NUCLEAR
A free trade pact could have long-term costs
Construction of spent fuel repository in Finland approved
Russia's Duma approves spent fuel imports
East Asia Needs Balance, and Balance Means Missile Defense Robyn Lim
Panel Finds Stress a Main Cause of Gulf War Syndrome
India, Pakistan Mistrustful But Peace Drive Rolls On
Pakistanis and Indians Make Moves for Less Strife
CIA: Iran could test ICBM next year
Cautiously Along a Korean Tightrope
Negotiating With North Korea
Albright: Deal With NKorea Possible
Don't go, Mr. President
Russia Tentatively OKs Waste Imports
Russia considers importing nuclear waste
Taiwan Justices Begin Reviewing Nuclear Decision
Ukraine's Kuchma in Moscow for Talks on Energy Debts
Bush on a sticky wicket with N. Korea
Why U.S. missile defense is a bad idea
The New Push for a Missile Shield
Conneticut
Corrections
Flour Hanford To Manage Nuke Reserve
Engineers Look for Nuke Plant Leak
Bush missile stance could mean rocky road
Bush introduces Colin Powell as his nominee for Secretary of State
'Reminiscence and Farewell'
Yucca Mountain backer pulls out as energy secretary choice

MILITARY
Trafficking proof points to Liberian
Kidnapped Brits freed in Colombia
Colombia wants more
COLOMBIA: BRITONS FREED
Drug danger in U.S. forests
Clinton examines clemency cases
Georgia
Hatch in movie
Pakistan withdraws Kashmir troops
Pentagon stops imports from Myanmar
Spacecraft maneuvering problem halts Jupiter studies
NASA may attempt trip to Pluto
Taiwan Will Be Tricky Task for Bush
Gem Sanctions Sought by U.N. are Delayed
In Final Fight, Weary Envoy Counts Ticks on U.N. Clock
New sanctions cause Taleban to close U.N. offices
AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN ACTS OVER SANCTIONS
U.N. aide condemns Liberian president
Northrop Agrees to Buy Litton for $3.8 Billion
Northrop Grumman To Acquire Litton
Northrop to Buy Litton for $5.1 Billion
Fuel was not factor in Osprey crash
Utah

OTHER
'Thirteen Days' worth the time it takes to grab you
U.S. Finalizes National Organic Food Standards
New standards in organic farming
U.S. OKs new pollution regulations
New Rules to Cut Diesel Emissions
Whitman Stays Silent on E.P.A. Post
After Recount, Tight Race for Water Board Is Over
Whitman Seen as Strong Choice to Lead E.P.A.
Bush will tap Whitman to head EPA
Seeds of Hope, to Keep Mother Earth in Gardening
U.S. Imposes Standards for Organic-Food Labeling
Clinton reaches largest Clean Air settlement
National organic standards released
'Organic' standard: 95% of ingredients
Fox hunting ban passes hurdle
ALBANY: WATERSHED TO BE STUDIED
What Bush Can Do on the Environment
States
EPA investigator says his ouster was retaliatory
The year 2000 in medicine and science
In Orange, Closed Ranks and Relief After Officers' Conviction in Beating
Sheriff's killing called 'professional hit'
Michigan
District police union probed
Nuclear Cookies

ACTIVISTS
Overcoming Repression Against Activists
Right-Wing Countersubversion Networks & the Philadelphia Raid
Exercising Your Rights Of Political Protest In Philadelphia
Exercising Your Rights Of Political Protest
WAR AT HOME
Bugs Bugs, Taps And Infiltrators
Some Images to Help you Visualize Resisting Repression
BRINGING IN AN UNDEMOCRATIC INSTITUTION
Why the Center for National Security Studies is Needed
WIRETAPPING
Counter-Terrorism Proposals
COINTELPRO
The Hunt for Red Menace:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Martial Law
RE-FRAMING DISSENT AS CRIMINAL SUBVERSION
Government Intelligence Abuse
Terrorism and the Constitution
Home of radio pirate again raided by feds
SIGN-ON: PETITION TO ALL NUCLEAR CORPORATIONS
Extradition Based On False Evidence, Peltier Inquiry Says
trial results
Protest on Nuclear Cargo
Greenpeace slams nuclear shipment
Election Anger Fuels Inaugural Protesters
MANHATTAN: STUDENTS STORM U.N. ASSEMBLY
Vermont

-------- NUCLEAR

A free trade pact could have long-term costs

The Australian
21dec00
By MALCOLM FRASER
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,1539023%255E1683,00.html

AT first blush, a free trade deal with the US seems attractive. Our worst trade deficit is with the US, not because we are inefficient but because it still imposes restrictions on our agricultural and mineral exports. Before considering any deal, we should understand its implications.

During earlier rounds of world trade negotiations, when Japan's agricultural market was opened to world competition, the US pressed Japan for a bilateral arrangement. Japan always rejected such approaches and adopted the principled view that any opening of its markets would be on a multilateral basis. Australia has also argued strongly for a similar approach. Why change?

Some may argue that an Australia that seems to have been rebuffed in approaches to join East or South-East Asian associations should look for other options. We should not conclude, however, that the decision in relation to these regional associations is final. I am sure it is capable of change.

A number of matters need consideration. Arrangements that are called free trade have never been that. They have involved exemptions and exclusions. It is hard to believe that the US would, at this late stage, accept genuine free trade for agricultural and mineral products.

Irrespective of the merits, a trade deal with the US cannot be looked at in isolation. Other issues are on the agenda that seriously affect Australia's strategic outlook.

It has been made plain to us that if the US decides to pursue anti-missile defence, facilities at Pine Gap will be required. The degree of risk to Australia through facilities at Pine Gap and at North West Cape have been minimal. If the facilities at Pine Gap were to become the forward reach of anti-missile defence for North America, they would become a prime target in the event of American conflict with a leading power. We would be in the front line and hostage to US policy over which we would have no control.

US arguments that it needs anti-missile defence as a protection against a rogue state are nonsense. Such a state would find it easier to place a bomb in a ship tied up in New York Harbor. Anti-missile defence is aimed at traditional rivals of the US. If the US goes down this path, Russia will upgrade its own nuclear capacities. Arrangements for the reduction and control of nuclear arms worldwide are likely to be put on hold and reversed.

Australia's participation in anti-missile defence would limit our capacity for independent action. This is highlighted by possible problems over Taiwan. Every president from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton has reaffirmed that Taiwan and China are two parts of one country and that there must be negotiation leading to reunification. We cannot be sure that position will be maintained.

The incipient independence movement in Taiwan and the unofficial visit of ex-president Lee Teng-hui to the US have caused concern. We should not underestimate the influence of the Taiwan lobby in Washington. If requests for independence were supported by the US Government, it would almost certainly lead to war with China. A number of people have put it on the record that senior Americans expect us to be with them on such an issue.

On the contrary, the US's two defence partners in the Asia-Pacific, Japan and Australia, should have no part in such a conflict. We should be encouraging the US to press upon Taiwan that independence is not an option and it should negotiate realistically with Beijing.

If such a conflict did arise, the US may have no greater capacity to win than it did in Vietnam, unless nuclear weapons were used. Then we would all be the losers. In the outcome, America would likely withdraw to the continental US. We would be left as a discredited US ally that had denied the logic of our geography and economic interests.

The idea of a free trade deal cannot be separated from these strategic issues, the question of anti-missile defence and Taiwan. US officials would be quite capable of enticing Australia with a deal, believing that by so doing they could tie Australia to US policy on the strategic issues. Such a step would have enormous consequences.

One of our problems throughout East and South-East Asia is the view that we are too closely tied to the US. This has been re-emphasised since 1996, when revitalisation of the US relationship was made a primary objective of government.

Free trade, anti-missile defence and policy over Taiwan represent a set of policies that would pull us too closely into the US orbit. Is it not time that we exercised more independence?

--------

Construction of spent fuel repository in Finland approved

Paris (Nuclear News Flashes)--
21Dec2000

The Finnish government gave approval in principle today for construction of a final repository for spent fuel in Eurajoki, near the Olkiluoto reactor site.

Although the decision still must be ratified by parliament, and a construction license isn't expected for a decade, the decision was hailed by the European nuclear industry as a decisive step toward the world's first final repository.

Posiva Oy, the utility-owned company that handles Finnish spent fuel and nuclear waste, applied for the policy decision last year, after signing an exclusive contract with the Eurajoki municipality to build the repository.

-------------

Russia's Duma approves spent fuel imports

Paris (Nuclear News Flashes)--
21Dec2000

In what the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) hailed as a "great victory," Russia's State Duma today approved legislation that would allow Minatom to import spent nuclear fuel from western countries for temporary storage and potentially reprocessing, a business the ministry says could be worth $20-bil over the next decade or so.

The deputies passed the measure--a package that amends the country's environmental and nuclear energy laws and creates a new funding mechanism for addressing Minatom's own Cold War waste legacy--by a comfortable margin of 318 (of the chamber's 450 total members).

-------- asia

East Asia Needs Balance, and Balance Means Missile Defense Robyn Lim

International Herald Tribune
Thursday, December 21, 2000
http://www.iht.com/articles/5008.htm

NAGOYA, Japan Drama in the Middle East should not distract the incoming U.S. administration from security problems in East Asia.

China and the United States have a growing collision of strategic interest over Taiwan. And little trust exists between China and Japan, which have never previously been strong at the same time. China has strategic ambition, while Japan has strategic anxieties.

East Asia's future will turn on whether Japan and China continue to believe that the United States will guarantee Japan's security.

Currently, America underwrites Japanese security in return for access to bases that allow it to project power across the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. If Tokyo were to conclude that it could no longer rely on the United States, it might develop an independent military policy that could frighten many of its neighbors who suffered under Japanese occupation before and during World War II.

The Bush administration's priority should be to develop Theater Missile Defenses to protect Japan (and U.S. forces based there) from the growing threat of Chinese and North Korean missiles. At stake is nothing less than America's ability to remain an Asia-Pacific power.

While U.S. allies sit mute and intimidated, China is exploiting regional security venues, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum, to rail against missile defense. Japan has neither nuclear weapons nor the means to deliver them, but Beijing insists that Japan must not cooperate with the United States to develop non-nuclear defenses against missile attack.

China's buildup of increasingly accurate missiles pointed at Japan could undermine Tokyo's confidence in U.S. strategic protection. And, despite recent reductions in tension on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea's Nodong missiles still target bases in Japan where more than 40,000 American troops are stationed, presumably to prevent their use in support of South Korea if the North attacks.

China's missile buildup opposite Taiwan threatens the military balance in the Taiwan Strait. The link between the Taiwan problem and Japan's security is one reason why Washington should help preserve Taiwan's de facto independence. Unless Washington continues to sell Taiwan weapons to defend itself, China will take Taiwan by force. That would set a dangerous precedent, especially in relation to Japan.

Isolationists think that strategic tensions on the far side of the Pacific should not concern them. History says otherwise. Three times in a century America needed to redress a power imbalance in Europe/Eurasia that would have threatened it in its own hemisphere. U.S. success finally proved definitive in the Cold War.

Thus Washington learned that it is vastly preferable to keep its forces forward-deployed, helping to shape developments at both ends of Eurasia and in the Middle East, rather than have to return in a crisis when allies and bases might not be available.

It would best suit U.S. interests if China were integrated peacefully intothe global order. The Bush administration should build on President Bill Clinton's support for China's entry into the World Trade Organization, provided Beijing is held to its commitments. But it would be a mistake to think that China cannot threaten vital U.S. interests because it is not a global peer competitor. That ignores the importance of strategic geography.

Because of the maritime basis of its own security, the United States cannot allow a potentially hostile great power to dominate Eurasia or any of its critical parts. With Russia down if not out, China, with its huge population and landmass, rapidly growing economy and military modernization program, is the rising regional power. China occupies the central position on the East Asian littoral, and has the will to try to exclude the United States from the region.

The bases in Japan, which allow American forces to move rapidly to the volatile Middle East, are now even more important because the United States cannot count on keeping its bases in South Korea after reunification.

But the U.S.-Japanese alliance is lopsided because America shoulders all the risk. Japan must be prepared to provide at least rear area support for the United States in a Taiwan or Korean crisis. It will be willing to do so only if its homeland is secure from missile attack. The Bush administration should not lose sight of the importance of theater missile defense for East Asia even as it pursues the wider objective of national missile defense at home.

George W. Bush and his aides are right to say they will abandon the outmoded dogma that America should remain deliberately vulnerable to missile attack. But national missile defense is costly, technically difficult and controversial with allies. It must not be allowed to detract attention from the need for theater missile defense to redress the dangerous force imbalances in East Asia that are a legacy of the Clinton years.

The writer, a professor of international relations at Nanzan University, Nagoya, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

-------- depleted uranium

Panel Finds Stress a Main Cause of Gulf War Syndrome

Reuters
December 21, 2000 Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/health-stress.html

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- A panel ordered by President Bill Clinton to oversee the Pentagon's investigation into Gulf War syndrome has found that stress may be a primary cause of the headaches, memory loss, nervous system disorders, chronic fatigue and other unexplained symptoms described by thousands of veterans of the war.

But in a three-page dissent, Dr. Vinh Cam, one of the board's seven members, called the conclusion ``a blatant misrepresentation.'' And a veterans group called the conclusion ''the biggest cover-up of the century,'' likening the finding to ''criminal and medical negligence'' as well as ``treason.''

``The Department of Defense has made a fatal error in relegating these diseases to the stress of a 100-hour war. The vets know they and their families are sick as a result of biological warfare or experimental vaccines,'' Joyce Riley, a spokesperson for the American Gulf War Veterans Association, told Reuters Health.

``This is the biggest cover-up of the century. It is not only the spoilage of records, it is criminal and medical negligence. We are aiding and abetting the enemy by not caring for these soldiers, and this is defined as treason,'' she said.

The 90-page report released this week concludes that ''stress is likely a primary cause of illness in at least some Gulf War veterans.''

It also found that that the Defense Department ``worked diligently'' to investigate potential causes of the mysterious illness and has not deliberately withheld information from the general public or from veterans. Rather, the Department ``has made an extraordinary effort to publicize its findings through the publication of reports and newsletters, public outreach meetings, briefings to veterans and active duty service members,'' and the creation of a toll-free hotline and a Web site.

Veterans' groups have charged that the government is hiding information about Iraqi chemical warfare agents to which veterans of the 1991 war may have been exposed. An estimated $300 million has been spent to investigate possible causes for the syndrome, including vaccinations, chemical and biological weapons, oil well fires, desert sand and anti-nerve agent tablets.

So far, no specific cause for these symptoms has been identified. In September, the Institute of Medicine issued a report concluding there is no scientific evidence that long-term health problems suffered by Gulf War veterans can be linked to exposure to such chemicals and vaccines as the nerve agent sarin, the drug pyridostigmine bromide, depleted uranium, and anthrax and botulism vaccines.

This week's report called for more research into the mysterious syndrome.

-------- india / pakistan

India, Pakistan Mistrustful But Peace Drive Rolls On

Reuters
December 21, 2000 Filed at 12:46 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-kashmir.html

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The cautious peace initiative launched by India and taken up by Pakistan to reduce tension on their flashpoint Himalayan border seemed to be gaining momentum on Thursday, despite expressions of doubt by both sides.

Eight people were killed as violence persisted in disputed Kashmir, but the main separatist alliance in the Indian-ruled part of the state said it would send a delegation to Pakistan next month to carry forward the drive for peace.

Leaders of the All Parties' Hurriyat (freedom) Conference, which combines 22 groups, said after a meeting in Srinigar that a delegation would leave for Pakistan on January 15 and meet Kashmiri separatist leaders based there.

Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan when both became independent in 1947, and disputes over its future have provoked two of the three wars the two nations have fought since then.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee launched the latest initiative on Wednesday, when he extended by a further month a cease-fire by Indian forces in Kashmir, aimed at paving the way for a renewal of long-stalled peace talks.

Islamabad responded only a few hours later by announcing a partial pullback of troops from the military Line of Control (LOC) between the two sides' forces, and urged India to match its action.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman said India's extension of the cease-fire, which began last month to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, set a ``positive tone'' but was not enough.

``It falls short of a clear response to Pakistan's initiative of 2nd December (on maximum restraint) that could justify optimism for the early start of a negotiating process for a just settlement of the Kashmir dispute,'' said Riaz Mohammad Khan.

Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes also cast doubt on the rival side's announcement, saying ``We can't believe that it is possible for any army to start pulling out in such a short time.''

SEPARATISTS WELCOME INITIATIVE

Despite such reservations by the two governments, their actions were welcomed by the separatists meeting in Srinigar.

``The extension of the cease-fire by India, and Pakistan's withdrawal of troops from the border were described as laudable in the Hurriyat meeting,'' said Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, one of Hurriyat's members.

Britain also welcomed Vajpayee's gesture in extending the cease-fire and urged India and Pakistan to help create a climate for dialogue.

``It is particularly important that the militants who support them respond positively to these constructive measures,'' British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain said in a statement.

Peace talks between the nuclear rivals have been stalled since 1999, when hundreds of armed guerrillas from the Pakistani side crossed to the Indian side of Kashmir, prompting air strikes, major Indian counter-attacks and talk of war.

India says it is ready to hold talks with all Kashmiri groups, but has ruled out dialogue with Pakistan as meaningless until Islamabad stops ``cross-border terrorism.''

Pakistan denies that it arms Kashmiri separatists but says they have its political support.

DOUBTS OVER TROOP WITHDRAWAL

India holds about 45 percent and Pakistan more than one-third of Kashmir. China holds the rest.

Troops are in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation at several points along the 720 km (450 mile) LOC which divides Kashmir.

``The LOC runs across mountains and peaks, you can't bring helicopters and buses to take people out to the cantonments. So we want to understand from Pakistan the meaning of its statement,'' Fernandes said.

Cross-border shelling has been reduced, but by no means ended, since the Indian truce began.

At least two militants were killed and two policemen critically wounded on Thursday in a clash in the Samba sector of the southern Jammu portion of the region, police said.

The army said separatists killed two soldiers in an attack on an army convoy in the region. Four people were killed and seven wounded elsewhere in the Himalayan state.

Fernandes said that guerrilla groups controlled by Pakistan, who have rejected the Indian truce, had unleashed terror in Kashmir.

Former Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has dubbed the truce a sinister move to sabotage Kashmir's freedom struggle.

Nearly a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Kashmir, and more than 30,000 people have been killed in incidents linked to the 10-year-old rebellion.

---

Pakistanis and Indians Make Moves for Less Strife

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By BARRY BEARAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21KASH.html

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 - In a rare run of encouraging news in one of the world's most discouraging conflicts, India and Pakistan announced steps today to reduce tensions along their de facto border in divided Kashmir.

India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, told Parliament early in the 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 extends 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 called 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 unsettled the militant groups. 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, trying to wrest a largely Muslim region from a largely Hindu nation.

-------- iran

CIA: Iran could test ICBM next year

World Tribune
Thursday, December 21, 2000
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
http://www.worldtribune.com/Archive-2000/ss-iran-12-21.html

WASHINGTON - Iran could test an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, the CIA says.

The National Intelligence Council, a 15-member CIA-sponsored panel, says Iran could test either an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2001 and a land-attack cruise missile in 2004.

"Iran sees its short- and medium-range missiles as deterrents, as force-multiplying weapons of war, primarily with conventional warheads, and as options for delivering biological, chemical, and eventually nuclear weapons," a new global assessment by the council said. "Iran could test an IRBM or land-attack cruise missile by 2004 and perhaps even an ICBM or space launch vehicle as early as 2001."

The report said that by 2015 the United States could face an intercontinental ballistic missile threat from Iran and perhaps Iraq. By 2015, the report said, Iran is expected to tip its missiles with nuclear warheads.

"Weapons development programs, in many cases fueled by foreign assistance, have led to new capabilities -- as illustrated by Iran's Shahab-3 launches in 1998 and 2000 and North Korea's Taepo Dong-1 space launch attempt in August 1998," the report said. "In addition, some countries that have been traditional recipients of missile technologies have become exporters."

The report, entitled "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue about the Future with Nongovernmental Experts," said Iraq's missile program will be dependent on the level of international control and United Nations sanctions. The report said Iraq could test an intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear warheads before 2015.

The United States and the European Union will have less control over missile and weaopns of mass destruction programs as export control regimes and sanctions will be less effective. The report said this will result in a loss of control over weapons technology transfers.

"Theater-range ballistic and cruise missile proliferation will continue," the report said. "Most proliferation will involve systems a generation or two behind state of the art, but they will be substantially new capabilities for the states that acquire them. Such missiles will be capable of delivering WMD or conventional payloads inter-regionally against fixed targets. Major air and sea ports, logistics bases and facilities, troop concentrations, and fixed communications nodes increasingly will be at risk."

-------- korea

Cautiously Along a Korean Tightrope

International Herald Tribune
Thursday, December 21, 2000
Ralph A. Cossa
http://www.iht.com/articles/4999.htm

SEOUL South Koreans are openly nervous about what George W. Bush's election portends for the Korean peace process. The anxiety is based on an exaggerated assumption that a Republican administration will take a more hard-line approach that could undermine the South's engagement policy toward the North.

At the same time, many thoughtful South Koreans are concerned about the fast pace of South-North rapprochement and about what they see as its one-sided nature. They hope that a firmer U.S. approach might have a sobering effect on Seoul, while also compelling Pyongyang to be more forthcoming.

It is important for Mr. Bush to send an early signal to both Koreas that his administration is committed to the process of engagement and fully supports President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy." This includes continued backing for the 1994 Agreed Framework between the United States and North Korea under which the North froze its nuclear research activities in return for the eventual construction of two less proliferation prone light water reactors.

U.S. commitments to its allies and agreements with others do not change when administrations change; the guiding principle is American national security interests. Support for the sunshine policy and continued adherence to the agreed framework, as long as Pyongyang continues to honor its promises, are in the U.S. national interest.

A last-minute trip to North Korea by President Bill Clinton before he leaves office next month would be counterproductive for the broader Korean peace process and should not occur. Nor should Mr. Bush, as president, go to Pyongyang until certain conditions are in place.

However, Mr. Bush should be prepared to continue high level contacts to signal to Seoul as well as to Pyongyang America's continued commitment to the peace process.

A general timetable and set of milestones should be set for high-level talks to proceed between the United States and North Korea. A significant breakthrough in the negotiations to end North Korea's long-range ballistic missile development program could justify a visit to the North by a very senior U.S. official, but only if it is accompanied by North Korean agreement to increase cooperation with the South on security issues.

So far, North-South cooperation has been primarily in the economic and social spheres. Real peace will not be achieved until Pyongyang acknowledges that Seoul is its primary negotiating partner in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Bush should reaffirm Mr. Clinton's firm assertion that there will be no separate deal between Washington and Pyongyang.

Another important milestone needed to show North Korea's commitment to the peace process is for Kim Jong Il to fulfill his promise to visit the South next spring. No U.S. president should visit North Korea until the Northern leader goes to Seoul and substantive North South talks on security start.

The writer is executive director of the Pacific Forum CSIS, a Honolulu-based research institute. He contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

---

Negotiating With North Korea

New York Times
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/opinion/21THU1.html

President Clinton will decide in the next week or so whether to close out his presidency with a trip to North Korea. Such a visit would be justified if he can come home with a firm, verifiable agreement committing Pyongyang to end the production and export of its missiles in exchange for international help in launching North Korean satellites for civilian uses. Mr. Clinton must also be certain that a visit to North Korea would not interfere with a possible final effort to produce a peace agreement in the Middle East.

North Korea has cast off much of its self- imposed isolation in the past year. Its leader, Kim Jong Il, has held constructive meetings with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and South Korea's president, Kim Dae Jung.

Yet dealing with Pyongyang has its perils, including the fact that a Clinton visit would lend prestige to the North Korean leader, one of the world's last Stalinist dictators and a brazen violator of his people's human rights. The United States and North Korea have yet to establish diplomatic relations or even sign a peace treaty ending the Korean War.

During the past few years, patient diplomatic efforts by the Clinton administration have persuaded North Korea to limit some of its most dangerous activities. Pyongyang agreed to freeze plutonium production for nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for help in constructing civilian power reactors. Last year it suspended testing of its longer-range missiles and was later rewarded with an easing of American economic sanctions.

If North Korea will now agree to terminate the development and export of all its long- and medium- range missiles, that would mark a major advance. The North is one of the world's leading missile exporters. Its sales to Pakistan and Iran fuel arms races in South Asia and the Middle East.

Washington still has only sketchy notions of the inner workings of North Korea's government. Verification mechanisms must therefore be a crucial part of any missile agreement. Establishing at least the basic principles of a strict monitoring system should be a precondition for a Clinton trip. Much of this monitoring can be done by satellite. But some provision for on-site observation should be included as well.

The terms on which other countries agree to launch North Korean satellites must also be carefully defined. All launchings must take place outside North Korea, with strict safeguards to prevent leakage of sensitive technologies. There must also be provisions insuring that these satellites pose no threat to American military forces or communications. If these terms can be agreed upon, Mr. Clinton would serve American interests by sealing a preliminary deal. A visit to Pyongyang before the end of the year by the administration's top Korea specialists could clarify whether an acceptable agreement is now within reach.

President-elect George W. Bush and his aides are reasonably reserving public judgment on the issue, at least until more details emerge. But a sound framework agreement would give the new administration a chance to work out the details and timetable to its own satisfaction, or to walk away from the table if North Korea proves insincere.

---

Albright: Deal With NKorea Possible

Associated Press
December 21, 2000 Filed at 3:30 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Albright-NKorea.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is a ``genuine possibility'' that North Korea will agree to limit its production and export of missiles and missile technology, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told The Associated Press Thursday.

President Clinton continues to weigh a visit to North Korea during his last month in office -- quite possibly to clinch a deal. Many senior Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose such a visit.

White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Clinton will make a judgment based on whether he thinks a trip would advance the process of curtailing Pyongyang's missile program.

Asked when a decision will be made, Siewert said, ``As soon as we can.''

According to an official who asked not to be identified, an interim trip to Pyongyang by Wendy Sherman, Albright's top aide to North Korea, is under consideration.

The White House raised the possibility of a Clinton visit to North Korea more than two months ago. His decision has been awaited by Korea-watchers with great anticipation.

At a State Department press Christmas party hosted by Albright Wednesday night, Sherman showed up with a sign hanging from her neck that said: ``No decision yet.'' Another sign, hanging on her back, said, ``Don't ask, don't tell.''

In an interview with the AP, Albright said she discussed the missile question at length with Chairman Kim Jong Il when she visited Pyongyang in October.

``What is out there is the genuine possibility of their limiting further their missile testing and further production and export of various technologies in exchange basically for our launching civilian satellites,'' she said.

If the U.S. steps in to launch North Korean civilian satellites, this would satisfy Pyongyang's stated goal, while easing U.S. fears about the country's military capabilities.

But senior Republican lawmakers and other analysts are concerned about the risk of technology transfer to North Korea if the United States agrees to launch satellites.

This concern was spelled out in a letter to Clinton last week from Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, and the Senate and House chairmen of the committees on foreign affairs and intelligence.

The group also indicated opposition to a Clinton trip to North Korea.

``No one is more alarmed about the North Korean missile program than we,'' the letter said. ``But any hurried or ill-considered deal with North Korea could be worse than no solution at all.''

President-elect Bush has said that since Clinton is in charge until Jan. 20, any decision on travel to North Korea is entirely up to him. Administration officials have briefed members of the Bush team on the North Korean situation and said they received no advice from them on whether Clinton should make the trip.

---

Don't go, Mr. President

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
Doug Bereuter
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-20001221185521.htm

Recent press reports and comments by administration officials continue to signal that President Clinton is contemplating a last minute January state visit to North Korea. Such a visit in the waning days of his administration would be unwise, perhaps even dangerous.

Responding to Mr. Clinton's worldwide hunt for foreign policy "successes" to patch together a lasting legacy, the White House and State Department are pushing to complete a "deal" on missiles with the North Koreans to allow Mr. Clinton to add North Korea to his legacy list. Americans and the incoming new administration should have deep reservations regarding a hurried state visit to North Korea in the last month of the Clinton administration.

We in Congress are, at most, only guardedly encouraged that the North Korean leadership is starting to recognize that ties with the rest of the world and the requisite restraint of its nuclear and missile proliferation policies are in its national interests. Secretary Albright's October visit to North Korea and North Korean President Kim Jong-Il's statements on the possibility of restraining the DPRK missile program are signs that Mr. Kim may actually be re-evaluating North Korea's isolation. Most encouraging, of course, is the continued engagement between the two Koreas, even as one-sided as it still remains.

It is unambiguously premature to consider a state visit. North Korea repeatedly has demonstrated its proclivity for radically reversing its positions, backpedaling, and engaging in intentionally provocative and confrontational behavior. Pyongyang has mastered the art of brinkmanship, continually seeking to extract financial rewards in return for a temporary improvement in behavior. We should never assume that Mr. Kim has suddenly committed to transforming himself or his country. The North has merely agreed to a moratorium on missile testing - undoubtedly missile development activities continue without restraint. Equally important, we have seen little or no progress with the North Koreans on issues of serious concern to the United States and to our major allies in the region, particularly Japan.

A presidential visit would reward North Korea without its having made any significant commitments on missile programs - both long-range and short-range missile programs. The administration has not shared with Congress or the American people the nature of the "deal" that the Clinton administration is reportedly trying to achieve prior to a Clinton visit. A key question that the administration has yet to answer is what types of missiles the "deal" would include. While the administration's concern has been focused on development of long-range missiles that could potentially be targeted at the United States, we should also be deeply concerned about North Korea's short-range missile program and the security threat it may pose to Japan, South Korea and U.S. forces stationed in the region. There are also very serious lingering concerns regarding North Korea's nuclear program and its compliance with the 1994 Agreed Framework. Reports suggest that North Korea continues to seek external assistance for its nuclear ambitions and that it has sought to acquire critical dual-use equipment in Europe and Japan.

Unlike China or former Soviet bloc countries, North Korea has not undertaken any steps with regard to economic or trade reform. Instead, it has sought massive international assistance to feed its people without being willing to change its economic system. To its credit, the United States has put the lives of innocent women and children above politics - our humanitarian aid donations are now sufficiently large to provide food for virtually every child in North Korea - if they are receiving it. However, the leadership in Pyongyang seems unfazed by the suffering of its people. Certainly, we have no evidence that Mr. Kim has decided to undertake any political reforms or steps to grant his people greater human rights protections.

It is striking that the United States has not established the most basic level of diplomatic ties with North Korea because of its continued designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and yet a presidential trip is still being considered. A state visit prior to concluding significant agreements on these outstanding issues would be rewarding Mr. Kim and the North Koreans without having obtained any commitments, and it is highly doubtful whether such a premature presidential visit would be in the interests of the United States or its regional allies. President-elect Bush and his administration must be given the opportunity of further developing U.S. relations with North Korea with careful deliberation and in close consultation with our allies in the region.

The new administration will have diminished diplomatic leverage and flexibility in negotiating with North Korea if Mr. Clinton's state visit has already taken place. Rushed negotiations with a totalitarian state, such as North Korea, on such crucial matters as missile proliferation will definitely not result in the best foreign policy decision-making.

Therefore, in the interests of the American people, U.S. allies, and our future president, I call upon Mr. Clinton to reconsider any ill-conceived plans for a last minute state visit to North Korea.

Rep. Doug Bereuter, Nebraska Republican, is vice chairman of the House Committee on International Relations and chairman of the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

-------- russia

Russia Tentatively OKs Waste Imports

Associated Press
December 21, 2000 Filed at 5:22 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry on Thursday won preliminary approval of its dream of earning as much as $20 billion by importing other countries' nuclear waste for processing -- up to 21,000 tons of it over the next decade.

Environmentalists say it will turn Russia into the world's nuclear dump.

The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, on Thursday approved by 319-38 the proposal to bring spent nuclear fuel rods to Russia. It must clear two more readings, pass the upper chamber and be signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.

Proponents stressed that Russia should take advantage of its Cold War-era nuclear and scientific facilities, that it could make up to $20 billion over 10 years, and that the money could help clean up radiation spills in Russia.

``We'll get financing and won't disgracefully beg the International Monetary Fund for money as we do now,'' Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov said.

Russian and foreign environmental groups said Russia should treat its own nuclear waste before importing more radioactive material.

The environmental group Greenpeace described the promise to use profits for cleanup as a public relations ploy.

``We see this as a disaster for the Russian people,'' Greenpeace spokesman Jon Walter said. ``It will create another Chernobyl generation, whose lives will be cut short by radioactive contamination.'' Chernobyl was the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster in neighboring Ukraine.

The Atomic Energy ministry wants to get Western funds to expand the Russian nuclear industry, ``whose disregard for safety and the environment is starkly demonstrated'' by past mistakes, Greenpeace said in a statement.

The program to import waste foresees a market in Europe and Asia for the service, which would solve temporarily the problem of spent fuel rods piling up at civilian nuclear reactors.

Nuclear power stations around the world have about 200,000 tons of waste in temporary storage.

For a fee, spent fuel would be sent by armored train to Russia's Mayak facility near Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains for reprocessing.

The recycling process extracts useable nuclear material from the spent rods while reducing their potential to be used in weapons, the Nuclear Ministry has said.

Mayak has been the site of several accidents, including a 1957 waste facility explosion that contaminated 9,200 square miles. The region has been called the most radioactive place on the planet because of Soviet-era nuclear waste dumping into lakes and rivers.

France and Britain are the only countries now operating commercial reprocessing plants.

A 1992 law forbids importing nuclear materials from countries other than former East Bloc nations with existing contracts. Russia now imports spent fuel rods from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary for reprocessing, a system established during Soviet times.

---

Russia considers importing nuclear waste

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 10:31 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu03.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Waste.html
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=4krvk0f1b1g6r

MOSCOW (AP) - Lawmakers on Thursday tentatively approved a law allowing Russia to import spent nuclear fuel rods for reprocessing, a plan that could bring the country $20 billion - and 21,000 tons of nuclear waste.

The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry said that the money, which Russia would earn over 10 years, could be used to clean up past radioactive spills in Russia.

The proposal has been in the works for years. It is fiercely opposed by environmental groups, who say it amounts to selling downtrodden Russia as the world's nuclear waste dump.

The Duma - the legislature's lower house - overwhelmingly passed the law on the first reading, but it must clear two more readings, pass the parliament's upper chamber and be signed by President Vladimir Putin before it takes effect.

Proponents said Russia could earn much-needed foreign income by taking advantage of the country's Cold War-era nuclear facilities.

''We'll get financing and won't disgracefully beg the International Monetary Fund for money as we do now,'' Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov said.

The environmental group Greenpeace said the promise to use profits to cleanup past nuclear disasters was a public relations ploy.

The ministry just wants ''to get Western money for an expansion of the Russian nuclear industry, whose disregard for safety and the environment is starkly demonstrated'' by past mistakes, a statement from Greenpeace said Thursday.

The program foresees a market in Europe and Asia by offering a temporary solution to the problem of spent fuel rods piling up at civilian nuclear reactors.

Nuclear power stations around the world currently have about 200,000 tons of waste in temporary storage.

For a fee, small shipments would be sent to Russia's Mayak facility in the central Ural Mountains. They would travel by rail in armored wagons.

The recycling process extracts useable nuclear material from the spent nuclear rods while reducing their potential to be used in weapons, the Russian Nuclear Ministry has said.

Under current law, waste left over after reprocessing must be returned to the country of origin. The new measure would allow Russia to keep the waste.

France and Britain are currently the only countries operating commercial reprocessing plants.

Both Russian and foreign environmental groups object to the Russian ministry's plan, saying Russia should treat its own nuclear waste before receiving more.

A 1992 law forbids importing nuclear materials from foreign countries other than former East Bloc nations with existing contracts. Russia now treats spent fuel rods from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary under a system established during Soviet times.

-------- taiwan

Taiwan Justices Begin Reviewing Nuclear Decision

Inside China Today
Dec 21, 2000
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=232619

TAIPEI -- (Reuters) Taiwan's Council of Grand Justices, which interprets the constitution, began reviewing on Thursday a cabinet decision to end construction on a nuclear power plant, which had ignited an acrimonious partisan feud.

Taiwan's premier Chang Chun-hsiung announced in October it would scrap the island's US$5.5 billion fourth nuclear power plant, now already one-third complete, citing safety concerns.

The opposition-dominated legislature challenged the decision, saying it had already approved the budget for the nuclear plant and the cabinet's move was unconstitutional.

On Thursday, representatives from both the Executive Yuan, or cabinet, and the lawmaking Legislative Yuan began submitting evidence and making their case to the Grand Justices.

"The legislature's budget merely gives the Executive Yuan the right to build the fourth nuclear plant. It is not an obligation," cabinet representative Hsu Tsung-li told reporters on the sidelines of the grand justice hearing.

Lawmakers called the cabinet's override of the parliament's budget a show of bad faith.

"If the Executive Yuan alone can make decisions on a major budget item and policy like the fourth nuclear plant, then I would like to ask if it can accept the legislature's supervision on other major policies and spending," queried opposition People First Party lawmaker Chou Hsi-wei.

The nine-member Council of Grand Justices is expected to take several months before making their decision, judicial officials said. A two-thirds majority is required before the judicial body hands down a ruling.

New president Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally opposed nuclear power, and he initiated a review of the nuclear plant project after taking office in May, sweeping out the long-ruling Nationalist Party.

The cabinet decided in October to scrap the nuclear project in favor of private liquefied natural gas plants, ending a pet Nationalist project.

The cancellation crushed budding multipartisan cooperation and led the opposition Nationalist, People First, and New Parties to form a loose coalition and call for Chen's dismissal.

Most business leaders favor the nuclear plant, fearing power shortages in the future.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut state utility firm Taiwan Power Co's long-term rating to "AA-" from "AA" with a negative outlook, after placing the company on creditwatch following the cancellation.

-------- ukraine

Ukraine's Kuchma in Moscow for Talks on Energy Debts

Reuters
December 21, 2000 Filed at 2:46 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-.html

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine's embattled President Leonid Kuchma arrived in Moscow on Thursday for a two-day visit likely to be dominated by the thorny issue of energy debts to Russia.

Late on Thursday Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at a riverside state residence, but no details of the meeting were released.

Senior officials in both states had said a memorandum between Russia and Ukraine to restructure gas debts of more than $1.4 billion might be signed during the visit.

The deal, unveiled during the leaders' last meeting in the Belarussian capital Minsk earlier this month, is a major breakthrough in a long-running row which has overshadowed relations between the Slav neighbors.

Kuchma's press service said that besides energy issues the Ukrainian and Russian leaders would also discuss the prospects for improved trade as well as economic and political relations.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency said Kuchma would visit Russia's second city St Petersburg on Friday.

Back in Ukraine, Kuchma faces growing criticism sparked by the disappearance of journalist Georgiy Gongadze. The opposition have implicated Kuchma and his entourage in the affair, accusations the president has vigorously denied.

Gongadze, whose www.pravda.com.ua Web site had been harshly critical of Kuchma, went missing in mid-September. His friends and colleagues say they believe a decapitated corpse found outside the capital, Kiev, is that of the journalist.

