnell's group labeled Voinovich a ``clean air villain'' for trying to require the government to start considering the costs to polluters of any new air standards.
``With that bill, he wanted to rip the lungs out of the Clean Air Act,'' said Paul G. Billings, the American Lung Association vice president of governmental relations.
As for Voinovich's new chairmanship, ``We're not sure what it means for clean air,'' Billings said. ``It's of great concern. We trust health researchers and doctors to tell us when the air is dirty, not economists and their models.''
Environmental lobbyists said Voinovich will bring to the subcommittee a different style than Inhofe, but not a different philosophy.
``Inhofe was very blunt about his views of the Clean Air Act. Voinovich is more subtle. But they both have the same basic views,'' said Ed Hopkins of the Sierra club. ``I fear that the Voinovich approach will be more effective than the Inhofe sledgehammer approach in gutting the Clean Air Act.''
O'Donnell agreed.
``Voinovich is much smarter, probably much more focused and more effective,'' O'Donnell said. ``From a clean air standpoint, Voinovich is probably more dangerous than Inhofe.''
Voinovich's press secretary, Scott Milburn, noted that the senator worked closely with environmental groups, including some that had criticized him in the past, during the crafting of landmark legislation to protect the Everglades.
``I think that experience with him is going to cause a lot of people to reevaluate,'' said Milburn. ``He wants to get where they want to be, he just wants to do it in a fiscally responsible way.''
Hopkins verified the Sierra Club's positive experience with Voinovich, but said the Everglades work had to be viewed alongside the senator's long history of concern for the financial burdens of coal-burning power plants.
``If you didn't know anything about Senator Voinovich other than his Everglades record, there would be no reason to be concerned about this (new chairmanship), but Senator Voinovich has a history of advocacy for weakening regulation of both air and water,'' he said.
Voinovich's bill, which died with the end of the Senate session, would have required the EPA to examine costs against benefits when setting anti-pollution standards for those plants and other smokestack industries. Current law requires the government to look only at health risks before acting.
The gavel swap will take effect in January, when the new congressional session begins.
---
THE PRESIDENT-ELECT
A 'Humbled' Bush Visits His New Home
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By ADAM CLYMER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/politics/20BUSH.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - President-elect George W. Bush today carried out a core ritual of the transition of power, calling in person on the chief executive he will succeed and later on the candidate he defeated.
Mr. Bush met for nearly two hours at the White House with President Clinton, almost all of it spent discussing foreign policy, including the possibility of Mr. Clinton's visiting North Korea before the end of his term if a deal to limit that nation's missile program can be reached.
First the two men held a brief exchange with reporters in which Mr. Clinton said he did not think the economy would lapse into a recession, challenging the worries voiced in recent days by his guest. Mr. Bush said he was "humbled and honored" to be in the Oval Office, where his father served, and looked forward to Mr. Clinton's advice.
Mr. Bush had in fact campaigned against both Mr. Clinton, promising repeatedly to "restore honor and dignity to the White House," and Vice President Al Gore, whom he later met for less than 20 minutes at another house where his parents had lived in Washington, the official vice- presidential residence at the Naval Observatory.
Mr. Bush said nothing at all to reporters there, and Mr. Gore said simply that "we're going to have a private discussion." The vice president's press aide, Jim Kennedy, later called the meeting "cordial" and said Mr. Gore viewed it as a chance to "demonstrate that this is a country where we put aside our differences after a long and difficult campaign and join together in support of the person who will be the next president."
Mr. Bush then left the capital in a snowstorm to return to Austin, where on Wednesday he plans to announce the selection of his longtime friend and campaign chairman, Donald L. Evans, as secretary of commerce.
The Bush advisers who confirmed the long-expected choice of Mr. Evans also said Mel Martinez, a Cuban refugee who is chairman of Orange County, Fla. - that is, the chief executive of county government - had been chosen to be secretary of housing and urban development. The announcement of Mr. Martinez's selection is also possible on Wednesday, as are others, perhaps including that of Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mr. Bush will also move ahead this week on three policy fronts, holding meetings in Texas on how to involve religious organizations in more government programs for the needy, which was the theme of his first policy speech during the presidential campaign; on education legislation, which he has said will be the first measure he sends to Congress; and on agriculture.
Ari Fleischer, the Bush spokesman who announced those meetings, said the education discussions were intended to produce "a package that we can enact into law."
Mr. Fleischer said Mr. Bush would meet in Austin on Thursday morning "with the bipartisan leaders of the education committees" of Congress. But the partial list of participants he released, though including Republicans who hold or are contending for leadership, named no such Democrats.
For example, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, James M. Jeffords, Republican of Vermont, was invited. But a spokesman for the committee's senior Democrat, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said he had not been asked.
Invitations were extended to two Democratic senators, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Zell Miller of Georgia, former governors who served simultaneously in that role with Mr. Bush. Mr. Bayh was a leader last year in an unsuccessful effort to strike a compromise on federal aid to schools in poor areas, a measure that got 13 Democratic votes but no support from Republicans, who felt it did not go far enough toward block grants.
From the House, the three Republican contenders for chairmanship of the Committee on Education and the Workforce - Representatives Tom Petri of Wisconsin, John A. Boehner of Ohio and Peter Hoekstra of Michigan - will attend. But George Miller of California, the committee's senior Democrat, was not asked, according to his spokesman, Daniel Weiss. Two other, more centrist Democrats on the committee, Representatives Tim Roemer of Indiana and Robert E. Andrews of New Jersey, will be going.
