------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Plutonium Pact With Russia Could Backfire, Critic Says
Poland Urges Russia Nuke Inspection
Russia Denies Moving Nuclear Arms
U.S. yet to query Moscow on nukes
Use NATO as a tool
Europe Worried about Balkans War Syndrome
Sweden Says EU Must Act on Balkan Syndrome
EC Pres. Demands Truth About 'Balkan Syndrome'
Dutch Probe if Deaths Related to 'Balkan Syndrome'
Pentagon Denies Balkan Uranium Worry
Italy asks NATO to explain ammo use
Alarm over NATO radiation deaths
Italy Asks NATO to Check Deaths Tied to Uranium
No Proof of Illness From Uranium Ammunition - U.S.
Poland Calls for Inspection Over Kaliningrad Nukes
Fears Grow About Depleted Uranium
EU Demands Truth From NATO Over Uranium Shells
Defense News
SFOR, IS THE U.S.GOVERNMENT;
Pentagon, Rand DU Cover-Up As Epidemic Spreads
Italy alarmed by 'Balkan syndrome'
Europe Worried about "Balkans War Syndrome"
EU presses Nato over uranium arms
Radiation tests for NATO troops
NATO arms illness claims denied
Iraq expects UN dialogue to start
A Russian Base in the Baltics Is Reported to Have Nuclear Arms
Russia Moving Warheads
Russia stirs concerns with nuclear arms shift
US fears over Russia 'missiles on move'
Russia's Neighbors Concerned Over Nuclear Report
Russia Dismisses Fear of Baltic Nuclear Buildup
Con Ed Restarts Indian Pt. Plant, Despite Protest
NRC probe targets TVA security clearances
Cabinet complete
Bush Chooses Campaign Manager to Head FEMA
Bush Chooses Campaign Manager to Head Crisis Agency

MILITARY
MITTERRAND ACCOUNTS TO BE FROZEN
Eleven Killed in Northwestern Colombia Town
McCaffrey advocates drug prevention
Malpractice Case Begins for Specialist in Addiction
From Addiction to Helping to Save Lives
Governor Pataki's Wish List
N.Y. gov. calls for drug law reform
ILLEGAL DRUG USE DOWN DRAMATICALLY IN U.S.
Governor George E. Pataki: State of the State Address
Two officers, suspect killed in shooting
States
Drug laws denounced
Missile explosion kills 1 in India
KASHMIR: FIGHTING FLARES
Myanmar marks independence day
LAYOFFS AT SPACE.COM
Domestic Worker Sues Former U.N. Official for Back Wages
SWITZERLAND: NEW REFUGEE CHIEF
To Put War Criminals on Notice
Sudan faces shortages of food, U.N. warns
Marines: Wallace hard on families
Ohio

OTHER
Adirondack Tract to Be Sold to Conservation Group
Cougar killed skier in Canadian park
Manatees rescued near power plant
Arkansas
Only EPA knows
Law firm requests look into EPA files
Downsized cars, downsized safety
Russia to skip debt payment
Rainbow stickers removed due to complaints
Jury Awards $2.25 Million in '95 Death
MANHATTAN: AWARD REDUCED IN POLICE CASE
N.H. lawmaker: 'Not a nut,' not quitting
Corruption Files Stolen From Baltimore Police
2 Cincinnati Officers Indicted in Man's Death
Stolen police files turn up in trash bin
2nd woman files suit against N.Y. cop
States
Embassy terrorism trial begins
Berenson retrial to go forward

ACTIVISTS
N.Y. police search for arsonists
Civil rights groups to protest election
Angola Priest a Soldier on the Human Rights Front
Gay advocates protest at Vatican
Protest supports striking Czech TV
50,000 Czechs Rally for Striking TV Journalists
ECUADOR: PROTESTS CONTINUE


-------- NUCLEAR

Plutonium Pact With Russia Could Backfire, Critic Says

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04NUKE.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - A Russian-American disarmament agreement to take 68 tons of plutonium out of nuclear weapons could have the unintended effect of increasing the chance of nuclear proliferation, according to a report by an independent researcher.

The researcher, Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear physicist who has specialized in analyzing Energy Department weapons activities, also found that efforts around the world to make plutonium and use it as reactor fuel have cost about $100 billion, and make little economic sense.