The Gongadze case has sparked protests in the center of Kiev, where students set up a tent camp last week. The daily newspaper Den said on Thursday that protests had started to subside after Kuchma met protesters on Wednesday.

At a news conference in Moscow, Kuchma denied any connection to Gongadze's disappearance and accused elements in his own country of masterminding the deepening scandal.

``Big money and professionals stand behind this,'' Kuchma said. ''I tend to believe that they are ours, Ukrainians.

``I tried to find a logic in all these actions but could not see any,'' he added.

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

Bush on a sticky wicket with N. Korea

The Hindu
Thursday, December 21, 2000
By F.J. Khergamvala http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/12/21/stories/03210005.htm

TOKYO, DEC. 20. As the Clinton administration winds down to give way to a Bush administration that threatens to make the national missile defence (NMD) an essential ingredient of its strategic plans, North Korea's missiles development policy waits at the crossroads between what has been offered to Mr. Bill Clinton and what is acceptable to Mr. George W. Bush.

The entire question of a Clinton visit to Pyongyang has boiled down to the missiles deal, which in turn, may lead to the U.S. lifting many sanctions and providing or blessing aid to North Korea. That in turn implies not merely recognition but firm intent on the part of the U.S. to help preserve the North Korean system. But aid also requires the so far absent consensus among the Republicans. North Korea gains prestige from a Clinton visit, but would probably give little away without assurances that Mr. Bush will pick up from where Mr. Clinton left.

When the Clinton administration began debating the overall viability of a national missile defence scheme, the real strategic motive was China but the U.S. used the ``rogue'' North Korean State's missiles capabilities to cloak its real justification. Mr. Kim Jong Il has put many missile related concessions up for bargain, but acceptance by the U.S. could also undermine the justifications advanced by Mr. Bush for developing the missile defence. The transition in the U.S. takes place at a time when the terms are still being negotiated. Mr. Kim Jong Il may have timed it such that a negotiation begun by one administration could either commit the next one, or at the very least lock any post-Clinton administration into his singular purpose, that of obtaining commitment to survival of the North Korean system.

The next Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell and the National Security Advisor, Ms. Condoleezza Rice have made fairly explicit that the Bush administration will go ahead with national missile defence. Neither have recently linked the NMD with North Korea. In a statement that bore no hint of a compromise on NMD, but which could only be inferred to include Pyongyang, Gen. Powell said the time had come to move in the direction ``to take away the currency associated with strategic offensive weapons and the blackmail that is inherent in some regime having that kind of a weapon and thinking they can hold us hostage.''

Over the past six years, the U.S. has negotiated successfully with blackmail, and reciprocally, so too has North Korea. Dr. William Perry, who as Defence Secretary, scarcely uttered a sentence without the term ``rogue State,'' two years later became the Clinton administration's chief coordinator for North Korea. He eventually did the carrot and stick deal with the North. It was a deal conceptually founded on the South Korean President, Mr. Kim Dae Jung's sunshine policy of engagement but negotiated by brandishing U.S. military power and financial influence in international lending institutions. But it was also Part II of the 1994 Agreed Framework on Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

Many saw the contradiction between the rhetoric about the North as a ``rogue State'' (now ``States of concern'') and constant, serious engagement with North Korea over six years. North Korea's shrewd policy-making architects also saw the opportunity to follow through the 1994 deal and advance its foreign policy of extortion.

In 1994, the U.S. and North Korea were absolutely on the brink of war on Pyongyang's nuclear programme. A back down by both led to an Agreed Framework, whereby the North would abandon, step by step its nuclear programme, if a U.S. led consortium would take step by step measures to provide it with two replacement 1,000 megawatt light water reactors and heavy fuel oil until the new reactors were ready. If a deal could be done on the nuclear programme, the North felt the U.S. might also see fit to engage it on a bargain on missiles.

---

Why U.S. missile defense is a bad idea

San Jose Mercury News
Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 in the San Jose Mercury News
World Stories from The Mercury News
Globe and Mail (Toronto)
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/worldvu21.htm

(Opinion) It was a scene guaranteed to cause conniptions in Washington. In Ottawa on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Russian President Vladimir Putin stood side by side, discussing their mutual concerns about the U.S. military's big project: national missile defense.

The Americans have been leaning hard on Canada to join the project, which has gained renewed life with the election of Republican George W. Bush as president. One U.S. admiral even warned that if we didn't join, they might not shoot down missiles headed for Canada.

Before brass buttons start popping, though, the Americans should consider a few points.

First, Canada has not said whether it will join the project. That decision has yet to be made. Second, Chrétien did not say Canada would mediate between Russia and the United States on the missile-defense issue. Third, Canada has every right to express concern about this worrying project and to discuss those concerns with the Russians. Though some people seem not to have heard, the Cold War is over.

In a world that still bristles with nuclear weapons, our survival rests on the concept known as mutually assured destruction, aptly nicknamed MAD. No one would win, so no one is tempted to attack in the first place.

Mad as it may be, the concept has worked. One of the reasons it has worked is that the United States, Russia and other nuclear powers have agreed not to develop comprehensive defense systems that would cancel out the deterrent effect of mutually assured destruction.

National missile defense would fly in the face of that agreement. Though Washington says it is designed to fend off attacks from rogue regimes such as North Korea and Iraq, other countries such as Russia and China might conclude that the U.S. was trying to make itself invulnerable to missile attacks from any source. They might then try to build better offensive systems. Result: a new arms race.

-----

The New Push for a Missile Shield

New York Times
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/opinion/L21MIS.html

To the Editor:

Re "Prelude to a Missile Defense" (editorial, Dec. 19):

The Bush administration's plan to install a missile defense system lacks common sense. Such a maneuver is motivated by fear and politics, not scientific research and the appropriate weighing of pros and cons.

Unfortunately, no antimissile system will ever be 100 percent reliable. Even if near-perfect technology were available, resourceful and motivated countries would almost certainly develop novel offensive countermeasures, as history has repeatedly shown.

Moreover, it seems foolhardy to invest a disproportionate amount of resources in a less than adequate nuclear defense system when chemical and biological weaponry appears to be an equal, or perhaps even greater, threat to our national security in the coming years.

YOSEF BRODY New York, Dec. 19, 2000

•To the Editor:

You make a plausible case for a go-slow approach to missile defense (editorial, Dec. 19). But this argument is now an old chestnut in strategic thinking. Ever since President Ronald Reagan first proposed a national space-based shield, we've been researching and researching and researching. It's time to stop lining the pockets of the missile defense research establishment and put our money where our mouth is: either build the thing or drop the idea permanently.

It is now clear that the dream of a perfect defense against nuclear attack is not going away. Therefore, our best option is to build some kind of shield right away.

CARL BIRMAN Brooklyn, Dec. 19, 2000

•To the Editor:

You write about perfecting the technology of a national missile defense system (editorial, Dec. 19). But whether technically feasible or not, the system is flawed as a concept. Since the inception of the nuclear age, the United States has possessed reliable protection against a nuclear attack. It is called deterrence, and it has worked for half a century.

Neither the Soviet Union, with its vast nuclear arsenal, nor China, with its smaller capability, launched a nuclear attack against the United States, out of fear of a devastating nuclear reprisal. If deterrence works against these powers, there is little reason to think that it won't work against lesser emerging nuclear states.

Further, a national missile defense would cause China (as you note) as well as new nuclear adversaries to develop larger arsenals than they otherwise would.

So a national missile defense would offer no additional security while costing billions of taxpayer dollars, the alienation of allies and a possible increase in the number of nuclear weapons in the world.

BRIAN ALEXANDER Cincinnati, Dec. 20, 2000

•To the Editor:

Re "Prelude to a Missile Defense" (editorial, Dec. 19):

Why is it that no one discusses "cargo-container defense"? Surely the first nuclear weapon delivered to New York will come by cargo container, the truck of international commerce. As with missile defense, this may be an unsolvable problem, but by tackling it, we would be addressing a real threat.

PHILIP E. NORGREN Stamford, Conn., Dec. 19, 2000

•To the Editor:

You pointed out the bad consequences from building a missile defense system (editorial, Dec. 19). But there is more involved. What good could that money do on the world stage, along with positive diplomatic policies aimed at bringing the world together?

Instead, we hear the incoming Bush administration starting to beat the military-power drum with talk about fighting and winning wars. We hear words that make our allies uneasy. We do not see much sensitivity to what other countries are thinking.

Wouldn't it be wiser to work on political and diplomatic solutions than to rely on a fantasy defense system while playing tough guy around the world?

BAYARD MICHAEL Boulder, Colo., Dec. 19, 2000

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

-------- connecticut

USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Conneticut

Groton - General Dynamics' Electric Boat division gave a few lucky employees $150,000 in prizes through a lottery for workers who didn't use all their sick days this year. The shipyard started the lottery six years ago to cut costs. This year, 1,540 salaried employees who didn't use up their allotted sick days were eligible for prizes. The prizes included $2,500 cash prizes, gift certificates and free parking spaces.

-------- vermont

Corrections

New York Times
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/pageoneplus/corrections.html

An article in Business Day yesterday about renewed interest in old nuclear plants misstated the name of the company that is buying the Nine Mile Point plants. It is Constellation Nuclear, not Entergy. The article also misstated the name of the plant that could be run by the original workers' grandchildren. It is Vermont Yankee, not Yankee Rowe.

-------- washington

Flour Hanford To Manage Nuke Reserve

Associated Press
December 21, 2000 Filed at 8:35 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Nuclear-Contract.html

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy is extending for six years its contract with Fluor Hanford, which has managed the Hanford nuclear reservation since October 1996.

The $3.8 billion contract carries with it the opportunity for Fluor to earn about $168 million in performance-based fees, said Keith Klein, DOE's Hanford manager.

``We come to this conclusion following a very tough but productive year,'' Klein said in a teleconference Thursday.

``We've seen Fluor demonstrate improved ability to make progress, especially with the timely movement of spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins.

``We're impressed with Fluor's willingness to make changes, aggressively attack problems and, in the final analysis, perform.''

Last year, DOE fined Fluor $330,000 -- the biggest fine issued by the department -- for violating safety rules in the K Basins project, one of Hanford's top priority radiation cleanup efforts, which for years was delayed by technical difficulties and cost overruns.

But by December 1999, the department said Fluor had corrected the problems satisfactorily.

This month, Fluor began moving 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the aging, leaky basins, which are old reactor cooling pools 400 yards from the Columbia River. The corroded fuel rods are being prepared for interim storage and moved to the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation.

The contract calls for multiyear planning and goals, rather than an annual approach, which has been more typical of Hanford projects.

---

Engineers Look for Nuke Plant Leak

Associated Press
December 21, 2000 Filed at 7:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-BRF-Nuclear-Plant-Leak.html

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- Engineers were trying to determine Thursday if there's a leaky fuel rod in the reactor at a nuclear power plant.

Instruments three weeks ago indicated a possible leak with slightly elevated isotope readings in recirculated water at the Columbia Generating Station. New numbers this week show readings at less than one-tenth the level that would normally indicate a leak.

Over the weekend, power generation was reduced to 75 percent at the 1,200-megawatt plant for some rod adjustments, which takes about two or three hours. Engineers had hoped to find the problem then.

``It may not be a leak. It may be a problem with instrumentation,'' said Don McManman, a spokesman for Energy Northwest, a 13-utility public power consortium that owns the nuclear plant.

-------- us nuc politics

Bush missile stance could mean rocky road

San Jose Mercury News
Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 in the San Jose Mercury News
World Stories from The Mercury News
Straights Times (Singapore)
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/worldvu21.htm

(Opinion) The U.S. President-elect George W. Bush has nominated Gen. Colin Powell as his secretary of state and Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. Together with former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as vice president, they will bring stature to the new president's foreign-policy team. Their knowledge and experience will compensate for Bush's lack of curiosity about the world and inexperience.

It remains to be seen, however, what sort of foreign policy they will fashion. Powell began well by saying all the right things when Bush introduced him. With a command of the issues that tended to place his boss in the shade, he signaled that U.S. foreign policy will not shift dramatically with the new administration, but indicated that there will be subtle shifts, in tone as well as substance. A Bush administration, he suggested, will take a tougher line toward Russia and China -- they are neither enemies nor ``strategic partners,'' he said.

Of more immediate concern to Asia are the plans for a national missile-defense system and attitudes toward China. Conventional wisdom has it that a Republican administration will soft-pedal human rights issues, so U.S. relations with China are likely to be better, but this view may be a little out of date.

Hopefully, Bush will soften his rhetoric once he is in office, but if he does not, Asia (and indeed, the world) will have to negotiate some rough passages ahead.

Unfortunately for the world, every time a new U.S. administration comes into office, a period of experimentation ensues, when the new team tries new postures, only to discover soon enough that the reality is a tough master that does not allow for free-form experimentation.

-- straitstimes.asia1.com.sg

---

Bush introduces Colin Powell as his nominee for Secretary of State
Back to the Future Is W's team up to the job?

MSNBC
12/21/00
By Joseph S. Nye Jr. NEWSWEEK
http://www.msnbc.com/news/506682.asp

Dec. 21 - George W. Bush sent several important signals by making Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice his first cabinet appointments.

AT HOME, he was mending fences with an African-American community that had voted by a nine-to-one margin for his opponent, Al Gore. In foreign-policy terms, he was signaling continuity with the past: Both had served with distinction in his father's administration, Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Rice as a key member of the National Security Council. On Wednesday, with his nomination of Paul O'Neill at Treasury, Bush has also demonstrated that he's determined to choose top talent.

The most immediate effect of Bush's foreign-policy choices could be a dramatic revival of the State Department. Plagued by low morale and starved for adequate resources to carry out its tasks, State has long been the sick man of Washington politics. The problems antedate the Clinton administration. During the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan eras, State frequently lost struggles with the National Security Council. Colin Powell, as a larger-than-life figure with a constituency of his own, is well placed to resist White House encroachments on State's authority. Moreover, Rice is a protégée of former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, whose tenure in the first Bush administration is often cited as a model of how to handle the job.

As a military hero and former JCS chairman, Powell's background will also help level the playing field in State's relations with the Pentagon. That's not to say Powell-the-diplomat will necessarily have the upper hand in relations with military brass. State may be in charge of diplomacy with other countries, but the secretary of Defense and the regional commanders in chief play significant roles in international relations. And the Pentagon commands sixteen times the budgetary resources of State, greatly amplifying the military's voice overseas as well as on Capitol Hill. What's more, Dick Cheney, as a former secretary of Defense and an activist vice president, could prove to be the wild card in this deck.

Although foreign-policy played only a minor role before the election, one area of contention between Bush and Gore was whether the United States should become involved in humanitarian missions.

CLUES FROM THE CAMPAIGN

How will the team come down on key national security issues? There are clues in statements made during the campaign. Although foreign-policy played only a minor role before the election, one area of contention between Bush and Gore was whether the United States should become involved in humanitarian missions. President-elect Bush said he would be less likely to intervene than the Clinton administration, and Rice argued that the United States should take military action only when national interests are stake. Powell, moreover, is known for a similarly cautious approach to the use of American troops. That means African-Americans who think these first two appointments make it more likely that Americans will become involved in conflicts in Sierra Leone or Congo are likely to be disappointed. On the other hand, the political dynamics of intervention in the Information Age are difficult to control. After all, it was President Bush, moved by pictures of starving infants, who placed American troops in Somalia in l992. And European allies have already sought reassurance that a new administration will not pull American troops out of NATO peacekeeping missions in the Balkans.

The issue of nuclear weapons also came up briefly during the campaign. Bush presented more ambitious plans than Gore for reductions in offensive weapons and for building defenses against ballistic missiles. But any effort to make deep cuts in offensive missiles will encounter resistance from the Joint Chiefs. And on both offense and defense, ambitious proposals are likely to face opposition in a closely divided Congress. Given the growing consensus that the Clinton plan for national missile defense was the wrong technical system at the wrong time and the fact that Clinton postponed a decision on deployment after a test failed last fall, Powell and Rice would be wise to advise Bush to undertake a new study before plunging ahead.

China also played a modest role in the campaign, with Bush suggesting a somewhat more hard-line attitude. But changes in China policy are unlikely. Since the Nixon administration, American policy toward China, particularly in Congress, has been an odd alliance of left-wing liberals and right-wing conservatives against a moderate middle that has tried to engage China while creating conditions (such as reinforcing the U.S.-Japan relationship) that discourage aggression. On the sensitive issue of Taiwan, this has meant acceptance of "one China" while rejecting any use of force on China's part to reunite with Taiwan.

Not only does Bush have the authority of commander in chief, but there is a strong tendency for the American public to rally round the president during times of crisis.

Some commentators have speculated that the close election and prolonged process of decision will weaken the foreign policy of Bush's presidency. On issues that require budgetary approval, President-elect Bush will have to endure tough negotiations with Congress. But on issues under the control of the executive branch, such as the Middle East peace process, his powers will be little diminished. Not only does Bush have the authority of commander in chief, but there is a strong tendency for the American public to rally round the president during times of crisis. And the presence of skilled professionals like Powell and Rice at the heart of things will only help rally public opinion.

NEW GLOBAL THREAT

The real question is how Bush's foreign policy team will cope with new issues. When Powell and Rice last served in government, the Web was in its infancy. Now, the information revolution and globalization are transforming world politics. In a report released last week, the National Intelligence Council warned that issues like the availability of water and food, population pressures, the spread of diseases like AIDS, transnational crime, cyberterrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction will increasingly affect the national security of the United States.

That brings us to Treasury. In tapping Paul O'Neill, Bush has turned to a man with a stellar reputation as the chief executive of Alcoa, broad interests as a business statesman, and prior experience in the White House as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. With O'Neill at the helm, Treasury will be a strong player. One of the interesting features of the last administration was the increased influence of the Treasury Department on a broad range of foreign affairs, from bailing out the Mexican peso and weighing in on China's membership in the World Trade Organization to countering the money-laundering activities of transnational criminals. All that means that Powell and Rice will have to coordinate not just with Defense, but with Treasury as well.

The first Bush administration did a masterful job of presiding over the end of the Cold War. The second Bush administration will have to mind the classical problems, while also coping with the new issues of globalization. Will they be up to it?

Joseph S. Nye Jr. is dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and co-author of the recently published "Governance in a Globalizing World"

---

'Reminiscence and Farewell'

Washington Post
Thursday, December 21, 2000; Page A03
By MARY McGRORY
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34473-2000Dec20?language=printer

No one had planned his farewell speech to the Senate more meticulously than Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the body's most prolific author, its only intellectual and time-tested prophet.

Moynihan started preparing his remarks in October. He wrote several drafts, which were circulated to friends. The press was told it must wait even to know the subject. The four-term senator may have anticipated an audience: He has fans in the Senate who are, as he intends them to be, dazzled by his erudition. All recognize that they are ankle-high when measured against him. He's 6-foot-4 in many ways.

But the last day came, and by the time that Moynihan got to the floor, the Senate was beyond listening, even to him. It had been a trying day. A fierce argument about Alaska's gluttonous sea lions, an endangered species that eats so much pollock that they are endangering the livelihood of fishermen, had consumed much of the day. Moynihan was co-sponsor of an Amtrak bill of much consequence to New York, which had gone down. When Moynihan hit the floor at 5:48 last Friday, six others were clamoring for recognition.

When his final turn on the Senate floor came, the often discursive Moynihan spoke succinctly. He asked to be allowed a "moment of reminiscence and farewell." He handed his statement over to the clerk to be printed in the Congressional Record.

His best friend in the Senate, who is also retiring, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, thinks the whole anticlimax was appropriate. "Once again, the Senate is not listening to what it needs to hear. How many times has he been disregarded? I think it's perfect."

Kerrey cited the most notable instance of Moynihan's being ahead of his time: In 1965, in Moynihan's report about the black family, he detailed the dire effects of illegitimacy and fatherlessness. There was an outcry among black leaders, and timid white politicians did not dare echo such unpopular views.

Moynihan also foresaw the demise of the Soviet Union. He called for the abolition of the CIA, which missed the poverty and potholes in Soviet life. He is that rare prophet who is also a skilled numbers-cruncher.

Moynihan's interest extends beyond Social Security, Medicare and arcane matters before the Senate Finance Committee. For 35 years, he worked for the redemption of Pennsylvania Avenue, the "Avenue of the Presidents," which in Kennedy's time was a place of tacky bars and souvenir stands. Now it has been restored to majesty and Moynihan lives in a new apartment building overlooking the scene.

He is the only member of the Senate to have a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue named after him. Moynihan Place, which occurs near 13th Street, was chosen after a site at Seventh Street had been rejected. It was dedicated to Indiana and had a statue devoted to Temperance, which greatly amused the bibulous senator, but he turned down the site because he did not want to alienate Hoosiers.

Pal Kerrey got the appropriation for Moynihan Place passed in the classified section of the intelligence bill, and the pair got a great chuckle out of that.

From a large portfolio of potential subjects, he picked one that receives no attention whatev er and was hardly mentioned in the recent campaign -- our nuclear arsenal.

He thinks we should reduce the thousands of nuclear bombs we keep at the ready. He doesn't say what the numbers should be. He just thinks we should be talking about it.

He discusses the importance of some maturity in our policy on government secrecy and its deleterious impact on science and scientists, who would be disinclined to do weapons research for a paranoid government.

It is this ability to see around corners that makes the Senate sage. I remember when John Kennedy was shot, Moynihan was desperate to see the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, taken into federal custody. He went from one government official to another begging for action to be taken. None was, and the consequences are still with us.

Moynihan's discussion of the need to face the consequences of our unexamined nuclear policy might not have been heeded even if it had been heard. Decades ago, he went before a meeting of New York's Democratic Party. He talked to them about the tensions between India and Pakistan and the "Islamic bomb." The bosses, eager for party talk, were furious, but he was right.

But they forgave him because they knew he was exceptional. Even if he had worked once for Richard M. Nixon, and was a "new Democrat" -- a self-proclaimed disciple of hawkish Scoop Jackson -- before there was such a thing, and has now reverted to traditional Democratic views, they knew there wasn't anybody like him.

-------- us nuc waste

Yucca Mountain backer pulls out as energy secretary choice
Ex-Louisiana senator denies Nevada outcry influenced his decision

Las Vegas Review-Journal
Thursday, December 21, 2000
By STEVE TETREAULT DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana took himself out of the running Thursday as a potential energy secretary for George W. Bush's administration.

Johnston, a Democrat with strong ties to energy industries and a leading proponent of building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, said his decision was for family reasons.

"I have removed myself from consideration," he said in a statement. "I decided it would be unfair to ask my dear wife, Mary, who spent many years being a political widow, to be asked once again to put aside her wishes for my political career. She would've said yes had I insisted."

Johnston, 68, is a partner in a successful Washington consulting firm, Johnston and Associates, whose clients include energy and defense firms. He retired from the Senate in 1996 after 24 years.

According to a news report, Johnston said he was contacted by Vice President-elect Richard Cheney on Monday with what he took to be an offer for the job. After calling colleagues and sleeping on it for several days, he said he decided Wednesday morning to take a pass.

Reports that Johnston was on the verge of being selected spurred frantic telephone calls Tuesday from Nevada leaders to Bush's transition team, including Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

It couldn't be determined what role the objections from Nevada had in Johnston's decision to withdraw. State leaders said they were not aware of opposition to Johnston from any other part of the country.

"We sent word up to the Bush people that it would be basically a slap in all our faces out here, and to please consider other people, and that we would do everything we could to stop it," said Sen.-elect John Ensign, R-Nev.

"They told us that (Johnston) wasn't going to do it, but it wasn't until this morning that we got confirmation."

Tucker Eskew, a Bush spokesman, declined to discuss Johnston.

"Our comment is that we will not join in the public speculation," he said. "President-elect Bush is moving with dispatch and is well under way to deciding."

Johnston said the objections from Nevada were not surprising and played no role in his decision. He wrestled with Nevada lawmakers ever since writing the 1987 bill that singled out Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the only site to be studied for a nuclear waste repository.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he thought otherwise. "The expressions we collectively made was that a Johnston nomination would face a very difficult time in the Senate, and Harry Reid was prepared to do everything to hold it up," hesaid. "Nobody wants to be dragged through a bitter nomination fight."

Sen. Reid, D-Nev., said he began working the phones Tuesday, shortly after learning that Johnston might be nominated.

"I am of course very happy he (withdrew)," Reid said. "It's good for the state of Nevada and for the country. Bennett Johnston is someone I consider a friend, but he's not somebody I want to be secretary of energy."

Johnston was chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee. He had close ties to energy industries and was considered a champion of nuclear power and oil and gas development.

Reid had enlisted environmental groups to start making noise against Johnston. On Wednesday, they applauded his withdrawal.

"We're very pleased to see he dropped out of the race. It would not have boded well for the DOE to have someone with such close ties to the energy industry," said Wenonah Hauter, an energy director at the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen organization.

Johnston is at least the second person to turn away from the post. Last week, Sen. John Breaux, D-La., met with Bush but said afterward he wasn't interested.

Others mentioned as possible energy secretary candidates are Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles; Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas; Thomas Kuhn, president of Edison Electric Institute; and Tony Garza, 40, a member of the Texas Railroad Commission.

This story is located at: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-21-Thu-2000/news/15083147.html

-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

Trafficking proof points to Liberian

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405461630

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Evidence of Liberian President Charles Taylor's involvement in illegal diamond and arms trafficking with Sierra Leone's rebels is ''100 percent'' solid, the top diamond expert on a U.N.-appointed panel said Wednesday.

The panel called Tuesday for an embargo on all diamonds from Liberia until it demonstrates that it is no longer involved in trafficking gems from and arms to war-ravaged Sierra Leone.

Taylor on Wednesday insisted his administration was not involved in any diamond smuggling or gun-running for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels, with whom he has close ties.

But the panel's report accused the Liberian president of actively fueling the nine-year civil war in Sierra Leone, and with a small coterie of officials and businessmen, of controlling ``a covert sanctions-busting apparatus that includes international criminal activity and the arming of the RUF.''

``The sanctions-busting is fed by the smuggling of diamonds and the extraction of natural resources in both Liberia and areas under rebel control in Sierra Leone,'' it said. ``In addition, the sovereign right of Liberia to register planes and ships, and to issue diplomatic passports, is being misused in order to further the operations of this group.''

Ian Smillie of Canada, the diamond expert on the five-member panel, was asked Wednesday how strongly the panel believes in the evidence implicating Taylor.

``One hundred percent on both sides _ the business of diamonds going out through Liberia ... and the weapons going into Sierra Leone,'' he said.

The United Nations has banned diamond exports by rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone in a bid to strangle their ability to finance two of Africa's most brutal conflicts. In July, the United States and Britain charged that the presidents of Liberia and Burkina Faso were helping Sierra Leone's rebels sell diamonds and buy sophisticated weapons.

Smillie spoke outside the Security Council where the report had been expected to be formally introduced to the 15 members by Bangladesh's U.N. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, chairman of the committee monitoring sanctions against Sierra Leone.

But in an indication of the sensitivity of the report's findings, Ukraine objected, saying it wanted more time to study the report, western diplomats said. Chowdhury expressed disappointment that the report would not be presented at an open council meeting, complaining that this ``works against transparency and openness.''

The report cites a shipment of arms from Ukraine which wound up in RUF hands via Burkina Faso and Liberia. It makes clear, though, that Burkina Faso's defense ministry provided an end-user certificate.

One of the report's key recommendations, however, could be troubling for Ukraine. It suggests that the Security Council consider slapping an embargo on weapons exports from producer countries, such as those in eastern Europe, to areas under regional or U.N. embargoes to stem the flow of arms.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, the current council president, was sympathetic to the Ukrainian request, diplomats said. ``The committee on sanctions has to discuss it first and then the council would be ready to receive the report as soon as the committee is ready,'' he said.

A U.S. official said the report lays the groundwork for sanctions

-------- colombia

Kidnapped Brits freed in Colombia

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405461878

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Two Britons kidnapped while trekking across a lawless, jungle frontier have been freed after nine months in captivity.

``All we want is to get home for Christmas,'' Paul Winder, 29, one of the two freed adventurers, told a news conference Wednesday, a day after arriving safely in Colombia's capital.

Winder and Tom Hartdyke, 24, were released after negotiations involving the embassy and the International Committee of the Red Cross, embassy spokesman Johnny Welsh said. Their captors were not identified.

``As you can see we are well and in very good spirits in spite of our experiences during the past nine months,'' Winder said. ``However we are very tired and anxious to be reunited with our families in the UK as soon as possible.''

The pair then left to catch a British Airways flight to London.

The men disappeared in March while trekking from Panama to Colombia, reportedly to collect orchids.

In a short prepared statement, Winder said they were detained March 16 by an armed group while walking through the Darien Gap. He said the captors held them against their will and never identified themselves.

The Darien Gap is a roadless region in thick rainforest inhabited by Indian tribes, leftist Colombian rebels and right-wing Colombian paramilitary forces. Colombian armed groups routinely cross the border into Panama.

Three American missionaries _ David Mankins, Richard Tenenoff, and Mark Rich _ disappeared in the same area in 1993, in the Darien in Panama, and have not been found.

On Dec. 10, Winder said, they were released without explanation and set out on an eight-day walk to freedom through the jungles into northern Colombia. On Monday, they stumbled upon a park ranger near the Colombian town of Sautata.

With the ranger's help, they managed Tuesday to speak by radio and telephone with the British consul in Bogota, who helped arrange their trip back to the capital with the Red Cross.

Colombia has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world with roughly 3,000 kidnappings a year. Armed groups _ most of them leftist rebels _ seize hostages for political gain or for ransom.

---

Colombia wants more

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
Embassy Row
James Morrison News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-20001221213432.htm

Colombian Ambassador Luis Moreno hopes the Bush administration can pull together at least one bipartisan coalition to support more money for his country to fight drug smugglers.

Mr. Moreno told the Associated Press that Colombia will need $600 million a year in addition to the $1.3 billion Congress approved earlier this year.

"This was a bipartisan policy," he said in a recent interview. "It began as a bipartisan policy and it should remain that way."

The aid package approved in the summer includes helicopters to help Colombia fight Marxist rebels who profit from the drug trade and protect the coca fields and cocaine laboratories.

The Clinton administration tied the use of the helicopters to combat guerrillas linked to the cocaine trade, not for the Colombian military to use to fight the broader civil war.

The AP, however, noted that some Republicans hope President-elect George W. Bush will drop that restriction and allow Colombian President Andres Pastrana a freer hand with U.S. military aid if current peace talks fail.

---

New York Times
December 21, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

COLOMBIA: BRITONS FREED Two Britons kidnapped in the Darien Gap rain forest on Colombia's Panamanian border were freed after nine months, the British Embassy said. Paul Winder and Tom Hartdyke were abducted in the same region where three American missionaries disappeared in 1993. The Darien Gap is a roadless swatch of jungle and rivers where left-wing rebels and right-wing death squads battle. Juan Forero (NYT)

-------- drug war

Drug danger in U.S. forests

USA Today
By Kevin Johnson,
12/21/00- Updated 07:44 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nlead.htm

WASHINGTON - Drug seizures on federal forestlands from California to Appalachia are reaching near-record levels this year, and U.S. authorities increasingly are worried about the dangers posed to tourists by renegade marijuana growers protecting their turf. Through October, marijuana seizures on forestlands already were up by nearly 30% from last year, according to new U.S. Forest Service reports, a haul representing more than 1.3 million pounds of the plant. Authorities believe street value of the pot could run as high as $3,000 per pound.

Forestry officials say they fear that those growing marijuana in public forests are increasingly establishing links with international drug traffickers. The officials say they have seen signs that the renegade operations are using violence, or the threat of it, to protect their crops.

In California, where more than 500,000 pounds have been seized this year, agents have discovered large "farms" protected around the clock by armed guards. Earlier this year, a man and his 8-year-old son were critically wounded in northern California while tracking deer across a large marijuana garden in the El Dorado National Forest.

"The risks to the public and our employees in California alone are frightening," says Kim Thorsen, the Forest Service's deputy director of enforcement.

In the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, supervisory law enforcement officer Harold Sizemore said marijuana seizures and arrests are at their highest levels in 10 years.

Authorities have seized more than 200,000 plants in the Boone forest so far this year, up nearly 5% from 1999.

"We busted one family - a father and five kids in April - who were doing more business than a Wendy's hamburger stand."

Marijuana isn't the only crop being grown illegally in the USA's forests.

Seizures of methamphetamine operations are up 150% this year, Forest Service reports show. Those seizures have included working laboratories and related chemical dumpsites that threaten forestlands' water sources.

Methamphetamine seizures have been concentrated in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, where drug producers have found a perfect combination of deep cover and proximity to interstate highways.

Remote areas of the national forests always have been attractive to illegal drug operations. But authorities say they have not seen drug activity like this in perhaps 20 years.

Bill Wasley, the Forest Service's director of law enforcement , says traffickers are seeking increased cover as law enforcement efforts have intensified in U.S. cities and suburbs.

The Forest Service has asked Congress for an additional $10 million in its 2002 budget for more drug agents and equipment.

---

Clinton examines clemency cases

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 10:28 PM ET
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu08.htm

President Clinton is considering whether to offer clemency to scores of low-level drug offenders, raising the possibility that one of his last acts in office could be the broadest grant of clemency since presidents Ford and Carter pardoned thousands of Vietnam-era draft evaders more than two decades ago.

The White House has been tight-lipped about what Clinton might do, but officials indicated Thursday that a decision could come as early as Friday.

Several groups are trying to persuade the president to release some low-level drug offenders - perhaps as many as several hundred - before he leaves office, saying that their sentences were far too harsh.

Clinton gave them hope during a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he hinted that he might act dramatically to shorten the five-, 10- and 20-year sentences of some non-violent drug offenders. Clinton said drug sentencing policies should be re-examined.

"The sentences in many cases are too long for non-violent offenders," he said, adding that it was "unconscionable" to punish crack cocaine offenders - more than 90% of whom are black - much more harshly than powder cocaine offenders, who are more likely to be white.

The Constitution gives the president the authority to commute sentences and pardon those convicted of federal crimes. But in the last 20 years, presidents seldom have used that power.

About 58% of the USA's 146,640 federal prisoners are drug offenders, many serving long mandatory sentences.

"There is no question that the timing is better than it has been in a long, long time for having these cases considered for clemency," says Margaret Love, the Justice Department's pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997.

Three major efforts advocating clemency for low-level drug offenders are underway:

A group called Families Against Mandatory Minimums has screened hundreds of cases and chosen a dozen inmates it considers to be prime candidates for having their sentences commuted.

"It was an awful proposition because we had to pass over so many worthy cases," says Julie Stewart, president of the group. "We picked cases that the pardon office was most likely to look on favorably" - felons whose cases did not involve guns, those who have served large chunks of their sentences, and those whose co-defendants played a bigger role in the crime but received shorter sentences.

The Coalition for Jubilee Clemency, a group of 675 clergy members, has asked Clinton to grant clemency to all low-level, non-violent drug offenders who have served five or more years in prison. Another group, the November Coalition in Col ville, Wash., has collected 32,000 signatures on a petition seeking the early release of the same type of felons targeted by the Jubilee group.

In 1994, Congress passed a "safety valve" law that let nonviolent drug offenders avoid mandatory minimum sentences and be sentenced based on the federal sentencing guidelines. However, the policy was not made retroactive.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums has supplied the White House with a list of the 487 inmates who meet the "safety valve" rules but were sentenced before 1994. If Clinton were to commute those sentences, about 350 inmates would be released immediately. The rest would get out in the next few years.

Phillip Gaines, 16, of Mobile, Ala., says he is optimistic that his mother, Dorothy, will be freed by the president.

Dorothy Gaines, who is on the FAMM group's list of top clemency candidates, is in the sixth year of a 19-year sentence she received for being a minor player in a big crack cocaine ring.

She was convicted of letting a boyfriend keep crack in her house, and she received a longer sentence than the boyfriend (who has been released from prison) and the drug ring's leader, who is scheduled to be released in 2004.

After her conviction, her son's life went into a downward spiral. Phillip's grades tumbled; he's been held back two years in school and is in the eighth grade. His older sister dropped out of college to take care of him and another sister.

"My sister tries to be my mother, but nobody can be a mom like a mom," he says.

"I feel sorry for Dorothy Gaines," says U.S. Attorney Don Foster, chief federal prosecutor in Mobile. "I feel sorry for her children. But it's not a question of sympathy. It's a question of enforcing the laws as written by Congress. She was fairly treated relative to other people in her position."

Arthur Curry, a Maryland educator, has a son whom inmate advocates see as another leading candidate for clemency. Derrick Curry was arrested for a crack offense at 19, is now 30 and is scheduled for release at age 40.

"I will be very grateful if my son is granted clemency," Arthur Curry says. "But I have a hard time answering the question: Why my son and not someone's else's? There are a lot of Derrick Currys in (prison). They are not monsters. They are kids who made mistakes."

---

USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Georgia

Douglas - The widow of Coffee County Sheriff Carlton Evans filed a $10 million lawsuit against two Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents. Authorities say Evans shot himself as officers moved to arrest him on marijuana charges. Karleen Evans' suit accuses agents Bill Butler and Scott Whitley of illegally invading her home Oct. 3.

---

Hatch in movie

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
Inside Politics
Greg Pierce News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inpolitics.htm

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, long a critic of violence in Hollywood, has a cameo in the new Michael Douglas movie "Traffic," which includes nudity, sex, drug use and profane language.

"I'm glad I did it," the Utah Republican said.

The R-rated movie, which has received high praise from critics, has an anti-drug message.

"I don't see how they could have made it without violence and still accurately portray the drug culture - and how degrading it is," Mr. Hatch told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City. "For adults who really need to know what kids are getting into, it's OK" to see the movie.

Mr. Hatch has a bit part in a scene where Mr. Douglas, playing a man nominated to become the nation's drug czar, is talking to senators at a Georgetown party. Mr. Hatch tells him what he thinks a drug czar ought to do.

The senator said the film's producer called the Judiciary Committee and asked if Mr. Hatch -its chairman - and other members would appear. Several agreed. Mr. Hatch said that as far as he knows, he wasn't paid for the cameo.

"They told my staff the movie would be about how drugs destroy families, and I thought that would be worthwhile," Mr. Hatch said.

-------- india/pakistan

Pakistan withdraws Kashmir troops

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By KATHY GANNON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405461657

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.

The United Nations was also pleased by the initiatives. ``We hope it will contribute to the resolution of the problem of Jammu-Kashmir,'' U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard 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.

-------- myanmar (burma)

Pentagon stops imports from Myanmar

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=4krvk0f1b1g6r

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon abruptly stopped importing clothing from Myanmar this week in response to criticism that the practice violated the spirit of Clinton administration policy, officials said Thursday. In a report Tuesday disclosing the imports, the New York Times said shipping documents showed that in October the Army and Air Force Exchange Service imported $138,290 in clothing made in Myanmar, the former Burma. "AAFES has ceased doing business with Burma," Pentagon spokesman Maj. Tim Blair said. The exchange service's purchases were not illegal. But the Times report quoted critics in Congress and in human rights groups as saying the practice ran contrary to the administration's efforts to put an economic squeeze on Myanmar, whose military rulers refused to recognize the 1988 election victory by the opposition party. In 1997 the administration banned new investment in Myanmar. Although it has not prohibited trade with Myanmar, the administration has discouraged Americans from doing business in that country. In the first nine months of this year, American apparel companies imported $308 million in goods from Myanmar, the Times reported.