Neither Senator Kennedy nor Congressman Miller offered any complaints, but Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the second- ranking Democrat on the Senate committee, said it was a mistake for Mr. Bush not to invite Mr. Kennedy.
"I applaud him for holding a meeting - a positive gesture, and I commend him for it," Mr. Dodd said. "But the gesture is incomplete if you're not going to have a full table. It is not a good first signal."
The Bush camp had no comment on how various participants had been chosen.
This meeting with lawmakers on Thursday morning will be followed, Mr. Fleischer said, by a bipartisan meeting that afternoon "with a group of Latino leaders," also to talk about education. Mr. Fleischer said that "we may, or may not," have a choice for secretary of education by then.
On Wednesday afternoon, after the announcement of Mr. Evans as commerce secretary, Mr. Bush will meet with a group of religious leaders and former Mayor Steve Goldsmith of Indianapolis. Mr. Fleischer said that federal law now imposed severe limits on the aid programs in which "faith-based organizations" can participate and that Mr. Bush wanted to remove those barriers and involve "the armies of compassion" in helping the needy. He said that "it's a wonderful way to help people who need a helping hand in America."
Then on Friday, Mr. Fleischer said, leaders from all sectors of the farm economy will meet in Texas with Mr. Bush.
For the president-elect, the visit to the White House today stirred memories. As he entered the building, he greeted a group of permanent staff members, including ushers and doctors, who were there when his father was president, from 1989 to 1993.
Because of the Florida election disputes, the meeting today, six weeks after Election Day, came much later than the usual meeting between a departing president and the president-elect.
When Mr. Clinton called on President George Bush on Nov. 18, 1992, it was just two weeks past Election Day. That meeting itself apparently went smoothly - the president-elect called it "terrific" - although staff members of the two camps were hardly cordial toward each other, with Bush aides shooing reporters when Dee Dee Myers, Mr. Clinton's press secretary, tried to talk to them.
Television cameras then were allowed to record only the arrival. Today they were present as the two leaders sat before the unlighted fireplace in the Oval Office.
Dealing with North Korea, a topic that came up at length in the later private meeting along with Russia, China and the Middle East, Mr. Clinton told reporters: "When I had this meeting eight years ago with the president-elect's father, he told me that the biggest problem we were facing was the nuclear program in North Korea, and we were able to build on the work they had done and put an end to that. And now the big problem there is the missile program. We may have a chance to put an end to that, and if we can, I think we should."
Asked what he would tell Mr. Bush was now the greatest problem facing the nation, Mr. Clinton said: "I want to talk to him, not you. He can talk about that."
Then the president added, "I waited eight years to say that."
---
THE PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR
Bush Appears to Bypass a Moderate Ally Again
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/politics/20RIDG.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Last April, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas offered a glowing assessment of Gov. Tom Ridge in a visit to Mr. Ridge's home state, Pennsylvania.
"I like him a lot," Mr. Bush said after a night at the Governor's Mansion in Harrisburg. "I like his judgment. I respect his record." And he added that he would be considering Mr. Ridge as a running mate.
Those words unleashed a wave of speculation about Mr. Ridge's future that continued until Mr. Bush selected Dick Cheney as his running mate and that began anew last month with talk of Mr. Ridge as secretary of defense.
But it now appears almost certain that with the Pentagon, as with the vice presidency, Mr. Bush has passed over Mr. Ridge after allowing speculation about him to heat up to a boil. And as with the vice presidency, it appears Mr. Bush has chosen a more conservative candidate than Mr. Ridge: former Senator Daniel R. Coats of Indiana.
That news triggered some unhappy questioning today among moderate Republicans. If Mr. Bush likes Mr. Ridge so much, they asked, why is he not bringing him into his administration? Could it be Mr. Ridge's centrist positions, particularly on abortion?
"I think it's unfortunate if Governor Ridge is being bypassed because he's a moderate," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania. "How are we going to have bipartisanship with the Democrats, when the Senate is 50-50 and the House is almost evenly split, if we are going to apply litmus tests to moderate Republicans?"
But Republicans inside and outside the Bush-Cheney transition team said today that abortion played at most a minor role in the Bush team's considerations of Mr. Ridge. More important, they said, were Mr. Ridge's voting record on military issues in Congress a decade ago, Mr. Coats's strong support among Republican leaders in Congress and Mr. Ridge's own hesitancy about leaving Pennsylvania.
"Vice President-elect Cheney has made it quite clear that Governor Ridge himself took himself out of running for that post," said Juleanna Glover Weiss, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bush. "So speculation that he had been crossed off the list for other reasons is just nonsense."
Tim Reeves, Mr. Ridge's spokesman, said today that Mr. Cheney called Mr. Ridge while he was on a trade mission to Santiago, Chile, early this month to broach the subject of a cabinet position. Mr. Ridge told him then, and in a follow-up phone call, that he was not prepared to move his family out of Pennsylvania.
But upon his return from Chile, Mr. Ridge seemed to reopen the door to a cabinet job, telling a reporter, "If I'm asked, I'd have to consider it. The answer might be no, but I haven't been asked yet."