But the Energy Department is defending the agreement, and its efforts to help the Russians sell the material in Europe as reactor fuel, as a major step toward nonproliferation. Once used in reactors, it is harder to use in weapons.

Plutonium is created when uranium is used in reactors, and when it is separated from used fuel it can be reused either for reactors or for making bombs. For decades engineers have sought to build "breeders" that in their atomic reactions actually produce more reactor fuel than they consume.

Because of proliferation fears, the United States, in the 1970's, banned the recovery of plutonium from civilian reactor fuel, called reprocessing.

But Japan, France and Britain have invested heavily in reprocessing, and Japan and France are also working on breeders.

The United States has been negotiating with Russia since the mid-90's, and signed an agreement last September saying each side would remove 34 tons of surplus plutonium from its weapons inventory. The Energy Department is planning to pay the Duke Power Company to burn some of it in civilian reactors, and will mix the rest with high-level radioactive wastes so it cannot be easily retrieved for weapons use.

The Russians have said they, too, want to use theirs in reactors, but they also say they want to then reprocess the spent fuel, recovering even more plutonium. Russia would like to build a breeder reactor, and a factory to turn the weapons surplus into plutonium fuel, a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide called MOx, but needs Western money for the fuel plant, estimated to cost $1.7 billion to $2.5 billion.

The United States, while it has abandoned breeder reactors, plans a similar fuel plant in South Carolina.

The executive director of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Dr. Makhijani is a frequent critic of the Energy Department but also works closely with them at times. He recently forced the department to reassess its estimate of the quantity of plutonium and other man-made elements spilled into the dirt during weapons-making; the department concluded it was too small by a factor of 10.

Another opponent of the agreement is Paul Leventhal, the president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a nonprofit organization based here. "What's at issue is do you turn the plutonium directly into a waste form, or turn to MOx, then end up with waste, in the form of spent fuel," Mr. Leventhal said. The MOx, he and others say, can be turned back into the plutonium metal used in reactors with relative ease. And if it is used in a reactor and reprocessed to make yet more plutonium, the purpose is defeated, he said.

Laura S. H. Holgate, the department's negotiator for plutonium, said that under the accord the Russians could not use the weapons plutonium a second time until all had been used once, and that that would be 2025 at the earliest. By then, she said, "our vision of how we treat spent fuel will be nothing like it is today."

---

Poland Urges Russia Nuke Inspection

Associated Press
January 4, 2001 Filed at 7:29 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Poland-Nuclear.html

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Poland on Thursday called for an ``international inspection'' to check reports that Russia has moved nuclear weapons into its Baltic military enclave of Kaliningrad.

``Poland needs to monitor the situation in Kaliningrad on a day-to-day basis, and it is doing that,'' Defense Minister Bronislaw Komorowski said on Polish television. ``Verification will include pushing for international inspection, which is a normal thing.''

Russia, whose Baltic Fleet is based in Kaliningrad, has denied moving nuclear weapons into the area and insists it is sticking to its commitment to keep the Baltic Sea a nuclear-free zone.

``It is a problem whether to regard Russian assurances as credible,'' Komorowski said, noting that Russia has in the past barred inspection of ``some places'' in the Kaliningrad region.

``When one does not let somebody in, it means he has something to hide,'' Komorowski said.

He did not specify how any inspections might be carried out, but said they would involve using contacts between Moscow and the West's NATO defense alliance.

Poland, a communist ally of Moscow during the Cold War, joined NATO in March 1998.

Kaliningrad is a Baltic Sea port located between Poland and Lithuania, a former Soviet Republic. It was left isolated from the rest of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

---

Russia Denies Moving Nuclear Arms

Associated Press
January 4, 2001 Filed at 5:57 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear.html
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian military on Thursday denied reports that it moved short-range nuclear weapons onto one of its military bases on the Baltic Sea, and Russian analysts said such a deployment would be senseless.

The alleged transfer of tactical nuclear weapons, first reported Wednesday in The Washington Times, ``doesn't correspond with reality,'' said Anatoly Lobsky, a spokesman for the Baltic Fleet. ``The Baltic Sea has been declared a nuclear-free zone, and the Baltic Fleet unfailingly fulfills its commitments.''

Two senior Clinton administration officials with access to intelligence reports on the subject told The Associated Press Wednesday on condition of anonymity that there have been recent indications of movement of Russian nuclear weapons to a naval base in the Kaliningrad enclave. Kaliningrad is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania and provides Russia with access to the Baltic Sea.