-------- space

Spacecraft maneuvering problem halts Jupiter studies

CNN
December 21, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/12/21/nasa.cassini/index.html

PASADENA, California -- NASA has temporarily suspended the Cassini spacecraft's observations of Jupiter because of a problem with a maneuvering system.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/12/21/nasa.cassini/map.california.pasadena.lg.jpg

http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405471403

Cassini had been sending back images and other scientific data on a $3.4 billion, U.S.-European mission about Jupiter as it moves toward Saturn and its moon Titan .

Observations were halted on Wednesday after one of the spacecraft's four "reaction wheels" experienced problems, causing Cassini to switch to a different maneuvering system.

Cassini's wheels can point the spacecraft in any desired direction by taking advantage of the law of physics that each action has an opposite reaction. When an electric motor spins one of Cassini's wheels, the spacecraft rotates in the opposite direction.

The problem surfaced Sunday when the No. 2 reaction wheel began to need extra force to turn, and the spacecraft reacted by automatically switching from electricity to a hydrazine thrusting system to maneuver.

The hydrazine must be conserved for the primary mission at Saturn, according to officials at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European and Italian space agencies.

Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell said the situation was improving because the wheel functioned properly in a test Tuesday.

Program may resume when problem fixed

"If things go favorable for us from now on for the rest of the testing that we're doing it's conceivable that we'd be back up and running in a week to 10 days," he said.

Engineers don't know what caused the problem but speculation has centered on the possibility that some type of material got into the wheel mechanism and then either wore down or was spit out, Mitchell said.

Since Cassini was launched in 1997, the probe has flown by Earth once and Venus twice, each time using gravity to gain speed and change direction as it heads for Saturn. Its closest approach to Jupiter -- at a distance of 6 million miles -- is expected to take place December 30.

Cassini is scheduled to arrive at Saturn on July 1, 2004.

NASA briefly suspended the Cassini's operations once before, when the probe detected a possible error in its spatial orientation in January 1999.

At the time, Jet Propulsion Laboratory officials said engineers suspected that during a tracking maneuver, Cassini's star scanner may have viewed a patch of sky without the bright stars the spacecraft uses to orient itself in space. NASA resumed Cassini's operations after the problem was corrected.

Anti-nuclear activists have protested against Cassini because of concern that an accident while the probe was over Earth could release the 72 pounds of plutonium it carries. The spacecraft requires plutonium not for propulsion but to power its dozen scientific instruments. The decaying plutonium generates heat, which circuitry converts into electricity.

The craft's nuclear units were built especially strong to prevent rupture in the event of an accident during launch or fly-by. Each pellet is boxed in layers of heat-and corrosion- resistant iridium and graphite.

---

NASA may attempt trip to Pluto

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405471313

WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA wants to tap the brains of America's space thinkers to develop a mission to faraway Pluto that is cheap enough to be feasible and won't significantly delay a planned exploration of one of Jupiter's moons.

Ed Weiler, the agency's chief of space science, announced Wednesday that the agency was seeking proposals that would make it possible to send a robot craft to Pluto before the most distant of the solar system planets sweeps out of reach.

A launch planned in 2004 to Pluto, the only planet not yet visited by robot probes, was canceled in June because of spiraling costs.

Weiler said at the time that rising expenses for the Pluto-Kuiper Express were threatening the schedule for a higher-priority mission: a probe to Europa, a Jupiter moon that may harbor an ocean and possibly life.

The costs of the Europa and Pluto missions had risen from $650 million to $1.5 billion and Weiler said he acted to stay within budget and preserve the Europa mission.

The decision prompted protests from space-oriented organizations such as the Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society.

Planetary scientists feared the opportunity to explore Pluto would be lost for years. Reaching Pluto with current technology requires a spacecraft first to pass by Jupiter and pick up speed with a gravitational boost from that huge planet. After 2006, Pluto will move out of alignment for such a boost from Jupiter, and the opportunity for a Pluto mission could be lost for about 20 years.

Under the new plan, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is soliciting proposals for a cheaper Pluto mission that would have only a modest impact on the Europa mission launch plans.

A delay of the Europa mission to 2008 would be acceptable, Weiler said, but not much beyond that. Its original launch date was to have been 2003, delayed by costs.

There is high interest and support for the Europa mission because early studies suggest that its Jovian moon has an ice-capped ocean. Some scientists believe that if this is true, then the possibility exists of life there. The search for life beyond Earth is among NASA's highest priorities.

Weiler said NASA will accept Pluto mission proposals from any organization, including universities, aerospace companies, even NASA centers such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was in charge of the canceled Pluto mission.

``We'll leave it to the best minds in the country to determine the mission,'' he said. ``We are trying to cast the net wide to see what ideas are out there.''

Weiler said NASA is open to considering any ``viable option'' but is not committed to a Pluto mission. If no acceptable proposal comes, then the Pluto plans could be scrubbed.

At least two of the proposals, which are due March 19, will be picked in May for more study. If NASA concludes a Pluto mission is possible, the announcement will be made next fall, Weiler said.

The proposals require that a spacecraft, with specific scientific and imaging capabilities, reach Pluto by 2015 and cost no more than $500 million.

``We are gratified that NASA is trying to restore the Pluto mission to its launch schedule,'' Louis Friedman, director of the Planetary Society, said in a statement.

He said both the Europa and Pluto missions are ``essential steps in exploring our planetary environment,'' and NASA ``must find a way to launch missions to both worlds in the next eight years.''

-------- taiwan

Taiwan Will Be Tricky Task for Bush

Associated Press
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Taiwan-Bush.html

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Protecting Taiwan without provoking China is one of the trickiest foreign policy tasks for a U.S. leader -- one that could test President-elect George W. Bush soon after he takes office.

The new president will have to decide whether the United States should sell Taiwan weapons on the wish list the island submits to Washington each year. This month, Taiwanese and Pentagon officials began discussing the arms sales in secret meetings and a decision traditionally comes in April.

Few other nations sell Taiwan weapons and risk enraging Beijing, which claims the island is a breakaway province. China, the world's No. 3 nuclear power, has repeatedly threatened to attack the island, about 100 miles off the mainland's southeastern coast.

As the island's main protector, the United States could quickly get dragged into a China-Taiwan conflict, making the Taiwan Strait one of the world's most explosive hot spots.

In 1996, China test-fired missiles near Taiwan's two main ports, prompting the United States to send two aircraft carrier groups to the strait. It was the largest U.S. naval movement in the Asia-Pacific region since the Vietnam War.

Unlike most nations, the United States is required by law -- the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act -- to sell the island weapons necessary for its defense. But often, Washington refuses to sell arms that can also be used offensively, such as submarines.

Not wanting to anger China early in the process, Taiwanese and U.S. officials will not say what's on the 2001 shopping list. But defense analysts and a senior lawmaker say it hasn't changed much from the last one.

Most likely, Taiwan is requesting Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, said Parris Chang, a lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and chairman of the legislature's Committee on Foreign Relations.

The ships, priced at $1 billion, are equipped with the state-of-the-art Aegis radar system, which tracks more than 200 targets and prioritizes each threat for anti-aircraft or anti-missile defense. The ships also are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the kind the Navy have used against Iraq and Yugoslavia.

Supporters of the destroyers say they would greatly enhance Taiwan's defense against China's growing arsenal of missiles, destroyers and Russian-made jet fighters.

Taiwan requested four of the destroyers last year, but the Clinton administration deferred the sale. Washington said it would consider providing Taiwan with the warships if a study showed they were needed. On Monday, the Pentagon said in a report to the U.S. Congress that it is still seeking more information.

``The new Republican administration should be more sympathetic to Taiwan's needs,'' said Chang, also president of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic and Strategic Studies.

During the campaign, Bush supported building up military ties with Taiwan and pledged to defend the island if China attacked. The pledge has been repeatedly replayed on Taiwanese, TV news shows.

But Taiwan has learned that Republicans can disappoint as much as Democrats. It was the staunch anti-communist President Richard Nixon who re-established relations with China -- a move that eventually led to the severing of U.S. diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Taiwan's weapons request also should include diesel-powered submarines and P3C Orion surveillance aircraft, items Washington refused to sell to Taiwan last year, said Lin Cheng-yi, a research fellow at Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top state-run think tank.

Lin said the subs and the P3C Orion, a submarine-hunting plane equipped with advanced radar and sonar detectors, would be a tremendous help to Taiwan if China tried to block off the island's shipping lanes -- a scenario often mentioned by analysts.

Chung Chien, a military expert at Taiwan's Armed Forces University, doubted Washington would sell Taiwan the destroyers, submarines or P3C Orion aircraft.

He said the Aegis-equipped ships would be too advanced and costly for Taiwan, while the aircraft would only be practical if the Taiwanese air force could control the air space over the Taiwan Strait -- a task Chung said was impossible.

The analyst said the United States would refuse to sell the submarines because they could be used as offensive weapons.

``America does not want Taiwan to irritate China,'' he said. ``It just wants Taiwan to stand down and stay low.''

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

Gem Sanctions Sought by U.N. are Delayed

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21GEMS.html

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 - Ukraine, which was barely mentioned in a new report on the illegal diamond trade from Sierra Leone, blocked the report from being introduced today in the Security Council as planned, diplomats said.

Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, chairman of the Council sanctions committee dealing with Sierra Leone, said he was disappointed at the attempt to suppress the report, which was already circulating among diplomats.

"The decision to postpone the formal presentation of the report is not very helpful in terms of transparency," he said.

The report says Liberia is at the center of diamond smuggling from Sierra Leone and recommends an embargo against Liberia.

This evening Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian representative and president of the Council for December, said the report should be discussed by the sanctions committee before being presented to the full council.

The report is one of a series of studies the Security Council ordered over the past year as it tries to put teeth into sanctions, which have been widely disregarded in several African nations. Another report, on Angola, is to be presented to the Council on Friday.

The Sierra Leone report, based on six months of research by an international panel, focused on Liberia and its president, Charles Taylor, as the key links between the diamond smuggling and subsequent arms deliveries to the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel army that has terrorized Sierra Leone.

Ukraine was mentioned only as a source of some arms shipped to West Africa. Members of the former Soviet bloc have figured before in United Nations reports on illegal arms sales.

Today one of the panel's experts, Ian Smillie of Canada, told reporters that the evidence against Mr. Taylor was "100 percent" solid. The panel recommended sanctions against Liberia and Gambia, which has become a major exporter of diamonds although it has no fields of its own.

Britain and the United States are considering sanctions against President Taylor, but a resolution has not yet been introduced in the Council.

---

In Final Fight, Weary Envoy Counts Ticks on U.N. Clock

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21NATI.html

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 - After more than 16 months in the thankless job of refereeing between a hostile Congress and a lot of angry countries, Richard C. Holbrooke, American ambassador to the United Nations, is out of diplomatic patience and into outburst territory.

Today, as another deadline passed for deciding whether the United States will get a reduction in the dues it pays to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets, representatives of the 189-member General Assembly were staring at two sleepless nights ahead. The gavel comes down on the Assembly session on Friday. At moments like this, unity is always the last thing to be found.

"There is no way this is going to be finished by midnight Friday," Mr. Holbrooke said today, slumping on his office couch as one aide after another brought a phone or an urgent message on a 3-by-5 card. "A tremendous fight has broken out. It's not everyone against the U.S. It's everyone against everyone. Each country is protecting its own turf, sometimes for tiny amounts of money."

Mr. Holbrooke, who will leave the United Nations and government service for the quieter environment of the Council on Foreign Relations next year, is keeping an eye out for countries that may now accept the inevitability of reductions in American dues, looking for anyone else to pick up the slack: about $34 million a year worldwide. He has seen a nation as rich as Singapore balk at a $3 million annual increase in peacekeeping payments, and the Sultan of Brunei refuse to part with an extra $150,000. And then there was the hurricane thing.

"In one of the most dramatic moments," he said, "a country that shall be unnamed in print suddenly erupted and started to lecture me about their economy and that they get hurricanes all the time and how they therefore had to reduce their peacekeeping bill. So I said, O.K., Mr. Ambassador, let's check the record. Last year you paid to the U.N. annual dues of $11,000 in the regular budget, and your peacekeeping budget was $4,000 - and you want a dramatic reduction because of hurricanes."

"That's an extreme example of self-indulgence," Mr. Holbrooke said, adding that colleagues had chided him for humiliating an envoy in front of his peers.

"There is also a bizarre situation where some of the oil-producing countries do not wish to give up their discounts on peacekeeping because, they say, they have single-commodity economies and they are vulnerable if oil goes to $8 a barrel," he said. "Of course it's at $28 now and going up."

Argentina, Korea, Brazil, China and scores of others all have their own rationales for being excused.

"The Congress, in turn, says, `We've got troops in Korea, we're protecting you in the gulf, we just participated in a $15 billion bailout of Argentina through the I.M.F.,' " Mr. Holbrooke said. " `What are you talking about?' "

He has spent more than a year traveling between here and Washington trying to get more flexibility from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose chairman is Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina. He and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the committee's ranking Democrat, wrote an agreement that tied payments of American dues and peacekeeping assessments - governed by separate budgets - to a reduction in American payments. Hundreds of millions of dollars already appropriated hang on this week's decision.

The agreement seeks a cut to 22 percent of the United Nations regular budget, from 25 percent - and, on the peacekeeping budget, a cut to 25 percent from 30 percent. "The only reason I think we have a chance of success is that the cost of failure is so immense," Mr. Holbrooke said.

A failure to reach consensus would mean that assessments would be frozen for another three years until the next review. If a deal is struck, Mr. Helms and his committee will decide whether it suits them. Mr. Helms told Mr. Holbrooke this week that he would wait and see. "We're a lame- duck administration carrying out a mandate from Jesse Helms," Mr. Holbrooke said.

As for the European Union's refusal to pay more, it widens a rich-poor, North-South gap, he said. "Their core argument is indisputable. They pay more than their share of world G.D.P. and we pay less. But this is not a debating society. We have two days left to save the U.N. system. We are in overtime now, and there are no timeouts."

Even with a deal, there could be last-minute hurdles, based on past performances.

"Finally, and very importantly," Mr. Holbrooke said, "after all the other countries are finished working out their deals - if they work them out - the Cubans and the Libyans are going to come in and try to blow it up."

---

New sanctions cause Taleban to close U.N. offices

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
By Amir Shah ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2000122122203.htm

KABUL, Afghanistan - The ruling Taleban militia, protesting harsh new sanctions over its refusal to surrender terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, ordered U.N. offices closed yesterday and vowed to boycott peace talks.

The sanctions - chiefly a one-sided arms embargo, a ban on official travel and the closure of Taleban offices outside Afghanistan - are not directed at the Afghan people but are designed to isolate the Taleban regime, said Erick de Mul, the U.N.'s chief coordinator for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

However, the regime maintained the sanctions will only serve to hurt the poorest and most vulnerable in Afghanistan, a country already reeling from its worst drought in 30 years. Supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called the sanctions "an oppressive action to subject the poor to inhuman sanctions."

"Step by step, the international community is killing Afghanistan," said 55-year-old Mohammed Zahir, echoing sentiments shared by other Kabul residents. "Slowly, slowly they are letting us die."

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday gave the Taleban regime a month to hand over bin Laden and to close terrorist training camps -or suffer new sanctions. Bin Laden is suspected of masterminding the deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The Taleban regime's information minister, Qadratullah Jamal, denied that Afghanistan was host to terrorist training camps. And the new sanctions won't result in bin Laden's extradition, he added.

"Our position on Osama is unchanged. There is no evidence against Osama. We think this is just an excuse," he said in Kabul. "The United States and Russia are using the excuse of Osama and terrorism, but really it is the Islamic system of the Taleban they want to destroy."

The Taleban regime ordered a boycott of U.S. and Russian products, and Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil urged Islamic countries to join Afghanistan in trying to "hurt the economy of these countries."

The United States and Russia, former superpower rivals, had lobbied hard to get the 13 other U.N. Security Council members to adopt the resolution, calling Afghanistan a "haven of lawlessness."

The boycott is little more than a gesture since Afghans, among the poorest in the world, can't afford the few U.S. products on the market, such as cigarettes and candy.

However, the Taleban militia's vow to close the United Nations' political offices when the sanctions take effect was a major setback, said Koichiro Tanaka, Mr. de Mul's political affairs adviser. Other U.N. humanitarian and charity aid workers won't be affected.

The United Nations has been brokering talks to end 20 years of civil war between the Taleban regime, which enforces a strict brand of Islam over 95 percent of Afghanistan, and the country's opposition, which is led by ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani and holds some territory in the north.

"The Taleban have to understand that anyone but the U.N. would be unacceptable for the U.N. and for the international community," Mr. Tanaka said from Pakistan.

Fearing a violent backlash to the sanctions, the United Nations withdrew its international staff this week. However, Mr. de Mul said Afghanistan had been quiet so far. "We will watch for another day and then we will begin to return," he said by telephone from Islamabad, Pakistan.

The World Food Program estimates up to 1 million Afghans could starve this winter.

---

New York Times
December 21, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

ASIA
AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN ACTS OVER SANCTIONS The ruling Taliban responded to tough new United Nations sanctions by pulling out of United Nations-mediated talks on ending Afghanistan's civil war and refusing any handover to the United States of the terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden. The Taliban also ordered an immediate boycott of products from the United States and Russia. (AP)

---

U.N. aide condemns Liberian president

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-2000122121373.htm

NEW YORK - Evidence of Liberian President Charles Taylor's involvement in illegal diamond-and arms-trafficking with Sierra Leone's rebels is "100 percent" solid, the top diamond expert on a U.N.-appointed panel said yesterday.

The panel called Tuesday for an embargo on all diamonds from Liberia until it demonstrates that it is no longer involved in trafficking gems from and arms to war-ravaged Sierra Leone.

Mr. Taylor insisted yesterday his administration was not involved in any diamond smuggling or gunrunning for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels, with whom he has close ties.

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

Northrop Agrees to Buy Litton for $3.8 Billion

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/business/22DEAL.html

The Northrop Grumman Corporation, the military contractor, agreed yesterday to buy Litton Industries, a supplier of military electronics and information systems and the nation's largest maker of surface combat ships, for $3.8 billion in cash.

The transaction is expected to bolster Northrop's offerings of information technology systems for military navigation to the United States government, the world's largest military equipment client, and other governments and international businesses.

Under the terms of the deal, Northrop Grumman will pay $80 for each common share of Litton, a premium of 28 percent over the company's closing price yesterday of $62.63. It will also pay $35 for each Series B preferred share of Litton. Northrop will also assume $1.3 billion of Litton's debt.

The companies announced the transaction after the market closed. Before the announcement, shares of Northrop fell 19 cents, to $81.94. Trading in both stocks was halted in after-hours exchanges.

The deal came after more than a month of negotiating that grew out of a plan by Litton to sell its military electronics business in early November. At the time, the company was looking to reduce debt after lower- than-expected profits this year.

Kent Kresa, the chairman and chief executive of Northrop Grumman, said his company bought Litton because it filled a crucial gap in Northrop's overall business.

"Litton gives us a new core competency as a major prime contractor and systems integrator of surface ships for the U.S. Navy," he said.

Mr. Kresa, who will lead the combined company, is projecting that it will have revenue of more than $15 billion in 2001 and $18 billion by 2003. Litton reported sales of $5.6 billion and profit of $218 million in its fiscal year ended July 31. Michael R. Brown, chairman and chief executive of Litton, plans to retire.

Analysts praised the deal, especially for the value it will add to Northrop's business after its failed deal several years ago with Lockheed Martin.

"Wall Street and the Pentagon wrote Northrop off a long time ago," said Jon Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners, who specializes in the aerospace and military fields. "This is their coming-out party. They're back in prime time." He said the challenge for Northrop would be to get Litton "firing on all cylinders."

The combined Northrop-Litton will have about 79,000 employees, although some job cuts are expected. Northrop, based in Los Angeles, said it expected to save more than $250 million over the next several years. Litton will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop based in Woodland Hills, Calif.

Northrop was advised by Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman, Sachs. Litton was advised by Merrill Lynch.

---

Northrop Grumman To Acquire Litton

Associated Press
December 21, 2000 Filed at 7:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Northrop-Grumman-Litton.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Northrop Grumman Corp. said Thursday it will buy Litton Industries for $3.8 billion cash to form one of the country's largest defense contractors. Northrop will also assume $1.3 billion in Litton debt.

Northrop Grumman will pay $80 per share and $35 per Series B Preferred shares. Shares of Litton were trading at $62.60, up about 9 cents in late trading Thursday.

If approved by regulators, the combined company will have $15 billion in revenues in 2001, growing to $18 billion by 2003, the companies estimated.

The combined company would have approximately 79,000 employees, although Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer Kent Kresa said there would be some layoffs, particularly as the companies consolidate their headquarters.

Northrop Grumman makes weapons systems, including radar and navigation systems. Litton Industries builds non-nuclear ships for the Navy and provides advanced information technology for commercial and defense customers. Both companies are based in Los Angeles.

The companies said they expect to save more than $250 million over the next few years as a result of the deal, including $100 million in the first year following the transaction.

``Some of it is in people reduction, particularly at the headquarters,'' Kresa said. ``This is a growing corporation. We have need for people. I can't speak to layoffs. We would hope there are good people who are flexible and can move into other areas.''

The companies said they expect the transaction to close sometime in the first quarter.

Company executives said informal talks had been ongoing for years, but that the two firms signed a confidentiality agreement and pursued a deal in earnest in June.

``We were in control of the process to examine our strategic alternatives,'' Michael R. Brown, Litton's chairman and chief executive officer, said. ``It was our election to accept an overture by Kent, 'We should get together and talk.' But at anytime, we both had the opportunity to walk.''

Following the close, Litton will be operated for six months as a wholly owned subsidiary. Ronald D. Sugar, currently Litton's president and chief operating officer, will become Northrop Grumman's corporate vice president and president and chief executive officer of the new Litton subsidiary, the companies said.

After six months, Kresa said decisions will be made on how to more fully integrate the two operations.

Brown said he plans to retire.

The companies said they do not expect any regulatory problems. A proposed purchase of Northrop Grumman by Lockheed Martin in 1998 was scrapped because of government opposition.

``We feel there is virtually no overlap here, where there was great concern in the Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman merger,'' Kresa said. ``We think this will not be a problem.''

Kresa said his company briefed Pentagon officials on the proposal Thursday afternoon and would be ready to supply the government with data supporting the acquisition after the new year.

``We believe the case can be made,'' Kresa said. ``The data is not complex. We've done this many times.''

One problem might come from a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman's Logicon division, which is based in Herndon, Va., and provides information technology services.

Logicon generates about $2 billion in annual revenue, some of it from a program reviewing systems on Navy ships manufactured by Litton. Kresa said the subsidiary accounts for ``tens of millions'' of Logicon's revenue.

``There might be a conflict of interest being both the reviewer and the builder,'' Kresa said.

He said he hoped the Navy would allow the company to enact procedures to avoid a conflict. But if the Navy requires the company to sell the subsidiary, it would.

The deal was praised by analysts.

``It's a really nice fit,'' said Thomas Meagher, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets.

Meagher said Northrop Grumman is paying 1.2 times Litton's revenue, which is at the high side for such deals.

``The fact they chose to pay 1.2 times revenue recognizes the size of Litton and the increased mass it gives them,'' he said.

---

Northrop to Buy Litton for $5.1 Billion

Reuters
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/21wire-litton.html

LOS ANGELES - Northrop Grumman Corp., the nation's fifth largest defense contractor, said Thursday it would buy Litton Industries Inc., the No. 7 U.S. defense contractor, for $5.1 billion.

Los Angeles-based Northrop, which specializes in high-tech weapons systems, said it will pay $80 for each share of Litton common stock and $35 for each series B preferred share and will assume $1.3 billion in Litton debt.

In a release, Northrop said the acquisition would help it trim costs by at least $250 million over the next few years.

Credit Suisse First Boston and Chase Manhattan Bank will provide $6 billion in financing to Northrop, which said the purchase would boost earnings by 7 to 10 percent in 2001, excluding pension income and amortization and including a planned sale of new stock.

Litton Chairman Michael Brown will retire and Ronald Sugar, currently president at the Woodland Hills, Calif., defense electronics and shipbuilding company, will run the company as a subsidiary of Northrop, the companies said.

---

Fuel was not factor in Osprey crash

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 06:45 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu05.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Marine Corps ruled out several possible causes Thursday for the Dec. 11 crash of an MV-22 Osprey aircraft in North Carolina, including fuel shortage, but its investigation continues.

In a statement, the Marines said an initial review of information extracted from the aircraft's flight data recorder showed the Osprey experienced a ''hydraulic malfunction'' related to the flight controls. It added, however, that the magnitude of this problem is unclear and may not have been instrumental in bringing down the aircraft.

All four Marines aboard the Osprey, including a pilot who had more experience flying the aircraft than anyone else in the Marines, were killed in the crash. It was the second fatal Osprey crash this year. The Marines have grounded the other eight Ospreys in their fleet pending a review of the entire program.

Defense Secretary William Cohen, who ordered the review, said Thursday he added a fourth person to the review panel - Eugene E. Covert, professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The panel is headed by retired Marine Gen. John R. Dailey and is charged with reviewing the entire $40 billion program, including the aircraft's safety and combat effectiveness.

The Marines said Thursday they have determined more details about circumstances of the crash.

The tilt-rotor Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and cruises like an airplane, was making its fourth practice approach to Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., and was planning to make a full-stop landing, when the crew declared an emergency and the aircraft crashed in a wooded area at 7:25 p.m.

The purpose of the multiple approaches was to practice landing in a confined area while wearing night vision goggles.

During a left turn toward the final approach course, the Osprey descended from 1,600 feet and disappeared from the New River air controller's radarscope at an altitude of approximately 700 feet, the Marines said.

There is no evidence to indicate the crash was caused by lack of fuel; contamination of the fuel supply; an in-flight fire; spatial disorientation among the crew; or an electrical malfunction.

''There are still numerous other possible factors remaining to be considered, and investigators will continue their efforts to determine the cause of this tragic accident,'' the Marine Corps statement said.

The Osprey is built by Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron. The Marines had hoped to get the go-ahead to begin full-scale production this month, but that decision has been put off indefinitely in light of the Dec. 11 crash.

---

USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Utah

Salt Lake City - Over the past year, Utah has gained jobs in the technology, tourism, defense and service industries. Unemployment is 3%, one point below the national average, and incomes are growing at more than 2% a year, a U.S. Bancorp economist says. He expects Utah's job growth next year to be 2.4%.

-------- OTHER

'Thirteen Days' worth the time it takes to grab you

USA Today
12/21/00
By Mike Clark
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001221/2934678s.htm

The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was the closest the United States and Soviet Union have ever come to nuclear war. It's a familiar story, and its heroes are policy wonks. Both make Thirteen Days sound like a tough sell for a movie marketing department, and maybe so.

It helps, though, that eight or nine of the days are grabbers by any standard on a couple of levels: cinematic and gut.

But director Roger Donaldson's treatment begins to roll only after an extended period during which we have to get used to a couple of irritants. One is the jarringly awkward Boston accent Kevin Costner affects to play President Kennedy's adviser Kenneth O'Donnell. The other is that the story is told through O'Donnell's point of view, including breakfast-nook scenes of him with the wife and kids at home.

Why either has to be is a question never satisfactorily answered, but the built-in drama eventually takes care of itself -- about the time Costner seems to give up by reverting to something closer to his natural voice. Despite the overemphasis on O'Donnell's role, this is an ensemble movie, and the actor who steals it is the one who should: Bruce Greenwood as JFK. Quite a surprise after his smarmy turns in Double Jeopardy and Rules of Engagement.

For younger audiences who ought to see this movie, U-2 spy planes discover Soviet missiles in Cuba. That sparks Soviet denials, a showdown at the United Nations, a debate over invading the island and a lot of nuclear-hot language. David Self's screenplay rings true in a lot of artfully tossed-off details out of Kennedy lore. Just a few: JFK's barely concealed disdain for bomb-happy Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay; a reference to JFK's unpleasant experience at a hunting party at Lyndon Johnson's ranch; and his familiar comment that in the military, there's always some oblivious laggard who ''never gets the word.''

Once this 2-hour slow-starter finally finds its rhythm, we're reminded of how gripping policy give-and-take around a long rectangular table can be. The movie marks a reunion between Costner and Donaldson, who certainly gave us a different kind of Kevin (with Sean Young, in the back seat of a limo) in the Pentagon thriller No Way Out in 1987. Donaldson and the corridors of official Washington still seem well-matched, and if the movie isn't perfect, it's good enough to offer a kind of Christmas blessing. Today's definition of a presidential crisis doesn't seem all that significant when it's merely an election that lasts 36 days.

-------- environment

U.S. Finalizes National Organic Food Standards

Thu, 21 Dec 2000 09:20:09 EST
By Brian Hansen
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-20-15.html</A>

WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS) - More than 10 years after being mandated by federal law, the U.S. government today unveiled its final national standards for the production, handling and processing of organically grown agricultural products.

Organic produce, a mainstay at many farmers' markets, will now have to meet stricter standards. (Photo courtesy USDA) Speaking to a throng of reporters and curious midmorning shoppers at a Whole Foods health food store in northwest Washington, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the nation's long awaited organic food standards will be the "strongest and most comprehensive in the world."

"These new standards are a win for both farmers and consumers," Glickman said. "I have said all along that we would create national organic standards that farmers, consumers and the organic industry will embrace, and I think we have done just that."

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman testifying before Congress earlier this year. Glickman appeared at a Washington health food store today to announce the USDA's new organic food standards. (Photo courtesy USDA) National standards for organically produced foods have been in the works since 1990, when the Organic Foods Production Act was incorporated into that year's federal farm bill. The measure, which was drafted by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, required the Agriculture Department (USDA) to develop consistent and uniform national standards governing the production and labeling of organically grown agricultural products.

Leahy, a Democrat, joined Glickman in the produce section of the Whole Foods Market to praise the unveiling of the long awaited organic foods standards.

"Today I feel like a proud father," Leahy said. "This has been a challenging process, but I am pleased and optimistic about the opportunities that this final rule will bring to organic agriculture in America."

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy in 1990 drafted the bill that led to the establishment of the USDA's new organic food standards. (Photo courtesy USDA) But not everyone at Wednesday's ceremony was so proud and optimistic about the nation's new standards for organic foods. Greenpeace activist Craig Culp briefly interrupted the ceremony, saying that the USDA's new standards do nothing to prevent the "widespread genetic contamination" of organic foods and the entire organic farming industry.

"How is the consumer and the farmer going to be assured that there isn't genetic contamination in the crops?" Culp asked.

Culp's remark underscored a central theme of the national organic foods standards, which drew a staggering 275,000 negative public comments when they were released in draft form three years ago. Almost all of the comments demanded that the USDA not classify foods as "organic" if they were produced with genetically engineered crops, or were grown in sewage sludge, or were subjected to ionizing radiation.

Under the USDA's new regulations, organic produce must be grown without the application of pesticides or sewage ludge. (Photo courtesy USDA) Unable to ignore the onslaught of criticism, the USDA incorporated those provisions into its national organic rule in March.

"The people spoke, and we listened," Glickman said. "The organic standards represent government rule making at its very best. [The standards] are the product of a full throated public debate."

In essence, the new organic standard offers a national definition for the term "organic," Glickman said. The standard will detail the methods, practices and substances that can be used in producing and handling organic crops and livestock, as well as processed food products, he said.

The final standard also outlines labeling requirements for organic products, certification and recordkeeping requirements, and accreditation requirements for producers of organic foods, Glickman said.

Aside from the prohibitions against genetic engineering, sewage sludge and irradiation, the final organic standards include a number of other important changes from the draft version released in March, Glickman said. These changes:

Increase the minimum percentage of organic ingredients in products labeled "Made with Organic Ingredients" from 50 percent to 70 percent.

Utilize the Environmental Protection Agency's five percent pesticide residue tolerance as a compliance threshold.

Allow wine containing sulfites to be labeled "Made with Organic Grapes." In addition, the new standards include a "commercial availability provision" which requires that "Organic" products - which are defined as having at least 95 percent organic ingredients - have their remaining ingredients also sourced from organically certified sources.

Still, USDA organic labels are designed to be "marketing tools," not government statements or certifications about food safety or nutritional quality, Glickman emphasized.

"USDA is not in the business of choosing sides, or stating preferences for one kind of food, one set of ingredients, or one means of production over any other, Glickman said. "As long as rigorous government safety standards are being met, we stand ready to do what we can to help support any farmer and help market any kind of food."

Glickman said that he purchases and consumes both organic and "conventional" foods. Still, the Agriculture Secretary conceded that organic farming practices "probably [do] provide some environmental benefits." And in terms of nutritional value, organic foods probably do offer an "edge" for some people, Glickman added.

Craig Murphy windrows organically grown wheat on his farm near Morris, Minnesota. (Photo courtesy USDA) Leahy noted that the USDA's new standard will provide economic benefits for farmers and others involved in organic agriculture. Leahy said that in his home state of Vermont, the number of certified organic farms has quadrupled since 1990.

"In many cases [organic farming] also provides sustainability to the profession of farming," Leahy said. "In Vermont, the growth of the organic industry means that more farmers will be able to make a decent living doing what they love."

Two of Leahy's constituents, Travis and Amy Forgues, took part in Wednesday's unveiling of the USDA's new organic standards. The Forgues, who have been organic producers since 1997, milk approximately 100 cows on 220 acres of pastureland near Alburg, Vermont.

"Organic farming makes so much sense for Vermont and the environment," said Travis.

Amy said that she and her husband may have lost their family farm had it not been for Leahy and the USDA's National Organic Program. The program, she said, provides "hope of keeping rural farming alive."

"We are the new face of farming in America," Amy said.

Glickman, a political appointee of the outgoing Clinton administration, will leave his post as Agriculture Secretary on January 20th. President-elect George W. Bush today announced his choice for Glickman's replacement - Ann Veneman, a 51 year old attorney who served in the Agriculture Department during the administration of Bush's father.

In her nomination ceremony in Texas, Veneman said to Bush, "Like you, I want to find common ground and promote common sense."

Glickman, asked about Veneman, said, "I think she will do a fine job. I think the President-elect has made a very fine choice."

Glickman did not discuss Veneman's positions on organic farming or the use of genetic engineering in agriculture.

The USDA's national organic standards rule and additional background information is available online at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop.


---

New standards in organic farming

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By COLLEEN VALLES Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405468892

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Organic growers in California, which led the push to eliminate pesticides and other manmade chemicals from the food supply, say new federal standards could legitimize organic farming and be a boon to the industry.

Under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards released Wednesday, foods grown using approved organic methods will bear a seal that reads ``USDA Organic.'' The standards are rooted in the efforts of a small cooperative, California Certified Organic Farmers, which in 1973 began inspecting and certifying member farmers' methods and setting standards for just what ``organic'' means.

``It's going to mean an additional standard of integrity in the marketplace and the ability to move product from state to state and country to country,'' said Ray Green, organic program manager for California's Department of Agriculture.

``In terms of the old supply and demand thing, it's going to create more integrity, consumer confidence and legitimacy, and that will fuel growth.''

The rules may make organic farming and processing more attractive to bigger growers, which could drive prices down.

``I think, because they're federal, we'll see more of the large retailers getting into organics,'' said Brian Leahy, CCOF's executive director. ``I think we'll see prices getting closer to conventional.''

California growers had worried that federal standards would be weaker than the state's law, but the USDA included ways to monitor compliance. California had only required organic farms and processors to register with the state and promise to comply with the rules; inspectors rarely checked whether they were followed. The federal standards require annual certification.

``We're long-term organic growers. We've been in this 22 years,'' said Jonathan Steinberg, co-owner of Route 1 Farms in Santa Cruz. ``It probably won't affect the way I grow much, but it'll be interesting to see if it affects my costs and if I see more competition.''

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U.S. OKs new pollution regulations

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405472256

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration has approved new regulations that are expected to cut air pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses by more than 90 percent over the next decade. Attacking one of the major sources of dirty air, the federal standards will require new large trucks and buses to meet stringent tailpipe emission limits and direct refiners to produce virtually sulfur-free diesel fuel.

The rules were being announced Thursday by the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a flurry of regulations being churned out in the last days of the Clinton administration and crafted to head off challenge by an incoming Bush administration.

While President-elect Bush has not expressed any views on the truck rules, some Republicans in Congress have criticized the new sulfur requirements for diesel fuel. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has vowed to push legislation that would roll back the diesel rule next year, arguing the requirements could lead to fuel shortages.

Environmentalists, who have eagerly awaited the EPA truck and diesel regulations since they were proposed last May, expressed doubt they would be overturned given the widespread public sentiment against trucks belching black smoke from their smokestacks.

``This is the biggest vehicle pollution news since the removal of lead from gasoline,'' said Richard Kassel, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and head of a campaign to reduce truck pollution.

The rules apply to new trucks and replacement truck engines sold beginning in late 2006. It is expected to take at least a decade beyond that for the cleaner trucks to replace most of the current fleet. Still, the pollution reductions eventually will be equal to removing 13 million trucks from the road, according to various estimates.

To meet the more stringent emission standards, heavy-duty trucks will for the first time will have to be equipped with pollution controls that capture exhaust chemicals _ similar to the catalytic devices that have been required on cars for years.

At the same time, 80 percent of the diesel fuel sold nationwide will have to be virtually sulfur free _ on average 15 parts per million of sulfur _ by 2006. All diesel will have to meet the new requirement by 2010. EPA officials have maintained that the ultra-low sulfur diesel is essential for the new pollution control equipment to work properly.

The new standards anticipate about a 95 percent reduction of smog-causing nitrogen oxide, compared to levels already expected to be achieved from trucks by 2004, and a 90 percent reduction in microscopic soot.

Diesel soot, which has been associated with increased asthma, bronchitis and heart disease, as well as possibly cancer, has been of special concern to health specialists. A recent study at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found a link between exposure to microscopic soot and death rates in 20 large cities.

But oil companies and truck engine manufacturers have questioned whether they can meet the EPA's timetable for both the cleaner truck engines and the fuel.

``These are unprecedented standards,'' said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, an industry group. ``The kind of levels of reductions that are being talked about are going to require technology that is not commercially available yet.''

The American Petroleum Institute cited a study said the new sulfur requirements would boost diesel prices by at least 15 cents a gallon and cause ``a significant risk of (fuel) shortages'' by 2007. The EPA has estimated the additional cost at less than 5 cents a gallon with no expected shortages.

The new 15 parts per million sulfur level compares to an average 500 parts per million in today's fuel. Oil companies have argued that reduction may not be technically possible and urged a cut to 50 parts per million.

---

New Rules to Cut Diesel Emissions

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/politics/21FUEL.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - President Clinton has approved final pollution-control rules that will force drastic reductions in heavy-duty truck and bus emissions over the next 10 years.

Under the new rules, the big diesel- powered vehicles that are the heaviest polluters on the roads would be subject to requirements that together would reduce their emissions of soot and smog-producing material by more than 90 percent.

More so even than the tightened standards for cars and light-trucks that Mr. Clinton announced a year ago, the new regulations for buses and big rigs will reduce by millions of tons pollutants that pose a major hazard to human health.