Mr. Reeves now says Mr. Ridge was saying that if Mr. Bush implored him to accept a position, he would have to consider it.
He also noted that the Pennsylvania governor, a decorated Vietnam veteran and Harvard graduate who was widely considered a rising star in the Republican Party and did not mind having his named bandied about as a potential secretary of defense, even though he did not want the job.
"He joked about wanting to clip those articles out and send them to his mom," Mr. Reeves said. "It was flattering, and he was honored to be talked about in that way. But it did not cause him to rethink his decision."
There has been much talk in Republican circles that Mr. Ridge had the support of Gen. Colin L. Powell, Mr. Bush's designee for secretary of state, but was opposed by Mr. Cheney, who was pushing for Mr. Coats or Paul D. Wolfowitz, a former Pentagon official under Mr. Cheney. General Powell's office did not return calls seeking comment today.
But Mr. Cheney has called speculation about a battle between him and General Powell over the Pentagon post "so much Washington hype."
Still, conservative analysts said today that there was good reason to oppose Mr. Ridge if he was indeed allied with Mr. Powell, who is also widely viewed as a moderate.
"What concerns me is that you would have a dominant personality" at the State Department, which could diminish the Pentagon, said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, a defense analysis group.
Mr. Gaffney and an array of other conservative analysts have also raised a host of concerns about Mr. Ridge's positions on defense issues. They said that as a member of Congress from 1983 to 1994, Mr. Ridge voted to reduce spending on a missile defense system and to abolish the MX missile and opposed financing the contra rebels in Nicaragua.
"The fact that Bush is going with Coats," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, "makes conservatives very, very happy with George Bush."
For that very reason, some political analysts speculated today that Bush aides floated Mr. Ridge's name simply to make the selection of Mr. Coats seem all the more appealing to conservatives.
But allies of Mr. Ridge said they believed that the Pennsylvania governor was still in the running for other cabinet posts, including transportation and education.
"Ridge has been a strong governor in a tough state," said Scott Reed, a Republican political consultant. "He would be a huge asset to the Bush team in 2004."
---
Sankei newspaper, Tokyo, on Bush's nomination for secretary of state:
Associated Press
December 20, 2000 Filed at 3:29 p.m. ET
Editorial Roundup
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Editorial-Rdp.html?pagewanted=all
Excerpts from editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
President-elect George W. Bush's appointment of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, as secretary of state and former provost of Stanford University, Condoleezza Rice, as his national security adviser is unprecedented.
It is the first time ever that a black American will be secretary of state and that a woman will (be) national security adviser.
Powell and Rice are likely to bring strong leadership to the new administration's foreign policy team, a plus for Bush, who lacks experience in international affairs.
There are already signs that Bush's foreign policies toward China and Russia and over U.S. military involvement in Bosnia will differ from President Bill Clinton's. Powell also has said he is for a National Missile Defense system to protect the U.S. mainland from missile attack and a more limited Theater Missile Defense to safeguard U.S. forces and allies in Asia.
We hope that Bush, with his two new advisers, will engage the U.S. in -- not isolate it from -- world diplomacy, and will work toward building a new world order.
-------- us nuc waste
YUCCA MOUNTAIN:
Site at heart of nomination opposition, controversial memo
Wed, 20 Dec 2000 18:24:44 -0800
Greenwire, December 20, 2000, Item #9
Colin Sullivan, Greenwire staff writer
Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday he will use all his power to block the nomination of former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) as secretary of Energy should President-elect Bush decide to tap the former Senate Energy Committee chairman for the job. Reid's opposition has everything to do with Johnston's pro-nuclear power stance and, more specifically, the likelihood the former senator would support locating a federal nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
At a press conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Reid and several environmental groups declared a Johnston nomination tantamount to war on the environment and environmentalists. Though he considers Johnston a personal friend, Reid said he called the former senator Tuesday morning to let him know how passionately he plans to oppose his potential nomination.
"If Bush is appointing Johnston, we should be very afraid," Reid said. "I called [Johnston] personally to say this: I'm going to do everything I can to keep you from getting this job."
Though he could not be reached for comment Tuesday, Johnston has expressed interest in the position and is reportedly mulling it over. After meeting with Bush last week, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) apparently turned down the job offer but then recommended Johnston.
Reid and the Nevada congressional delegation, meantime, are facing the likelihood of another pitched battle next year over Yucca Mountain nuclear storage. Their ace-in-the-hole in similar congressional battles over the last eight years, Reid admits, has been the Clinton administration's firm opposition to transporting nuclear waste to the federal site in Nevada, at least until the site is proven safe; President Clinton vetoed several bills meant to expedite use of the storage site.
But now Nevadans will have to contend with the Bush administration, which could have Yucca ready and operational as soon as six to eight months after Inauguration Day, according to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). Bush has said he will support moving nuclear waste to the DOE site if the plan is based on sound science.
Though it is unclear whether another Yucca bill will come up in Congress this year pending DOE's final licensing assessment of the site, it does seem likely to surface again if the department further delays final licensing or if the Environmental Protection Agency manages to block final licensing through implementation of strict groundwater radiation standards. Both issues are still up in the air, not to mention a possible $80-billion lawsuit against the federal government by nuclear utilities if licensing of the site is further delayed.