They said some weapons may have been there a year or longer.

The bombs were designed for a new type of short-range missiles with a firing radius of about 44 miles, according to the Washington Times report -- enough to hit targets in Lithuania, one of the three former Soviet republics in the Baltics that aspire to membership in the NATO alliance.

They could also strike targets in Poland, which joined NATO in 1999 in the face of fierce Russian opposition.

Polish Defense Minister Bronislaw Komorowski on Thursday called for international inspectors to verify that Moscow had not deployed nuclear weapons.

``Poland needs to monitor the situation in Kaliningrad on a day-to-day basis and it is doing that,'' Komorowski said on Poland's Channel One public television.

Some U.S. officials believe the deployment of such weapons would be a tactic for increasing pressure on NATO to withdraw all tactical, or short-range, missiles and other nuclear weapons from Europe. Russia has long argued for their removal, but NATO continues to maintain some nuclear bombs for aircraft based in Europe.

The Washington Times report cited unnamed U.S. arms control officials as speculating that the deployment was Russia's way of testing the resolve of President-elect Bush.

But Russian military analysts questioned the logic of such a deployment, particularly the choice to station ground-based nuclear weapons at a naval base.

``If they did bring tactical nuclear weapons for training or some other purpose to Kaliningrad, they would most likely be naval, like torpedo warheads,'' said independent defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

``There's no need to bring air force or missile weapons to the enclave,'' he said, because their potential targets could just as easily be hit with missiles based on Russia's mainland. Kaliningrad is about 250 miles west of the rest of Russia.

Yuri Gladkevich, an analyst at the independent Military News Agency, said Russia would have nothing to gain politically from such a deployment. Ditching nonbinding arms agreements from the early 1990's, which were intended to limit tactical nuclear weapons deployment in Europe, would only invite the ire of European countries and the United States.

He contended that the news reports were based on misinformation, an intelligence leak intended to influence policy for the incoming Bush administration or to demonstrate to America's European allies that Russia remained a threat.

Also Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating the START I arms-reduction treaty by failing to destroy all stages of its MX missiles. Under the 1991 treaty, the United States agreed to abandon the MX program.

There was no immediate response from Washington to the statement, which alleged that the United States is destroying only the first stages of the missiles.

---

U.S. yet to query Moscow on nukes

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
By Bill Gertz
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200114222348.htm

The State Department will question Moscow about the recent deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to a military base in a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, a spokesman said yesterday.

"We will be raising it with the Russians," said Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman. He was commenting on reports of the transfer that first appeared in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times.

The weapons transfer was detected by U.S. spy agencies in June.

It is the first time battlefield nuclear arms have been moved into the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The spokesman's remarks are a sign the administration has not raised the matter with Moscow during arms control talks in the past six months, according to U.S. officials.

The failure to respond to intelligence reports of the transfers supports claims by some U.S. intelligence officials that the information was suppressed for political reasons.

The disclosure comes weeks after it was revealed that the administration concluded secret agreements with Russia on Moscow's arms and nuclear transfers to Iran.

Republicans in Congress have said they were kept in the dark about a 1995 agreement signed by Vice President Al Gore and Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian prime minister, that helped Russia avoid U.S. sanctions required under proliferation laws.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday that if Moscow has placed tactical nuclear arms in Kaliningrad "it would violate their pledge that they were removing nuclear weapons from the Baltics, and that the Baltics should be nuclear-free."

Russian government officials, meanwhile, dismissed the nuclear deployment reports as untrue.

"This report can only be a political provocation," said Anatoly Lobsky, a spokesman for Russia's Baltic Fleet. He insisted to reporters in Kaliningrad, where the fleet is based, that the Baltic Fleet has no nuclear weapons.

Mr. Lobsky, an assistant to the fleet commander, said the naval forces in the Kaliningrad enclave, a noncontiguous slice of Russia between Poland and Lithuania, are abiding by obligations to keep the Baltics a nuclear-free zone.

In Moscow, the defense ministry press office issued a statement saying "information on a transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to the Kaliningrad region has no basis in fact."

Governments of the former Soviet-occupied Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia reacted with concern over the reports.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Linas Linkevicius told the Associated Press in Vilnius: "This sounds alarming, but I see no reason Russia should try to escalate the situation in the Baltic region."