"In terms of the environment, it just doesn't get any bigger than these smudge pots on wheels," a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The changes are not scheduled to take effect until 2006, but they will be announced by the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday as part of a final flurry of regulatory action designed to withstand any challenge by the incoming Bush administration.

Some critics, including the oil industry and some Senate Republicans, have accused the White House of rushing to judgment, warning that provisions of the rules could result in dangerous shortages and price surges in the fuel on which truck and bus transportation depends. Within the administration, the Energy, Transportation and Commerce Departments joined in saying that those warnings might be valid.

But the White House concluded that the benefits of the action far exceeded any risk, one administration official said, and approved a plan little changed from one first proposed last spring by Carol Browner, the E.P.A. administrator.

President-elect George W. Bush has not said whether he agrees with the approach taken by the White House. But in Texas, Mr. Bush's policies have been aligned closely with those of the oil industry. Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, has warned that he would seek early in the next Congress to roll back the new rules.

Senator Inhofe and other lawmakers tried and failed this fall to prevent the White House from announcing the new plan before Mr. Clinton left office.

Until now, heavy-duty trucks and buses have all but escaped the increasingly stringent pollution-control standards that have been imposed on cars and light trucks over the last 25 years. With word of the changes, environmentalists were beginning to celebrate today what they called the closing of a loophole and the possibility of further gains.

"In our view, these rules are going to result in the biggest air pollution advance in a generation," said Richard Kassell, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Among the new heavy-duty vehicle rules, the most controversial aspect lies at the very heart, which would transform the diesel fuel burned by heavy-duty trucks and buses. These vehicles account for just 6 percent of highway miles driven, but produce one-fourth of the smog-producing pollution and one-half of the soot.

As a component of diesel fuel, sulfur not only contributes to the soot but has also made impossible the incorporation of advanced pollution- control devices into heavy-duty trucks and buses, much as lead content in gasoline once served as a barrier to the adoption of the catalytic converter.

Environmentalists and others have contended that only the virtual elimination of sulfur from diesel could lead to a pollution-control breakthrough for heavy-duty trucks and buses, but the oil industry has argued that a smaller reduction would be sufficient.

In discussions with the administration, industry representatives have warned that the costs and difficulty of meeting the new requirement would prove so onerous that some refiners would stop producing diesel fuel altogether, leading to shortages and severe price volatility.

Those warnings gained significance after last summer, administration officials said, when gasoline prices in the Midwest soared to levels not seen elsewhere in the country, as a result of shortages brought on by pollution-control rules that required a new additive. With that experience in mind, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson argued that the E.P.A.'s proposed rule be modified so that the diesel-reduction rules would be phased in gradually, to allow refiners more time to adjust.

But that approach found little support, even from the oil industry, and the White House settled on a plan that would take effect in two steps, with 80 percent of all diesel fuel to be virtually sulfur-free beginning in 2006, and the rest by 2010.

At the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's leading trade group, top officials warned again today that the new rules could lead to disruption. "This is really going to test the system," said Edward Murphy, a general manager of the group.

The two other main provisions of the new rules would affect engine manufacturers. One, requiring a 95 percent reduction in emissions of nitrogen oxide, the main ingredient in smog, would apply to half of all new heavy-duty vehicle engines manufactured in 2007, with the rest to follow in 2010. The other, requiring a 90 percent reduction in emissions of particulates, or soot, would take effect in one step, in 2010.

Both targets will require the engine manufacturers to incorporate advanced new pollution control devices, experts said, and adoption of the rules was opposed by the manufacturers' main industry groups.

Estimates of just how much the new rules might cost have varied widely. A study sponsored by the oil industry said they would add 15 cents to a gallon of diesel gasoline, but an E.P.A. study put the cost much lower, at about 4 to 5 cents a gallon.

The E.P.A. study also concluded that the price of a new heavy-duty truck or bus would increase by between 1 and 5 percent. But the study said the public health benefits, including reduced rates of cancer, asthma and other diseases, along with gains from lower levels of acid rain, would easily justify the cost.

"Is it going to cost more? Yes," said S. William Becker, who represents state and local air pollution officials around the country who led in pressing for the new federal rules. "Will that cost be passed on to consumers? Probably. But is it cost effective? Absolutely."

---

Whitman Stays Silent on E.P.A. Post

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By ROBERT HANLEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/nyregion/21JERS.html?pagewanted=all

TRENTON, Dec. 20 - Neither Gov. Christie Whitman nor the man who would succeed her, State Senate President Donald T. DiFrancesco, had anything to say today about reports that the governor was on the verge of being appointed the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But even as they both dodged questions, the only topic in town was the widespread assumption that after seven years as governor, Mrs. Whitman was headed for Washington and Senator DiFrancesco was headed for the office he has openly coveted.

The change would shift power from a veteran incumbent finishing up her term to an ambitious state senator who would find himself in the unique position of being State Senate president, acting governor and candidate for governor in next November's election.

"It's a big change in our landscape," Cliff Zukin, chairman of the public policy department at Rutgers University and director of the Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll, said of the possibility of a new governor. The political impact, Mr. Zukin added, would be determined not by who leaves office but who assumes power.

"Once it's clear the governor is leaving, you're going to have a whole state that wakes up one morning and says, `Who's in charge of the state?' " he said. "We've got a whole state that has to get used to Donald DiFrancesco."

But the change is not likely to mute state politics any. Democrats demanded today that Mrs. Whitman testify under oath to a State Senate committee about racial profiling before she leaves office. The call came from two prominent Democratic senators, John A. Lynch, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Richard J. Codey, the Senate minority leader. They also repeated earlier calls for Senator DiFrancesco to grant the Judiciary Committee power to issue subpoenas for testimony. A spokesman for Mrs. Whitman dismissed the demand as a political attack.

Both main players were trying their best today to remain invisible.

Mrs. Whitman brushed off questions about her future during a chance encounter with reporters after she taped some radio messages in her communications office.

Will an announcement come today, she was asked? "Not that I know of," she said.

Tomorrow?

"I have absolutely nothing to say."

Later, her chief spokesman, Pete McDonough, repeated the refrain of the day: "We're not commenting on or confirming anything." As for the pundits and informed sources talking about the governor's leaving office a year before the end of her term, Mr. McDonough said: "Anyone who says they're in the know is just playing a speculating game."

And, he added, "the speculation is rampant."

Senator DiFrancesco also made himself scarce today. His legislative aides in the Senate majority office spent much of the afternoon at a staff Christmas party. The senator did not respond to messages left at his office in Scotch Plains.

A spokeswoman, Rae Hutton, said: "He's not commenting. We really don't know anything. Until there's an official announcement, it's all speculation."

Others were less circumspect. Representative Marge Roukema, a Republican and the dean of New Jersey's 13-member Congressional delegation, issued a news release today congratulating the governor on her "expected nomination." She called the governor an "excellent choice" to oversee the nation's environment.

Another Republican, Jack Collins, speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, said in a radio interview that he was "98 percent" certain the governor would be heading to Washington.

If the transition occurs, it will usher a familiar figure into Trenton.

Senator DiFrancesco has been a fixture in the State House for years. The senator, a 56-year-old lawyer, was elected to the State Senate in 1979 and has been its president since 1992, a year before Governor Whitman was elected. But statewide, he has little name recognition among voters, recent polls show. Months ago he declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor. Becoming governor well before next November's election would provide instant statewide exposure, double his political clout and provide him a bigger platform with which to press for his legislative agenda.

Under the state Constitution's provisions on the line of succession, the Senate president serves as acting governor while the governor is out of state. If Governor Whitman left for Washington in mid-January, he would be acting governor until the election while at the same time keeping his post as Senate president.

Aides say the major elements in his legislative program are $400 million in property tax relief; a health- care package that would provide new prescription-drug coverage for 100,000 middle-income elderly and disabled people, and an environmental plan that would close abandoned municipal landfills and ban the gasoline additive MTBE.

Jim McGreevey, the Woodbridge mayor whom the governor beat in 1997, is running again for governor. He offered praise for Governor Whitman today but nevertheless criticized the Republican leadership of the state - without referring specifically to Senator DiFrancesco. Mr. McGreevey said that in the last seven years the state's Republican leadership had doubled state debt and presided over other problems, including, he said, cost overruns in the E-ZPass toll system and the "mishandling of racial profiling."

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After Recount, Tight Race for Water Board Is Over

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By AL BAKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/nyregion/21WATE.html

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Dec. 20 - Trailing by a hair, the incumbent dug in, demanded a recount and threatened to sue. Up by a three-vote margin, the challenger insisted that all the votes had been counted and that he was the winner.

For sure, the epochal race for the nonpartisan West Hempstead- Hempstead Gardens Water District Board of Commissioners was at best an Off Off Broadway version of the presidential election melodrama.

In the end, it was a simple concession, not a Supreme Court ruling, that settled the matter. Today, Anthony J. Dignoti, 86, a 30-year incumbent and lifelong Republican, conceded that he had lost to Michael A. Uhl, 42, a political novice and defender of the environment.

Mr. Dignoti said he picked up one vote in a recount, but it was not enough to overturn the election night tally of 393 to 390.

"I feel like Al Gore," said Mr. Dignoti, who, like the vice president, spent much of his life in public office only to lose in a close contest to a man with a much slimmer résumé. "I gave the best pure water that money could buy."

Countered Mr. Uhl: "I feel like Bush in a way, that I was ahead and didn't lose."

Today, Peter A. Bee, a lawyer for Mr. Dignoti, said he withdrew his client's court challenge of the Dec. 12 election.

Steven R. Schlesinger, a lawyer for Mr. Uhl, said he "accepted their surrender peacefully," in the courtroom of Justice Roy S. Mahon of State Supreme Court in Mineola, who had signed a temporary restraining order prohibiting water district officials from certifying the vote.

Now, Mr. Uhl, who referred to his wife, Paula, as "the first lady of water," said he would celebrate and then get down to business. Mr. Dignoti, a father of three and grandfather of nine, said, "I can take a trip to Florida and enjoy some fishing."

Speaking of Florida, Mr. Schlesinger said the result showed that New York's lever- style voting system was superior to punch-card ballots.

"Unlike Florida," he said, "there is nothing to complain about in New York elections."

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Whitman Seen as Strong Choice to Lead E.P.A.

New York Times
December 21, 2000
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER with ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/politics/21ENVI.html?pagewanted=all

TRENTON, Dec. 20 - As Republicans spread the word that she was President-elect George W. Bush's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey proudly defended her environmental record in interviews this week, refusing to confirm reports that she had been selected while seeming already to be practicing for the national stage.

Environmental scientists and advocates generally reacted warmly to the anticipated announcement, which several officials here said would come by week's end, calling her the best that liberal conservation groups could hope for in a Republican administration.

Leaders of a few New Jersey environmental watchdog groups harshly criticized the governor's record on regulation and enforcement of air and water quality standards, which make up much of the purview of the E.P.A. But advocates and experts outside the state described Mrs. Whitman as a strong choice to head the agency, in part because of the stature she would bring as the first governor to hold the job and as one of the best-known women in Republican politics.

In an interview on Tuesday night, Governor Whitman said she was "very pleased" with her stewardship of the environment in New Jersey, which she said had produced cleaner air and water, state money to preserve a million acres of open space and an aggressive approach to cleaning up old industrial sites.

"Nationally, New Jersey is looked on as being in the forefront of environmental policy," she said. "Is there more to do? Absolutely."

The governor, who has a year remaining in her second and last term, said one of her main pieces of unfinished business was an ambitious set of water quality and watershed management rules, which would go a long way toward determining how New Jersey distributes the million new residents expected over the next two decades. The state is revising its proposal after an earlier version met with widespread opposition from lawmakers in both parties, builders and environmentalists.

"I would love to be further along in those, but I'm not surprised to be where we are today, simply because these are the big megillahs," Mrs. Whitman said. "The dialogue has started, the dialogue is real. I think the public is ready for some kind of constraint on new septic permits and on water quality. And so we are moving forward.

"The fact that we're being attacked by both sides leads me to believe that we're probably right where we need to be, which is in the middle, to find some kind of common ground."

In New Jersey, Mrs. Whitman's critics on the environment still bitterly recall her first term, when she cut enforcement and spending over all, abolished an environmental prosecutor's office, and eased right-to- know reporting rules for companies that handle toxic materials.

David S. Pringle, campaign director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, commended the governor's open-space program and other initiatives in her second term.

"She's gone from bad to better, and hopefully it'll go to good" at the E.P.A., Mr. Pringle said.

But from a distance, and in comparison with other Republican governors - including Mr. Bush - Mrs. Whitman is seen far more favorably.

Fred Krupp, executive director of Environmental Defense, one of the nation's largest environmental groups, said Mrs. Whitman would be a "very positive" appointment, if not because of her efforts to combat air pollution and to protect New Jersey's coast, then because of her credibility as a governor.

"In every administration, there are always voices on the other sides of these issues," Mr. Krupp said. "Given the stature that she walks in with, and her record in New Jersey, we're hopeful that she would not be afraid to be an independent voice to make the environmental case."

But on one of the most salient issues - climate change - Mrs. Whitman's statements this week left some scientists and environmental advocates perplexed, especially since her administration has been a leader among the states in addressing the problem. For example, New Jersey was the first states to set a target for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

But when asked to discuss her views on the science behind global warming on Tuesday, Governor Whitman responded by citing her doubts about the causes of the hole in the protective ozone layer high in the atmosphere.

She was asked: "Global warming, what is your thought on what the state of science is and what can be done to address it?"

Mrs. Whitman said: "Still somewhat uncertain. Clearly there's a hole in the ozone, that has been identified. But I saw a study the other day that showed that that was closing. It's not as clear, the cause and effect, as we would like it to be."

When some experts on the atmosphere and pollution read a transcript of Mrs. Whitman's statements, they said the governor had clearly confused two distinct, important global environmental problems: global warming and the ozone hole.

Today, asked to clarify her views, the governor said she might have misunderstood the question, but added that she did not think the two issues were "not interrelated."

"In both of those instances, I'm not sure that there's a scientific consensus on how to deal with them," Governor Whitman said today. "There seems to be good enough evidence that both are occurring. But I am not aware of a uniformly agreed to scientific response, on either the causes or the solutions here."

The governor added, "Those are the kinds of questions that I'm going to be answering in a Senate confirmation hearing, if this comes to pass, if I'm ever nominated, and if I'm going to be taking this position."

Told of the governor's remarks, some scientists expressed mild concern.

"We in the scientific community understand that to deal with these issues involves not just science but also a value judgment on policy, but it's very important to get the science right," said Mario J. Molina, a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Molina shared a Nobel Prize in 1995 for work that identified the link between certain synthetic industrial chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons, and damage to the ozone layer.

"With that in mind," he said, "we'd be happy to help advise her and help her get things right."

---

Bush will tap Whitman to head EPA

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 04:46 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/bush89.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/22CND-CABINET.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON (AP) - New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, a moderate Republican and avid outdoorswoman, has accepted President-elect Bush's offer to head the Environmental Protection Agency, officials close to both politicians said Thursday. Bush could announce his decision as early as Friday, along with several other personnel appointments, officials said. Whitman allies told associates Wednesday that she had landed the job, but sources in Bush's camp didn't confirm the decision until Thursday. Whitman notified state GOP senate president Donald DiFrancesco that she would be in Austin, Texas, Friday for a personnel announcement with Bush.


DiFrancesco is next in line of succession.

The development came as senior Republicans in Washington and Wisconsin said another GOP governor - Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin - accepted Bush's offer in a Thursday morning telephone call to be Health and Human Services secretary. They said the announcement would be made next week. However, sources close to Bush said they could not immediately confirm the deal was closed, and Thompson himself was sending mixed signals.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Even as rumors of the Bush telephone call circulated, Thompson told reporters that the president-elect wants him to be HHS secretary, but he would prefer to be secretary of transportation.

''The president really wants me, and he thinks I can do a good job for him and for the country,'' Thompson, 59, said in an interview. ''The con, of course, is that I love you people. I love Wisconsin.''

Thompson, the nation's longest serving governor, declined to comment on whether the president-elect had formally asked him to take the Health and Human Services job. The governor also said he had not yet made a decision and did not expect to make one until he returned from a Christmas vacation in Mexico with his family.

Thompson said the HHS position is the one Bush would like him to fill, while transportation secretary is ''the one I would like to be able to do.''

Whitman, 54, is in her second term as New Jersey's governor. Her term expires in January.

An abortion-rights supporter, Whitman would be sheltered at the EPA from social issues that galvanize Bush's conservative base. Thompson, on the other hand, is an opponent of abortion and would be welcomed by conservatives at an agency where social issues are critical.

Environmentalists view Whitman's selection with skepticism, though she championed open-space preservation in the nation's most densely developed state and refused to abandon an unpopular auto emission test designed to reduce air pollution.

Critics say that in the name of attracting business, she compromised water pollution protections and cut spending for state offices that prosecute environmental abuses by industry.

Bush hoped to make several appointments Friday, but aides cautioned that he would need another week or two to complete work on his Cabinet.

He has already filled two of the four biggest jobs: secretary of state went to retired Gen. Colin Powell and business executive Paul O'Neill is his secretary of treasury nominee. Bush's top choice for attorney general, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, said Wednesday he did not want the job.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a former FBI agent and Justice Department official, is a favorite of conservatives and many Washington Republicans. But other candidates remain, including Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft who was defeated in November by Gov. Mel Carnahan shortly after Carnahan had died.

It was possible, but not likely, that Bush could settle on an attorney general nominee this week, aides said.

Former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., long considered a sure-bet for defense secretary, is still a leading candidate but Bush has told advisers he needs more time to consider his options. He was not expected to decide this week.

In other developments:

GOP sources said Virginia Gov. James Gilmore is Bush's pick to head the Republican National Committee. The announcement could be made Friday.

Republican consultant Rich Bond, a longtime ally of the Bush family, emerged as a candidate for Labor secretary.

Bush advisers say Thompson is a natural fit for the health and human services spot with his reputation for being innovative in areas such as health care and welfare reform.

Wisconsin was at the forefront of welfare reform under Thompson's administration - it was the first state to apply and receive approval from the federal government for its work-based welfare reform proposal.

More than 27,000 families have left Wisconsin's welfare rolls since 1997, although critics say that doesn't guarantee they are getting the education they need or earning wages above the poverty level.

In taking over health and human services, Thompson would succeed Donna Shalala, who once worked for him as the University of Wisconsin chancellor.

The two have clashed over changes to the nation's transplant system proposed by HHS, which would break down geographical barriers governing how organs are distributed. The state sued HHS over the proposals, but a federal judge threw out the case last month.

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Seeds of Hope, to Keep Mother Earth in Gardening

New York Times
December 21, 2000
ARDINGLY JOURNAL
By WARREN HOGE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21ENGL.html?pagewanted=all

ARDINGLY, England - Seeds are world travelers, hitching rides on gusts of wind, cascading rivers or the furry hides of roaming forest creatures. They colonize every corner of the globe, and their travels aren't all easy, with hungry birds and inhospitable landing places often bringing abrupt ends to journeys.

But no destination is more secure than this tiny village in the leafy hills of Sussex, which now houses 290 million seeds and is preparing to welcome tens of millions more.

Far from being in danger's path, here they are fairly pampered. After being X-rayed to check for health and insect damage, cleaned gently with aspirators and velvet rollers, and dried out for weeks in humidity- free air, they are put away in cool underground bunkers for rests that scientists plan to last for 200 years or more.

They have taken up their extended residence in the new Royal Botanic Gardens millennium seed bank on the 16th-century Wakehurst Place estate here, a modern $115 million laboratory and storage center that represents the biggest such project for wild plants in the world.

Seeds can be as small as specks, but to the men and women who tend them here, they are hugely important as guarantors of a future of biodiversity in a world that is crowding them out.

"Most seeds do not look very exciting, but they are tiny miracles of packaging, containing all the genetic information for the next generation of plants," Trevor Butler, the project's spokesman, said.

Because of pressures on land caused by population growth, scientists estimate that one-quarter of the world's remaining 270,000 plant species will be under threat of extinction by 2050.

To try to curb the loss of such resources, Britain has banked seeds at Wakehurst Place from virtually all its 1,400 plants, the first country in the world to do so. Also here are seeds representing another 4,000 species of wildflowers and other plants, the beginning of an effort that has as its 10-year goal a Noah's Ark-like collection of 24,000 species, or nearly 10 percent of the world's seed-bearing flora.

The building was dedicated on Nov. 20 by Charles, the Prince of Wales, who said he felt he was opening "The Bank of England of the botanical world." In a genial nod to his reputation for seeking communion with green things, he added, "I also want to make certain that I have some plants left to talk to in the future."

The seeds are stored in sealed glass jars in subzero temperatures in a radiation-proof underground vault, minimizing the risk to the precious trove from everything from a nuclear blast to an airplane from nearby London Gatwick Airport crashing directly into it.

Visitors above can walk through the central axis of the striking barrel-vaulted building, looking through glass walls at scientists in their white smocks at work with their tiny charges and learning about the processes going on from a series of displays. Though the project employs 25 scientists, the real stars of this show are displayed in glass cases along the corridors marked "celebrity seeds."

Around the clinically spotless premises there are envelopes and plastic crates holding seeds from the kinds of plants that have brought inspiration to name givers - Scottish primrose, lundy cabbage, toothwort, Yellow Star of Bethlehem, lady's mantle, monkey orchids, dog's mercury, devil's claw and the shaggy mouse-ear hawkweed.

There are also the kind that produce food, fuel, fiber, medicines, oil, building materials, fodder and other necessities of life, and others that may have as yet undiscovered properties to do so in the future.

Most seed collections concentrate on crop plants, but Wakehurst Place specializes in wild ones. The project focuses on dryland areas, which cover a third of the earth's land surface, including some of the world's poorest countries, and support almost one- fifth of its population.

The most immediate threat to dryland areas is desertification - the thinning out of vegetation - brought on by intensive human settlement of lands prone to drought. "These are places where the population growth and exploitation of the land are moving faster than the plants can keep up," said Roger Smith, the project head. The seeds from these areas are more desiccation-tolerant and therefore more responsive to the freeze dry preservation techniques at Wakehurst Place than are seeds from more tropical areas.

The Wakehurst Place collectors aim to collect a minimum of 20,000 seeds for each species banked, and to get at them, they may have to scale mountains, wade through lakes, climb into limestone crevices or crawl along the ground on their bellies. They sometimes arouse unwanted interest in conflicted areas from warring guerrilla groups or tribes interested in kidnapping and ransom.

"It's what we call the `Indiana Jones' phase," said Michiel van Slagaren, a Dutch member of the scientific team. "You go to places like that, it's best to go about your business very low key."

For the large majority of arid land seeds, drying and freezing slow down the processes going on inside, forestalling deterioration and allowing survival for centuries. For germination to begin from this resting state, all the seeds need is a kick start to their metabolism - a dash of water and oxygen and a suitable temperature.

In principle, scientists prefer preserving seeds in their natural habitats, but considerations ranging from the scientific to the political often make that impossible. Seeds are strikingly portable, and the project repatriates a portion of the revivified seeds to their origins, thereby duplicating storage.

Mr. Smith, the project head, said that while he viewed the project as crucial and timely, his real hope was that it would never be necessary.

"It's an insurance policy; think of it like a seat belt," he said. "You wear it hoping you'll not have to use it. In fact, you know it would be a far better solution if everybody drove more carefully, but you can't count on that."

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U.S. Imposes Standards for Organic-Food Labeling

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By MARIAN BURROS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/science/21ORGA.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - The Department of Agriculture today announced final adoption of the first standards that the federal government has ever imposed for the labeling and processing of organic foods.

The new standards, which were ordered by Congress and then took the department more than a decade to produce, ban the use of irradiation, biotechnology and sewer-sludge fertilizer for any food labeled organic.

The department planned to allow the use of all three methods when it introduced proposed regulations in 1997. But after comment from almost 300,000 people protesting their inclusion, the agency withdrew that proposal and started over.

Other major provisions of the rules issued today ban synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in the growing of organic food, and antibiotics in meat labeled organic. These bans were a part of the earlier proposal.

At a news conference held in the produce aisles of a local Fresh Fields store, one of a nationwide chain of natural-foods supermarkets, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman called the new regulations "the strongest and most comprehensive organic standard in the world."

Katherine DiMatteo, a spokeswoman for the organic foods industry, welcomed the regulations.

"The long wait for the final rule was worthwhile," said Ms. DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association. "U.S.D.A. has delivered a strict organic standard that is a great boost to the organic industry. In no way is this final rule less than what the industry wanted."

The regulations come at a time of soaring popularity for organic foods. Domestic sales have increased more than 20 percent annually each year since 1990, and reached $6 billion last year.

The niche has become significant enough that large conventional-food companies have been buying up smaller organic companies. General Mills owns Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen Tomatoes; Heinz owns Earth's Best Baby Food; J. M. Smucker sells Santa Cruz and Knudsen juices.

Organics have also become an increasingly important factor in overseas sales, although until now the European Union and Japan have made it difficult for American exporters of those foods to do business, because they do not want to deal with the 44 different state and private organic certifying agencies in the United States.

When the new rules take effect, starting on Feb. 19, they will have to deal with only one: the Agriculture Department. (Similarly that existing patchwork of standards will be superseded by the new regulations in the domestic market as well.)

"The rule will assist organic producers who want to export their products," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, author of the law that called for the regulations.

While the Bush administration could try to overturn the rule, which does not become fully effective until 2002, there is little such expectation, given the importance of overseas sales and the support for regulation among large numbers of organic- food consumers.

The regulations divide organic labeling into four categories:

¶Products that are labeled "100 percent organic" must contain only organic ingredients.

¶The ingredients of products labeled "organic" must be at least 95 percent organic by weight.

¶Processed products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients may be labeled "made with organic ingredients," and as many as three of those ingredients may be listed on the front of the package. This is a stricter standard than one proposed earlier, which would have required only 50 percent organic ingredients.

¶Processed products with less than 70 percent organic ingredients may list those ingredients on the information panel but may not carry the term "organic" anywhere on the front of the package.

Products meeting the requirements for "100 percent organic," "organic" and "made with organic ingredients" may display those terms and the percentage of organic content on the front. And a "U.S.D.A." seal may appear on products in the first two categories (and in their advertisements), but not on products in the two others.

As a concession to the National Food Processors Association, a trade group made up mostly of conventional-food processors, the Agriculture Department changed the organic seal from an originally proposed shield - like the one that goes on meat, eggs and other products that are government-inspected - to a circle.

The association had also asked the agency to put a disclaimer on organic labels, so that they would say such food was no safer and no more nutritious than conventional food. But the agency refused.

Tim Willard, the association's vice president for communications, said: "I think the sense of the industry is that it is past time to have consistent national standards for organic food. The challenge for U.S.D.A. is to make sure consumers don't think the seal of approval means that the food is safer or more nutritious. We don't want them to think, `I'm buying organic and therefore I don't have to pay attention to nutrition,' or that the label is a license to mishandle the food."

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Clinton reaches largest Clean Air settlement

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 11:59 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu10.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration and a major electric utility, Cinergy Corp., have agreed on a $1.4 billion settlement of a lawsuit over alleged illegal pollution from its coal-burning power plants, the administration announced. It is the largest such settlement ever reached under the Clean Air Act.

The settlement is part of a four-year investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency involving more than a half dozen of the country's largest electric utility companies.

Two utilities previously had settled and agreed - like Ohio-based Cinergy - to make environmental improvements worth in excess of $1 billion and promising to reduce pollution as well as some fine.

The EPA claimed that its findings conclude that the plants allegedly violated federal pollution laws by modifying some of their old coal-burning power plants, while failing to install required pollution-control equipment.

The utilities - even those who have settled - have denied any violations. Some of the utilities, including the Ohio-based American Electric Power Co., have vowed to fight the EPA charges, claiming that no violations of the Clean Air Act occurred as a result of the changes, which many of the utilities claim were needed maintenance.

But, according to EPA and Justice Department officials, Cinergy, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, agreed to settle the enforcement action, which focused on pollution controls at 10 of its coal-burning power plants.

The plants belong to two of Cinergy's operating companies _PSI Energy in Indiana and Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co., in Ohio. Cinergy also provides electricity in Kentucky, but those plants were not part of the enforcement action.

The settlement calls on Cinergy to pay an $8.5 million fine and perform $21.5 million on ''environmental projects, said the EPA.

But Sylvia Lowrance, EPA's deputy assistant administrator for enforcement, said the $1.4 billion involves expenditures the company has agreed to make for capital improvements at the 10 plants in Ohio and Indiana.

Cinergy also has agreed to install permanent emission control equipment ''to meet stringent pollution limits and implement a series of interim measures to curtail emissions from the plants, she said.

''This is the largest enforcement settlement ever reached by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act,'' said EPA Administrator Carol Browner, who called it the Clinton administration's ''last action to provide cleaner air for all Americans.''

Earlier in the day Browner announced a final regulation that requires large trucks and buses to reduce tailpipe pollution by 90% over the next decade.

Officials from Cinergy could not immediately be reached for comment late Thursday.

Two utilities - Tampa Electric Power in Florida, and Dominion Virginia Power - earlier reached similar settlements with the EPA as a result of the investigation of the utility industry begun in 1996.

''We're still in discussion with a number of companies,'' said Lowrance in a telephone interview.

The Justice Department, acting on behalf of the EPA, has filed lawsuits, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act, by plants belonging to American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, Illinois Power, Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co., and the Southern Company. A separately an administrative action has been taken against the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority, over a similar complaint.

All of the actions stem from allegations that the utilities have made improper improvements at some of their old coal-fired power plants, most of which dot the Ohio Valley and parts of the Midwest, without getting proper pollution permits required by the Clean Air Act.

In the case of Cinergy, the lawsuit claimed that the two operating companies in Ohio and Indiana over the 15 years have ''undertaken at least 38 substantial modifications'' that increased the amount of pollution coming from the plants ''without taking steps to minimize these increased emissions.''

The agreement in principle was signed by Cinergy and government officials Thursday afternoon with a formal consent decree to be filed in the court in Indianapolis on Friday, according to the EPA and Justice Department.

The two previous settlements each were $1 billion or more.

The Tampa Electric Co., settled for $1 billion, most of it money to be spent on environmental improvements. Dominion Virginia Power reached a settlement estimated to be worth $1.2 billion, most of also to be spent to reduce emissions at its plants.

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National organic standards released

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 08:28 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndsthu03.htm

SAN FRANCISCO - Organic growers in California, which led the push to eliminate pesticides and other manmade chemicals from the food supply, say new federal standards could legitimize organic farming and be a boon to the industry. Under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards released yesterday, foods grown using approved organic methods will bear a seal that reads ''USDA Organic.'' The standards are rooted in the efforts of a small cooperative, California Certified Organic Farmers, which in 1973 began inspecting and certifying member farmers' methods and setting standards for just what ''organic'' means.

''It's going to mean an additional standard of integrity in the marketplace and the ability to move product from state to state and country to country,'' said Ray Green, organic program manager for California's Department of Agriculture.

''In terms of the old supply and demand thing, it's going to create more integrity, consumer confidence and legitimacy, and that will fuel growth.''

The rules may make organic farming and processing more attractive to bigger growers, which could drive prices down.

''I think, because they're federal, we'll see more of the large retailers getting into organics,'' said Brian Leahy, CCOF's executive director. ''I think we'll see prices getting closer to conventional.''

California growers had worried that federal standards would be weaker than the state's law, but the USDA included ways to monitor compliance. California had only required organic farms and processors to register with the state and promise to comply with the rules; inspectors rarely checked whether they were followed.

The federal standards require annual certification.

''We're long-term organic growers. We've been in this 22 years,'' said Jonathan Steinberg, co-owner of Route 1 Farms in Santa Cruz. ''It probably won't affect the way I grow much, but it'll be interesting to see if it affects my costs and if I see more competition.''

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'Organic' standard: 95% of ingredients

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 09:38 AM ET
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen142.htm

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced final rules for certification of organic meat and produce on Wednesday, ending a decade of discussion about how to bring uniformity to a hodgepodge of state and local standards for labeling organic foods.

The national standards offer farmers "clear guidelines for how to take advantage of the exploding demand for organic products," Glickman says. "For consumers, the organic standards offer another choice in the marketplace."

The Department of Agriculture's organic label does not mean the product is safer or more nutritious than other foods, he says. "The organic label is a marketing tool. It is not a statement about food safety."

Under the new labeling requirements, at least 95% of ingredients in products labeled "organic" must be organic. The remaining 5% can be non-organic only if organic alternatives are not available.

Foods may be labeled "made with organic ingredients" if they contain at least 70% organic ingredients.

To have the organic label:

Crops may not be genetically engineered, irradiated or grown on land fertilized with sewage sludge.

Cropland may not be treated with any prohibited substances, including chemical fertilizers and herbicides, for at least three years before the harvest of an organic crop.

Farm animals must be raised on 100% organic feed. Vitamin and mineral supplements are allowed, but hormones to promote growth and the use of antibiotics are prohibited.

All organically raised animals will have access to the outdoors.

Katherine Di Matteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, says the uniform regulations will encourage more farmers to join the estimated 12,000 organic farmers. "I think there have been many producers who have considered organic as an opportunity but have been reluctant to convert because they were unclear what the rules would be," she says. "This final rule eliminates any uncertainty ."

The outcome, she says, will be greater abundance and variety of organic foods available to consumers.

The final rule will become effective in 60 days but won't be implemented for 18 months after that, giving farmers the time to comply with requirements and undergo certification.

The process leading to organic food certification began with the 1990 farm bill, which ordered the Agriculture Department to develop uniform standards. A proposed rule, published in 1997, generated a record 275,603 comments from the public, many of them protesting the possible inclusion of foods produced with genetic engineering or irradiation or grown on land treated with sewage sludge.

"The people spoke," Glickman says. "We listened."

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Fox hunting ban passes hurdle

Infobeat
December 21, 2000
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=4krvk0f1b1g6r

LONDON (AP) - An initiative to ban fox hunting with hounds passed its first legislative hurdle when the House of Commons voted to move forward on the bill Wednesday as pro-hunting protesters chanted and blew hunting horns outside. The Hunting Bill, which includes an option for a near-total ban on the lethal sport, easily won a second reading on a 373-158 vote despite impassioned protests from both inside and outside Parliament. "I don't believe that human beings should be entertained by cruelty to animals," lawmaker and former Sports Minister Tony Banks said before the vote. But outside about 1,500 demonstrators, most from rural areas around Britain, gathered to protest the legislation. The cacophony could sometimes be heard within the chamber.

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ALBANY: WATERSHED TO BE STUDIED

New York Times
December 21, 2000
Metro Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/nyregion/21MBRF.html?pagewanted=all

Analyses of the effectiveness of wetland and stream restoration and the overall health of the New York City watershed are among the projects that will use $19 million in financing approved by Congress, Gov. George E. Pataki announced yesterday. He said the money, secured by Representative James T. Walsh, left, a fellow Republican who is chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees environmental financing, would also pay for increased monitoring and databases tracking runoff in the watershed. (NYT)

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What Bush Can Do on the Environment

New York Times
December 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/opinion/L21BUS.html

To the Editor:

Re "Mr. Bush's Environmental Choices" (editorial, Dec. 18):

One of the important environmental issues for the Bush administration will be how strongly it enforces environmental laws and its oversight of state enforcement activities (since the states carry out the majority of enforcement actions under federal environmental law). During the 1990's, Texas and other states took an increasingly lax approach to enforcement, relying more on incentives than penalties to promote compliance by the business community.

The current E.P.A. has resisted these trends. The Bush administration should continue to insist on strong enforcement, since empirical evidence shows that the carrot-without-the-stick approach has not worked effectively to foster compliance with environmental rules.

CLIFFORD RECHTSCHAFFEN San Francisco, Dec. 18, 2000
The writer is a professor at the Golden Gate University School of Law.

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USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alaska

Kodiak - The Coast Guard will conduct spot safety checks of crab fishing boats in Kodiak, Dutch Harbor and ports in the Aleutians before the opening of the Bering Sea crab fishery next month. Crab fishing in the Bering Sea is considered one of the USA's most dangerous occupations. During the 1990s, 64 workers died.

Idaho

Athol - Rural residents who lost a spring they had depended on for water when high levels of bacteria were discovered are now hoping to get a coin-operated filling station. A $100,000 grant could pay for a station near Farragut State Park. The state Department of Environmental Quality is pursuing the money for the North Kootenai Water District.

Kansas

Lawrence - America's symbol, the bald eagle, is making its annual winter pilgrimage to Kansas to feast on fish and waterfowl, conservationists say.

Maine

Machias - Maine Wild Blueberry Co. has paid $107,000 for environmental violations that forced the evacuation of the Machias wastewater treatment plant. The Board of Environmental Protection says the company also killed two acres of vegetation when it disposed of an excessive amount of blueberry sludge near Whitneyville.

Minnesota

Bloomington - The already massive Mall of America may be getting even bigger. The Bloomington City Council approved an environmental impact statement for an expansion that would more than double the mall's size. A development of 5.6 million square feet is envisioned on the former site of the Metropolitan Sports Center just north of the mall. The mall itself is 4.2 million square feet. Developers have long planned to add more hotels, offices, stores and a performing arts center. Building could begin next spring.

New Mexico

Silver City - The Center for Biological Diversity is threatening to sue if the U.S. Forest Service doesn't stop a fire salvage timber sale on the Mogollon Mountains. The Forest Service approved the sale last month in an area where a controlled fire got out of control in 1998. The center supports controlled burns but said timber salvage cutting is highly damaging because it compacts fragile soils, leading to increased erosion and sediments washing into streams.

North Carolina

Bolivia - A citizens' group accused International Paper of digging a wetlands drainage ditch that has caused chronic flooding. The company said the 65-foot-wide, 15-foot-deep ditch in the Town Creek area was dug 25 years ago, before the Clean Water Act went into effect.

Virginia

Newport News - The legislature will consider restoring Chesapeake Bay's oyster population. A state scientist says it would cost more than $30 million to restore oysters to a tenth of their population of 40 years ago.

Wyoming

Jackson - Hunters could face a backlash if they don't reduce killings of grizzly bears, said Chris Servheen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This year, 11 grizzlies were killed by hunters, out of a total of 19 bear deaths, he said.

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EPA investigator says his ouster was retaliatory

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20001221223730.htm

An investigator critical of federal pollution-cleanup policies was relieved of his duties for embarrassing the Clinton administration, say the official and Capitol Hill lawmakers.

As the only investigator in the Ombudsman Office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Hugh Kaufman was the chief critic inside his own agency and exposed numerous cover-ups prior to his dismissal last week.

In Colorado, Mr. Kaufman embarrassed the agency and forced it to clean up its radioactive-waste burial site in a Denver neighborhood. He was also critical of agency actions in Florida, Idaho and Pennsylvania.

And when it comes to dealing with Congress, Mr. Kaufman said the agency "is not dealing the cards off the top of the deck."

"Basically, we are supposed to [be] advocates of the truth, but the agency has been much too harsh in some cases, and taken a dive in others," Mr. Kaufman said.

Tim Fields, the EPA official who initially hired Mr. Kaufman, then reassigned him to an analyst's job, said the decision was based on performance, not politics.