Further complicating the matter will be the new 50-50 split in the Senate. Though an aide to Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) said it is too soon to say how that split will affect the issue, one Hill source indicated Reid will again be the key obstruction, especially if he manages to convince new Senate Democrats to back his opposition to the Yucca site.
With that pending conflict as backdrop, a separate matter related to Yucca surfaced Tuesday as the Nevada delegation called for a federal investigation into an alleged bias within DOE that favors the nuclear industry.
The delegation and a number of green groups, including Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, claim a recently leaked memorandum from DOE's Yucca Mountain contractor, the TRW company, proves the department is biased in favor of the proposed waste repository. DOE is supposed to be conducting an objective scientific analysis to assess whether the site is safe, meaning any predisposition toward approving the site means the department is biased and unfair, the groups claim.
The undated TRW memo, which was released to the media, outlines information the director of the contracting project might use to influence the DOE secretary to recommend the site. That contractor was paid "hundreds of millions of dollars" to complete an objective report that looks at what is good and bad about Yucca Mountain, Reid said. But instead of honoring that ethical commitment, he continued, the contractor turned around and conducted an unscientific analysis meant to produce a desired result: a recommendation that the program move forward.
"An honest scientific review of Yucca Mountain has not happened," Reid said.
Largely because of the memo, which was leaked by an anonymous source within either DOE or TRW, the DOE inspector general (IG) has already agreed to conduct an investigation. Reid has also requested a formal inquiry by the General Accounting Office. On Dec. 8, with the support of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Reid requested the IG investigation. That inquiry has since been approved and officially started Tuesday.
TRW denies any impropriety and says all scientific evaluations have been conducted in "an open and objective fashion."
"Our team stands behind its work and is confident that, in the end, the IG will find no bias on the part of DOE or the contractor team," said Marynoele Benson, a TRW spokesperson.
Kalynda Tilges Nuclear Issues Coordinator Citizen Alert - Las Vegas P.O.Box 17173 Las Vegas, NV 89114 702-796-5662 702-796-4886 fax Kalynda@hotmail.com <http://citizenalert.org>
Citizen Alert - "A voice for the land and people of Nevada"
---
Mayor lends name to anti-Yucca letter
Wed, 20 Dec 2000 08:03:16 -0800
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository
By Mary Manning <manning@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman today joined more than 100 environmental groups in demanding that Nevada's Yucca Mountain be disqualified as the site for the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository.
Goodman was to appear at 11 a.m. today at City Hall plaza with Citizen Alert, Nevada Desert Experience and other environmental groups. Linked to the Las Vegas gathering was a press conference in Washington this morning by Nevada lawmakers and national and international organizations opposing the Yucca site.
"Today we are here to raise another red flag about another potential nuclear disaster," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said this morning.
In a group letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, environmentalists asked that he disqualify Yucca on scientific grounds.
The letter was written after a copyrighted article in the Las Vegas Sun on Dec. 1 reported that an Energy Department document prepared by a Yucca Mountain contractor appeared to favor the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. By law, the DOE is required to remain neutral during the site-selection process.
In that story, Ivan Itkin, the DOE's nuclear waste director, acknowledged that he is ready to recommend Yucca Mountain as a safe site to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.
Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied as the nation's radioactive waste repository.
Groups from 35 states signed the letter. Their main objection involved water found 1,000 feet underneath Yucca Mountain that tests showed was 50 years old or younger. This proves, the groups said, that the mountain is unfit to contain wastes for 10,000 years. Ground water could corrode the buried casks containing the wastes, meaning that radioactivity could escape to the outside environment within decades.
Ground water 1,000 feet below Yucca Mountain sampled three years ago by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists was found to contain chlorine-36, a radioactive isotope that rode the winds from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean during the 1950s. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists are conducting more tests to confirm the findings.
Because the bomb tests were only 50 years ago, and because the water was found 1,000 feet below the surface, the environmental groups say they are convinced, even without further studies, that water moves too fast through the mountain's fractures and faults to serve as a nuclear waste repository.
Goodman was the first public official to sign the group letter. Citizen Alert of Nevada, the Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Indian tribes and a group from Japan also signed it.
"We have urged you, Secretary Richardson, to disqualify the site for safety reasons," the letter said. "DOE has proven itself disingenuous."
DOE's guidelines for a repository forbid water moving into the site in less than 1,000 years.
Water could corrode the containers holding the wastes, releasing radioactivity into the environment, said Michael Mariotte, director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Washington-based clearinghouse for information on the nuclear industry.
"American citizens realize that it doesn't make sense to transport nuclear waste across the country to a site that is fatally flawed," Mariotte said today at the Washington press conference.
The group letter also noted that DOE's review of environmental effects ignores the transportation of hundreds of thousands of shipments of highly radioactive wastes through 43 states, as well as the 36 recognized earthquake faults at Yucca Mountain, possible volcanic eruptions and the possibility of water flooding the repository.
The Dec. 1 story reported the contents of a 60-page draft report that DOE is supposed to give Congress by the end of this year or early next year. A two-page memo attached to the report, written by a DOE contractor, said: "The overview (the draft report) provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation.
"Suitability of the site is less of a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms," the memo says.
Reid called the memo another "scandalous episode" in the Yucca site study process and said the memo was evidence of a "secret marriage" between DOE and its contractors.