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis told reporters in Vilnius that "similar reports have been appearing several times a year, but after raising public concern they after some time are usually forgotten."

"To date none of these reports have been confirmed, so I would like not to comment on the recent reports, too," Mr. Valionis said.

"We don't know whether it's true or not," said a spokesman for Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves. "But if it is true, it is regretful, because it decreases the stability of the region."

In Latvia, Liiga Bergmane, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said the government was seeking independent confirmation of the nuclear arms reports.

"We don't see any reason why Russia should want to change its policy of keeping these kinds of weapons out of the Baltic region," she said. "Russia pledged not to increase nuclear arms here and we can't imagine why it would reconsider."

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, outgoing chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said the transfers, if confirmed, are alarming.

"If Russia has in fact transferred tactical nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad, we would have to view that as an alarming development that threatens the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe," the New York Republican said. "These reports underscore the need to promptly enlarge the NATO alliance to include the previously captive nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia."

Mr. Boucher declined to comment directly on the report, citing the policy of avoiding comment on intelligence matters.

"That would get into confirming the specifics, which I can't do, but we believe there is something to discuss with the Russians, yes," he stated, noting, "That's about as far as I can go. We don't talk about questions that involve intelligence."

"This is a situation that we are following closely," Mr. Boucher told reporters. "It's something that we'll be talking about with the Russians, as we do on all arms-control issues."

The spokesman said the Russian government's unilateral pledges to keep nuclear weapons out of the region are not "any sort of legally binding commitment."

U.S. national security officials said they are uncertain as to why Russia decided to move tactical nuclear transfers to Kaliningrad.

Several U.S. officials told The Times that the weapons transfers could be a sign Moscow is following through on threats to "forward-deploy" nuclear arms in reaction to the 1999 addition of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to NATO over Moscow's opposition.

The deployment also is viewed as part of Moscow's recent nuclear policy decree that gives the military greater reliance on battlefield nuclear weapons because of the decline of its conventional forces.

Some officials said the weapons may be for use on a new short-range missile Russia calls Toka. The missile was tested in Kaliningrad on April 18 and has a range of about 44 miles.

One U.S. official told Reuters that "over the last six months there has been some movement of tactical nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad - we don't know how many, we don't know what type and we don't know why."

A second official said the transfer may represent Moscow's new doctrine that calls for relying more on battlefield nuclear weapons.

"Tactical nukes can be a cheaper way of maintaining your deterrence capabilities as opposed to the more expensive, larger conventional forces," this official said.

"If you are worried about deterrence and your forces are deteriorating, nukes do wonders for your self-confidence," the official said.

---

Use NATO as a tool

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
Jessica Fugate
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200114191824.htm

A decade after the Cold War, America's business in Europe is far from finished. Will President-elect Bush stay the course, reaffirm the goal of a Europe "whole and free" and push forward with the historic process of NATO enlargement?

To be sure, one of the first issues to face the Bush administration will be our relationship to Europe. By seizing on the likelihood of European unification and addressing the question of the next round of NATO enlargement, the new administration will define America's interests in the new century as what we are for rather than what we are against - a politically and economically unified, secure Europe inclusive of Russia.

Telling the world what we want sends the signal that the United States is engaged, moving forward and not so riven by domestic debates that we have forgotten our global responsibilities. And it signals potential adversaries that the United States, even in a time of domestic uncertainty, remains engaged in the world scene.

The best contribution the United States and NATO could make to European security is to enhance NATO's military and political cohesion, support Europe's initiative to develop its own security apparatus and engage with Russia if its government is inclined to find a constructive role to play in Europe. To be sure, the structures are already in place through NATO to facilitate that relationship with Russia; but for the initiative to be successful, Russia must be genuinely willing to work with the West.

In the current political environment, where partisan politics threaten to dominate Mr. Bush's foreign policy agenda, the United States cannot afford to let world affairs drift. And it is the issue of NATO enlargement that cuts across party lines and has a proven history of bipartisan cooperation. Indeed in 1998, the American debate over the admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic culminated in an overwhelming 80-19 Senate vote to enlarge NATO. Yet there are new obstacles to restart the momentum. Some senators rightfully declare that NATO must first clarify its mission, and this time around no major European ally supports enlargement.