"We have a strong commitment to the national ombudsman and have concluded Mr. Kaufman no longer fits in the support of that national function," Mr. Fields said.

He said the EPA would continue to provide all the support necessary to the ombudsman's office.

Several members of Congress have criticized Mr. Kaufman's reassignment, claiming it is political retaliation, and have called on the Clinton administration and the incoming Bush administration to reinstate Mr. Kaufman.

"I am furious," said Sen. Wayne Allard, Colorado Republican.

"They got embarrassed publicly and I think they were out to get him," Mr. Allard said.

Mr. Kaufman discovered that an EPA radioactive burial site in Overland Park, Colo., was leaking into the Platte River. The agency initially denied the leak, but after secret documents were exposed, agreed to move the burial site, said a spokesman for Mr. Allard.

Mr. Kaufman also criticized a similar cleanup plan of radioactive and toxic waste in Tarpon Springs, Fla. The EPA has since put a hold on those plans.

Mr. Kaufman said the agency "played fast and loose with the truth."

"They demonstrated firsthand you cannot trust the EPA's entrenched bureaucracy," he said.

Rep. Michael Bilirakis, Florida Republican, has written to President-elect George W. Bush asking that the decision be rescinded.

"Because the national ombudsman function at the EPA has been so successful in resolving problems with the EPA bureaucracy at the request of members of Congress, we request that, as soon as possible, you employ your good office to restore and support the national ombudsman and his staff," Mr. Bilirakis said.

"More specifically, we look to your administration to undo the damage that is being initiated by the Clinton political appointees in the immediate wake after Vice President [Al] Gore's concession speech," he said.

Mr. Kaufman was informed of his transfer less than 24 hours after Mr. Gore's Dec. 13 speech. Lawmakers and Mr. Kaufman note the timing is curious and reinforces their theory that the actions were politically motivated.

"The Democrats want to get a little revenge before they leave," Mr. Kaufman said.

Sen. Michael D. Crapo, Idaho Republican, said Mr. Kaufman's sudden transfer "renews my concern that EPA is attempting to weaken the ombudsman's office. The independent function of the ombudsman's office is vital."

Mr. Crapo's office released an Oct. 18 letter written to him from the agency indicating that Mr. Kaufman's work was satisfactory.

Michael H. Shapiro, principal deputy assistant administrator, told Mr. Crapo he was "pleased to hear you and the community are satisfied with the national ombudsman's involvement" in an Idaho Superfund site.

"We believe the ombudsman function is a very important one for the agency and the public," Mr. Shapiro said.

Mr. Kaufman said he received top performance ratings in his three years in the office, as well as two cash awards of $1,000 each for his work.

-------- genetics

The year 2000 in medicine and science

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 01:08 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen144.htm

News in medicine and science can be many things: a research breakthrough that promises to heal the sick or a raging controversy over public policy. Four USA TODAY health and science reporters look at a few of the stories that captured attention in 2000, and some that will reverberate for decades.


Mapping the genome

A public-private race to decode the Book of Life, the genetic blueprint for a complete human, ended in a tie June 26 . The publicly financed Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics, a private biotechnology company in Rockville, Md., jointly announced that the two programs independently produced rough drafts of the genetic sequence found on the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. The human body is believed to contain 80,000 genes.

The information is expected to revolutionize our understanding of disease and launch an era in which medications can be tailored to a person's genetic makeup. Already, the pharmaceutical industry is mining information from public and private genetic sequence databases to develop drugs aimed at specific genetic targets. It is believed that such medicines will be more powerful and have fewer side effects than conventional drugs.

The public effort, led by Francis Collins, who directs the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, was to be completed by 2005. But Collins pushed the schedule ahead after Craig Venter launched Celera in May 1998 and announced he would complete the gene sequencing more quickly and for less money. Despite their rivalry, which grew heated at times, Venter and Collins agreed to appear together to announce the completion of the draft.

- Steve Sternberg

Biotech corn controversy

Efforts by the biotechnology industry to foster consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods took a hit in September, when consumer activists revealed that tests on Taco Bell brand taco shells in grocery stores found that they contained a type of biotech corn that had not been approved for human consumption.

StarLink corn, developed by Aventis CropScience with built-in pest resistance, was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency only for animal feed because it contains a protein that scientists worry could cause an allergic reaction in humans.

When it was learned that part of the crop of 80 million bushels of StarLink corn had been inadvertently mixed with conventional corn, Aventis launched a $100 million buyback program, and U.S. food companies recalled dozens of brands of taco shells, corn chips, cornmeal and other products.

StarLink corn has been withdrawn from the market -- none will be planted in 2001. Aventis has asked the EPA to grant a temporary clearance to cover corn grown in the past two years, which may remain in the food supply. Critics are urging the EPA to deny the request, noting that 44 people have reported illnesses, from itching to breathing problems, possibly related to the engineered corn.

The EPA is evaluating scientific data and has not granted Aventis' request. Early this month, a panel of scientists reported to the EPA its conclusion that there is a "medium likelihood" that the protein in StarLink could cause an allergic reaction, but that because there is relatively little of the product in the American diet, it poses a "low probability" of allergy risk.

Biotech advocates fear that the biocorn episode will undermine confidence in food safety and regulatory systems.

- Anita Manning

Abortion pill

Although women in France have had access to RU-486, the "abortion pill," since 1988, it became available in the USA only in mid-November.

Abortion advocates hope that RU-486, sold as Mifeprex in the USA, will increase the number of doctors willing to provide abortions. In France, the drug is used in 40% of abortions. So far in the USA, however, physicians who perform surgical abortions have been the quickest to incorporate Mifeprex into their practices.

Mifeprex can be used as soon as a woman is pregnant until seven weeks after her last menstrual period. The drug blocks the hormone progesterone, required to maintain a pregnancy. In almost every case, a second drug, misoprostol, which triggers uterine contractions, must be taken to complete the abortion.

When the Food and Drug Administration approved Mifeprex on Sept. 28, George W. Bush, then the Republican presidential candidate, issued a statement criticizing the move.

"As president, I will work to build a culture that respects life," Bush's statement said. <B>

- Rita Rubin

Research conflicts

Public confidence in medical research suffered this year, shaken by continuing reports of financial conflicts and questionable treatment decisions among physicians running clinical trials of drugs in human volunteers .

Leading the furor were repercussions over the 1999 death of teenager Jesse Gelsinger in a University of Pennsylvania gene therapy trial. His death, triggered by an allergic reaction to an experimental genetic treatment, grabbed more headlines after it was revealed that lead investigator James Wilson had part ownership of the treatment under study. The Food and Drug Administration released a letter this month threatening to permanently bar him from conducting human research.

But 2000 also was a year during which the public became acutely aware of how financial interests could taint the integrity of science.

"When an investigator has a financial interest in or funding by a company with activities related to his or her research, the research is lower in quality, more likely to favor the sponsor's product, less likely to be published, and more likely to have delayed publication," wrote Catherine DeAngelis, head of the Journal of the American Medical Association, in a November editorial. Only 19% of research institutions limit the financial links between researchers and the companies whose drugs they evaluate, according to a JAMA study.

Further, exploding demand for patients in drug trials appears to have exacerbated the strains on safeguards for humans in research trials, experts concluded at a National Institutes of Health meeting in August. The demand is driven by FDA requirements and ever-growing numbers of drugs under study by the pharmaceutical industry.

Over the past decade, clinical trials emerged as a $6 billion industry, no longer a sidelight for medical schools, which saw their share of trials drop from 80% in 1991 to 40% by the decade's end. In their place, contract research organizations hire academics on behalf of the industry to manage trials. In some cases, the companies design, analyze and ghost-write the resulting studies for clients.

Increasing concern has focused on the potential for conflicts of interest to undermine public faith in the integrity of researchers. "Without trust, medical research is doomed," said DeAngelis, calling for reform of the system.

- Dan Vergano

Planets aplenty

The detection of planets orbiting nearby stars, a science-fiction favorite, reached the status of everyday news in 2000. More than 50 "extra-solar" planets now rest on astronomers' registries, up from 34 at the start of the year.

Finds included the first planet circling a star (HD27442) in a stable, Earth-like orbit -- inviting speculation on the possibility of life in the "habitable zone" around a star -- and smaller, Saturn-size planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Past discoveries featured gas-giant planets, like Jupiter in shape and composition, but orbiting either bizarrely close to their star (closer than Mercury orbits the sun) or winging around in long, eccentric orbits unlike any planets in our solar system. Newer ones hint at familiar-looking planets.

"Finally, we're beginning to discover planetary systems that are not merely the pathological systems of the past -- close-in giants or giants in highly eccentric orbits," says astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

To discover planets, astronomers rely on detecting periodic, back-and-forth "wobbles" in the motion of stars. Such motions reveal the presence of a planet gravitationally tugging on a star.

Current telescopes can detect planets only about the size of Neptune, says Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (D.C.), a member of the most prolific planet-hunting team. Neptune is more than four times the diameter of Earth.

From his team's ongoing survey of some 2,000 stars within 200 light-years of Earth, Butler estimates that 5% possess giant planet companions. Of those, perhaps one in 50 revolves around its star in an Earth-like orbit. Moons orbiting such an object might meet the conditions for life, scientists speculate.

Within three years, scientists expect to detect the first gas-giant planet orbiting in a stable orbit, like Jupiter's, around a nearby star. Further out, NASA plans to loft its Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) probe in 2009. "We're going to attempt to find Earth-sized planets with it," says NASA's Anne Kinney, who selected the SIM scientists. "Astronomers are ever intrepid. We'll see if they can pull this one off."

- Dan Vergano

-------- police

In Orange, Closed Ranks and Relief After Officers' Conviction in Beating

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By RONALD SMOTHERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/nyregion/21ORAN.html

ORANGE, N.J., Dec. 20 - Like a family closing ranks around its own, this compact city of 30,000 was all solicitude and wariness a day after a federal jury convicted five local police officers of beating and pepper- spraying an innocent man who died in their custody.

Many residents said today that they were not sure that justice had been done in the case, which grew out of what prosecutors said were the Police Department's overzealous efforts to pick up suspects in the days after the fatal shooting of a popular police officer, Joyce Carnegie, in April 1999. But they were all sure who was family and who was not.

So at the public library on Main Street, where Mary Smith works, co- workers were protective and silent when asked about her or the case in which her sons, Thomas and Brian Smith, were convicted of conspiring to deprive the suspect, Earl Faison, of his civil rights.

And two blocks away at City Hall, where Officer Carnegie's mother works, city employees behaved as if treading on eggshells. When asked how Ernestine Carnegie had reacted to the verdict on the officers who, their lawyers claimed, had been gripped by sadness and anger over her daughter's killing, most said it would not occur to them to ask her.

"It's only in the last few months that we have begun to see her smile again," said City Attorney Marvin T. Brake. "I personally saw her this morning and I just didn't ask her about it."

Elsewhere, there was a palpable sense of relief over the verdict - both because it censured what many considered police excesses in the case and because it was not likely to fuel racial animosity in a small town of only 2.2 square miles where the population is 24 percent white and 70 percent black. The 107-member police force is 43 percent black.

Most of those interviewed said the case did not appear to have a clear- cut racial element. Mr. Faison, 27, was black, they noted, as is one of the five officers in the case, Tyrone Payton, 34. And all of the officers, if one accepts the prosecution theory, were convicted for overreacting and exacting revenge on Mr. Faison for the death of Officer Carnegie, who was also black.

"It wasn't racial, but if it was racial it could be dangerous for a white guy like me in this town," said Ron Scoppettuolo, the owner of the J&S Vacuum Company on Main Street. "It could have been blown out of proportion and seen that way, but it wasn't, and that's a relief."

Denice Lockhart, the owner of the It's All About U Beauty Salon, said she was surprised at the guilty verdict, largely because juries seem to give police the benefit of the doubt. She said the conflicting and often inconsistent testimony in the case, which she followed carefully, would seem to have favored an acquittal.

"I didn't see it as racial," said Ms. Lockhart, who is black, "but emotions were high around the case, and many people wanted someone to pay. The laws as they stand were formed by white people to protect white people, and I just thought they would find some loophole."

In the long run, she said, the incident would leave more of a scar on the Police Department than on the town. If officers want to remain on the force, she said, they will not be able to do what was done to Mr. Faison.

"People should not have to pay the price that he had to pay," she said.

The scars on the department were more than visible today on Joseph Lane, the large and usually smiling Orange police officer who was Joyce Carnegie's partner and friend, and a pallbearer at her funeral. Sitting in Epstein's Hardware Store on Main Street, Officer Lane described the department's mood as "low" and its morale as scraping the ground.

"You have guys here who want to give up on the job," he said. "Faison's death was tragic, but that jury has just destroyed five lives."

Donald Wactor, the city's police director, described the mood of the department as "somber," but quickly suggested that the reverberations from the verdict were far from over. He said that his department would examine the trial transcript to determine if any of the officers who testified for the prosecution, albeit reluctantly, violated departmental regulations or their oaths to tell the truth.

In addition, he said he would carefully watch the department to make sure that the two officers whose testimony formed the core of the prosecution case, Keith Jackson and Anthony Tortorella, did not face any retaliation from fellow officers.

Cheryl G. Fuller, the city's business administrator, said Orange had begun the healing process earlier this year when the officers were indicted. She said that her sympathies went out to the Faison family, but added that she hoped "we could all look forward to the future now."

As she spoke, Sagirah Williams, Mr. Faison's stepmother, was leaving City Hall after taking care of some business in the tax office. Although Mr. Faison lived in East Orange, she lives in Orange.

Ms. Williams said she had just come from a rally to urge the state's attorney general, John J. Farmer Jr., whose office ruled earlier that there was not enough evidence for a murder indictment in the case, to reopen his investigation.

"It's not over," she said.

---

Sheriff's killing called 'professional hit'

USA Today
12/21/00- Updated 07:24 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nphoto.htm

DECATUR, Ga. - During his campaign for sheriff, Derwin Brown made one promise over and over: He would clean up the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department, an office with a 30-year history of corruption.

Investigators say that promise got him killed two days before he was to be sworn in. Brown, 46, was gunned down in his front yard last Friday as he returned from a party celebrating his graduation from a sheriff's training course.

He was shot 11 times in what prosecutors called a ''professional hit.''

Investigators have a long list of suspects, including companies with department contracts and 38 employees who had been told they would be fired Jan. 1.

''Derwin was a reform candidate, and he ruffled a lot of feathers,'' said county prosecutor J. Tom Morgan. ''He made a lot of people mad with the changes he was going to make.''

With 600,000 residents, the county is the second-largest in Georgia. It includes the extreme eastern part of Atlanta, is 42% black and has seen an influx of middle-class blacks during the past 15 years. Decatur, the county seat, has drawn many frustrated commuters because it has many neighborhoods within a few miles of downtown Atlanta and access to public transportation.

Many residents had hoped Brown would put an end to the scandals that have plagued the sheriff's office since the 1960s. Brown, a longtime county police officer, had criticized the department on his local cable access show and once called the jail a ''monument to failure.''

Brown won a bitter election 2-to-1 against Sheriff Sidney Dorsey in August. Dorsey became the county's first black sheriff four years ago despite publicity about his arrests for domestic abuse and a manslaughter charge he once faced.

Reports also surfaced that Dorsey assigned inmates to work on houses of supporters of his wife, an Atlanta city councilwoman. Other reports accused him of allowing deputies to work for his security company while on the clock. And a female deputy filed a lawsuit saying that she was denied a promotion because she ended an affair with Dorsey.

Dorsey said he did nothing wrong and accused the media and Brown, who is also black, of waging a racist campaign against him. He said he is upset about speculation that he was involved in Brown's killing and denied any role in it. Dorsey is only the latest DeKalb sheriff to face scandal.

Former Sheriff Pat Jarvis last year was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $40,000 for fraud. Ray Bonner, a sheriff in the mid-1970s, pleaded self-defense and was acquitted in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in his front yard. And Lamar Martin, the sheriff in the late 1960s and early '70s, was convicted of bribery.

DeKalb's assistant chief of police, Eddie Moody, said he had no doubt Brown was killed because of his proposed reforms: ''One thing we understand in life is that those who stand up for the truth suffer, and he paid a dear price for it.''

When Brown was killed, his wife and five children heard the shots and found him lying in the driveway. Phyllis Brown ran to her husband's side and urged him to ''hang on,'' but she said she knew from his eyes that he was not going to make it.

''They weren't closed and they weren't open, they were just staring,'' she told CNN.

More than 4,000 people attended Brown's funeral Thursday, with hundreds of officers passing by his flag-draped coffin.

''I would consider Derwin an innovator - a man who really had a vision of correcting things he perceived were not right in DeKalb,'' said police Capt. Ray Flemister, who worked with Brown for 22 years.

Speakers at the funeral angrily warned those responsible for the killing, saying it would not stop reform efforts.

''My father was a soldier,'' said Michael Brown. ''He was not afraid to let the truth be known. And the truth is known.''

---

USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Michigan

Lansing - Kent and Ingham counties collected more than 1,400 guns in a program that let people trade their guns for Meijer gift certificates. For three days, sheriffs distributed the $50 certificates to anyone who brought in a working gun. Ingham County collected 346 guns and Kent County collected 1,079 guns, the state attorney general's office reported.

Nebraska

Lincoln - Kenneth Miller, a 22-year veteran of the Nebraska State Patrol, was sentenced to one to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a child. Miller pleaded guilty in October. A request for probation was denied. The judge said Miller, a former patrol airplane pilot, was caught with the girl earlier and failed to seek help.

Rhode Island

Providence - Officials are investigating allegations that two police officers threatened a parking lot attendant at gunpoint after an off-duty officer's car was towed. The attendant said the officer refused to pay the $6 parking fee and a scuffle broke out when the officer left and then returned with a uniformed officer.

---

District police union probed

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
By John Drake THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/default-20001221224122.htm

The U.S. Attorney's Office and Washington, D.C. police are investigating whether police union officials have misused union funds, sources familiar with the investigations told The Washington Times.

The investigations of former and current police union officials focus on the administration of Frank Tracy, former chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Metropolitan Police Labor Committee, the sources said.

At least $80,000 in questionable purchases were charged to a union credit card and checking account, including a stay at a "couples-only" resort in Pennsylvania, shoes from Gentlemen's Jodhpur in Bethesda, Md. and goods from Grandma's Fine Arts Gallery in Maryland, according to documents obtained by The Times.

A criminal inquiry is focusing on several thousand dollars' worth of computers and related equipment purchased with the union's credit card from Circuit City stores, according to sources and documents.

Those computers are missing from the labor committee's office, police sources said.

The labor committee is the union representing officers and sergeants in the Metropolitan Police Department. Mr. Tracy was the head of the union from Oct. 1, 1998, to Sept. 30 this year.

Sgt. Gerald G. Neill, the current chairman of the labor committee, told The Times yesterday he could not comment on the matter.

Sgt. Neill is not a focus of the investigation, sources said.

Channing Phillips, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, confirmed that prosecutors are reviewing the financial irregularities, but he could not discuss who is the subject of the investigation.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, generally known as the internal affairs division, also is investigating the matter.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey confirmed yesterday that internal affairs was looking into the matter, adding the investigation is complete, "but it's probably open and suspended pending the outcome of the audit" of the union's books.

Chief Ramsey said he became aware of the allegations leveled against Mr. Tracy after Sgt. Neill sent a letter outlining problems he uncovered.

The chief was not familiar with specific instances of questionable purchases described in documents.

The officials connected to the questionable purchases on credit-card receipts and other records served under Mr. Tracy from October of 1998 to Sept. 30 this year. They are:

• Mr. Tracy, who retired from the force and now works on "cold case" homicides as a consultant. Records attribute the $300 purchase of a stay at the Caesars Cove Haven Resort - the "couples-only getaway resort on scenic Lake Wallenpaupack" near Lakeville, Pa. - to "the chairman," or Mr. Tracy, in January of last year.

• Officer Tyrone Best, the committee's treasurer under Mr. Tracy who was re-elected in August. Records connect Mr. Best's name with purchases in May of $314.46 from the men's department of the Hecht's store in Marlow Heights, Md., and $219.80 from International Male, a high-end clothing company.

Credit-card statements also connect Mr. Best's name with a $266.86 purchase at Gentlemen's Jodhpur, a shoe store at White Flint Mall in Bethesda in January of last year, and $439.46 for a stay at the Hampton Inn in Landover - a 20-minute drive from the District - in March of last year.

• Detective Renee Holden, secretary under Mr. Tracy and now the committee's vice chairman. Records connect Detective Holden's name with purchases totaling $1,300 at Grandma's Fine Art Gallery in Fort Washington.

Mr. Tracy denied any wrongdoing yesterday and said he was not familiar with the matter.

"What you're saying is not factual," he told The Times yesterday. "Several people had credit cards. I have no idea" about the expenses listed on the credit-card receipts.

Asked about the hotel resort in Pennsylvania and purchases at Gentleman's Jodhpur shoe store in Bethesda, Mr. Tracy said, "I've never been there."

Asked about an auditor's criticism of the committee's purchasing practices, he said, "I'm not the chairman anymore."

Officer Best and Detective Holden did not return messages left at the union's office yesterday.

Chief Ramsey said he hired Mr. Tracy to work on old homicide cases because of his qualifications and "the fact that somebody made an allegation was not sufficient to not bring him on board."

The case began after an independent accounting agency audited the union's books in November and found a lack of receipts, records and details, according to a letter by auditor Judith Barnhard of the May & Barnhard accounting firm in Bethesda.

The audit, which covered the time period preceding Sept. 30, when Mr. Tracy ended his term, found 29 financial transactions "that require follow-up," such as invoices, receipts or proof of reimbursement.

That prompted Miss Barnhard to broaden her examination into the financial irregularities.

"Given the nature of the items missing, we have expanded our scope to include all credit card statements," Miss Barnhard wrote.

Miss Barnhard told The Times yesterday she could not comment on the audit because of a confidentiality agreement with her client, and then hung up.

In a Nov. 7 letter from May & Barnhard to the union, Miss Barnhard requested more information - including credit-card statements, supporting details and canceled checks - about 13 other purchases.

Miss Barnhard also made several recommendations to prevent other problems.

"We strongly encourage the IMMEDIATE cancellation of ALL credit cards and writing checks out to 'cash,' " Miss Barnhard wrote. "We will discuss appropriate internal controls for handling of these items once the audit is finished."

"In the meantime, authorized expenditures should be charged on the individual's personal credit card and expense reports submitted, with all supporting receipts, for reimbursement," she wrote.

-------- spying

Nuclear Cookies
Federal lab admits tracking visitors in cyberspace

Missoula Independent
12/21/00
by STEVEN HAWLEY, Missoula Independent

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab (INEEL), a Department of Energy facility near Idaho Falls, serves as a storage area and incinerator for some of the nation's most radioactive toxic waste. It was a job that for 20 years was done quietly, away from major cities and towns and the scrutiny of the public. Then, citizens of growing communities downwind of the facility like Jackson, Wyo., began to raise a fuss. The result for the time being is that the incinerator at INEEL has shut down amid allegations that nuclear and other radioactive or toxic heavy metals waste are being mishandled or poorly monitored in storage.

While the Department of Energy (DOE) is investigating the charges, some of which have proven true, INEEL was recently found to have been using software that tracks visitors to its website, a violation of DOE policy and a presidential order given through the federal Office of Budget and Management.

Such web software features are called "cookies," and their use on the internet has become commonplace. Internet subscribers whose servers feature a personalized homepage already have a "persistent cookie" on their computer, a file written to a private user's computer from a website host (in this case, the server) to track the number and type of pages a visitor hits while on the site, as well as sites referred to or from. This information can then be used to create a profile, or educated demographic guess, of the visitor. "Session cookies" are the same type of feature, but are dropped from a visitor's computer when the visitor leaves the site.

Who can use this type of information? According to WebTrends.com, the website for the software company that provided INEEL with their cookies, the software was developed for web entrepreneurs looking for the upper hand in pinpointing customer demographics. Yet WebTrend describes the software in a manner that implies that more than just general demographic information could be gleaned from their products: "Powerful ... easy to use ... and gives detailed graphical analysis of user behavior ... Review visitor behavior, visitor paths, demographics, and much more ... gives HR [human resources] professionals the information they need to understand how company employees are using the corporate intranet."

While it's not clear how much of such rhetoric is advertising hyperbole, the potential appeal to INEEL officials, whose record of running afoul of lawful standards of hazardous waste disposal has been confirmed lately by DOE investigators, seems undeniable. (The ability to monitor internal "intranet" use seems especially pertinent in light of recent allegations by one former INEEL employee of repeated exposure to radioactive waste that were verified by DOE reports.)

INEEL spokesman John Walsh said in a Dec. 12 phone interview: "We probably knew they were there. We were under the impression that they were all just session cookies. And then after we were told we had persistent cookies, we searched and found 14 pages of them out of some 150,000 on our website. We turned them off, and to our knowledge there are no more persistent cookies anywhere on our site."

Walsh insisted any claims that INEEL was "spying" on visitors was simply not true, a claim questioned by Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free (KYNF) spokesman Erik Ringelberg.

"INEEL has come full circle on this one, first denying they had any persistent cookies, and then saying they didn't know they had them, and now acknowledging they had them but denying they were using the feature," says Ringelberg. "The WebTrend software they had is specifically designed for tracking the kind of information they say they weren't interested in tracking. And the cookies are in direct defiance of federal agencies' internet policy."

KYNF identified the persistent cookies to INEEL officials, who initially flatly denied they were there, then modified their position to cooperate with KYNF to have the persistent cookies turned off.

The nature and extent of information that can be gleaned from cookies is disputed, even in web programming circles. University of Montana web developer Mike Manzanec differentiates between the task cookies perform and hacking, which is blatantly illegal.

"Cookies are probably misunderstood, and in some cases get a bad reputation for no real reason," he says. "You can't read other people's email or find out their name, address and phone number, at least not directly. What you can do is amass a lot of information quickly about how much time an individual computer is spending on your website, which pages they visit, and therefore what kind of information they're interested in. It's not possible for a provider like Microsoft Network, which uses permanent cookies, to identify individual users, since the number would be in the millions, and subscribers visit millions of different sites. But for smaller organizations, if an individual visits enough times and spends enough time, you might wind up being able to guess accurately about whose computer was logging on to your site."

According to Ringelberg, this is precisely the scenario between INEEL and KYNF. "There's a limited number of people who are going to be looking for the kind of information that's on their website," says Ringelberg. "We are certainly one of those groups, but our concern was over access for the general public, which deserves to know about these things without being looked at in return."

Ringelberg thinks the worst part of the INEEL cookie caper is the unknowable. "Who would want with this kind of information?" he asks. A good question, given the asterisk put on the cookie-free claim made by INEEL spokesman Walsh: "We are still using cookies internally, no one has had the time yet to go through all of our own pages and turn everything off there."

-------- activists

Overcoming Repression Against Activists

publiceye.org

Political dissidents have always been the target of government repression and corporate surveillance. It is important to take these attacks seriously and object to them. At the same time it is important not to allow fear-mongers to scare you away from political participation. Stories about vast conspiracies and elaborate surveillance technologies can create an atmosphere that discourages activism. This is what the opposition wants. On this page you will find sensible and reliable information about safety and security for political activists.

Political Repression & Countersubversion Networks

There have been a series of revelations about the role of private right-wing countersubversion groups--such as the Maldon Institute, and semi-private groups, such as the International Association For Counterterrorism & Security or the Regional Information Sharing System--in circulating concepts and information used to justify law enforcement intelligence abuse. Repression against demonstrators in Philadelphia during the Republican Party Convention, or in Seattle, or Washington, DC, or Prague, make more sense if one explores the history and background of public and private countersibversion networks. Right-wing conspiracy theories similar to those used during the McCarthy Period have been revived in "counter-terrorism" reports and semi-private conferences shielded from the scrutiny of the federal Freedom of Information Act and Congressional oversight because the information is collected and held by "private" groups.

Read more about it in the History and Theory sections below.

Read the actual FBI COINTELPRO documents summarizing a campaign in Philadelphia in 1967 to target Black activists and "neutralize" dissent.

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/FBI_Files/RAM01.gif
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/FBI_Files/RAM02.gif
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/FBI_Files/RAM03.gif

Safety and Security for Activists
Be Prepared

Exercising Your Rights of Political Protest in Washington D.C - A National Lawyers Guild manual
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/protest_manual.htm

Exercising Your Rights Of Political Protest In Philadelphia - A National Lawyers Guild manual
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/phily_intro.htm

Common Sense Security by Sheila O'Donnell. Basic tips to make security consciousness part of your group's activist mentality without diverting you from your goals. From the old Public Eye Network.
http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/comsense.html

The War at Home: An Overview by Brian Glick. An overview extracted from the booklet published by South End Press. Guidlines for coping with harassment and attacks.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/War_at_Home/Glick_Overview.html

What to Do About Bugs, Taps, And Infiltrators by Linda Lotz. An oldie but a classic goodie.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Whatbugs.html

If an Agent Knocks by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Feds/If_an_Agent_Knocks.htm

Some Images to Help You Visualize Resisting Repression.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Images/Demonstrate!.html

Background
Draft Report on the Loss of Democratic Rights During the Seattle WTO Ministerial
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/

Challenging Claims that Agents Investigating Terrorism are Hamstrung by Current Laws
http://www.cdt.org/policy/terrorism/cnss.FBI.auth.html

Other Resources
Center for Democracy & Technology - Government Surveillance pages
http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/

Center for National Security Studies
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/overview.html

Electronic Privacy Information Center - Wiretap Page
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/

Electronic Privacy Information Center - Counter-Terrorism Page
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/

History
COINTELPRO the FBI's Counterintelligence Program - compiled by Paul Wolf
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm

The Hunt for Red Menace
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Huntred_TOC.htm

Spying & Repression Against Greepeace & Other Ecology Groups
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/greenspy.html

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_0.htm

Theory
Repression and Ideology (Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons)
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/RepressionTOC.htm

Framing Dissent as Subversion
http://www.publiceye.org/media/frame.html

Government Intelligence Abuse: The Theories of Frank Donner
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm

A Conversation on Surveillance (Julia Scher & Chip Berlet)
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/con_sur.html

Bibliography
War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It. Brian Glick, 1989, South End Press.

Terrorism & The Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. James X. Dempsey & David Cole, 1999, First Amendment Foundation.

http://www.cdt.org/policy/terrorism/terrorismbook.html

Break-Ins, Death Threats and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Movement. Ross Gelbspan, 1991, South End Press.

Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, 1988, South End Press.

COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States. Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, 1989, South End Press.

The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover. William W. Keller, 1989, Princeton University Press.

The Age of Surveillance: The Aims & Methods of America's Political Intelligence System. Frank Donner, 1980, Alfred Knopf.

Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Political Repression in Urban America. Frank Donner, 1991, University of California.

It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression in America. Bud Schultz and Ruth Schultz, 1989, University of California Press.

Liberty Under Siege: American Politics 1976-1988. Walter Karp, 1988, Henry Holt & Co.

Universities in the Business of Repression: The Academic-Military-Industrial Complex and Central America. Jonathan Feldman, 1989, South End Press.

Under Cover: Police Surveillance in America. Gary T. Marx, 1988, Twentieth Century Fund/University of California Press.

The Terrorism Industry: The Experts and Institutions That Shape View of Terror. Edward Herman & Gerry O'Sullivan, 1990, Pantheon.

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Right-Wing Countersubversion Networks & the Philadelphia Raid

publiceye.org

What is the Maldon Institute and Who is John Rees?
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/Rees.htm

Maldon Institue self-description from 1993
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/MaldonFlyer.htm

Photo of John Rees
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/Rees.jpg

Sample Publication Images:
Information Digest Newsletter, 1969.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/ID_69.gif

Information Digest Newsletter, 1970.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/ID_70.gif

Broken Seals, book, Western Goals Foundation, 1980.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/BrokenSeals.jpg

The War Called Peace: The Soviet Peace Offensive, book, Western Goals, 1982.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/WarPeace.jpg

The Subversion Factor: Moles in High Places, book, Western Goals Foundation, 1983.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/Subversion.jpg

Early Warning Newsletter, Mid-Atlantic Research Associates, 1985.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/EW.jpg

Information Digest Newsletter, 1987.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/InfoDigest.jpg

The International Reports: Early Warning, The Maldon Institute, 1993.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/TIR.jpg

Maldon Institute Report, 1993.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Rees/MaldonRep1.jpg

See Also:
Safety and Security for Activists
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Security_for_Activists.htm

Repression and Ideology by Chip Berlet & Matthew N. Lyons
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/RepressionTOC.htm

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One Key to Litigating Against Government Surveillance of Dissidents 1

publiceye.org

Repression & Ideology by Chip Berlet & Matthew N. Lyons
Theory One: Countersubversion Theory
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology.htm#P26_3588

Countersubversion Theory and Conspiracist State Repression
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-01.htm#P35_8061

Theory Two: Centrist/Extremist Theory
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-02.htm#P77_21637

Focus on Individual Aberration
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-03.htm#P97_28619

Criticism of Centrist/Extremist Theory
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-04.htm#P121_37612

Part Two
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-05.htm#P168_54049

Government Abuses Bolstered by Flawed Analytical Models
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-06.htm#P169_54057

Current Repressive Aspects Of Centrist/Extremist Theory
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-07.htm#P172_54111

Liberal & Neoconservative Cooperation with State Repression
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-08.htm#P174_55091

Some Examples
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-09.htm#P189_60209

Conclusions
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-10.htm#P254_82261

End Matter
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-11.htm#P272_88258

About the Authors
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-12.htm#P275_88500

Selected Bibliography
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Repression-and-ideology-13.htm#P284_89936

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Exercising Your Rights Of Political Protest In Philadelphia

nlg.org
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/phily_intro.htm

Prepared by the Washington, D.C. & Philadelphia Chapters of the National Lawyers Guild update on legal events in Phily
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/www.geocities.com/aug1lwg

The Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia Chapters of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have prepared this document to give general legal information to people seeking to press progressive political issues in Philadelphia. The information is intended to assist people who have already independently decided to engage in civil disobedience or exercise their First Amendment rights.

1. Introduction

Philadelphia has a long and full history of political protest--and police repression. Although we have had a great deal of success in securing permits for demonstrators who want a legal event and in negotiating with police and prosecutors in a reasonable way when demonstrators decide to engage in civil disobedience, the police often try to intimidate protestors into not exercising their First Amendment rights, and arrests are sometimes rougher than necessary.

These materials are offered as a way of disseminating information to people participating in the demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia July 29-August 4, 2000, but we have provided materials and information that will be useful for most protests. We mention political concerns and choices where appropriate, but please keep in mind that often there is a big difference between politics and law. We try to help you understand the legal process to some degree so you can make informed choices, but the most important thing is for you to think through everything ahead of time and decide what you want to do in any given situation before it happens.

Because this manual is about 15 pages long, we have set it up as a downloadable MS Word file. When you click on the link below, you should get a prompt asking if you want to save it to disk (your local hard drive), or open it. If you choose open it (and your have Word) it should launch automatically and you can view the document. If you choose save it to disk, it will take you to a box that allows you to choose the directory where you want to save the file. You can then view it by launching your word processor, getting to the directory where you saved it and choosing the downloaded file.

To download the whole document in Microsoft Word format
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/Legal%20Rights%20Phila.doc

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Exercising Your Rights Of Political Protest

nlg.org

In Washington, DC Prepared by the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
http://www.nlg.org/manuals/protest_manual.htm

The Washington, DC Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has prepared this document to give general legal information to people seeking to press progressive political issues in Washington, DC. The information is intended to assist people who have already independently decided to engage in civil disobedience.

Introduction................................................................ 1

Important disclaimer -- do not skim!........................................ 2

Special considerations for non-citizens..................................... 2 Minors...................................................................... 3
DC Is Different............................................................. 4
A Few Common Charges Resulting From Protest Activities...................... 5
Know ahead of time what your rights are and how you plan to react to the threat of arrest.................................................................... 9
What happens when you are arrested.......................................... 10
Precautions for Jail........................................................ 12
A word on non-cooperation ("jail solidarity")............................... 14 Court....................................................................... 14
"Forget this! How do I stay out of jail?".......... ........................ 14
The progressive legal community supports you!............................... 16
About us.................................................................... 17

1. Introduction

Washington, DC has a long and full history of political protest. Police and other authorities here are probably more accustomed to demonstrations than in any other city. Still, overreactions are not unknown. We have had a great deal of success in securing permits for demonstrators who want a legal event and in negotiating with police and prosecutors in a reasonable way when demonstrators decide to engage in civil disobedience. The police often try to intimidate protestors into not exercising their First Amendment rights, and arrests are sometimes rougher than necessary.

These materials are offered as a way of disseminating information to anyone considering a demonstration in Washington, DC. They are prepared in preparation for the IMF and World Bank meeting in April, 2000, but we have tried to provide a range of materials that will be useful for most any protest. We try to mention political concerns and choices as they arise, but please keep in mind that often there is a big difference between politics and law. We try to help you understand the legal process to some degree so you can make informed choices, but the most important thing is for you to think through everything ahead of time and decide what you want to do in any given situation before it happens.

Because this manual is about 20 pages long with graphics, we have set it up as a downloadable MS Word file. When you click on the link below, you should get a prompt asking if you want to save it to disk (your local hard drive), or open it. If you choose open it (and your have Word) it should launch automatically and you can view the document. If you choose save it to disk, it will take you to a box that allows you to choose the directory where you want to save the file. You can then view it by launching your word processor, getting to the directory where you saved it and choosing the downloaded file.

To download document in Microsoft Word format
http://www.nlg.org/wto/a16manual.doc


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WAR AT HOME

publiceye.org
by Brian Glick
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/War_at_Home/Glick_Overview.html

Government harassment of U.S. political activists clearly exists today, violating our fundamental democratic rights and creating a climate of fear and distrust which undermines our efforts to challenge official policy. Similar attacks on social justice movements came to light during the 1960s. Only years later did we learn that these had been merely the visible tip of an iceberg. Largely hidden at the time was a vast government program to neutralize domestic political opposition through "covert action" (political repression carried out secretly or under the guise of legitimate law enforcement). The 1960s program, coordinated by the FBI under the code name "COINTELPRO," was exposed in the 1970s and supposedly stopped. But covert operations against domestic dissidents did not end. They have persisted and become an integral part of government activity.

How COINTELPRO Worked When congressional investigations, political trials, and other traditional legal modes of repression failed to counter the growing movements, and even helped to fuel them, the FBI and police moved outside the law. They resorted to the secret and systematic use of fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally protected political activity. Their methods ranged far beyond surveillance, amounting to a homefront version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world.

FBI Headquarters secretly instructed its field offices to propose schemes to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" specific individuals and groups. Close coordination with local police and prosecutors was strongly encouraged. Other recommended collaborators included friendly news media, business and foundation executives, and university, church, and trade union officials, as well as such "patriotic" organizations as the American Legion. Final authority rested with FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Top FBI officials pressed local field offices to step up their activity and demanded regular progress reports. Agents were directed to maintain full secrecy "such that under no circumstances should the existence of the program be made known outside the Bureau and appropriate within-office security should be afforded to sensitive operations and techniques." A total of 2,370 officially approved COINTELPRO actions were admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and thousands more have since been uncovered.