"What the secret memo said in effect was, 'All those people who oppose Yucca Mountain: here's how you handle them,' " Reid said.
Signers of the group letter say "No compromise is acceptable."
"An unsuitable site should not be used for high-level nuclear waste disposal," the letter says. "If Yucca Mountain cannot meet stringent safety standards, it must be disqualified."
In another Yucca Mountain development, the Clark County Commission voted today to approve a public information campaign for Southern Nevada residents. The campaign will emphasize the dangers of a nuclear waste repository to the Las Vegas Valley's economy and its future as a growing community.
Kalynda Tilges Nuclear Issues Coordinator Citizen Alert - Las Vegas P.O.Box 17173 Las Vegas, NV 89114 702-796-5662 702-796-4886 fax Kalynda@hotmail.com <http://citizenalert.org>
Citizen Alert - "A voice for the land and people of Nevada"
---
Yucca Mountain foes attack DOE documents
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Wednesday, December 20, 2000
By STEVE TETREAULT Donrey Washington Bureau
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/help_about/rjstaff_email.html
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-20-Wed-2000/news/15073749.html
WASHINGTON -- Opponents of the Yucca Mountain Project broadened their criticism Tuesday of internal Department of Energy documents that presume the Nevada site will be found suitable for nuclear waste storage though studies have not been completed.
As part of a two-pronged attack by Nevada leaders on Capitol Hill and in Las Vegas, a coalition of 162 environmental groups urged in a letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson that he disqualify Yucca Mountain as a potential repository.
At a U.S. Capitol news conference, group leaders joined Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in calling for a congressional investigation of the documents. The Energy Department's inspector general has started looking into the matter, Reid said.
The 59-page internal report that was made public earlier this month expects Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will be found suitable for nuclear waste though the Energy Department has yet to complete site studies.
A two-page memo was attached, written by an employee or employees of project contractor TRW Environmental Safety Systems. The memo, addressed to document reviewers, said the report could be used to marshal support for the program.
"The overview presents a Yucca Mountain repository as the key component in DOE's proposed solution to the nuclear waste problem," the memo said in part.
A representative for the contractor has said the document is no different than other reports that have concluded the DOE has found nothing to disqualify Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.
Nevada leaders, joined by environmental activists, contend the documents illustrate a cozy relationship between the nuclear waste program and the nuclear power industry, which has been pushing for development of a repository to hold thousands of tons of radioactive spent fuel rods.
"For everyone's sake, the DOE must maintain impartiality while it studies the site to determine whether it is suitable for waste storage, said Wenonah Hauter, director of the Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Instead, though, the agency is drawing a road map for the nuclear industry to follow in order to have the site approved."
Reid said: "I believe what we have here is a secret marriage between a contractor hired to do a fair evaluation and the nuclear power industry. There should be an honest scientific review of Yucca Mountain, and there has not been one to this point."
In Las Vegas, Mayor Oscar Goodman said he would do everything in his power to thwart shipments of high-level nuclear waste to Nevada, including arresting anyone who tries to transport it through the Las Vegas Valley.
"We're not going to let this stuff come through here without a fight," he said after a briefing Tuesday outside City Hall. "I'll stand in front of them, arrest them and have them prosecuted," Goodman said.
Goodman accused the Department of Energy's civilian radioactive waste chief, Ivan Itkin, of turning the studies on the suitability of Yucca Mountain for a repository "from a scientific process into a political process."
Representatives from a half-dozen public interest groups led by Citizen Alert, a statewide environmental organization, attended the morning briefing with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney.
Citizen Alert's nuclear issues coordinator, Kalynda Tilges, equated Nevada's nuclear waste problem to "a sacrifice zone from the government since atomic testing started" in the state nearly 50 years ago.
"They've lied about from the beginning. The dangers, the uses, basically everything about it," she said. "The contractor's memo proves what we've known all along: The DOE and the nuclear industry have stacked the deck against Nevada."
Berkley warned that former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, a Louisiana Democrat, who might be an energy secretary candidate, "is not a friend to Nevada." She said he was largely responsible for singling out Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied for entombing the nation's highly radioactive wastes -- 77,000 tons that is mostly metal-encased, spent nuclear fuel pellets from commercial power reactors.
Harney said Western Shoshones have never relinquished their right to the land where Yucca Mountain stands.
"We're all concerned, especially as native people.
"Your foot," he said to the groups in attendance, "is in the same moccasin I used to wear."
"We're all from Mother Earth here. We're one people. We've all got red blood."
Review-Journal staff writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report.
---
YUCCA MOUNTAIN:
Reid vows to block possible energy pick
Louisiana Democrat proponent of nuclear power industry
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Wednesday, December 20, 2000
DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-20-Wed-2000/news/15073682.html
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday he would try to block Senate confirmation of J. Bennett Johnston, the former Louisiana senator and nuclear power champion who is being mentioned as a possible energy secretary under incoming President George W. Bush.
When Reid saw Johnston mentioned in a newspaper report as a possible member of the Bush Cabinet, "the name leaped out so hard I couldn't wait to get to the office this morning to call him to see if this was a serious matter."
"He told me he was thinking about it," Reid recalled. "I told him, `I like you a lot, but I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it.' "
Johnston, 68, a Democrat who served in the Senate from 1973 to 1996, was closely associated with energy interests and was the major booster of plans to locate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Nevada.