While murmurs in the Senate today suggest that the United States should rethink or cut back its engagement in Europe to concentrate on other priorities, our European allies are focused on developing their own defense policy and expanding the European Union (EU) to include former Cold War adversaries. Other enlargement skeptics on Capitol Hill believe the EU should assume a greater role in providing a more broadly, politically based security apparatus by building democracy and free markets. Congress must face the fact that it is far better to remain engaged during peacetime with like-minded democracies so that we are not alone when crises arise.

The Bush administration should initiate a measured policy of paced enlargement that is based on admitting aspirant members when they meet membership criteria for the purpose of ensuring the security of Europe. This option, consistent with NATO's "open door" policy, would keep the United States anchored in Europe and the alliance to focus on European security and the restructuring of NATO in parallel with the deepening of the EU. Rather than concentrating on who gets to join NATO on a strict timetable, the United States and our allies could make every effort to respond to the new post-Cold War challenges, such as ethnic and local conflicts, and nuclear proliferation. This alternative would also give the alliance time to absorb new members while continuing to help strengthen Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic from the last round. Russia, in the meantime, could decide whether it is willing to do some of the heavy lifting to secure relations with the West or drop the weights and look eastward for partnerships.

The decision to admit new members must reflect the fact that the security challenges and risks which NATO now faces are different in nature from those the alliance faced in the past. In 1991, NATO's strategic concept stated: "The threat of a simultaneous, full-scale attack on all of NATO's European fronts has effectively been removed." Since then, NATO has engaged in an air campaign over Yugoslavia that is considered a victory of allied unity, while the risk of a re-emergent, large-scale military threat - Russia - has further declined. Nevertheless, risks to European security remain, which are multifaceted and multidirectional, such as international criminal networks, and thus hard to grasp and assess. NATO must be capable of responding to new risks and new challenges as they develop if stability in Europe and the security of alliance members, old and new, are to be preserved.

Paced enlargement also sends an important message to Russia - that NATO is an organization of sovereign states that will protect its interests by building stability, regardless of Moscow's steadfast response that the alliance is a threat to Russia. The West should not pander to Russian threats or insecurities but proceed with the necessary goal to secure transatlantic relations. Russia's behavior, rather than its history, size or extent of democratic governance, should determine the extent of its distance from or proximity to NATO's decision-making.

The Bush administration and Congress, along with our NATO allies, concur that a working NATO is in the U.S. interest. NATO's success and America's leadership in Europe therefore depend on proving NATO's cohesion as an alliance of nations willing and able to share military and financial burdens. These issues matter for the United States because NATO's success in future rounds is a core element of managing European security.

Jessica Fugate is a research associate for European studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

-------- depleted uranium

Europe Worried about "Balkans War Syndrome"

January 4, 2001
Radio Netherlands
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/nato010104.html

European governments are expressing concern about a so-called Balkans War Syndrome, now that several soldiers who served as peacekeepers in Bosnia have died of leukaemia. The disease has killed six Italians who served in Bosnia - and Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato has said the alarm over the situation is more than legitimate. To get to the bottom of it, he's requested information from NATO.

Following Italy's urgent request on Wednesday, NATO has agreed to look into the use of depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans conflicts. A meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's highest decision-making body, and the alliance's political committee is slated for next Tuesday.

Italy called on NATO to investigate claims that six Italian soldiers who died after serving in the Balkans were killed by exposure to depleted uranium from spent ammunition fired by NATO forces. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato spoke of a "very delicate situation". He added that "we've always known that depleted uranium was used in Kosovo but not in Bosnia. We've always known it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances like, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound, while in normal circumstances it isn't dangerous at all. But now we're starting to have a justified fear that things aren't that simple."

No Coincidence Mr Amato's remarks come amid widespread media coverage in Italy about the links between the use of depleted uranium in the Balkans and the recent deaths of six peacekeepers. All of them died of leukaemia. The latest casualty died in November. He had served twice in Bosnia, but never in Kosovo. Italian media suggest that the number of deaths is too high to be coincidental.