Four main methods have been revealed:

1. Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.

2. Psychological Warfare From the Outside: The FBI and police used myriad other "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists.

3. Harassment Through the Legal System: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.

4. Extralegal Force and Violence: The FBI and police threatened, instigated, and themselves conducted break-ins, vandalism, assaults, and beatings. The object was to frighten dissidents and disrupt their movements. In the case of radical Black and Puerto Rican activists (and later Native Americans), these attacks-including political assassinations-were so extensive, vicious, and calculated that they can accurately be termed a form of official "terrorism."

The Bureau's war at home has continued unabated. Domestic covert action did not end when it was exposed in the 1970s. It has persisted throughout the 1980s and become a permanent feature of U.S. government.

Guidelines for Coping with Infiltration

1. Be careful to avoid pushing a new or hesitant member, or one facing personal, financial, or legal problems, to take risks beyond what that person is ready to handle, particularly in situations which could result in arrest and prosecution. People in positions of legal or other jeopardy have proven especially vulnerable to recruitment as informers.

2. Deal openly with the form and content of what anyone says and does, whether the person is a suspected agent, has emotional problems, or is simply a sincere but naive or confused person new to the work.

3. Establish a process through which anyone who suspects an infiltrator (or other covert intervention) can express his or her fears without scaring others. Experienced people assigned this responsibility can do a great deal to help a group maintain its morale and focus while, at the same time, consolidating information and deciding how to use it. This plan works best when accompanied by group discussion of the danger of paranoia, so that everyone understands the reasons for following the established procedure.

4. Take steps to alert other activists any time an agent or informer admits their role or you have a concrete and verified basis for certain knowledge. (Make sure you have not been taken in by a snitch jacket.) Act immediately and use every available means, including photographs, aliases, identifying traits, and a description of methods of operation. In the 1960s, some agents managed, even after their exposure in one community, to move on and repeat their performance in others.

5. Be very cautious in attempting to expose a suspected, but unadmitted, agent or informer. The best approach depends on the nature of your group. A close-knit, self-selecting group of experienced activists, especially one which contemplates illegal activity, should exclude anyone who is not fully trusted by everyone involved. If the stakes are high, don't be afraid to trust your intuition.

An open, public organization trying to reach out and involve new people faces a very different situation. Here, an attempted exposure carries enormous risks. The suspect may claim to be the victim of discrimination and may falsely finger his or her accusers as agents. In the process, activists may be turned against one another and lose the mutual trust and respect which is vital to any successful organization. New members and potential recruits may be scared away. The group's attention and energy may be so diverted that it is no longer able to move effectively toward its main goals.

Activists who suspect infiltration of a public political organization should carefully evaluate alternatives to attempted exposure. The appropriate response depends on the kind of agent or informer you think you are dealing with.

A suspect who seems to play a passive, or even a constructive role may secretly be undermining a group's work or passing information to the FBI and police. In this situation, it often is most productive to discreetly limit the suspect's opportunities without making your suspicions public. Take steps to deny access to organizational funds, financial records, mailing lists, office equipment, planning and security committees, discussions of illegal activity, and meetings that plan criminal defense strategy. Go public if you later catch the person in the act (but not merely with incriminating evidence which could have been planted or forged).

A different approach is required if the suspect is an active disrupter or provocateur. In this case, it is most constructive to confront the form and content of what the suspect says and does, without making an issue of why he or she says or does it. Start with a discreet private talk, since the suspect could be merely naive or misguided. If the harmful behavior persists, you probably will have to take it on in an open group discussion. Plan in advance how to limit the risk of disruption and demoralization. If you need to exclude or expel the suspect, be sure to inform other activists of your decision and reasons.

Guidelines for Coping with Psychological Warfare

1. Verify and double-check all arrangements for housing, transportation, meeting rooms, and so forth. Don't assume movement organizers are at fault if something goes wrong.

2. Don't believe everything you hear or read. Check with the supposed source of the information before acting on it. Use a neutral third party if necessary. Personal communication among estranged activists, however difficult or painful, could have countered many FBI operations which proved effective in the 1960s.

3. When you discover bogus materials, false media stories, or forged documents, publicly disavow them and expose the true source, insofar as you can.

4. When you hear a negative, confusing, or potentially harmful rumor, don't pass it on. Instead, discuss it with a trusted friend or with the people in your group who are responsible for dealing with such matters.

5. Don't gossip about personal tensions, rivalries, and disagreements. This just feeds and amplifies rumors. Moreover, if you gossip where you can be overheard, you may add to the pool of information that the FBI and police use to divide our movements. (Note that the CIA has the technology to read mail without opening it and that telephones, including pay phones, can be tapped by a computer programmed to record conversations in which specified words appear.)

6. Be sure to make time in group meetings for open, honest discussion and resolution of "personal" as well as "political" issues. This is the best way to reduce tensions and hostilities and the urge to gossip about them.

7. Warn your parents, friends, neighbors, and others who may be contacted by government agents. Consider telling them what you are doing and why before they hear the FBI's version. Provide them with materials which explain their legal rights and the dangers of talking with the FBI. Offer to connect them with lawyers and support groups.

Guidelines for Coping with Harassment Through the Legal System

1. Don't talk to the FBI, and don't let them in without a warrant. Keep careful records of what they say and do. Tell others that they came. (For more detailed advice and information, see the box on page 58.)

2. If an activist does talk, or makes some other honest error, explain the serious harm that could result. Be firm, but do not ostracize a sincere person who slips up. Isolation only weakens a person's ability to resist. It can drive someone out of the movement and even into the hands of the police.

3. If FBI or other government agents start to harass people in your area, alert everyone to refuse to cooperate. Warn your friends, neighbors, parents, children, and anyone else who might be contacted. Make sure people know what to do and where to call for help. Get literature, films, and other materials through the organizations listed in the back of this book. Set up community meetings with speakers who have resisted similar harassment elsewhere. Contact sympathetic reporters. Consider "Wanted" posters with photos of the agents, or guerrilla theater which follows them through the city streets.

4. Organizations listed in the back can also help resist grand jury harassment. Community education is important, along with child care and legal, financial, and other support for those who protect a movement by refusing to divulge information. If a respected activist is subpoenaed for obviously political reasons, consider trying to arrange for sanctuary in a local church or synagogue.

5. If your group engages in civil disobedience or finds itself under intense police pressure, start a bail fund, train some members to deal with the legal system, and develop an ongoing relationship with sympathetic local lawyers.

6. If you anticipate arrest, do not carry address books or any other materials which could help the FBI and police.

7. While the FBI and police are entirely capable of fabricating criminal charges, your non-political law violations make it easier for them to set you up. Be careful with drugs, tax returns, traffic tickets, and so forth. The point is not to get paranoid, but to make a realistic assessment based on your visibility and other relevant circumstances.

8. When an activist has to appear in court, make sure he or she is not alone. The presence of supporters is crucial for morale and can help influence jurors.

9. Don't neglect jailed activists. Organize visits, correspondence, books, food packages, child care, etc. Keep publicizing their cases.

10. Publicize FBI and police abuses through sympathetic journalists and your own media (posters, leaflets, public access cable television, etc.). Don't let the government and corporate media be the only ones to shape public perceptions of FBI and police attacks on political activists.

Guidelines for Coping with Extralegal Force and Violence:

1. Establish security procedures appropriate to your group's level of activity and discuss them thoroughly with everyone involved. Control access to keys, files, letterhead, funds, financial records, mailing lists, etc.

2. Keep duplicates of valuable documents, records, files, computer disks, etc. in a safe place separate from your home or office.

3. Remember that cars are easily broken into (especially trunks) and that trash can easily be rifled and searched.

4. Make a public issue of any form of crude harassment. Contact your congressperson. Call the media. Demonstrate at your local FBI, police, or right-wing organization's office. Turn the attack into an opportunity for explaining how domestic covert action threatens fundamental human rights.

5. Keep careful records of break-ins, thefts, bomb threats, raids, brutality, conspicuous surveillance, and other harassment. They will help you to discern patterns and to prepare reports and testimony.

6. Share this information and your experiences combating such attacks with the Movement Support Network and other groups which document and analyze repression and resistance countrywide. (See resource groups listing in back of book.)

7. If you experience or anticipate intense harassment, develop contingency plans and an emergency telephone network so you can rapidly mobilize community support and media attention. Consider better locks, window bars, alarm systems, fireproof locked cabinets, etc.

8. Be sure that some members are well trained in first aid. Keep medical supplies up-to-date and know how to contact sympathetic doctors and nurses and get to the nearest hospital.

9. Make sure your group designates and prepares other members to step in if leaders are jailed or otherwise incapacitated. The more each participant is able to think for herself or himself and take responsibility, the greater the group's capacity to cope with crises.

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Bugs Bugs, Taps And Infiltrators
What To Do About Political Spying

publiceye.org
by Linda Lotz, American Friends Service Committee
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Whatbugs.html

Organizations involved in controversial issues -- particularly those who encourage or assist members to commit civil disobedience -- should be alert to the possibility of surveillance and disruption by police or federal agencies.

During the last five decades, many individuals and organizations were spied upon, wiretapped, their personal lives disrupted in an effort to draw them away from their political work, and their organizations infiltrated. Hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence from agencies such as the FBI and CIA were obtained by Congressional inquiries headed by Senator Frank Church and Representative Otis Pike, others were obtained through use of the Freedom of Information Act and as a result of lawsuits seeking damages for First Amendment violations.

Despite the public outcry to these revelations, the apparatus remains in place, and the Reagan Administration gave back to federal agencies many of the powers they had abused.

Good organizers should be acquainted with this sordid part of American history, and with the signs that may indicate their group is the target of an investigation.

However, Do Not Let Paranoia Immobilize You.

The results of paranoia an overreaction to evidence of surveillance can be just as disruptive to an organization as an actual infiltrator or disruption campaign.

This document is a brief outline of what to look for -- and what to do if you think your group is the subject of an investigation. This is meant to suggest possible actions, and is not intended to provide legal advice. Possible evidence of government spying Obvious surveillance Look for:

Visits by police or federal agents to politically involved individuals, landlords, employers, family members, or business associates. These visits may be to ask for information, to encourage or create possibility of eviction or termination of employment, or to create pressure for the person to stop his or her political involvement.

Uniformed or plainclothes officers taking picktures of people entering your office or participating in your activities. Just before and during demonstrations and other public events, check the area including windows and rooftops for photographers. (Credenitalling press can help to separate the media from the spies.)

People who seem out of place. If they come to your office or attend your events, greet them as potential members. Try to determine if they are really interested in your issues -- or just your members!

People writing down license plate numbers of cars and other vehicles in the vicinity of your meetings and rallies.

Despite local legislation and several court orders limiting policy spying activities, these investigatory practices have been generally found to be legal unless significant "chilling" of constitutional rights can be proved.

Telephone problems

Electronic surveillance equipment is now so sophisticated that you should not be able to tell if your telephone conversations are being monitored. Clicks, whirrs, and other noises probably indicate a problem in the telephone line or other equipment.

For example, the National Security Agency has the technology to monitor microwave communications traffic, and to isolate all calls to or from a particular line, or to listen for key words that activate a tape recording device. Laser beams and "spike" microphones can detect sound waves hitting walls and window panes, and then transmit those waves for recording. In these cases, there is little chance that the subject would be able to find out about the surveillance.

Among the possible signs you may find are:

Hearing a tape recording of a conversation you, or someone else in your home or office, have recently held.

Hearing people talking about your activities when you try to use the telephone.

Losing service several days before major events.

Government use of electronic surveillance is governed by several laws. Warrants for such surveillance can be obtained if there is evidence of a federal crime, such as murder, drug trafficking, or crimes characteristic of organized crime, or for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence information available within the U.S. In the latter case, an "agent of a foreign power" can be defined as a representative of a foreign government, from a faction or opposition group, or foreign based political groups.

Mail problems

Because of traditional difficulties with the U.S. Postal Service, some problems with mail delivery will occur, such as a machine catching an end of an envelope and tearing it, or a bag getting lost and delaying delivery.

However, a patter of problems may occur because of political intelligence gathering:

Envelopes may have been opened prior to reaching their destination; contents were removed and/or switched with other mail. Remember that the glue on envelopes doesn't work as well when volume or bulk mailings are involved.

Mail may arrive late, on a regular basis different from others in your neighborhood.

Mail may never arrive.

There are two kinds of surveillance permitted with regards to mail: the mail cover, and opening of mail. The simplest, and lest intrusive form is the "mail cover" in which Postal employees simply list any information that can be obtained from the envelope, or opening second, third or fourth class mail. Opening of first class mail requires a warrant unless it is believed to hold drugs or audibly "ticks." More leeway is given for opening first class international mail.

Burglaries

A common practice during the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was the use of surreptitious entries of "black bag jobs." Bureau agents were given special training in burglary, key reproduction, etc. for use in entering homes and offices. In some cases, key could be obtained from "loyal American" landlords or building owners.

Typical indicators are:

Files, including membership and financial reports are rifled, copied or stolen.

Items of obvious financial value are left untouched.

Equipment vital to the organization may be broken or stolen, such as typewriters, printing machinery, and computers.

Signs of a political motive are left, such as putting a membership list or a poster from an important event in an obvious place.

Although warrantless domestic security searches are in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and any evidence obtained this way cannot be used in criminal proceedings, the Reagan Administration and most recent Presidents (excepting Carter) have asserted the inherent authority to conduct searches against those viewed as agents of a foreign power.

Informers and Infiltrators

Information about an organization or individual can also be obtained by placing an informer or infiltrator. This person may be a police officer, employee of a federal agency, someone who has been charged or convicted of criminal activity and has agreed to "help" instead of serve time, or anyone from the public.

Once someone joins an organization for the purposes of gathering information, the line between data gathering and participation blurs. Two types of infiltrators result -- someone who is under "deep cover" and adapts to the lifestyle of the people they are infiltrating. These people may maintain their cover for many years, and an organization may never know whom these people are. Agents "provocateur" are more visible, because they will deliberately attempt to disrupt or lead the group into illegal activities. They often become involved just as an event or crisis is occurring, and leave town or drop out after the organizing slows down.

An agent may:

Volunteer for tasks which provide access to important meetings and papers such as financial records, membership lists, minutes and confidential files.

Not follow through or complete tasks, or else does them poorly despite an obvious ability to do good work.

Cause problems for a group such as committing it to activities or expenses without following proper channels; urge a group to plan activities that divide group unity.

Seem to create or be in the middle of personal or political difference that slow the work of the group.

Seek the public spotlight, in the name of your group, and then make comments or present an image different from the rest of the group.

Urge the use of violence or breaking the law, and provide information and resources to enable such ventures.

Have no obvious source of income over a period of time, or have more money available than his or her job should pay.

Charge other people with being agents, (a process called snitch-jackets), thereby diverting attention from him or herself, and draining the group's energy from other work.

These are not the only signs, nor is a person who fits several of these categories necessarily an agent. Be extremely cautions and do not call another person an agent without having substantial evidence.

Courts have consistently found that an individual who provides information, even if it is incriminating, to an informer has not had his or her Constitutional rights violated. this includes the use of tape recorders or electronic transmitters as well.

Lawsuits in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere, alleging infiltration of lawful political groups have resulted in court orders limiting the use of police informers an infiltrators. However, this does not affect activities of federal agencies.

If you find evidence of surveillance

Hold a meeting to discuss spying and harassment

Determine if any of your members have experienced any harassment or noticed any surveillance activities that appear to be directed at the organization's activities. carefully record all the details of these and see if any patterns develop.

Review past suspicious activities or difficulties in your group. Has one or several people been involved in many of these events? List other possible "evidence" of infiltration.

Develop internal policy on how the group should respond to any possible surveillance or suspicious actions. decide who should be the contact person(s , what information should be recorded, what process to follow during any event or demonstration if disruption tactics are used.

Consider holding a public meeting to discuss spying in your community and around the country. Schedule a speaker or film discussing political surveillance.

Make sure to protect important documents or computer disks, by keeping a second copy in a separate, secret location. Use fireproof, locked cabinets if possible.

Implement a sign-in policy for your office and/or meetings. This is helpful for your organizing, developing a mailing list, and can provide evidence that an infiltrator or informer was at your meeting.

Appoint a contact for spying concerns

This contact person or committee should implement the policy developed above and should be given to authority to act, to get others to respond should any problems occur.

The contact should:

Seek someone familiar with surveillance history and law, such as the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Conference of Black Lawyers or the American Friends Service Committee. Brief them about your evidence and suspicions. Thjey will be able to make suggestions about actions to take, as well as organizing and legal contacts.

Maintain a file of all suspected or confirmed experiences of surveillance and disruption. Include: date, place, time, who was present, a complete descriptiong of everything that happened, and any comments explaining the ocntext of the event or showing what impact the event had on the individual or organization. If this is put in deposition form and signed, it can be used as evidence in court.

Under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy act, request any files on the organization from federal agencies such as the FBI, CIA, Immigration and Naturalization, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, etc. File similar requests with local and state law enforcement agencies, if your state freedom of information act applies.

Prepare for major demonstrations and events

Plan ahead; brief your legal workers on appropriate state and federal statutes on police and federal officials spying. Discuss whether photographing with still or video cameras is anticipated and decide if you want to challenge it.

If you anticipate surveillance, brief reporters who are expected to cover the event, and provide them with materials about past surveillance by your city's police in the past, and/or against other activists throughout the country.

Tell the participants when surveillance is anticipated and discuss what the group's response will be. Also, decide how to handle provocateurs, police violence, etc. and incorporate this into any affinity group, marshall or other training.

During the event:

Carefully monitor the crowd, looking for surveillance or possible disruption tactics. Photograph any suspicious or questionable activities.

Approach police officer(s) seen engaging in questionable activities. Consider having a legal worker and/or press person monitor their actions.

If you suspect someone is an infiltrator:

Try to obtain information about his or her background: where s/he attended high school and college; place of employment, and other pieces of history. Attempt to verify this information.

Check public records which include employment; this can include voter registration, mortgages or other debt filings, etc.

Check listings of police academy graduates, if available.

Once you obtain evidence that someone is an infiltrator:

Confront him or her in a protected setting, such as a small meeting with several other key members of your group (and an attorney if available). Present the evidence and ask for the person's response.

You should plan how to inform your members about the infiltration, gathering information about what the person did while a part of the group and determining any additional impact he or she may have had.

You should consider contacting the press with evidence of the infiltration.

If you can only gather circumstantial evidence, but are concerned that the person is disrupting the group:

Hold a strategy session with key leadership as to how to handle the troublesome person.

Confront the troublemaker, and lay out why the person is disrupting the organization. Set guidelines for further involvement and carefully monitor the person's activities. If the problems continue, consider asking the person to leave the organization.

If sufficient evidence is then gathered which indicates she or he is an infiltrator, confront the person with the information in front of witnesses and carefully watch reactions.

Request an investigation or make a formal complaint

Report telephone difficulties to your local and long distance carries. Ask for a check on the lines to assure that the equipment is working properly. Ask them to do a sweep/check to see if any wiretap equipment is attached (Sometimes repair staff can be very helpful in this way.) If you can afford it, request a sweep of your phone and office or home form a private security firm. Remember this will only be good at the time that the sweep is done.

File a formal complaint with the U.S. Postal Service, specifying the problems you have been experiencing, specific dates, and other details. If mail has failed to arrive, ask the Post Office to trace the envelope or package.

Request a formal inquiry by the police, if you have been the subject of surveillance or infiltration. Describe any offending actions by police officers and ask a variety of questions. If an activity was photographed, ask what will be done with the pictures. Set a time when you expect a reply from the police chief. Inform members of the City Council and the press of your request.

If you are not pleased with the results of the police chief's reply, file a complaint with the Police Board or another administrative body. Demand a full investigation. Work with investigators to insure that all witnesses are contacted. Monitor the investigation and response publicly to the conclusions.

Initiate a lawsuit if applicable federal or local statues have been violated.

Before embarking on a lawsuit, remember that most suits take many years to complete and require tremendous amounts of organizers' and legal workers' energy and money.

Always notify the press when you have a good story

Keep interested reporters updated on any new developments. They may be aware of other police abuses, or be able to obtain further evidence of police practices.

Press coverage of spying activities is very important, because publicity conscious politicians and police chiefs will be held accountable for questionable practices.

Prepared by:
Linda Lotz
American Friends Service Committee

---

Some Images to Help you Visualize Resisting Repression
Be militant in asserting your right to speak out and redress grivances.

publiceye.org

Demonstrate!
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Images/Speak_Out.html

Expect surveillance and do not let it intimidate you.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Images/Expect_Spies.html

Protest as part of an affinity group and protect each other.
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Images/Defend.html

---

BRINGING IN AN UNDEMOCRATIC INSTITUTION BRINGS AN UNDEMOCRATIC RESPONSE

infosubway.org
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/

Draft Report on the Level of Paramilitary Response and Loss of Democratic Rights During the Seattle Round of the World Trade Organization Ministerial

July 5, 2000
Written by Paul Richmond for the Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, WTO Legal Group
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/contents.html
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/summary.html
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/report.html
http://www.infosubway.org/infosubway/wto_report/about.html

"(F)uture WTO meetings should either be held in countries with military governments or in democracies where cities 'can bring in 5,000 to 10,000 officers."

Reporter Mike Barber quoting Assistant Seattle Chief Ed Joiner. Seattle Post Intelligencer, December 8, 1999, page A 6.

"While we appreciate your interest in ensuring First Amendment expression, it is important to note that security issues are paramount and are often dictated by federal agencies responsible for event security." Captain Linda Pierce, Seattle Police, Letter to National Lawyers Guild Attorney Fred Diamondstone 11-25-99.

"As a former SWAT team member and counter sniper involved in several shooting situations myself, I have to agree 100% with those who view the militarization of the police as a grave threat to American freedom.

"An even graver threat is allowing the military to get involved in local law enforcement. The ACLU is correct. Authorizing military intervention in domestic police situations, especially in cases involving nothing more tangible than SUSPECTED TERRORISM, is a sure-fire way to destroy the Posse Comitatus Act that has rightfully prevented the U.S. military from engaging in domestic policing duties for over 100 years.

"Why is this a threat? Because "suspected terrorism" is anything the government says it is, and will allow the military to intervene in almost any situation.

"Let's get real here. The USA is currently trending toward a police state, with the police themselves walking point. When and if a full-blown, abusive American police state arrives, it won't be the police who are in power." Retired Police Officer

------

Why the Center for National Security Studies is Needed

gwu.edu
CENTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/secrecy/secrecy.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/surveillance/surveillance.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/oversight/oversight.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/fti/fti.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/intlproj/intlproj.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/publications.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/readroom.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~cnss/overview.html

A central challenge for democratic societies is to maintain national security while enhancing ndividual freedoms. In too many cases, as James Madison wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1798, "the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real and pretended, from abroad."

In the aftermath of the abuses of power associated with the Vietnam War and Watergate, the United States established a system of oversight and accountability of its intelligence, national security and federal law enforcement agencies. Yet much remains to be done: Too much information is still classified secret and withheld from public debate in the name of national security. The FBI still operates without a legislative charter and continues to claim broad authority to spy on Americans engaged in political activity. Presidents of both parties continue to assert "monarchical" power to wage wars without Congressional approval.

Moreover, the existing mechanisms of accountability and control are not self-enforcing; they must be exercised by citizens. When the Executive Branch acts improperly, neither Congress nor the courts can be relied upon to respond on their own initiative. Defense of human rights and constitutional procedures in the face of claims of national security is a never-ending task that requires constant vigilance and public awareness. The Center for National Security Studies plays that role.

How CNSS Operates

The Center's activities are carried out through a comprehensive and coordinated program of research and public education, Executive Branch advocacy, coalition building, litigation, and technical assistance to Members of Congress.

For example, in 1991, the Center issued a public policy report on Ending the Cold War at Home, outlining those Cold War-era restrictions still in effect, which infringed individual liberties and violated the people's right to know. The Center followed with a major public conference, conducted a public education campaign, brought lawsuits, and provided technical assistance to Members of Congress drafting legislation to end these abuses. Five years later, some of the reforms urged by the Center -- for example, adoption of new standards for declassification of national security information and for security clearances, and loosening of restrictions on travel by Americans -- are now law. The Center often plays a key role in the legislative process and in dealing with policies of the Executive Branch. Officials in the federal agencies and Congress look to the Center for reasoned analysis of whether Executive Branch actions or legislative proposals in the national security area adequately protect civil liberties. Congressional committees often ask the Center to provide technical assistance or to testify on pending legislation.

Major Accomplishments

The most important accomplishment of the Center is the growth in understanding that it is possible to meet legitimate national security concerns without diminishing civil liberties or constitutional procedures. The activities of CNSS have made government officials more sensitive to the civil liberties implications of their actions and to the need to find a means to accomplish their objectives that also protects individual freedoms.

The influence of the Center and its philosophy have been reflected in a number of proposals that have been adopted and become law. These include:

(1) the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980, which requires the Executive to notify Congress of covert activities, and its revision in 1991 following Iran-Contra;

(2) the Classified Information Procedures Act, establishing rules for the use of classified information in criminal trials and making possible the indictment of former government officials who violate the Constitution;

(3) reforms to the immigration laws removing ideological barriers to entry;

(4) an amendment to the Passport Act prohibiting the denial or revocation of passports on First Amendment grounds;

(5) the President Kennedy Assassination Records Act of 1992, setting stringent standards for the withholding from the public of secret government documents; and

(6) the Berman Amendment of 1988 and the Free Trade in Ideas Act of 1994, prohibiting restrictions on the free flow of information.

The Center's litigation efforts include the successful lawsuit to ensure that the electronic records of the White House are preserved and accessible under the Freedom of Information Act and an important appellate ruling that decisively rejected the government's attempt to shield from judicial scrutiny intrusive and irrelevant investigations of applicants for security clearances.

Kate Martin has been associated with the Center for National Security Studies for nine years, serving as its director since November 1992. Prior to that, she was Director of the Litigation Project of the Center for four years. Ms. Martin is also general counsel to the National Security Archive, the most prolific and successful non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. As a recognized expert in the field of national security and civil liberties, she frequently testifies before Congress and teaches "Strategic Intelligence and Public Policy" at Georgetown University Law School. Previously, Ms. Martin was a partner with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Nussbaum, Owen & Webster. She graduated from the University of Virginia Law School where she was a member of the Law Review and from Pomona College with her bachelors in philosophy.

---

WIRETAPPING

epic.org
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/

The evil incident to invasion of the privacy of the telephone is far greater than that involved in tampering with the mails. Whenever a telephone line is tapped, the privacy of the persons at both ends of the line is invaded, and all conversations between them upon any subject, and although proper, confidential, and privileged, may be overheard. Moreover, the tapping of one man's telephone line involves the tapping of the telephone of every other person whom he may call, or who may call him. As a means of espionage, writs of assistance and general warrants are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared with wire tapping.

Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

News

Appeals Court Limits Use of New Surveillance Techniques. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that law enforcement agencies must meet the highest legal standard before using new surveillance capabilities. The court decision came in a legal challenge filed by EPIC, other privacy groups and the telecommunications industry to invalidate technical surveillance standards issued by the Federal Communications Commission last year. The capabilities, which include cellular phone location tracking and surveillance of "packet mode" data, were ordered implemented by the FCC under the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Several other technical capabilities were completely rejected by the court. Background information on CALEA can be found at EPIC's Wiretap Page.

http://www.epic.org/calea/dc_cir_decision.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap

FBI System Takes a Bite Out of Privacy. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a rolled out a new system to monitor private communications -- "Carnivore." The first public discussion of the system was contained in Congressional testimony delivered earlier this year. EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for details.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary/corn0406.htm

Electronic Surveillance for Criminal, National Security Up in 1999. According to a new report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the number of State and Federal requests for wiretaps and bugs increased 2 percent in 1999, to a total of 1,350. Surveillance of new technologies and pagers accounted for over half of all requests. See the EPIC chart of wiretaps, 1968-1999. National Security (FISA) taps were also up in 1999, from 796 in 1998 to 886 in 1999. EPIC chart of FISA Taps, 1979-1999.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/1999-report/default.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/wiretap_stats.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/fisa_stats.html

Court of Appeals Hears CALEA Case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Cuiruit had oral arguments on CALEA on May 18. The court heard from lawyers representing USTA, EPIC, FCC and the FBI. The court is expected to issue its ruling later this year.

Privacy Groups Challenge FBI Wiretap Standards. EPIC, ACLU and EFF have asked a federal appeals court to block new rules that would permit the FBI to dictate the design of the nation's communication infrastructure. The challenged rules would enable the Bureau to track the physical locations of cellular phone users and potentially monitor Internet traffic. The appellate brief (PDF version available) challenges an FCC order implementing the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). See the joint press release for additional information.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/brief.pdf
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/brief_release_1_00.html

The Digital Telephony Law (CALEA)

On the last night of the 1994 session, Congress enacted the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), sometimes called the "Digital Telephony" bill. CALEA requires telephone firms to make it easy to wiretap the nation's communication system. The bill faced strong opposition from industry and civil liberties organizations, but was adopted in the closing hours of Congress after the government offered to pay telephone companies $500,000,000 to make the proposed changes. EPIC opposed passage of the bill and believes that the government has failed to justify the $500,000,000 appropriation required.

As part of the final omnibus funding bill enacted in the last days of the 104th Congress, the Congress approved a provision allowing for funding the digital telephony bill from money reprogrammed from intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The text of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_law.html

Legislative history of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (House Report No. 103-827).

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/H_Rpt_103_827.txt

Recent Developments

Court of Appeals Hears CALEA Case. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Cuiruit had oral arguments on CALEA on May 18. The court heard from lawyers representing USTA, EPIC, FCC and the FBI. The court is expected to issue its ruling this summer.

Privacy Groups Challenge FBI Wiretap Standards. EPIC, ACLU and EFF have asked a federal appeals court to block new rules that would permit the FBI to dictate the design of the nation's communication infrastructure. The challenged rules would enable the Bureau to track the physical locations of cellular phone users and potentially monitor Internet traffic. The appellate brief (PDF version available) challenges an FCC order implementing the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). See the joint press release for additional information.

http://www.techlawjournal.com/courts/ustavfcc/20000120.htm
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/brief_release_1_00.html

FCC Okays FBI Cell Phone "Location Tracking" Request. In a statement released on October 22,1999, the Federal Communications Commission expressed its initial approval of FBI-proposed technical requirements that would enable law enforcement to determine the location of individuals using cellular telephones. A formal Notice was released on November 5. The Commission rejected other capabilities requested by the Bureau and deferred decisions on other issues, including surveillance of Internet communications. The initial decision came in a proceeding under the controversial Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fcc_release_10_22_98.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fnprm.html

FCC Approves FBI Wiretap Standards for Telecom Networks. EPIC has expressed its concern that a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision issued on August 27 could result in a significant increase in government interception of digital communications (see FCC press release for summary). In its decision, the FCC largely has adopted technical standards proposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that would dictate the design of the nation's telecommunications networks. Included is a requirement that cellular telephone networks must have the ability to track the physical location of cell phone users.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fcc_decision_release_8_99.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fcc_calea_decision_8_99.html
http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/1999/db990827/nret9003.html

EPIC Urges FCC to Protect User Privacy. EPIC, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has filed formal comments with the Federal Communications Commission urging it to reject FBI-proposed technical requirements that would -- among other things -- enable law enforcement to determine the location of individuals using cellular telephones. Also at issue is surveillance of Internet communications. The comments on implementation of the controversial Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) were filed on December 14. In a statement released on October 22, the Commission expressed its initial approval of the FBI proposal. A formal Notice was released on November 5.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/comments_12_98.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fcc_release_10_22_98.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fnprm.html

FCC Orders Delay in CALEA. The FCC issued an order on September 11 requiring that implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act be delayed until 2000 because of controversy over the standards.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/fcc-calea-extension-998.html

Phones Companies Sue FBI Over Wiretapping Law. The U.S. Telephone Association, which represents over 1,200 local phone companies (including the Baby Bells), filed suit on August 19 against the FBI and DOJ over implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

http://jya.com/usta-v-fbi.htm

Groups Ask FCC to Delay Wiretap Law. Industry and public groups filed petitions on May 8 asking the FCC to delay the implementation of CALEA. Comments filed by EPIC, ACLU & EFF asking for indefinate delay until controversy over standards is resolved.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea-extension-598.html

Wireless Phone Companies Sue FBI for Wiretap Costs. The Cellular Telephone Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association filed a lawsuit on April 27 against the DOJ and FBI. The companies say that the FBI's new regulations on CALEA unlawfully shifts the cost of paying for phone equipment upgrades for wiretapping from the FBI to the telephone companies.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/ctia-lawsuit-498.html

FBI Issues Final Capacity Requirements. The Federal Bureau of Investigation sets out wiretap requirements for the nation's telephone system. Companies are expected to comply by October 1998. EPIC and other cyber-liberties groups have sent a letter to Congress and filed comments with the FCC asking for a review of the Bureau's actions. The groups say the FBI has acted in "bad faith" in seeking to implement a massive wiretapping scheme. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) has introduced the CALEA Implementation Amendments of 1998 which would delay implementation until 2000.

http://www.fbi.gov/calea/calea1.htm
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/joint_ltr_2_12_98.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea-surreply-298.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.3321.IH:

FBI Asks Congress to Expand CALEA. FBI Director Louis Freeh has approached members of the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to approve a FBI-written amendment that would end the FCC proceedings on CALEA and allow access to cell phone location information without a warrant. Six privacy groups have written to Senator Appropriations Chair Ted Stevens (R-AZ) asking him to reject the amendment.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/stevens-letter-798.html

EPIC Urges Rejection of FBI Wiretap Initiative. In formal comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission on May 20, EPIC says the FBI's implementation of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) -- calling for the re-design of the nation's communications network to facilitate surveillance -- threatens fundamental privacy and constitutional rights.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/comments_5_20_98.html

Major Cyber-liberty Groups Call for FCC to Stop Wiretap Law Implementation. EPIC and other major cyber-liberties groups filed comments with the FCC on February 12 asking the FCC to stop implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea-surreply-298.html

EPIC, ACLU File Comments on CALEA. ACLU, EPIC and EFF filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission on December 12 calling for delaying the implementation of CALEA until October 2000.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea-submission-1297.html

Congress Criticizes FBI for CALEA Implementation. At a hearing on October 23, 1997, members of the House Judiciary Committee strongly criticized the FBI for their attempts to expand powers as part of the implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

Cell Phone Industry Calls for FCC Intervention in CALEA. The Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA) has called for the Federal Communications Commission to intervene in the development of wiretap standards under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The FBI has been calling for standards that require every cell phone to provide location information of users to police.

New Report Reveals EU/FBI Global Surveillance Plans. A newly issued report by Statewatch reveals that the European Union and US FBI have been actively promoting agreements to ensure surveillance of all telecommunications networks. See the Privacy International Phone Tapping page for more information
http://www.privacy.org/pi/issues/tapping/

Funding Digital Telephony
Text of the 1996 House bill funding the Digital Telephony bill.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/hr3814_calea_funding.html

EPIC's Oppose Digital Telephony Funding Campaign, 1994.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/oppose_wiretap.html

EPIC's Press Release on campaign to oppose funding of the CALEA.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/epic_press_release.html

Comprehensive file of material opposing wiretap funding, including budget documents, testimony of FBI Director Freeh, and a sample letter.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/wiretap/wiretap_alert.txt

Implementation of CALEA

The FBI's proposed rule on procedures for recovery of CALEA-related costs by telecommunications carriers (May 10, 1996) (PDF format).
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/CALEA_rule_5_96.html
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/FR_5_10_96.pdf

The FBI's belated report to Congress on annual wiretap expenditures under CALEA.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_report1.html

The FBI's report on the methodology used to produce its estimate of required wiretap capacity .
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_report_2_96.html

FBI notice of wiretap capacity requirements., January 1997. FBI press release and coverage from the Washington Post.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_notice_1_97.html
http://www.fbi.gov/telephon.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/frompost/features/jan97/wiretaps.htm

EPIC's December 12, 1995, letter to Congress concerning the FBI's failure to produce a statutorily-mandated report on wiretap expenditures.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/EPIC_FBI_report.html

Federal Register Notice reveals that the FBI expects to simultaneously monitor one percent of all communications in some regions of the country (October 16, 1995) (PDF format)
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_notice_10_95.txt
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/FR_10_16_95.pdf

EPIC's formal comments on the FBI's wiretapping capacity requirements (described above).
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/EPIC_capacity_1995.html

FBI Director Freeh's letter to Rep. Henry Hyde on the FBI's wiretapping capacity requirements.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/freeh_on_capacity.html

February 23, 1995 Federal Register Notice concerning implementation of the CALEA.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/wiretap/fed_reg_notice.txt

FBI Director Freeh's testimony (3/30/95) on the CALEA and cryptography.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/freeh_on_capacity.html

Materials on the Enactment of CALEA

Office of Technology Assessment report "Electronic Surveillance in a Digitial Age"
http://www.wws.princeton.edu:80/~ota/disk1/1995/9513_n.html

White House document obtained under FOIA shows Approval of President George Bush and the link between digital telephony and the Clipper Chip. (gif file)
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/Scowcroft.gif

EPIC Statement on CALEA enactment, October 1994.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/epic_calea_statement.html

EPIC's FOIA Wiretap Survey Case against the FBI for the surveys allegedly showing the need for the FBI Digital Telephony Proposal.
http://www.epic.org/open_gov/foia/fbi_survey_95/

1992 memos from the General Services Administration (GSA) showing that they opposed the Digital Telephony proposal because it could "adversely affect national security."
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/gsa_memos.html

Recent Wiretap Incidents

Pager Interceptors Arrested. Three men were arrested in new York City on August 27 for illegally intercepting the pager messages of high ranking city officials including Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Safir and selling the information to media outlets. AP story.
http://cnn.com/US/9708/27/briefs.pm/stolen.messages.ap/index.html

Digital Cell Phone Encryption Algorithm Cracked. Several cryptographers, including EPIC Advisory Board member Bruce Schneier, have discovered weaknesses in the encryption algorithm in new digital cell phones. According to sources, the weaknesses are due to US Government pressure on the cell phone industry.
http://www.counterpane.com/cmea.html

Gingrich's Calls Intercepted. A conference call involving Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other prominent Republicans was intercepted and recorded by unknown persons using a scanner and published in the New York Times. Republicans are calling for Attorney General Reno to investigate. CNN Times story.
http://allpolitics.com/analysis/time/9701/20/church.html

Other Wiretap Resources
Adminstrative Office of the US Courts Wiretap Reports 1999 Report
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/1999-report/default.html

1998 Report
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/1998-report/default.html

1997 Report
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/1997-reports/default.html

EPIC's Charts and graphics of Title III federal and state wiretaps and bugs 1968 - 1999.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/wiretap_stats.html

Chart of number of "national security" taps and bugs authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (1979-1999).
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/fisa_stats.html

Chart of federal usage of pen registers and trap and trace devices 1987-1998.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/penreg.html

Text of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/ch119.html

EPIC's page on Counter-terrorism, including text of Comprehensive Counterterrorism Prevention Act of 1995 and current wiretap expansion proposals.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/

---

Counter-Terrorism Proposals

epic.org
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/

The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.