As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he was considered the engine behind what came to be known as the 1987 "Screw Nevada" bill that designated Yucca Mountain as the only site the government would study for a repository.
Reid said he put his staff to work on the matter, put in calls to other lawmakers and began Tuesday to build a coalition of environmentalists who share his view of Johnston.
"We want to nip this one in the bud," Reid said.
"I'm very distressed to hear that Bennett Johnston is a candidate for energy secretary. It would be a declaration of war on the environment and environmentalists across the country," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
Johnston is partner of a Washington lobbying firm, Johnston and Associates, whose clients include the Nuclear Energy Institute, Entergy Corp., SBC Communications, Northrop Grumman and the University of New Orleans, according to Washington Representatives, a lobbyist guidebook.
Johnston did not respond to calls for comment on Tuesday.
Bush has said he plans to have Democrats in his Cabinet, and last week discussed the energy post with Sen. John Breaux, D-La. Breaux turned him down but recommended Johnston, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
"If (Bush) is responding by appointing Bennett Johnston, we should all be afraid," Reid said.
Others who have been mentioned as possible energy secretaries include Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., who was defeated for re-election last month, and Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat who supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
But on a radio talk show on Tuesday, Knowles laughed at the idea and said he has plenty of work to do in Alaska, according to his spokesman Bob King. Knowles said on the radio program he had not been contacted by the Bush transition team.
Reid said he believed Gorton is not interested in the job.
Another person mentioned was Don Evans, a Bush friend, his presidential campaign manager and chief executive of Tom Brown Inc., a Denver-based oil and gas company with an office in Midland, Texas. But Evans was expected to be named head of the Commerce Department.
-------- MILITARY
-------- chemical weapons
Pentagon 'diligent' on Gulf War illness
USA Today
12/20/00- Updated 05:54 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen143.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A presidential panel says the Pentagon has worked ''diligently'' and did not cover anything up in investigating Gulf War illness, a series of veterans' ailments still unexplained 10 years after the war. The head of one veterans' advocacy group called the conclusion ''a whitewash.'' A 90-page report released Wednesday details 30 months of work by the board President Clinton ordered to oversee Pentagon investigations of illnesses reported by thousands of vets from the war.
The board concluded that the Defense Department has ''worked diligently to fulfill the president's directive to 'leave no stone unturned' in investigating possible causes'' for illnesses, which include memory loss, nervous system disorders, headaches, joint pains and chronic fatigue.
It also found the department ''made no effort to deliberately withhold information,'' an allegation among critics who believe the Pentagon is hiding data about Iraqi chemical warfare agents or other toxins veterans may have been exposed while serving.
''On the contrary, DoD has made an extraordinary effort to publicize its findings through the publication of reports and newsletters, public outreach meetings, briefings to veterans,'' a website and so on, said the Presidential Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents.
The board repeated the main theme of all Pentagon findings so far - one that has frustrated veteran groups and contributed to suspicions of a cover-up: ''To date, research has not validated any specific cause of these illnesses.'' It said research must continue.
An estimated $300 million has been spent and scores of studies have looked into such possible culprits as Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, service members' vaccinations, oil well fires, anti-nerve agent tablets taken by troops, desert sand and stress.
One of the board's seven members, immunologist Dr. Vinh Cam, dissented with the report in a three-page letter. An immunologist, Cam charged that the board - largely retired military brass - lacked independence from the Pentagon office it was overseeing, the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illinois (OSAGWI). She also said it had no authority to suggest that stress be studied further as a possible cause.
''At times (the board) acted more like an extension of OSAGWI,'' Cam wrote in her dissenting letter.
''It's a whitewash - exactly the kind of whitewash we were expecting,'' said Pat Eddington of the advocacy group National Gulf War Resource Center, criticizing what he called the board's ''cozy relationship with the Pentagon.''
In a 1997 lawsuit still pending in federal court, Eddington is seeking thousands of pages of Pentagon and CIA documents he says could contain information on Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and other information relating to troop health. Wednesday's report is the final one by the oversight board, which goes out of business this month.
Steve Smithson of the American Legion said veterans' organizations will continue to push for better medical treatment and compensation for the sick.
''I'm not going to say there was a cover-up, but there have been problems,'' Smithson said. ''Ten years later we still don't know any more, and in the meantime people out there are sick.''
He noted that it was several years before the Pentagon acknowledged troops had been exposed to nerve gas when they blew up an Iraqi weapons stockpile in March 1991 at Khamisiyah.
Wednesday's report said that Khamisiyah remains ''the only known potential exposure'' of troops to chemical warfare agents. Officials have said about 100,000 troops were likely exposed to sarin and cyclosarin nerve gases but that the exposure was too low to cause health problems.
Officials have said that of the 700,000 troops who served in the Persian Gulf War some 100,000 have registered with the Pentagon or Veterans Affairs Department for free exams to look into unexplained illnesses. The two agencies have said about 20,000 of those were found to be ill.
Smithson said his group will work this year for changes in the VA system. So far, only 3,000 veterans have been compensated.
-------- colombia
A Child's Vision of War:
Boy Guerrillas in Colombia
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By JUAN FORERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/world/20COLO.html?pagewanted=all
BUCARAMANGA, Colombia, Dec. 17 - Like many boys his age, Juan Esteban Fernández attended school in the mornings. In the afternoons, he helped his parents plant crops in the rugged mountains outside this city in northeastern Colombia.