But NATO officials point to statements of medical experts in Italy, who claim that there is insufficient evidence to link the deaths to exposure to armour-piercing uranium bullets. The alliance's chief spokesman, Mark Latey, says NATO will meet Italy's request to provide information on the exact location of munitions used in Bosnia. Asked how harmful the use of depleted uranium in combat really is, he told Radio Netherlands that when it comes to the potential hazards, there are two issues involved:

"First, there is the effect of radiation emitted from depleted uranium, which is very small indeed, because it's less than naturally occurring uranium. Besides, it's often used to protect people from the harmful effects of x-rays and the International Committee on Radiation protection doesn't list DU as a health hazard. The other potential harm comes from the heavy metal toxic poisoning, which could be compared to lead poisoning, but again, you would have to get very heavy exposure to that for a very long time to get for instance kidney problems. It's difficult to see how these high dosage could be administered"

Concern among other European countries Portugal and Belgium have joined Italy's call for answers, urging the creation of an international commission of inquiry. Earlier, Belgium already urged European Union defence ministers to discuss the health problems suffered by peacekeepers in the Balkans.

Five Belgian former peacekeepers have reportedly died from cancer after serving in the Balkans and one Portuguese soldier has also died in another case linked to uranium contamination. Portugal has reportedly ordered medical tests for 10,000 military and civilian personnel who served there. Concerns have also been raised by service members or civilian aid workers in Britain and the Netherlands. NATO, however, has no plans for its own inquiry into the matter. Its spokesman Mark Latey explains why.

"We're a military alliance, not a medical alliance: it's up to the member states to conduct an inquiry. There was similar concern over depleted uranium during the Gulf conflict, which prompted Britain and the United States to do extensive inquiries into the use of DU, but they incidentally didn't find anything. NATO, however, is aware of the concerns of its members and will do what its members ask it to do. Italy hasn't asked us to launch an inquiry, but to provide information and that's what we'll do."

Meanwhile, our Rome correspondent Marc Leijendekker adds that there is broad political support, cutting across party lines, for a parliamentary inquiry. "History shows that NATO hasn't always given full information, and this may be a starting point for a full inquiry into what happened and into the precise dangers to which soldiers were exposed both in Kosovo and in Bosnia. NATO should realise that withholding information may reduce Italy's willingness to participate in future peacekeeping operations."

--------

Sweden Says EU Must Act on Balkan Syndrome

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 1:05 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-balkans-swede.html
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010104/13/science-balkans-sweden-dc

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Defense Minister Bjorn von Sydow of Sweden, which holds the European Union presidency, said on Thursday action was needed on reports of deaths or illnesses among peacekeeping soldiers who had served in the Balkans.

``It is important that we act,'' von Sydow said in a statement.

The so-called ``Balkan syndrome'' has come under the spotlight over the past few days following reports that six Italian soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia developed leukemia and died after exposure to the ammunition.

``I welcome a discussion about the Belgian proposal to set up a medical working group within the EU, von Sydow said, adding the proposal would be discussed at a January 9 meeting of the interim Political and Security Committee.

Sweden's ambassador to NATO had been instructed to consult with the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, he said. Sweden, which holds the EU presidency in the first half of 2001, is not a member of NATO.

``The Swedish presidency will be in close contact with the (European Union) Commission regarding future developments of this issue,'' von Sydow said.

Romano Prodi, president of the Commission which is the EU's executive arm, said on Thursday he wanted light to be shed on claims linking depleted uranium from spent NATO ammunition to deaths and illnesses of NATO soldiers who had been stationed in the Balkans.

Prodi said ammunition with depleted uranium should not be used if there was even the slightest risk for soldiers or civilians.

Italian Defense Minister Sergio Mattarella said on Wednesday NATO had told Rome only last month that depleted uranium had been used in Serbia in 1999 and in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

Italy asked NATO on Wednesday to investigate the growing concerns over the use of depleted uranium. Similar requests have also been made by Portugal and Belgium, which have also reported deaths among soldiers who served in the Balkans. Five soldiers have died in Belgium and one in Portugal.

------

EC Pres. Demands Truth About 'Balkan Syndrome'

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 10:49 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-balkans.html
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010104/10/international-balkans-prodi-dc

ROME (Reuters) - European Commission President Romano Prodi said on Thursday he wanted light to be shed on claims linking depleted uranium from spent NATO ammunition to deaths or illnesses among alliance soldiers who served in the Balkans.

In an interview with Italian state radio, Prodi said ammunition with depleted uranium should not be used if there was even the slightest risk for soldiers or civilians.

``I want the truth to be ascertained, not only concerning the soldiers, but also for the people who lived near them, the population,'' Prodi told RAI.