Justice William Brennan, Brown v. Glines, 444 US 348 (1980)

1996 Counterrorism Proposals

White House fact sheet on the counter-terrorism measures signed into law by President Clinton on October 9, 1996.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/WH_fact_sheet_10_96.html

The House of Representatives enacted HR 3593, the Aviation Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1996 on August 2. Provisions on wiretapping were removed after protests by civil liberties groups. The Senate is planning to take up the bill this week. Rep. Henry Hyde also introduced HR 3960, which contains expanded wiretap powers, which the Senate may attempt to include in their version of the bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:h.r.3953:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:h.r.3960:

The G-7 Ministerial Conference on Terrorism issued a resolution in Paris on July 30 calling for governmental cooperation on encryption policy and terrorist use of "electronic or wire communications systems and networks."
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/g7_resolutions.html

Text of the July 29, 1996 White House Fact Sheet on terrorism calling for new laws expanding warrantless roving and wiretaps and access to consumer information, and restricting cryptography.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/fact_sheet_july96.html

Coalition letter against counterterrorism proposal signed by ACLU, NRA, EPIC, NACDL and other groups.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/coalition_896.html

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers press release on coalition letter.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/nacdl_896.html

Join the Global Internet Liberty Coalition to oppose international efforts to restrict free speech and privacy online.
http://www.aclu.org/gilc/index1.html

The Senate Defense Appropriations bill with a provision introduced by Senator Diane Feinstein to ban bomb makering material off the Internet. Congressional testimony of EPIC Advisory Board member Frank Tuerkheimer before the U.S. Senate on banning bomb making instructions on the Internet.
http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/feinstein_bomb.html
http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/tuerkheimer.html

1995-1996 Counterterrorism Bill Files

Final text of Public-Law 104-132 counter-terrorism bill enacted by the Congress in May 1996. Most wiretap and privacy invasive provisions were removed.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:S.735.ENR:

PL 104-93, Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996. Included provisions that allowed easier access to credit reports.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:H.R.1655.ENR:

Text of the H.R. 2703/S. 735, the Effective Death Penalty and Public Safety Act of 1996, approved by the House of Representatives, March 14, 1996 .
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr2703_final.html

Coalition letter opposing HR 2703 and other terrorism bills, December 6, 1995.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/joint_letter.txt

Letter from 20 law professors opposing terrorism bill.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/law_prof.txt

Statement of Gun Owners of America opposing bills.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/goa_statement.txt

Statement of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers opposing bills.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/nacdl_statement.txt

ACLU Statement opposing HR 1710, December 6, 1995.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/aclu_statement.txt

Text of the Republican terrorism bill, S. 735, the Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act of 1995, passed by the Senate, June 1995.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/104th_congress_bills/s735_terrorism_bill_passed_senate.txt

Draft of the Clinton Administration's Terrorism Inititiative from May 1995.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/clinton_terrorism_proposal.txt

EPIC Letter to Senator Specter on revising the Attorney General's Guidelines on Domestic Security Investigations.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/epic_specter_letter.html

EPIC Press Release on letter to Senator Specter.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/epic_press_release.txt

EPIC Wiretap Page for information on fighting the funding for the Digital Telephony Bill, a key element of the counterterrorism proposals.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/

S. 761, The Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 - the revised Democratic counterterrorism bill.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/104th_congress_bills/s761_terrorism.txt

Congressional Record Overview, of S. 761.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/104th_congress_bills/s761_terrorism_overview.txt

Text of the origional Democratic counterterrorism proposal, S. 390, Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995.
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/104th_congress_bills/s390_counterterrorism.txt

HR 68 The FBI Counterintelligence Act of 1995.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr68.txt

Analysis of the Constitutionality of the prohibition on contributions and immigration court provisions of the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 (S. 390) by Prof. David Cole in HTML and text.

http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/cole_analysis_antiterrorism.html
http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/cole_analysis_antiterrorism.txt

ACLU Statement on Clinton Administration's counterterrorism proposals.
gopher://aclu.org:6601/00/newsroom/04_24_95/

---

COINTELPRO

icdc.com
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm

COINTELPRO was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally - protected political activity. Its methods ranged far beyond surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world.

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/warathom.htm

The COINTELPRO Papers:

Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States

by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall

Preface - The Face of COINTELPRO
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copapprf.htm

HTML Index to the Documents
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copapgde.htm

Introduction - A Glimpse Into the Files of America's Political Police
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copapint.htm

Chapter 1 - Understanding Deletions in FBI Documents
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap1.htm

Chapter 2 - COINTELPRO - CP/USA
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap2.htm

Chapter 3 - COINTELPRO - SWP
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap3.htm

Chapter 4 - COINTELPRO - Puerto Rican Independence Movement
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap4.htm

Chapter 5 - COINTELPRO - Black Liberation Movement
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap5a.htm

Chapter 6 - COINTELPRO - New Left
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap6a.htm

Chapter 7 - COINTELPRO - AIM
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap7a.htm

Chapter 8 - Conclusion: COINTELPRO Lives On
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/copap8.htm

From the The Church Senate Committee Hearings (1 & 2), 1975
COINTELPRO in the 60's * 70's* 80's & 90's from Brian Glick's War at Home:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World_US/COINTELPRO60s_WAH.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World_US/COINTELPRO70s_WAH.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World_US/COINTELPRO80s_WAH.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World_US/COINTELPRO90s_WAH.html

Michael Stec's Collection of SWP FBI Documents
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7998/swp.html

The Federal Bureau of Intimidation by Howard Zinn
http://mediafilter.org/MFF/FBI.html

Some Call it Murder by Shelly Waxman
http://www.libertarian.com/shelly/inteeth5.html

FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose by M. Wesley Swearingen (book review)
http://www.constitution.org/col/mwswear.htm

and exerpt ------ the logistics of a black bag job
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/bagjob.htm

Real Audio interview with Wes Swearingen on Democracy Now
http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/dn970804.html

Nothing Vague About FBI Abuse: Here Are the Dossiers by Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/FBIAbuse_WMOZ.html

The 1960s and COINTELPRO: In Defense of Paranoia
http://www.pir.org/newsline.10

Wages of COINTELPRO Still Evident in Omaha Black Panther Case
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/wagecoin.htm

by Ward Churchill 3/10/99 The 1960s and COINTELPRO: In Defense of Paranoia
http://www.pir.org/newsline.10

WBAI Interview with Ward Churchill on Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://mojo.calyx.net/~refuse/mumia/1995/churchill.html

"King, look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes. White people in this country have enough frauds of their own but I am sure that they don't have one at this time that is any where near your equal. You are no clergyman and you know it. I repeat you are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that. ...

King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant. [sic] You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation."

- anonymous letter from FBI to Martin Luther King obtained from FBI files using the FOIA

Martin Luther King * Black Panther Party * Geronimo Pratt * Nation of Islam

http://www.efn.org/~chinosol/panth

Black Propaganda: this children's coloring book was sent by the FBI to thousands of people in the name of the Black Panther Party.
http://www.nd.edu/~dmyers/courses/102au98/blpan.html

Armies of Repression: The FBI, COINTELPRO, and Far Right Vigilantee Networks
http://www.connix.com/~harry/90s-fbi.htm

The Public-Private Partnership
http://www.walrus.com/~resist/adverse/011697antifa.html

by Tom Burghardt

"After years spent trying to deal with the effects of COINTELPRO, my rage at the FBI's almost unimaginable evil remains undiminished because I believe that it succeeded in many of its horrifying goals, given the deaths of Martin King, Malcolm X, and other sixties leaders. ...

Since the FBI uses taxpayer dollars to fund its extreme and ridiculous investigations of anyone who expresses dissenting opinions, even resorting to crime -- including theft, encouragement to murder, subornation of perjury, and manipulation of the judicial process -- to achieve its ends, I have always advocated its disbanding."

William M. Kunstler, civil rights attorney
The Covert War Against Native Americans by Ward Churchill
http://www.dickshovel.com/covertwar.html

American Indian Movement
http://www.dickshovel.com/www.html

The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schrecker-age.html

As long as [anti- communism] remains national policy, an ... important requirement is an aggressive covert psychological, political and paramilitary organization more effective, more unique, and if necessary, more ruthless than employed by the enemy. No one should be permitted to stand in the way of the prompt, efficient, and secure establishment of this mission.

The Doolittle Committee Report, 1954
Judi Bari Resource Page & legal documents
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/bari
http://www.judibari.org/#Legal

The Attempted Murder of Judi Bari New Settler Interview
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/bari/interview.html

The Judi Bari Bombing Revisited by Nicholas Wilson
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbrevisited.html

Legal Victories in Bari Bomb Case by Nick Wilson 10/4/99
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9910a/9910a-bari.html

Judi Bari Suit Reveals COINTELPRO Against Earth First! by Bill Weinberg
http://mediafilter.org/MFF/S37/S37cointelpro.html

The FBI Targets Judi Bari: A Case Study in Domestic Counterinsurgency by Ward Churchill, Covert Action Quarterly
http://www.alternatives.com/library/pol/polintel/cov20002.txt

America's Secret Police FBI COINTELPRO in the 1990s
http://www.judibari.org/America's_Secret_Police.html

Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
Interview with Frank Varelli, disgruntled FBI informer and inflitrator of CISPES
http://www.totse.com/en/politics/federal_bureau_of_investigation/fbistoog.html

FBI & Right Wing Spy Networks - The FBI Probe of CISPES
http://www.alternatives.com/library/pol/polintel/pri5.txt

CIABASE * CIA OPERATION CHAOS * CIA OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD
http://come.to/CIABASE

Whistleblower Protection For FBI Employees * pgp and mailing lists
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/whistler.htm

Mike Rivero's COINTELPRO page
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/cointelpro.html

Secret No More use the Freedom of Information Act to conduct your own FBI investigations
http://www.newstrench.com/01secret/01secret.htm

In the late sixties and early seventies, more than a thousand political organizations were watchlisted. At least 10,000 American homes were burglarized by the FBI in illegal "black bag jobs" for the purpose of political intelligence gathering.

In 1971, only 1% of the paper collected by the FBI had anything to do with organized crime, and 2/3 was devoted to political monitoring and supression of political activities. The FBI carried out 500,000 investigations on so-called subversives from 1960 to 1974, without a single court conviction.

Suggested Reading:

The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents From the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-360-8

Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-293-8

FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose by M. Wesley Swearingen, South End Press ISBN 0-89608-501-5

War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It by Brian Glick, South End Press

VIDEO: All Power to the People! The Black Panther Party and Beyond [To order send $40 to Electronic News Group, PO Box 86208, Los Angeles, CA 90086-0208

Reading List on Intelligence Agencies and Political Repression by Chip Berlet & Linda Lotz

http://www.alternatives.com/library/pol/polintel/intelbib.txt
WAR IN COLOMBIA -- COINTELPRO -- ECHELON
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/index.htm
webpage by Paul Wolf
mailto:paulwolf@icdc.com

---

The Hunt for Red Menace: - 1

publiceye.org
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Huntred_TOC.htm

Sponsored by Political Research Associates 120 Beacon St., #202, Somerville, MA 02143-4304 Find out how to obtain more information PRA Home CyberLinks Get Involved

http://www.publiceye.org/b_resour.html
http://www.publiceye.org/pra.html
http://www.publiceye.org/b_links.html
http://www.publiceye.org/top_dem.html

The Hunt for Red Menace:
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P1_0

Preface
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P12_819

Introduction
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P25_7566

From Nativism to McCarthyism
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P81_37336

Developing the Theories of Counter-subversion
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P83_37364

The Global Red Menace
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P100_43589

Counter-subversion Theory & the Cold War
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P106_45128

The National Lawyers Guild
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P125_49271

Pschological Warfare for Domestic Consumption
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P135_52304

The Theory of a Subversive Infrastructure
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace.htm#P147_55860

McCarthy Period Private Sector Groups
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-01.htm#P159_59072

The FBI, COINTELPRO, and the War on Dissent
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-01.htm#P164_59745

COINTELPRO
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-02.htm#P167_60282

Evidence is Immaterial
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-02.htm#P187_66788

COINTELPRO Media Operations
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-02.htm#P193_68503

Information Collection & Sharing
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-03.htm#P318_77301

Private Connections
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-03.htm#P544_86095

Goldwater and the True Believers
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-04.htm#P552_88995

Private Counter-subversion Groups of the 1960's
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P561_92511

Church League of America
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P564_92558

Research West
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P568_93459

Combat
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P574_94854

On Target
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P577_95293

Private Counter-subversion Networks in the 1970's
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-05.htm#P581_96193

Political Spying & Private Security
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P583_96242

Public/Private Interface
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P595_99515

Suburban Spying
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P601_101542

ITT Attends a Conference
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P615_106878

The Good Ole Boys in Milledgeville
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P635_115958

Lockheed Security & the FBI Old Boy Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P644_119348

Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-06.htm#P656_123139

The Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-07.htm#P673_130654

Tax Dollars at Work
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-07.htm#P699_144076

The ACLU Lawsuit Against LEIU and IOCI
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-07.htm#P707_147796

Warning Flags
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-08.htm#P715_149593

A Classic Case of Ultra-Right Information Manipulation
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-08.htm#P721_151345

NLG & Redbaiting Redux
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-08.htm#P732_153925

Revelations Breed Reform
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-08.htm#P742_158305

McCarthy's Shadows
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-08.htm#P893_196871

Reagan Takes Office
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P905_201949

Reagan and the New Right
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P911_204367

Unleashing the FBI
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P918_206936

Reviving the Witch Hunt
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P928_209800

Rehabilitating COINTELPRO
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P936_213779

The Return of the Thought Police
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-09.htm#P941_215766

Private Counter-subversion under Reagan
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P956_219939

John Rees Information Digest and the Old Birch Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P962_221167

The Lyndon LaRouche Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P973_224812

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P977_226104

The Council for Inter-American Security
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P982_227303

The Council for the Defense of Freedom
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P988_228337

Ryan Quade Emerson
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P991_228782

DanCor, Ltd.
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P994_229399

Church League of America,
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P997_230397

American Security Council
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-10.htm#P1014_236683

A New Generation of Witch-hunters
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-11.htm#P1017_236993

J. Michael Waller and the New Kids Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-11.htm#P1022_238181

Modern Paranoid Conspiracy Constituencies
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-11.htm#P1040_245911

The FBI Probe of CISPES
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-12.htm#P1060_250816

The Terrorist-Baiting of CISPES
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-12.htm#P1074_254925

Paranoid Theories and the FBI Probe of CISPES
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-12.htm#P1082_257703

FBI as Thought Police
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-13.htm#P1104_264224

Redbaiting the NLG & Legal Services in th 1980's
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-14.htm#P1122_270581

Legal Services as Communist Front
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-14.htm#P1140_277815

Slippery Slope Redux
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1165_283666

From Red Menace to the Pink, Green, and Lavender Subversives
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1182_290191

Campus Counter-subversion
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1184_290251

Corporate Security
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1193_291767

Rees's Pieces
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1197_292214

The Neo-Nazi KKK Network
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-15.htm#P1207_293178

How Counter-Subversion Investigations are Rationalized in the 1990's
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1216_295065

The Rubric of Terrorism
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1222_296386

In Search of the Crafty Core Cadre
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1229_298805

Paradigm Shift
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1250_303715

Frame established for anti-toxics movement:
Frame established for pro-pesticide industry:
Civil Liberties & Counter-subversion
Spys, Researchers or Journalists?
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1292_318507

Conclusions
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1304_323874

Appendices
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-16.htm#P1314_328256

What To Do!
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-17.htm#P1316_328267

Creating the Conditions for Surveillance Abuse
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-18.htm#P1324_332036

A Conversation on Surveillance:
http://www.publiceye.org/huntred/Hunt_For_Red_Menace-19.htm#P1334_337175

------

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Martial Law
The Reagan Administration and Dissent Not a conspiracy, but a threat to Constitutional rights

publiceye.com
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_0.htm

Sponsored by Political Research Associates 120 Beacon St., #202, Somerville, MA 02143-4304 Find out how to obtain more information PRA Home CyberLinks Get Involved

Note: The author believes that widespread civil unrest could theoretically be used to justify implementation of some or all of the powers described in this article, but cautions that these laws only pose a potential abuse of power, and that it would take what the general public could be convinced was a serious national emergency for the President to have the political support to actually implement the most Draconian of these laws.

From: Covert Action Information Bulletin, #33 (Winter 1990). Copyright 1990, Covert Action Publications, Inc., All Rights Reserved Posted with permission of the author & publication. -- Please do not print out this text-- See information on ordering print copies at end of article.

The Rise of the National Security State:

FEMA and the NSC
by Diana Reynolds

The Following Files Contain These Sections:

1. A STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_1.htm

2. CIVIL SECURITY PLANNING
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_2.htm

3. MILITARY RULE
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_3.htm

3b. "THIS IS ONLY A TEST, REPEAT..."

4. THE FALL OF FEMA
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_4.htm

5. THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE AND THE DRUG WAR
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_5.htm

5b. A NATIONAL DRUG CZAR

6. ODDS & ENDNOTES
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_6.htm

The original article contained 33 footnotes. To obtain the complete article in print form, send $3.50 to: Covert Action Information Bulletin, PO Box 50272, Washington, D.C. 20004. Specify issue #33 (Winter 1990).

Jump to Main Scapegoating as Conspiracism Web Page
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The Public Eye web site is hosted by the Mindspring
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---

RE-FRAMING DISSENT AS CRIMINAL SUBVERSION:
PARADIGM SHIFT AND POLITICAL REPRESSION

publiceye.org
by Chip Berlet
http://www.publiceye.org/media/frame.html

"What is secret is often squalid as well. In the dark, men were able to act contrary to the values they proclaimed in public. Paying service to democratic ends, they made league with scoundrels whose interest is anything but the survival of democracy...today's New Right ideologues believe in the omnipotence of the goal and the irrelevance of the deed. So their tactics are those of the enemy they hate and fear, and they award America's franchises to con men, hustlers, terrorists, racketeers, murderers and other sleazy characters who for a fee sign up for the crusade." --Bill Moyers.<1>

When our national security interests are perceived as threatened, secrecy becomes sacred, and the ends justify the means. Since the end of World War II, the techniques of political repression recur, banal and predictive, like the musical theme that signals stalking in a grade-B thriller. Those organizations and individuals targetted for repression are portrayed as enemies of democracy; those investigating and attacking then assume the mantle of democracy's guardians.<2>.

Because of the covert nature of campaigns and the enormous difference in resources between government agencies and dissident/reform movements, it is often impossible to document or prove the existence of an organized campaign of political repression in its earlier stages. In case after case, however, later investigation has revealed illegal government surveillance, harassment and public opinon manipulation, as well as media complicity.

Therefore, when classic patterns of political repression emerge, a political or social movement would be wise to consider tactics and strategies to protect its members from the negative effects of political repression--political, emotional, and physical. members can be provided with simple, common sense techniques to prevent fears (and actual incidents) of surveillance and infiltration from paralyzing or disrupting the group and diverting it from its goals.

PARADIGM SHIFT

One of the earliest and most overlooked warning signs that a campaign of political repression is underway is "paradigm shift." Paradigm shift, in this usage, means a major negative change in the way the public perceives the political movement that is ultimately victimized. Paradigm shift frequently is associated with episodes of political repression, and frequently precedes more overt signs of attack such as assaults, break-ins and surveillance. Political repression telegraphs its punches.

For many years the major threat to "the American way of life" was popularly believed to be communism, then generalized leftist revolutionism, and now a vaguely-defined domestic terrorism. Targetted individuals are seen as not only engaged in criminality, but also attacking core cultural and political values which, if abandoned, would destroy America as we know it, and which therefore represent a threat to national security. This concept of America under attack frequently is filtered through a paranoid worldview that represents what social scientists call a "subversion myth."

The perceptual shift from dissent to criminality first goes public with unsubstantiated allegations and conclusions in the newspapers, newsletters and magazines of the reactionary and paranoid political right. These right-wing media attempts to re-frame the public's perception of the dissident group. The concept of the "frame-up" has been popularized in pulp crime novels and <film noir>, but few people stop to consider what it means when, with wide-eyed innocence, the person being dragged to jail proclaims, "I've been framed." The term "frame" is condensed from the original jargon, "to hang a frame" on someone, which means to select for an observer a perspective from which certain conclusions about a person, group or event seem readily apparent, logical, and even inescapable.

Eventually, right-wing re-framing of dissidents as subversives or criminals spills over into more mainstream media. A growing segment of the public begins to see the targeted political movement as fundamentally at odds with mainstream society. This antagonism is portrayed as irreconcilable. The dissidents are seen as non-rational, unstable, alien, and capable of odious crimes because of their zealous mindset. Lists of potential crimes are discussed, and finally actual crimes are blamed on the political movement. Ideas that were once merely marginalized are thus criminalized. Popular opposition to government and private attacks on the dissenting group is partially neutralized. In some cases the re-framing is so successful that there is widespread popular sentiment supporting the attacks. When this process of re-framing is successful, paradigm shift has occurred.

Often, derogatory information passes back and forth between government agencies and private right wing groups through informal back-door channels, and the actual source becomes obscure. Lawsuits and declassified documents have revealed that sometimes it is the investigative agency that leaks information to the right-wing press, and in other cases investigative agencies rationalize investigations by citing charges appearing in the right-wing press. The relationship benefits both sides. The agency is able to test public sentiment and prepare the ground for its assault, while the right-wing press furthers its political agenda and at the same time appears to be generating hard investigative journalism.

PLAYING FAST AND LOOSE WITH THE FIRST AMENDMENT

Re-framing of dissenters as criminal subversives is a critical process within government law enforcement and intelligence agencies. For internal and external reasons, government institutions must provide justifications for the fact that on the surface, members of a dissident group under investigation often appear to be engaged in activity protected by the First Amendment. Agents and officers who become queasy about lapses in protecting Constitutional rights, or who object to the paranoid assumptions underlying the rationalization of the investigation, are made aware that their careers will suffer unless they become team players. Sometimes, if public political conditions are favorable, a Congressional committee will start a well-publicized investigation and hold hearings where the government and right-wing experts who started the process are called to testify. This forum ensures that the charges against the targeted group are distributed widely by the media, and hearing transcripts become the basis for a new wave of charges.

When the public is prepared to view the dissidents as a clear and present danger, the last stage of political repression is implemented. Government agents engage in intrusive investigative procedures and harass members of the targeted group. Suddenly, demonstrations or acts of civil disobedience are met with huge overreaction and displays of police power (and sometimes acts of police misconduct or brutality); and unexplained and apparently random physical assaults, arson attacks, or robberies occur with increasing frequency.

IN SEARCH OF THE CRAFTY CORE CADRE

Implicit in the rationalizations and justifications for political repression is a package of right-wing paranoid beliefs with roots deep in xenophobia and nativism. Two key paranoid theories could be called the theories of the "Slippery Slope" and the "Onion Ring."

The Slippery Slope Theory of Subversion:

Global liberation movements are not prompted by a genuine response to social conditions but by outside intervention, most often by revolutionaries or communists and their proxies.

Domestic social change movements are not fueled by a genuine response to social conditions but by outside agitators, most often revolutionaries or those under the control of revolutionaries.

Liberalism is the crest of a slippery slope which leads downhill to the Welfare State, then Socialism, and inevitably to Communism or Totalitarianism.

Dissent is provoked by subversion. Subversion is a terrorist movement. Terrorism is criminal.

For the true believers who advocate this view, patriotism equals unquestioning obedience to authority and undying resistance to social change. Surveillance and infiltration are justified to stop the spread of subversion. It's all a plot. Slippery Slope theorists generally also believe in the Onion-ring theory as well.

The Onion-ring Theory of Subversion.

Subversive cadre bore into the core of all social change movements both at home and abroad.

To uncover the cadre who are engaged in subversive criminal activity, an informant must work step-by-step from the outside onion ring of non-criminal free-speech activity through several rings of hierarchy toward the center core where the criminal activity lurks.

Honest though naive activists are often unaware they are being manipulated, and therefore should welcome attempts to expose the core of crafty covert criminal cadre.

The Onion Ring theory is less extreme than the Slippery Slope theory in its concession that some members of radical and liberal political movements are sincere, and not sliding towards totalitarianism. Nonetheless, its advocates also justify surveillance and infiltration to stop the criminal activity at the core of groups exercising their free speech rights.

In fact, in order to insure that at least some agents or informants succeed in penetrating to the criminality at the core, an extraordinary level of invasion becomes not only legitimate, but essential. Onion-ringers advocate infiltrating every group, spying on every member, and keeping track of all persons even tangentially involved in all social change movements. Alas, for the domestic political activist, the end result of both the Slippery Slope and Onion Ring theories is the same: political surveillance and infiltration. While courts have consistently ruled that passive monitoring of First Amendment activity is permissible, critics charge that passive monitoring and dossier-compiling often turn into disruption or attack, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes intentionally. As Donner explains:

"The listing of individuals, whether for ultimate detention in the event of war or for clues to the source of civil disorders, masked an underlying tension between passive montoring and barely suppressed aggression. Why wait for the future showdown? What can be done to get at these people now? This tension found an outlet in special programs directed at `key figures' and `top functionaries,' singled out for close penetrative and continuous surveillance.<3>"

Since agents are attempting to find a core of criminality that, except in rare cases, does not in fact exist, they become frustrated and redouble their efforts. This fervor is especially problematic with informants and <agents provocateur> who fail to find the sought-after criminals, and thus may feel compelled to inflate, provoke, or invent charges of criminality to reach their assigned goal, gain status, and continue to receive pay and bonuses. The dynamic of informant abuse is discussed in <Under Cover: Police Surveillance in America.><4>

Some critics insist that without unequivocal guidelines, firm congressional oversight, and thoughtful judicial intervention, intelligence activities--whether domestic or foreign--almost inevitably turn toward undemocratic techniques. Other, more historically informed critics point out that all of these constraints have consistently failed to deter abuse.

CASE STUDY: THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Much of the "documentation" denouncing the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) as a communist front can be traced to a Congressional report issued during the McCarthy Period. This accusation was part of a coordinated campaign involving Congressional committees, the FBI, right-wing groups, and mainstream periodicals. The NLG was targeted by the right due to its support for the reforms of the Roosevelt presidency, defense of labor unions, and criticisms of erosions in civil liberties brought on by the birth of the Cold War.

According to attorney Michael Krinsky who represented the NLG in a suit against the FBI, the FBI and the Congressional committee publicly launched an investigation of the NLG and privately fed inflammatory information to right-wing and anti-communist contacts. Leaders of the American Bar Association cooperated with the FBI in a campaign to destroy the National Lawyers Guild. Fred Schlafly, Phyllis's husband, was a leader in early attempts at red-baiting lawyers and legal organizations such as the Guild.

Although right-wing attacks on the NLG began soon after the organization was established in 1937, the public mood was such that for several years the charges never gained wide circulation or provoked concern. Articles in the <New York Times> from the period show a dramatic change in the situation during the late 1940s.<5>

Up until 1948, articles on the NLG cited in the <Times> index center on substantive activities and positions of the NLG on law and legislation. Starting in 1948, however, the <Times> coverage of the NLG through the next ten years centers on charges relating to subversion.

The targeting of the Guild began in earnest when an FBI wiretap revealed that Yale Law School professor Thomas Emerson was discussing with the NLG the publication of a study criticizing as unconstitutional a variety of FBI investigative methods. The day before the NLG press conference releasing the report critical of the FBI, Hoover had his friend Richard Nixon, then a member of House Committee on Un-American Activities, call for an investigation of the Guild as a communist front. Hoover then, without hearings or an investigation, initiated an FBI report which HUAC issued under the its own name. The report was titled "Report on the National Lawyers Guild: Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party." [CITE] Krinsky says, "The FBI files reveal that HUAC's report on the NLG, which almost destroyed the Guild by labeling it the `legal bulwark of the Communist Party,' was not the product of HUAC's attempt to carry out any legislative function, but was issued by the Committee on the sole instigation of the FBI." The NLG fought back in court and eventually forced the government to remove it from a list of so-called "subversive" groups. By then, however, the power of the false accusation alone nearly destroyed the NLG, with membership dropping from over 4,000 to under 600. The Guild eventually recovered, and, unlike many political and legal organizations of the period, did so with its principles intact, having never conducted an internal purge of communists, socialists or other targeted groups.

COINTELPRO

In <Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement,> Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall wrote a chilling account of the murderous tactics used against non-white political activists during the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence program) and in the years that followed. <6> When some academics challenged their thesis the writers produced <COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States,> which uses numerous actual FBI documents to make a strong case for convincing skeptics that COINTELPRO-type activity continued after the name was shelved and represented an institutionalized form of repression rather than aberrant acts of individual agents.<7> Both books discuss the way in which political repression involves portraying the targeted group as essentially an outlaw formation. Brian Glick, in <War at Home, discusses how false stories are used to frame dissident groups as violent or criminal.<8>

The techniques and goals of COINTELPRO were eerily repeated in the FBI's organized campaign against CISPES (The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). In <Break-Ins, Death Threats and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Movement>, Ross Gelbspan, a veteran <MI>Boston Globe> reporter writes about the pattern of robberies reported by persons and groups opposing Reagan administration policies in Central America.<9> Hundreds of offices, homes, and cars were broken into, files were ransacked or stolen, but valuable equipment was left untouched. Several years, hundreds of interviews (some with FBI infiltrators), and many thousands of pages of FBI files later, Gelbspan concludes the perpetrators of the robberies will probably remain a mystery. What is firmly established, however is that the FBI repeatedly lied to Congress about the extent and purpose of its investigations into the same network of Central America activists victimized by the robberies. Gelbspan documents how the FBI forged back-channel ties to far-right anti-communist groups in the U.S. and a shadowy network of government agencies and death squads in El Salvador, and how the press was used in the campaign.

COUNTERSUBVERSION AS PARANOID OBSESSION

Attorney Michael Krinsky, who had represented the NLG, was not surprised when he learned the FBI had waged a five-year surveillance war against CISPES in a fruitless search for terrorists and subversives. This scenario precisely repeated the pattern Krinsky and the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee fought in its lawsuit against the FBI on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild. Krinsky charges that FBI "subversion/terrorism" investigations can never really end, because they can never really succeed in accomplishing the FBI's primary goal--and that goal is not investigating criminal activity, but proving the pre-conceived notion that dissent is fueled by treason. Krinsky agrees with author Frank Donner that the term terrorism is merely a device used by the FBI to justify its political mission.

"This is the theory under which the FBI has kept subversion investigations running for 45 years now," says Krinsky:

"They believe there is a subversive element out there trying to infiltrate and destroy our government. Infiltration is by definition covert, and therefore, to safeguard our government from this secret plot, the FBI has to know everything about everybody. The fact that the FBI never finds any evidence of this subversive infiltration merely demonstrates to the FBI how clever the subversives really are."

Even when their Justice Department superiors repeatedly terminate these types of investigations because they result in no evidence of wrongdoing, and only show the non-criminal nature of the targeted group, the true believers simply bide their time and then open another investigation under a different file name. The examples of NLG and CISPES confirm the pattern. When the FBI agents could not find the non-existent KGB candygram to CISPES, they merely ignored their own evidence and redoubled their efforts to pursue the group. In the NLG case, Krinsky notes:

"The FBI investigated the NLG for over three decades, moving from one pretext to another, without being "hindered by the fact that none of their suspicions proved to be based in fact. As soon as one pretext was challenged by a court or the Justice Department administrators, the FBI would abandon that pretext and embark on a supposedly new investigation using a different pretext.

CRIMES, MISDEMEANORS, AND AMAZING FANTASIES

Among the investigative categories used to justify FBI spying on the NLG: Front for the Communist Party, Fomenting Prison Rebellion, Front for the Weather Underground, and Violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. No criminal charges were ever filed against the NLG and each investigation was terminated unsuccessfully when no evidence of criminal activity was found. Ann Mari Buitrago, a file specialist from the Fund for Open Information and Accountability, was hired by the Center for Constitutional Rights to read and analyze the FBI files on CISPES. Her conclusions:

"The files show a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object--the destruction of the people's right to know and to assemble in order to express opposing views on public policy."

"The FBI is still reaching into the Hoover-era bag of tricks to fight dissent. They are feeding their fantasies that the Red Menace is everywhere. It is an obsessive belief...and like all fantasies, facts do not put it to sleep."

The process is not just a historical oddity. <Intelligence Requirements for the 1990s: Collection, Analysis, Counterintelligence, and Covert Action><10> is a collection of hard-line recommendations which provides what academic Diana Reynolds calls a "blueprint for creating a virtual U.S. police state". This shopping list for the guardians of post- Constitutional America is a sequel to the equally-onerous "Intelligence Requirements for the 1980s" which was used as a guide by the Reagan administration.<11>

The occurrence of paradigm shift may serve as an early indicator for political repression. If so, it is important to note that the environmental movement and the movement seeking civil rights and equality for gay men and lesbians are both experiencing paradigm shift.

ENVIRONMENTAL EXAMPLES

As Johan Carlisle pointed out in a recent issue of Covert Action, "the two environmental groups under the heaviest fire are Earth First! and Greenpeace."<12> Right-wing publications have been re-framing the environmental movement for several years and current articles in mainstream media are beginning to reflect this paradigm shift. For instance <USA Today in April of 1992 ran two oppossing views on Rachel Carson's book >Silent Spring> published thirty years ago last April.<13> After claiming Carsons's warnings about DDT were unfounded, author Patrick Cox, "an associate policy analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute," went on to frame Carson and the anti-toxics movement as hysterical ideologues. An analysis of Cox's polemic results in the following:

FRAME ESTABLISHED FOR ANTI-TOXICS MOVEMENT:

Persons who oppose pesticides and believe DDT is unsafe:

--Reject science.
--Are inflicted with "environmental hypochondria".
--Circulate "apocalyptic, tabloid charges."
--Have "no evidence" to back their "hysterical predictions."
--Use "gross manipulation" to fool the media.
--Are "unscrupulous, Luddite fundraisers."
--Suffer from "knee-jerk, chemophobic rejection of pesticides."
--Create "vast and needless costs" for consumers and farmers.

FRAME ESTABLISHED FOR PRO-PESTICIDE INDUSTRY:

Pesticide supporters who believe wide use globally of DDT is safe:

--Are pro-science and pro-logic.
--Have support from the "real scientific community
--the community of controlled studies, double blind experiments and peer review."
--Are on the side of U.S. consumers and farmers and save them money.

The rhetoric attempting to frame the environmental movement is vivid. "Willing to sacrifice people to save trees,"<14> "We are in a war with fanatics...they will go to any extreme."<15> "Behind the Sierra Club calendars...lies a full-fledged ideology...every bit as powerful as Marxism and every bit as dangerous to individual freedom and human happiness."<16> "Blinded by misinformation, fear tactics, or doomesday syndromes."<17>. "The core of this environmental totalitarianism is anti-God."<18> "An ideology as pitiless and Messianic as Marxism."<19> "Since communism has been thoroughly discredited, it has been repackaged and relabeled and called environmentalism."<20> "The radical animal-rights wing of the environmental movement has a lot in common with Hitler's Nazis." <21>

OFFICIAL GAY BASHING

There have been centuries of discrimination against persons who challenge the heterosexual majority, but a recent wave of physical attacks on and harassment of those trying to raise awareness about AIDS, or seeking human rights for lesbians and gay men, reflect classic patterns of political repression.<22>

Articles in the right-wing press have been escalating hyperbolic rhetoric concerning homosexuals for several years. In the early 1980's Enrique Rueda of the Free Congress Research & Education Foundation was asked by Free Congress president Paul Weyrich "to research the social and political impact of the homosexual movement in America."<23>

The result was a lengthy 1982 book, <The Homosexual Network,> in which Rueda concluded that "The homosexual movement is a subset of the spectrum of American liberal movements."<24> Rueda was alarmed by "the extent to which it has infiltrated many national institutions."<25> One jacket blurb writer gushed that Rueda had revealed "the widening homosexual power-grab in our society." From civil rights to power-grab in one volume.

In 1987 Rueda joined with co-author Michael Schwartz to produce <Gays, AIDS and You.> The introduction warns "The homosexual political agenda represents a radical departure from what we as Americans believe...a terrible threat--to ourselves, our children, our communities, our country...a radical, anti-family agenda."<26> From power-grab to terrible threat. The authors suggest the movement for homosexual rights is different from movements involving "legitimate" minorities, and using conspiratorial phrases, write:

"This movement is stronger, more widespread, more skillfully structured than most Americans realize. It reaches into our media, our political institutions, our schools, even into our mainline churches....And now this movement is using the AIDS crisis to pursue its political agenda. This in turn, threatens not only our values but our lives.<27>"

Back cover blurbs include snippets from Senator Bill Armstrong, "An urgent warning," Beverly LaHaye, "reminds us of the necessity to reaffirm our civilization's Biblical heritage," and Congressman William E. Dannemeyer, "failure to affirm our heterosexual values not only is unhealthy, but could result in the demise of our civilization." From terrible threat to end of civilization.

An order form for <Gays, AIDS and You> circulated by the Free Congress Foundation includes a picture of a man at a desk, his face in shadows, and the headline: "This Man Wants His 'Freedom' So Bad He's Ready To Let America Die For It." The text adds, "Our civilization stands in the path of his fulfillment as a freely promiscuous homosexual."<28>

Dr. Ed. Rowe, author of <Homosexual Politics: Road to Ruin for America,> goes further in outlawing the targetted movement, stating that "Homosexual politics is a moral cancer eating at the fabric of America. It is an unholy, satanic crusade...this evil movement must be stopped.!"<29> Senator Jesse Helm's introduction to Rowe's book also raises the theme of non-rational zealousness: "Homosexual politics continues in fanatical pursuit of its goal of carving out a new 'civil right' based on the sexual appetite of its adherents."[30]

Neo-fascist hatemonger Lyndon LaRouche was among the first in the paranoid right to move the alarm into the political arena. LaRouchians spawned restrictive propositions placed on the California ballot that were successfully defeated only after broad-based organizing efforts reversed early polls showing passage of measures that essentially called for firings and quarantines for persons with signs of AIDS. LaRouche even obliquely suggested murder as a tactic, writing that history would not judge harshly those persons who took baseball bats and beat to death homosexuals to stop the spread of AIDS. One 1985 pamphlet published by LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee was titled "AIDS is more deadly than Nuclear War," which turned out to be a repackaged attack on the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve.<31>

There are dozens of books and pamphlets that marginalize and frame the lesbian and gay men's movements as threats to the American way of life, and fit the pattern for paradigm shift.<32>

CONCLUSIONS

Whether or not paradigm shift is causative, predictive or merely anecdotal, for the activist, paradigm shift should be seen as a warning signal that political repression and government intelligence abuse may soon become major factors in a group's tactical and strategic decisions.

Author's Note: The author wishes to thank Sheila O'Donnell, Brian Glick and Ann Mari Buitrago for the discussions which informed the thesis presented here.

---

Government Intelligence Abuse
The Theories of Frank Donner

publiceye.org
by Chip Berlet
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm

Summary: Donner's thesis about intelligence agency abuses explains why anti-terrorist legislation won't stop violence but will curtail civil liberties.

[This is an expanded version of an article that first appeared in CovertAction Quarterly, Summer 1995.]