But Juan's simple world changed four months ago, just weeks after he turned 12, when rebels from Colombia's largest guerrilla group offered him a life of adventure he never could have found in his town, Pamplona.
"They said they'd give me a gun, that they'd pay me," Juan recounted during an interview. "I thought, `This is good.' I wanted to earn some money."
But instead of new opportunities, Juan, a wavy-haired boy with a precocious grin and spindly arms, spent weeks learning how to disassemble, clean and fire AK- 47's and Galil assault rifles for the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Two months ago, he used those weapons in combat, and recalled proudly that eight enemy fighters had been killed.
The use of child fighters in Colombia's 36-year-old guerrilla conflict is nothing new. But international and Colombian agencies that track the use of child fighters say FARC might rely on children to a larger degree than thought.
A month-long series of skirmishes between the Colombian Army and a rebel column in the high mountains above Bucaramanga has opened a new window onto the use of teenage warriors in the intensifying conflict: Thirty- two of the 77 rebel fighters captured by army troops have been below the age of 18, and 19 of those were 15 and under, including Juan. Of the 46 killed, 20 were children.
Colombian military officials say they believe that as many as half the FARC fighters who comprised the original 360-member column were under age. That has alarmed agencies that track the use of child guerrillas. The agencies were bolstered by an agreement in January on a protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child raising the minimum age for participants in armed conflicts from 15 to 18.
"If this is representative of the proportion of kids in the groups, then the figures are much bigger than the 6,000 that we've talked about in the past," said Carel De Rooy, Unicef representative in Colombia. "What this could mean is, the proportion of children could be twice what we thought, or they're throwing kids to the front as cannon fodder."
Indeed, the Colombian military has long contended that FARC employs children on the front lines. Gen. Martin Carreño, commander of the Fifth Brigade here, said soldiers under his command in other regions have often fought against children.
"They said that the first wave of fighters that they'd launch were children, 12, 13, 15 years old," said the general, who is overseeing the campaign against FARC outside Bucaramanga. "The child doesn't have that sense of danger. Even when there's firing, they don't have that vision that they're going to get shot."
Analysts who have tracked the use of child guerrillas confirm that children are often placed in harm's way for strategic purposes. "They might be using them for intelligence gathering or to see if the path is clear," said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst with the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based organization that follows military issues.
Ms. Stohl said the use of under- age fighters persists in 30 conflicts, with international agencies estimating the number of child warriors at 300,000, with 50 governments recruiting teenagers into their armies.
"What they'll do - and this is not just the Colombians - they'll put the child soldiers in the front lines to test the ground, to clear the area of land mines," she said, "and those who make it make it and those who don't, oh well."
Teenagers who recently surrendered to the army outside Bucaramanga described a disorienting experience with FARC. Most said they were recruited with promises of good pay and social status. After three months of training in the southern jungles, they were told they would form part of an important column of fighters who would travel 700 miles north to reinforce a rebel front in the Middle Magdalena River Valley, in north-central Colombia.
"They told us that we would complete a mission and then they'd send us back," said Hector Sosa, 13, a FARC deserter interviewed in the presence of a Colombian army major hours after he surrendered. "One side of me was afraid. On the other side, I wasn't. But I was afraid that I would get killed."
The column began its arduous journey in July but never reached its objective. Instead, for four weeks, 1,500 Colombian army troops have hounded rebels of the so-called Arturo Ruiz Column since they were discovered crossing the high Andes.
At a private home for delinquent children near here, 14 boys - all of them rebels captured in recent days in the fighting outside Bucaramanga - described a variety of reasons for joining FARC, from promises of glory to facing threats if they did not.
The children, dressed in red shorts and blue T-shirts of the private organization caring for them, seemed relaxed and content, joking with each other as they spoke with a reporter. They have been told that, with the help of the government's Family Welfare Institute, they will be resettled with their families. Two army officials who helped organize the encounter were also present.
"I wanted to join because I liked it," said one boy, 15, who like others interviewed was not allowed to give his name. "They had reunions, and they said the best group was FARC. I liked the things we did: standing guard, the weapons course, the training."
Another talkative boy, 13, said he joined two years ago after the rebels recruited him to help pave a road. After days of tiring work, he was offered a chance to join, with the promise that he would no longer work on the road.
"They told us to join the guerrillas, that it was good, that we wouldn't have to carry rocks anymore," recalled the boy, who giggled as he recounted his experiences.
He was also told about FARC's reason for fighting. "I was told that we would have an offensive to take the power," he said. "We were told that we would have a government like Cuba's."
But all the boys, even those who said they had joined the group freely, said they quickly lost enthusiasm as they journeyed north in the Arturo Ruiz Column. By the time they reached the high mountains outside Bucaramanga, army patrols were in pursuit and helicopters were firing at them.
"I was told by one guerrilla, who had been in five years, that we would be killed if we turned ourselves in," said one boy, age 17. "So I was afraid."
Juan, the boy from Pamplona, said he was not able to carry his food pack or weapon during the march. He had lost all enthusiasm, but he said he could not escape.
"When they said they wouldn't pay me, I said, `Let me out,' and they said I'd have to stay until the day I died," he said. Nevertheless, in the chaotic fighting in the mountains, he slipped away this weekend and surrendered.