``It is clear that if there is even a minimal risk, these arms must be abolished. And even if this risk was not there, I don't like the idea of using these particular weapons,'' he said.

Separately, Italian humanitarian groups working in the Balkans on Thursday demanded the truth be told about any health risk in using depleted uranium in ammunition.

An umbrella group called the Italian Consortium for Solidarity, comprising some 100 non-governmental organizations active in the Balkans since 1992, said it had asked the Italian government about the perils of depleted uranium, but its requests had remained unanswered for months.

The so-called ``Balkan syndrome'' has come under the spotlight over the past few days following claims that six Italian soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia developed leukemia and died after exposure to the ammunition.

``It is an issue we have raised from the start (of NATO bombing in Kosovo)...We did not know then that (uranium) was also used in Bosnia, but now we know,'' the umbrella group's president, Giulio Marcon, told a news conference.

CIVILIANS SHOULD BE TOLD

Italian Defense Minister Sergio Mattarella said on Wednesday NATO had told Rome only last month that depleted uranium had been used in Serbia in 1999 and in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

Citing a study conducted by British scientist Roger Coghill, the umbrella group said Coghill had estimated some possible 10,000 future deaths from cancer due to use of uranium in NATO strikes on Yugoslavia.

``I think the local people are in most danger, much more than the Italian army or humanitarian workers,'' said Martina Iannizzotto, the Belgrade-based coordinator of the umbrella group's activities in Yugoslavia.

``The population lives there, it breathes that air every day, eats vegetables coming from that ground -- it's not easy to avoid these bomb sites,'' she said.

Italy asked NATO on Wednesday to investigate the growing concerns over the use of depleted uranium. Similar requests have also been made by Portugal and Belgium, which have also reported deaths among soldiers who served in the Balkans. Five soldiers have died in Belgium and one in Portugal.

NATO fired some 10,800 rounds of armor-piercing uranium ammunition in Bosnia around Sarajevo between 1994 and 1995 and 31,500 in the Kosovo air campaign, the humanitarian group said.

---

Dutch Probe if Deaths Related to 'Balkan Syndrome'

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 10:40 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-balkans-dutch.html

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Netherlands said on Thursday it was investigating whether the health of its United Nations peacekeeping soldiers in the Balkans was at risk from radiation from depleted uranium following NATO attacks there.

``As far as we know two soldiers have died from leukemia. One was based in Kosovo and one in Bosnia,'' a spokesman for the Dutch Defense Ministry said.

``We're investigating whether more have died or whether there are others suffering from leukemia.''

Several NATO members have voiced concern over mysterious illnesses among alliance peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia -- the so-called ``Balkan Syndrome.''

Italy has urged the alliance to investigate claims that six Italian soldiers who died after serving in the Balkans were killed by exposure to depleted uranium from NATO attacks.

Findings would be published next week from the Dutch probe into whether there was a link between ``Balkan Syndrome'' and NATO air attacks in 1999 to oust Serbs from Kosovo, the Dutch ministry spokesman said.

U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of armor-piercing uranium ammunition against Serbian tanks and armored cars during the Kosovo air campaign. Several European countries have taken part in various Balkan peacekeeping missions since 1992.

The Netherlands still has 1,600 soldiers in Bosnia and withdrew its 1,100 peacekeepers from Kosovo last summer, the spokesman said.

NATO ambassadors are expected to discuss the ``Balkan syndrome'' at a regular meeting on January 10.

---

Pentagon Denies Balkan Uranium Worry

Associated Press
January 4, 2001 Filed at 6:05 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Uranium.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid a rising chorus of European concern, the Pentagon on Thursday denied there is a health hazard to U.S. or allied peacekeepers in the Balkans from remnants of U.S. weapons containing depleted uranium.

``We have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to depleted uranium,'' said Kenneth Bacon, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary William Cohen. ``We're pretty confident of what we've said, which is we have found no direct link.''

The Pentagon has been investigating the issue since the 1991 Gulf War, when such weapons were used in combat for the first time.

The United Nations last year sent a team of experts to Kosovo, where depleted uranium munitions were fired by U.S. Air Force A-10 aircraft in missions against Serb armored vehicles. Bacon said the team took soil and water samples that are now being evaluated by five laboratories. The results are expected this spring, he said.