Frank Donner (1911-1993) was an attorney active with the American Civil Liberties Union who literally wrote the book analyzing how political sureveillance and domestic repression are carried out by agents of US intelligence agencies. He argued that intelligence agents were often chasing scapegoats. Donner identified communism as the right wing's primary scapegoat during this century, and researched how rightwing paramilitary groups were encouraged by intelligence agencies and local police red squads to fight alleged collectivist subversion. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and statist communism in Europe, the proto-fascist militia movement has transformed the dysfunctional scapegoat of the "red menace conspiracy" into the "one-world government, new world order conspiracy." The government itself has become the new subversive collectivist enemy and a target for a heinous act of right-wing terror in Oklahoma City.

In response the countersubversion empire is trying to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the Cold War by asking that its investigative talons be unsheathed to fight a paranoid rightwing movement it helped create. The anti-terrorism legislation proposed in Congress is a farce. The many lawsuits against political spying advised by Donner found scant evidence that widespread infiltration and bugging of social movements found terrorists or stopped acts of violence, but much evidence that the protectors of privilege use these repressive tools to undermine demands for social change. The weapons we give the FBI today to fight the right will inevitably be aimed at progressives and other dissidents in our society. It is a shame that Donner is not around to comment on these tragic ironies.

By the time Frank Donner died in 1993, the central thesis of his investigations into government abuses of law enforcement powers had moved from the obscure to the self-evident. At the core of his life's work was a key contention: The unstated and primary goal of surveillance and political intelligence gathering by state agencies and their countersubversive allies is not amassing evidence of illegal activity for criminal prosecutions, but punishing critics of the "status quo" in order to undermine movements for social change.

Donner presented his ideas not just in legal briefs, but in scholarly settings and the popular press.1 His evidence came not only from digging in archives--helped by paralegal "file ferrets" who passed on anything interesting to him--but also from work in the trenches. He began in the 1940's as a civil liberties attorney. When the Colf War intensified in the late 1940's and early 1950's, he represented targets of Red Menace witch hunts, defending persons charged with sedition under the Smith Act, counseling those dragged before congressional committees, and writing appeals for defiant witnesses slapped with contempt citations.

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P19_2685

These experiences "illuminated in a new perspective the underpinnings of repression in our political culture," according to Donner. He reached the "conviction that surveillance, people watching, and similar activities unrelated to law enforcement constituted a serious and largely ignored threat to political freedom."

In 1971 Donner was named director of the American Civil Liberties Union Project on Political Surveillance. Consider the times. That year, at the height of the Vietnam war, a still secret group calling itself the Citizen's Commission to Investigate the FBI raided the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. The raiders sent copies of the files they stole to mainstream, alternative, and campus journalists. While progressive activists had long contended that civil rights, student rights, and antiwar activists were victims of FBI surveillance and harassment, there was little hard evidence. Now there was both evidence and a name for the program, COINTELPRO, a contraction for CounterIntelligence Program. The Media, PA raid sparked mass media interest, Congressional hearings, and lawsuits. In each arena Donner acted as adviser and expert. He argued that COINTELPRO was not a series of isolated instances of abuse, but rather was part of an institutionalized system using surveillance as "a mode of governance" and political control.2

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P24_4675

It took almost ten years for Donner to take these ideas and expand them into the book "The Age of Surveillance: The Aims & Methods of America's Political Intelligence System."3 Some ten years later he followed with "Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Political Repression in Urban America."4

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P27_4969

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P28_5224

In both books, Donner asserted that "Intelligence in the United States serves as an instrument for resolving a major contradiction in the American political system: how to protect the status quo while maintaining the forms of liberal political democracy."5 Donner explained that "...intelligence institutions have in the past acquired strength and invulnerability because of their links to two powerful constituencies: a nativist, antiradical political culture and an ideological anti-communism, identified with Congress and the executive branch respectively." Donner went on:"

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P31_5619

==="From this political culture have emerged a steady stream of powerholders--elected and appointed--eager to implement its assumptions. This layer of officialdom is supported by nativist cadres, an old-boy bureaucratic net that keeps the flame burning in those periods...when the excesses of countersubversion stir the winds of criticism. The nativist suppressive syndrome also supplies private sector recruits (individuals, organizations, and a media support structure) which have historically collaborated with official intelligence in the pursuit and harrassment of targets."6

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P34_6543

Donner placed countersubversion in a social, historical, and psychological context.

==="The American obsession with subversive conspiracies of all kinds is deeply rooted in our history. Especially in times of stress, exaggerated febrile explanations of unwelcome reality come to the surface of American life and attract support. These recurrent countersubversive movements illuminate a striking contrast between our claims to superiority, indeed our mission as a redeemer nation to bring a new world order, and the extraordinary fragility of our confidence in our institutions. This contrast has led some observers to conclude that we are, subconsciously, quite insecure about the value and permanence of our society. More specifically, that American mobility detaches individuals from traditional sources of strength and identity-family, class, private associations--and leaves only economic status as a measure of worth. A resultant isolation and insecurity force a quest for selfhood in the national state, anxiety about imperiled heritage, and an agression against those who reject or question it."7

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P39_7684

This mentality was both fed by and resulted in periodic bouts with state repression. Countersubversion and repression became a part of the American body politic that transcended the specificity of anti-communism, but in which anti-communism had come to play a central and exaggerated role. In fact, Donner perceived an institutionalized culture of countersubversion: "Traditionally countersubversion is marked by a distinct pathology: conspiracy theory, moralism, nativism, and suppressiveness. Some of these elements in the countersubversive syndrome are found in other movements, but they are all prominent in anti-communism."8 It was the institutionalized culture of countersubversion that most concerned Donner who worried that:

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P42_8336

==="An independent organ of state administration operating to monitor, punish, and frustrate extra judicially the political activities of a country's nationals is the classic embodiment of a political police force and, indeed, a benchmark of a police state. Certainly we are far from a police state; but it would be a semantic quibble to deny that the FBI is a political police force with a counterrevolutionary mission typical of such units in nondemocratic societies."9

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P45_8933

Since evidence of actual wrongdoing was minimal, Donner suggested that within the intelligence community, "The selection of targets for surveillance, operations such as informer infiltration and wiretapping, and file storage practices reflect what may be called the politics of deferred reckoning, the need to know all about the enemy in preparation for a life or death showdown..." The intelligence community "anticipated" threats by relying on "ideology, not behavior, theory not practice." It treated activities which might be aimed--some time in the future--at undermining the government, as subversive. "Domestic countersubversive intelligence is, in theory, future-oriented: 'subversive' activities are, in the language of the Bureau, those aimed at future overthrow, destruction, or undermining of the government, regardless of how legitimate these activities might currently be or how tenuous the link between present intentions and ultimate action."10

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P48_9914

This view justified the constant surveillance and dossier compiling: it would be needed in the future when the true evil plan of the subversives surfaced.

As the specifics of the popular culture changed, so did the language used to describe the menace, although the institutionalized procedures remained remarkably constant-merely made more efficient with the advent and advances of computer technology. In the genesis of witch hunts, subversive begat extremist which begat terrorist. Donner noted the addition of the term "extremist" to the countersubversive arsenal of demonizing language, and in his new introduction he discussed how the Reagan Administration and the New Right used the term "terrorist" to marginalize dissident groups.11

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P53_10679

While Donner did not predict the end of the Cold War, he did forsee that in the future, intelligence operations would be needed "to replenish the supply of subversives from the ranks of dissidents." There was "too much at stake for conservative power holders to abandon a countersubversive response to change movements." As long as the culture of surveillance was institutionalized as a mode of governance, intelligence operations would serve to not only blunt protests against government foreign policy decisions, but also to "discredit the predictable movements of protest against the threat of war, nuclear weaponry, environmental contamination, and economic injustice."12

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P56_11389

==="The co-star in the script for the revival of domestic countersubversion is the influential grouping of foreign policy and military defense hawks, which ranges from the American Security Council to the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM), composed of moderate Democrats...to an offshoot, the Committee on the Present Danger, and other cold war forces. The potential for an alliance even more durable than in the fifties between nativism and this élitist sector has been strengthened by the emergence of a sense of the decline of America's role as a world power."13

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P59_11984

Central to rationalizing surveillance and disruption was the fear of revolutionary violence. Donner explained that "appeals relating to collectivism and statism have little power to stir mass response. But the charge of violence, however mythic it has become, is the rock on which the intelligence church is built. It accommodates repression to democratic norms that exclude violent methods."14 During the Cold War, violence from anywhere on the left was quickly attributed to communists, while violent, rightwing groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were seldom targets of widespread surveillance for political repression. Not seen as part of a global revolutionary movement that threatened US hegemony, they were monitored, as Donner put it, "primarily for crime prevention purposes."15

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P62_12404

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P63_12813

This double standard objectively made "a special contribution to conservative politics," since social change movements of the left could be smeared as nuturing agents and fellow travellers of the violent revolutionary global red menace, while activists of the right could escape blame for the criminal excesses of a few reactionary and fascist zealots.

A key tool used to justify the anti-democratic activities of the intelligence establishment was propaganda designed to create fear of a menace by an alien outsider. The timeless myth of the enemy "other" assuages ethnocentrist hungers with servings of fresh scapegoats. As Donner noted: "In a period of social and economic change during which traditional institutions are under the greatest strain, the need for the myth is especially strong as a means of transferring blame, an outlet for the despair [people] face when normal channels of protest and change are closed."16

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P68_13761

The agitator index (ADEX) or rabble rouser index was authorized in august 1967 after inquiries regarding ability of the FBI to "identify individuals prominent in stirring up civil disorders, but was abandoned in April 1971 as redundant."17

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P71_14022

==="The listing of individuals, whether for ultimate detention in the event of war or for clues to the source of civil disorders, masked an underlying tension between passive monitoring and barely suppressed aggression. Why wait for the future showdown? What can be done to get at these people now? This tension found an outlet in special programs directed at `key figures' and `top functionaries,' singled out for close penetrative and continuous surveillance."18

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P74_14506

"Like the agitator concept, the claim of foreign influence is a means of discounting domestic unrest," said Donner, who added that a "second reason for externalizing the motivation and impetus of dissent is that it enables intelligence to justify its efforts as defensive, a necessary and temperate response to enemies gnawing away at the nation's entrails."19

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P77_14886

Donner called the process by which dissidents are made outlaws "subversification." Both individuals and groups are targeted. The focus on individual ringleaders, outside agitators, foreign agents, hidden conspirators, and master manipulators is purposeful:

==="The emphasis on individuals--'cherchez la personne!'--plays another quite separate role in the intelligence schema. It personalizes unrest and thus detaches it from social and economic causes. Under this view the people are a contented lot, not given to making trouble until an 'agitator' stirs them up. As soon as he or she is exposed or neutralized, all will be well again."20

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P82_15547

Fear of foreign-inspired communism (at least for the moment) has been retired as the alien subversive "other" but it has standins: Islamic fundamentalists are said to threaten the very survival civilization as we know it, environmental activists are portrayed as potential terrorists. With the end of the Cold War, the alien threat has been externalized as foreign in a novel way: for instance in academia there is the corollary countersubversive hysteria over the imagined PC police-radicals, feminists, homosexuals, people of color--who are seen as spreading ideas that are alien and foreign to the idealized western culture that nativists embrace as the real America. These mythical scapegoats are constructed to defend the status quo and preserve the perquisites of power as interpreted by the self-appointed guardians of wealth and wisdom who equate their commerce with our culture.

New movements are put through subversification to "fuel backlash charges that our national security is endangered by a sinister conspiracy of dissidents who have deliberately depleted out intelligence resources to prepare the way for a takeover." In this Kafka-meets-Orwell world, lack of evidence of the conspiracy becomes proof that one exists. Donner explains that "Since no evidence of such a conspiracy will emerge, the accusers will exploit, as in the past, its nonexistence: Is it not obvious that a cover-up was part of the conspiracy and that the absence of proof demonstrates it effectiveness?"21 The recent work of journalist Steven Emerson and the interviews with former FBI hardliner Oliver "Buck" Revell are examples of this process.22

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P87_17063

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P88_17227

Ironically, there is a handful of conspiracist anti-repression personalities whose status rests on their ability to reel off hundreds of names of evil government agents or right-wing activists. By creating a mirror image of the countersubversion culture they are fighting, they fall into a Byzantine web of intrigue that obscures the social and economic conditions which actually shape history. Donner avoided this parody of analysis and still produced what Robert Sherrill of the "Nation" called "The only book I know of that straightforwardly--without the slightest hyperbole but without drawing back from the only conclusion possible--portrays Hoover and the F.B.I. as the fascistic machine that they were."23

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P91_18718

Donner knew that the larger social system was not a form of fascism, but he also recognized that the authoritarian impulse of the institutionalized surveillance and dossier-collecting apparatus pulls the country in that direction. He saw in the Watergate scandal evidence of a "covert vigilante state" where those who challenged presidential policies became targets, just as in a police state. He applauded "the public airing of official misconduct--the train of admissions, defensive pleas, resignations "exposes," and court trials," but concluded that these revelations "cannot alter the hard reality that our democratic committment is threatend by a vigilante political culture deeply rooted in our past."24

http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/donner.htm#P94_19455

Frank Donner readily admitted falling prey to an occupational hazard for people studying intelligence operation abuses--he obsessively collected documents illustrating political repression by law enforcement agencies. And there were millions of pages to sift. It's hard to recall who came up with the name file ferrets for those of us paralegals who reviewed surveillance reports on lawsuits against government spying in the mid 1970's, but I do recall one of my first instructions was to send a copy of anything interesting to Donner. At the time he had been actively fighting for civil liberties for some 30 years and his theories of political repression essentially wrote the field guide for the file ferrets.

1 One of his early pieces was a 1954 article in "The Nation" analyzing the role of the government informer.

2 Donner, "Theory and Practice of American Political Intelligence," in the "New York Review of Books," April 22, 1971.

3 Donner, Frank. "The Age of Surveillance: The Aims & Methods of America's Political Intelligence System." New York: Alfred Knopf, 1980.

4 Donner, Frank. "Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Political Repression in Urban America." Berkeley: University of California, 1991.

5 Donner, "Age," p. 3.

6 Donner, "Age," Introduction, xix-xx.

7 Donner, "Age," p. 10.

8 Donner, "Age," p. 10.

9 Donner, "Age," p. 4.

10 Donner, "Age," pp. 4-5.

11 Donner, "Age," pp. xv, 5, 455-460.

12 Donner, "Age," p. xv.

13 Donner, Age, pp. 453-454.

14 Donner, "Age," p.17.

15 Donner, "Age," p. 17.

16 Donner, "Age," p. 11.

17 Donner, Age p. 166.

18 Donner, Age p. 166)

19 Donner, "Age," p. 19.

20 Donner, "Age," p. 14.

21 Donner, "Age," p. xv.

22 Emerson makes unsubstantiated allegations of widespread conspiracies in Arab-American communities and brushes aside his lack of documented evidence by implying it only proves how clever and sinister the Arab/Muslim menace really is. This is a prejudiced and arabaphobic twist on the old antisemitic canard of the crafty and manipulative Jew. Revell, who once networked rightwing agents provocateur for the FBI, now poses as a counterterrorism expert who uses the lack of evidence that widespread terror networks emerge from the center of social movements as the very reason the FBI needs more powers to infiltrate and wiretap to the core of such movements. In fact, terror cells emerge from the periphery of such movements and are generally resistant to intelligence operations.

23 Donner, "Age," back cover.

24 Donner, "Age," p. 29.

------

Terrorism and the Constitution

cdt.org
http://www.cdt.org/policy/terrorism/terrorismbook.html

This book by CDT senior staff counsel Jim Dempsey and Georgetown law professor David Cole documents how civil liberties are sacrificed in the name of fighting terrorism and recommends an alternative approach focused on crimes, not ideology.

Published May 1999 Now in third printing. 200 pp.

Price $15.00 (includes postage) Make checks payable to the First Amendment Foundation

Mail your order to: First Amendment Foundation 1313 W. 8th Street, Suite 313 Los Angeles, CA 90017 213-484-6661 Credit card orders through Amazon.com

Combating terrorism poses a special challenge to democratic societies: how to anticipate and prevent politically-motivated violence without infringing on freedom of speech and the right of association. Unfortunately, the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is one of repeated abuses of civil liberties in the name of national security.

Authors Jim Dempsey and David Cole trace this history, leading up to the Antiterrorism Act of 1996, "one of the worst assaults on civil liberties in decades." Their review of the abuses occurring today - denials of due process, detentions of aliens based on secret evidence, investigations of support for lawful humanitarian activity - culminates with recommendations for a counterterrorism strategy that would conform to the Constitution - one focused on individual culpability for acts of violence rather than on political or religious ideology.

Written for the general audience, yet laden with endnotes of value to activists and lawyers, Terrorism and the Constitution is a balanced examination of the problem of terrorism from a civil liberties perspective.

"In this day of increasing concern with acts of terrorism, there are strong demands to curtail our cherished liberties. David Cole and Jim Dempsey painstakingly delineate the dangers inherent in the Antiterrorism Act of 1996. I heartily recommend this book to all concerned with the protection of our traditional liberties, particularly because the argument for restrictions is shown to be without merit." - John Conyers, Jr. Member of Congress

"James X. Dempsey and David Cole devastatingly document the damage to our Constitution done in the name of counterterrorism. This book should be read by anyone who cares about civil liberties." - Victor Navasky, Publisher and Editorial Director, The Nation

"Dempsey and Cole demonstrate that we can lose as much in overreacting to terrorism as we can from failing to respond to it. The story they tell of FBI abuse in the name of national security provides a much-needed cautionary note." - Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union

"Terrorism and the Constitution is essential reading for anyone concerned about the new McCarthyism in the guise of responding to public concern about 'terrorism.'" - Paul Hoffman, Chair of the Board, Amnesty International-USA

James X. Dempsey, former assistant counsel to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, is senior staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology and director of The Oversight Project. David Cole, who argued the LA 8 case in the Supreme Court, is professor of law at Georgetown University, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and legal affairs correspondent for The Nation.

---

Home of radio pirate again raided by feds
More equipment seized after signal picked up by planes

State Journal-Register
By MATTHEW DIETRICH STAFF WRITER

Springfield pirate radio operator Mbanna Kantako's station is off the air again, after federal officials on Thursday confiscated his equipment for the second time in two months.

U.S. marshals, acting on an order issued Thursday morning by U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott, removed all of the equipment Kantako had been using to broadcast his "Human Rights Radio" station from his home at 1113 N. Fifth St.

Kantako said Thursday evening he plans to return to the airwaves despite the latest raid, but declined further comment.

On Sept. 29, federal officials confiscated Kantako's equipment, and on Oct. 4, Scott issued an order barring Kantako from making radio broadcasts without a license from the Federal Communications Commission. In the hearing that led to that order, Kantako -who has operated unlicensed stations in Springfield since 1987 - vowed to return to the airwaves, and did so Oct. 20.

Thursday, U.S. marshals and FCC officials also removed a pair of antennas that had been left mounted atop Kantako's house on Sept. 29.

The catalyst for the earlier seizure was a series of complaints from the Federal Aviation Administration that Kantako's broadcasts were interfering with communications between pilots and air traffic controllers at Capital Airport. Papers filed in obtaining the latest seizure order indicate that Kantako's station, which broadcasts at 106.5 FM, may again have been putting out an errant signal on one of the frequencies used at the airport. On Nov. 16, incoming aircraft reported picking up the station on an aviation communications channel, a federal affidavit states.

Mainly, though, the documents focus on Kantako's violation of the Oct. 4 order.

"Nothing short of seizing all equipment used for transmitting radio broadcasts will stop Kantako's unlicensed broadcasts," assistant U.S. attorneys Elizabeth Collins and Esteban Sanchez said in the papers filed Thursday.

Kantako is viewed as a hero by many people in the pirate, or "micro," radio movement locally and nationwide, and federal officials appeared to take that status into account in requesting that Thursday's seizure order remain sealed until after it was carried out.

"Advance warning of our equipment seizure would allow Mbanna Kantako, through his radio broadcast, to alert and gather other people to protest or harass the confiscation of the radio equipment and roof antennas," say the court papers. "This could be a detriment to the safety of the U.S. Marshals and the private individual assisting them who will be very vulnerable while they are using equipment to reach the roof and antennas."

Kantako used the station to broadcast a mix of his own talk programming, music, taped speeches and a variety of other material on African-American issues. After resuming his broadcasting on Oct. 20, he often played a tape of federal officials confiscating his equipment during the initial raid.

Though Kantako's station put out only a weak signal that was barely audible in some parts of Springfield, FCC engineer Williford Gray testified that the station's power was several thousand times the legal limit for stations without FCC licenses.

Gray is quoted in Thursday's documents as saying that on Nov. 21, he came to Springfield and picked up Kantako's station on both 106.5 FM and at 123.3 megahertz. The latter signal is an aviation channel.

In September, following up on complaints from pilots and air traffic controllers, Gray reported picking up Kantako's signal at 121.3 megahertz, also an aviation channel.

Kantako's history of unlicensed broadcasting dates back to 1987, when he operated a single-watt station known as WTRA - for Tenants Rights Association - in the John Hay Homes. Kantako was the last tenant to leave the Hay Homes when demolition began in 1997 and has continued his broadcasts from his home ever since.

At his Oct. 4 hearing, Kantako repeatedly told Scott that he viewed the removal of his equipment and the silencing of his station as a violation of his human rights. He has steadfastly refused to cooperate with FCC licensing procedures, which he says infringe on his right to communicate with his listeners.

Matthew Dietrich can be reached at 788-1509 or matthew.dietrich@sj-r.com.

------

SIGN-ON: PETITION TO ALL NUCLEAR CORPORATIONS

From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Thu, 21 Dec 2000 05:39:35 -0500

Please distribute this via your networks, have it signed by as many individuals and organizations as you can, and e-mail to: mari999@jk9.so-net.ne.jp.

The first collection will be until the end of the 20th Century (December 31, 2000) Thank you for your help in preventing and reducing the danger of nuclear hazards harming our health, environment, and generations to come!!

For further information, contact me at:
Nuclear Power Free World for 21st Century (NPFW 21)
Mari Takenouchi, Representative
6-5-8, Koganehara, Matsudo, Chiba 270-0021, Japan Tel: +81-90-4002-3959 Fax: +81-47-341-2023 E-mail: mari999@jk9.so-net.ne.jp

PETITION ADDRESSED TO GE, WESTING HOUSE, HITACHI, TOSHIBA, MITSUBISHI, BNFL, SIEMENS, JNF, COGEMA AND ALL NUCLEAR RELATED COMPANIES

We the undersigned organizations and individuals express our extreme concern that nuclear power related technologies and products are being manufactured and exported to countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. This, in spite of the fact that the trend in most advanced nations, which are also manufacturers of nuclear power, is to phase out this energy resource within their own boundaries.

Even without mentioning Chernobyl, which was an unacceptable catastrophe under any circumstances, accidents happen. In fact, the number of accidents is increasing as more nuclear power plants are constructed all over the world and as older reactors age. We have to prevent future nuclear catastrophes by any and all means and this requires prompt and dramatic action.

Moreover, it is contrary to the interests of nuclear related companies to continue with their current practices. Selling products might bring profits for a short-term period if no large accident happens in the near future, but considering the problems of waste, maintaining aging power plants, the constant release of deadly "low-level" radiation, decommissioning plants, and the possible occurrence of major accidents, this industry cannot bring benefits in the future. We believe that related companies are already well aware of this fact. Before it is too late, you should seriously address the problems immediately.

It is also contrary to the interests of countries that require sustainable, clean, mostly decentralized, low-cost energy systems, adapted both to their needs and their use of capital, resources and labor. Also it is feared that all the importing countries, due to limitations of structural and technical capabilities that exist to various degrees, cannot handle nuclear facilities in a proper manner. This is also the case of advanced nations.

Nuclear power is also contrary to global environmental issues such as global warming and pollution problems [http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/globalwarming2.html]. The vast amount of waste hot water from nuclear power plants is raising the temperature of rivers, lakes and seas in areas near nuclear facilities. Radioactive emissions from facilities, even under permissible levels, have and will continue to accumulate in the environment world wide. There is no safe level of any ionizing radiation. Dr. John Gofman, world reknown nuclear health expert states that there is no safe level of ionizing radiation: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/gofman.html Dr.Gofman has testified in court in the USA that "acceptable" radiation levels constitute "planned deaths" by the nuclear industry. There are a number of cases of nuclear facility workers exposed to radiation, and some experts even state that the rate of children who develop leukemia[http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/childrencancers.html] went up around some of these facilities. In particular Joseph Mangano of "The Radiation and Public Health Project has discovered a sharp decrease in infant mortality around 5 reactors shortly after these reactors ceased operating. See: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/infant.html & http://www.radiation.org

At the same time, there is no concrete measure established for controlling high-level nuclear waste in any country in the world. Geological disposal is a possible option right now but many geologists have great doubts whether highly toxic radioactive material could be contained for more than tens of thousands of years. Even if they can the radioactivity of much of this nuclear waste will be lethal for more than one million years. Additionally, earthquake prone countries and their neighboring area might see an irreversible catastrophe caused either by the geological disposal/storage of nuclear waste, transportation of fuels/waste or normal operation of nuclear power plants in conjunction with violent seismic activity.

The impact of radiation contamination goes beyond generational and national boundaries, and can bring eternal suffering and damage to all living creatures and the environment. Shortsighted economic interests or business aspirations should not supercede the chain of life on Earth, which is unrecoverable once damaged by a radioactive catastrophe or catastrophes.

Therefore, we the undersigned organizations and individuals call upon all nuclear related industries and companies to immediately stop operating, transporting and manufacturing their products and halt exporting these technologies and products to other nations.

NAME:
ORGANISATION:
FULL ADDRESS:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:

Again, please send Sign-Ons to: mari999@jk9.so-net.ne.jp. Please dissemenate widely. Thanks!

---

Extradition Based On False Evidence, Peltier Inquiry Says

Thu, 21 Dec 2000 14:50:13 -0800
Monday, December 11, 2000
By Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail

Toronto - The commissioner of an inquiry into the Leonard Peltier case has concluded that the Indian activist was extradited from Canada under false pretenses after a key witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, falsified evidence.

In a letter urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to consider granting executive clemency, commissioner Fred Kaufman said Mr. Peltier's 1976 extradition and subsequent imprisonment for murdering two FBI agents is now highly questionable.

"As you can see from her evidence, she acted under duress at the time, and much of what she said was false," wrote Mr. Kaufman, a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal for 16 years.

"I am satisfied that if this had been known when the extradition hearings took place, the request to extradite Peltier would likely have been refused."

The letter was quietly sent to the White House late last week along with a transcript of the inquiry. It will be released at an Ottawa press conference Monday morning. Another copy is being sent to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Justice Minister Anne McLellan in the hope that they will intervene with Mr. Clinton.

Frank Dreaver, head of the Canadian branch of the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee, said his group has also been granted something it has sought for years: a chance to present its case this morning to officials at the U.S. embassy. "Everybody concedes this is a very important factual document," Mr. Dreaver said in an interview. "President Clinton has made it clear recently that he wants to look at the Leonard Peltier case fairly and take a position on it. That's why it was so important to put together as much information about the Canadian angle as we could."

Mr. Kaufman's conclusions add impetus to worldwide pressure on Mr. Clinton to grant Mr. Peltier clemency - a traditional prerogative of presidents leaving office - before his term ends Jan. 20. The idea is opposed by senior FBI officials, who refer to it as a cruel obscenity that denigrates the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

The shootings took place on June 26, 1975, when the two agents drove to the Jumping Bull Compound on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reserve to investigate a minor theft. They were shot during a six-hour firefight that involved scores of federal agents and about 30 natives. One of the natives, Joe Stuntz, was also killed.

Aware that he was one of 47 suspects, Mr. Peltier fled. In early 1976, he was captured in Hinton, Alta. At the heart of his Vancouver extradition hearing were a series of affidavits in which Ms. Poor Bear said she was his girlfriend.

Ms. Poor Bear, now 47, affirmed at the time not only that she witnessed the shooting, but that Mr. Peltier spoke to her about it afterward.

She was mysteriously dropped from the prosecution's witness list at Mr. Peltier's 1977 murder trial in Fargo, N.D. A district attorney told the court only that she was no longer considered "competent." Mr. Peltier was convicted of the double murder largely on the basis of ballistics evidence which has since been brought into doubt. Ms. Poor Bear disappeared from sight, and little was heard of her prior to the one-day Toronto inquiry last October.

The Toronto hearing was organized by the Innocence Project, a group that attempts to expose wrongful convictions. Five witnesses, including Ms. Poor Bear and her sister, were examined under oath by two prominent Toronto lawyers.

Testifying for the first time in any venue, Ms. Poor Bear confirmed what many had long suspected: she had fabricated her story under pressure from FBI agents bent on avenging their dead comrades. Ms. Poor Bear broke down from time to time as she supplied details of how two agents kept her apart from her family for long periods and threatened her life in an attempt to coerce her into giving false testimony.

"I say without hesitation that each of the witnesses appeared honest and credible," Mr. Kaufman said in his letter to Mr. Clinton. He said this was particularly true of Ms. Poor Bear, who was obviously distraught as she told of her terror and subsequent shame at having helped perpetrate a miscarriage of justice.

In a supporting letter to the White House that will be released Monday, Peter Hogg, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, says he was shocked to learn of Ms. Poor Bear's recantation. Prof. Hogg, widely regarded as Canada's leading constitutional scholar, said it appears very likely that a miscarriage of justice has taken place in the Peltier case.

"I add my voice to those who urge that executive clemency be granted," he said. "He has served 25 years in prison, which is a terrible burden for someone who is probably innocent."

Law professor Dianne Martin, a co-director of the Innocent Project, said the possibility that Texas Governor George W. Bush will win the disputed presidency puts all the more pressure on Mr. Clinton. "Bush is not likely to have any interest at all in the Peltier case," Prof. Martin said in an interview. "If President Clinton has anywhere near the conscience we believe he has, he will know it is on his watch that this has to happen."

The Peltier case is without a doubt one of the most closely examined criminal convictions in North American history. Several books and a movie have centred on it, and Mr. Peltier's supporters span the globe. U.S. officials have been bombarded with thousands of information requests over the years, and numerous court challenges have been attempted.

A brief prepared for Mr. Clinton by Prof. Martin and fellow Innocence Project director Paul Burstein argues that the President is faced with a historic opportunity.

"Literally millions of people around the world - but most significantly, hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Americans and Aboriginal Peoples, have struggled ceaselessly to demonstrate that his extradition, conviction and continued imprisonment represent a profound miscarriage of justice," the brief says.

It says that granting clemency would also serve to close a chapter that has epitomized for many aboriginals their long history of oppression and injustice.

"The deaths on Pine Ridge will not be forgotten if clemency is granted to Leonard Peltier, the man wrongly held to blame for them," the brief said. "But acknowledging that many suffered from the events on Pine Ridge and that many wrongs - not just two - were committed, will begin healing the deep, historical wounds that Native Americans still endure."

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trial results

Thu, 21 Dec 2000 23:33:28 -0500

I regret to inform you that we lost at trial. Today, December 21, Judge Gottschall issued a 27 page decision denying our enforcement petition. I will e-mail you a copy when it is posted on the court's web site. The last paragraph states: "Conclusion: For the above reasons, the court finds that plaintiffs have failed to prove any of their claims against the City by clear and convincing evidence evidence. This ruling should not be interpreted as a finding that plaintiffs' witnesses did not testify truthfully, or that the incidents underlying their claim did not in fact happen. The ruling is simply a recognition that the conflicting but credible evidence on both sides precludes plaintiffs from establishing their claims by clear and convincing evidence. Judgment is entered for the City on all claims."

Although we did not win, I believe that suing the police for their misconduct and losing is better than not suing at all because resisting repression tends to deter it.

I wish to thank all those who participated as witnesses or in any other capacity.

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Protest on Nuclear Cargo

New York Times
December 21, 2000
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/21BRAZ.html

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Dec. 20 - Greenpeace Brazil criticized a decision today to transport what it described as the largest nuclear waste shipment in history through South American waters en route to Japan.

The British ship Pacific Swan, carrying 192 cases of highly radioactive nuclear waste that it took on board in France, is expected to reach the Brazilian coastline in two weeks. Its cargo represents "the equivalent of more than 40 times the radiation released in the Chernobyl accident," the environmental organization said.

From Barrow-in-Furness, in northwest England, the ship traveled to Cherbourg, France, to pick up its cargo of radioactive nuclear waste bound for Japan.

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Greenpeace slams nuclear shipment

Washington Times
December 21, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-2000122121373.htm

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The environmental group Greenpeace Brazil yesterday criticized plans for what it described as the largest nuclear-waste shipment in history to be transported through South American waters en route to Japan.

The British ship Pacific Swan, carrying 192 cases of highly radioactive nuclear waste that it took on board in France, is expected to reach the Brazilian coastline in two weeks' time, Greenpeace Brazil said.

Its cargo is "the equivalent of more than 40 times the radiation released in the Chernobyl [nuclear] accident," the organization said.

"If an accident happened to the ship, with its cargo set adrift along the Brazilian coast, the damage to public health and the environment would be catastrophic," said Ruy de Goes of Greenpeace Brazil.

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Election Anger Fuels Inaugural Protesters

Washington Post
Thursday, December 21, 2000; Page A10
By David Montgomery and Arthur Santana Washington Post Staff Writers
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33927-2000Dec20.html

The raw wounds left by the presidential election finale have created enough irritation to unleash one of the largest inauguration protests in years, according to veteran organizers and police officials.

"This will be by far the biggest counter-inauguration since the 1973 Nixon counter-inauguration," predicted Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action Center in New York, who has demonstrated at numerous presidential swearing-in events. "We organize protests not infrequently, and we know when something has legs and when it doesn't have legs. This one does."

At the second inauguration of President Richard M. Nixon, police estimated there were 25,000 to 100,000 demonstrators, including some who threw fruit and stones at Nixon's car. The total crowd was about 300,000.

D.C. police are expecting about 750,000 people on Jan. 20 when President-elect Bush is sworn in, and they said they think many demonstrators will be content to voice their displeasure peacefully.

Becker's group, like several others hoping to flood parts of the city on Inauguration Day, had been planning to be in Washington no matter who won the election. But enough people think the outcome was illegitimate, he said, that it has cranked up protest passion. Within hours of the Dec. 12 U.S. Supreme Court decision blocking Vice President Gore's effort to recount votes in Florida, Becker and other organizers said, their Web sites were deluged with inquiries.

"There's a tremendous amount of spontaneous organizing going on," said Becker, 48.

A rainbow of left-leaning groups had planned to rally on the Mall to vent outrage at a variety of demons, including racism, the death penalty and the corporate influence on politics. But complaints that some Florida votes were not counted, including those of many African Americans, have given demonstrators powerful common issues.

Unlike the street protests against the World Bank in April, no civil disobedience has been planned, organizers say. They said the demonstrations will feature signs, chants, giant puppets, skits and a squad of radical stilt walkers being trained in Philadelphia.

"We are not planning to shut down the inauguration," Becker said. "We are planning to make it plain that the inaugural route is not the private property of those who support the death penalty, so we're going to be well-represented on that parade route."

D.C. police aren't taking any chances with protesters' intentions, according to Executive Assistant Chief Terrance W. Gainer. He said he expects fewer than 5,000 unruly demonstrators might try to disrupt the inauguration, along with thousands of peaceful demonstrators.

In addition to the D.C. force, thousands of suburban and federal officers will participate in what officials described as an unprecedented level of security.

The Justice Action Movement, an alliance of Washington area protesters, yesterday sent D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey a letter requesting a meeting to discuss plans for peaceful protests. Cmdr. Michael Radzilowski, who is in charge of special operations, said yesterday that he would be happy to meet with the protesters.

Half a dozen groups have requested permits, but none have been granted. A National Park Service spokesman said the agency is waiting for inauguration planners to make final arrangements before it allots space to protesters.

The National Organization for Women plans to be there. "It's important for our own spirit to let people know there is a place to plug in, take that anger and use it to fuel some additional activism," NOW President Patricia Ireland said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Walter Fauntroy plan a "shadow inauguration" outside the U.S. Supreme Court to swear in those pledging to uphold the Voting Rights Act.

"We feel the act was violated by George Bush," Sharpton said.

Fauntroy, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Shaw, said he has witnessed every swearing-in since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth in 1945, and "I know of no inauguration that has been the source of greater controversy than this . . . following a shameful election."

Other activists are planning a Voters March to call for election reform and the abolishment of the electoral college. "Our nation has been traumatized by what has happened in this election," said Louis Posner, a New York attorney leading the effort.

Another group, the D.C.-based New Black Panther Party, and its allies plan to stage a Day of Outrage march, said spokesman Malik Shabazz.

Other local protest efforts are being coordinated by the Justice Action Movement, a coalition of many who protested the World Bank. They have been holding public meetings for several weeks at George Washington University. They scheduled a news conference today to bring together organizers of various protest efforts.

On Monday, several dozen people attended a Justice Action Movement meeting. Most were students or young members of progressive organizations and unions, but several were old enough to have protested Nixon's inauguration. Justice Action Movement has dubbed Jan. 20 the "InaugurAuction," a reference to members' belief that the major parties buy the White House with corporate funds.

"Because of a corrupt political system, we now have a president who is going to be threatening the lives of many innocent people because of his support for the death penalty, military policies abroad and free trade," said Adam Eidinger, 27, a movement organizer.

At the meeting, the group voted not to use violence, vandalism, weapons, alcohol or drugs. They also decided to remain in small groups scattered all over the Mall, employing creative visual effects and stilt walkers to make their points.

After the meeting, several organizers said they suspected a police infiltrator was in their midst. A man with a goatee looked just like a plainclothes officer who figured prominently in confrontations with World Bank demonstrators, according to organizers who said they have videotapes.

Before ending a brief telephone interview with The Washington Post, the man denied he was an undercover officer. A police spokesman said there is no one on the force with the name the man used at the meeting. Gainer confirmed that the police have infiltrated the protesters, but he didn't identify anyone.

"They're looking for excuses to shut us down," Eidinger said.

This week, a few members of Justice Action Movement held a practice InaugurAuction in front of the White House, offering to auction the building for $10 to carpenters building bleachers for the parade.

"I don't feel this particular election demonstrates ideally what the presidency is for this country," said Elizabeth Croyden, 30, an actress and film producer who participated. "It exposes a lot of flaws in the system, and I'm upset about it. If you don't get involved, how can you make a difference?"

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MANHATTAN: STUDENTS STORM U.N. ASSEMBLY

New York Times
December 21, 2000
Metro Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/nyregion/21MBRF.html?pagewanted=all

NEW YORK
Three members of a Jewish student group were arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal trespassing after storming the United Nations General Assembly waving banners reading "UN = anti-Semitism," officials said yesterday. Those arrested, two men and a woman, are members of a group known as Betar/Tagar, which is protesting recent denunciations of Israel in the Security Council and recent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, a statement from the group said. (NYT)

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USA Today
12/21/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Vermont

Hardwick - The Vermont Reggae Festival is taking a year off. Organizers of the annual, daylong music festival say they want to spend 2001 focusing on social activism.

------- Onelist (submissions from subscribers)