-------- drug war
Senior Air Force Cadet Is Accused in Drug Sales
New York Times
December 20, 2000
National News Briefs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/national/20NATI.html
COLORADO SPRINGS, Dec. 19 (AP) - A senior cadet at the Air Force Academy here has been charged with dealing LSD and Ecstasy, and nine other cadets are being investigated.
Military prosecutors have accused the senior cadet, Stephen Daniel Pouncey, of using and selling LSD, ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine, an academy spokesman, Neil Talbott, said on Monday.
Mr. Pouncey was to appear in military court on Thursday. If found guilty, he faces up to 55 years in prison and dismissal from the Air Force. He remains a cadet and is taking his final exams, which end on Wednesday, Mr. Talbott said.
Mr. Pouncey tested positive in a drug test in October, leading to the investigation. Mr. Pouncey, whose age and hometown were not released, was the first cadet in five years not in basic training to test positive for drugs, Mr. Talbott said.
-------- india/pakistan
India and Pakistan Try to Ease Tension in Kashmir
New York Times
December 20, 2000
By BARRY BEARAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/20/world/20CND-KASHMIR.html
NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 - In a rare run of encouraging news in one of the world's most discouraging conflicts, India and Pakistan today announced steps to lessen tensions along their de facto border in divided Kashmir.
India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, told parliament this afternoon that he was extending a unilateral cease-fire in Kashmir by another month and beginning "exploratory steps" to rejuvenate peace talks with Pakistan.
Then, within hours, the spotlight shifted. Pakistan's army announced a partial withdrawal of troops along the so-called Line of Control, which divides the two nuclear-armed rivals in the Himalayan territory they both claim.
The three-paragraph Pakistani statement made no mention of how many soldiers would be pulled back - or from where. Skirmishing between the countries goes on from the forested mountains in western Kashmir to the icebound peaks near the Siachen Glacier to the east.
"The move back has already commenced and the troops have started moving towards cantonments," the announcement read. "However, necessary safeguards have been taken against any possibility of Indian misadventure across the Line of Control and to ensure protection of the local population.
"The action manifests Pakistan's earnest and genuine desire to de-escalate the situation in order to facilitate the process of meaningful dialogue on the issue. It is hoped that India would also reciprocate in a similar manner and de-induct part of its 700,000 strong force deployed in Indian-Occupied Kashmir."
The number of Indian security forces in Kashmir is usually estimated at about half of what Pakistan alleges. There was no immediate response by New Delhi. And it is likely that India will view any peace initiative from Pakistan with suspicion.
In early 1999, while the countries were last engaged in talks, the Pakistani military was planning a huge incursion into the mountains near the Indian town of Kargil. Weeks of combat nearly led to an all-out war.
"This time may be different; we'll just have to wait and see," said Amitabh Mattoo, an expert on Indian security issues at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "Either Pakistan is posturing or they have come to the genuine belief that they have to get out of this mess."
India and Pakistan were both carved from the British Empire in 1947, and they have been fighting over Kashmir ever since. Two of their three wars have been rooted in the dispute. The Line of Control runs through the most populous parts of Kashmir, giving about two-thirds to India and one-third to Pakistan.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir is part of the Indian federation. Guerrilla attacks have been a major problem there since 1989, when a separatist insurgency began. More than a dozen militant groups now engage in hit-and-run attacks that have turned life upside down. India has tried to fight back with overwhelming might. At least 34,000 people have died in the violence, according to government totals.
Pakistan assists the insurgency. But while Pakistan admits to furnishing moral and diplomatic support, India contends that its arch-enemy does far more than that, providing arms, training, food, money and marching orders.
On Nov. 19, Mr. Vajpayee made a surprise announcement, declaring a cease-fire by Indian forces during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He presented it as a challenge, asking the militant groups to reciprocate.
Initially, the gesture was scoffed at as a bald manipulation. The militants answered him with their customary bullets and explosives. But then the attacks slacked off.
Today, in renewing the cease-fire, Mr. Vajpayee told Parliament that there had been "a decline in incidents of terrorist violence" and that infiltration across the Line of Control has also dropped.
Also, he said, "we have witnessed a marked improvement in incidents of exchange of fire" with Pakistani soldiers.
The prime minister's report was far from a clean bill of health, however. He singled out two militant groups - Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen - for continuing to fight in their customary manner. He promised to "defeat their inhuman and nefarious designs."
In a separate statement, the government said that during the first 20 days of Ramadan, there were 149 violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, with 63 civilians killed and 183 injured.
The cease-fire has certainly discombobulated the militant groups, exposing their fissures. They are a varied lot, united in their opposition to Indian rule but quite different in their motivations. Some are primarily Kashmiris with a goal of independence. Some are mostly Pakistanis and other foreigners off on a jihad, or holy war, trying to wrest a largely-Muslim region from a largely-Hindu nation.
The Kashmiri groups have seemed more open to talks, but they want them on their own terms, as equal partners at the negotiating table with both India and Pakistan.
-------- space
India thinking about aerospace command
Parliamentary committee in favor of aerospace command for Indian military
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
By S.Suhail Haleem
Wednesday, December 20, 2000 3:44:14 AM EST
NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has endorsed the idea of an aerospace command for the military, which will give "a defense orientation to our successful space program"