In several European countries, questions are being raised about whether depleted uranium exposure may pose a cancer risk.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the European Union said the 15-nation group would conduct an inquiry, and Bacon said the issue is expected to be raised by European allies at a NATO meeting next week. Last week Italy began investigating possible links between depleted uranium munitions and about 30 cases of serious illness among soldiers who served in Kosovo and Bosnia.

Bacon said 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium munitions were fired by American aircraft during the 1999 war in Kosovo. In U.S.-led NATO air strikes against Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, about 10,800 rounds were fired around Sarajevo, he said.

Questions about possible health risks have persisted, particularly among some veterans groups, since shortly after the Gulf War.

Some in Europe have raised the possibility that exposure to depleted uranium could cause cancers such as leukemia.

Noting this, Bacon said ``a logical starting point'' for addressing that concern would be an epidemiological study that would determine if there is an unusually high incidence of leukemia among soldiers who have served in either Bosnia or Kosovo.

``That's something that could be done by European allies, it could be done by us, but it hasn't been done yet,'' Bacon said. ``And until people do that basic type of epidemiological work, which involves comparison groups, et cetera, I think it's premature to talk about any link between depleted uranium and leukemia. We have found nothing to link the two in our research.''

Uranium is best known in its enriched form, which is used for nuclear power plant fuel and in nuclear weapons. A byproduct of the enrichment process is depleted uranium which, as its name implies, is depleted of much of its radioactivity. Because depleted uranium is extremely dense, it is an unusually effective penetrator of conventional tank armor.

A 1999 Rand Corp. review of scientific literature on uranium found no studies indicating adverse health effects on humans from exposure to or ingestion of uranium compounds. Rand, which analyzes national security issues for the Pentagon, recommended more research on the subject because the use of depleted uranium munitions is expected to grow.

Of the two major health concerns associated with depleted uranium in military uses -- chemical toxicity and radiation effects -- the toxicity is generally considered to be greater, Rand said. When a depleted uranium round strikes armor or burns, it produces uranium dusts or aerosol particles, which can be inhaled. Once internalized, a fraction of the particles dissolve and enter the bloodstream, where most uranium is excreted from the body through the kidneys.

---

Italy asks NATO to explain ammo use

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2001
By PETER W. MAYER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405659059

ROME (AP) - Italy, where at least six soldiers have died of cancer since serving in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, is demanding that NATO explain its use of armor-piercing ammunition containing depleted uranium.

Italy's Green and Communist parties, both opponents of NATO's 78-day bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, have long claimed that the ammunition was sickening peacekeepers in the Balkans.

Last week, Italy announced it was investigating illnesses among soldiers deployed in Kosovo after airstrikes there in 1999. Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Finland followed suit by screening their Balkans veterans.

NATO scheduled top-level discussions on the ammunition Saturday, the Italian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

``The issue has taken a serious turn and the alarm caused is more than legitimate,'' Italian Premier Giuliano Amato said in an interview published Wednesday in La Repubblica newspaper.

Depleted uranium, a dense metal with low levels of radioactivity, is used in artillery because of its ability to penetrate armor. But some believe the dust created upon impact may be harmful.

The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, SFOR, acknowledged using depleted uranium ammunition in Bosnia in the fall of 1994 and in the fall of 1995. But SFOR rejected the theory that depleted uranium was making soldiers ill.

In Kosovo, U.S. warplanes used armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium mostly in the central, western and southwestern parts of the province _ areas where Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese peacekeepers later were deployed.

A U.N. team that went to Kosovo in November is doing a study and is expected to report its findings in February.

Amato suggested he did not believe NATO's assurances. ``Now we fear things may not be so simple,'' he said of the possible health risk.

He said Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini would press NATO to ``assume its responsibility.'' Amato also seemed to suggest that Italy was deceived about the use of depleted uranium ammunition in an earlier Balkan conflict, the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

NATO member Italy takes part in every military meeting and is entitled to whatever information it is seeking, a NATO spokesman said in Brussels, Belgium.

Italy's study will concentrate on the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, including the six who have died of cancer. About 60,000 Italian soldiers have served in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia since 1995.

Defense Minister Sergio Matarella leaves Thursday to reassure Italian peacekeepers in Bosnia.

``This is not a subject for politicians or even the military,'' he told the Corriere della Serra newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. ``Science needs to tell us what really happened.''

Other European countries were checking their troops as well for radiation.

Portugal and Turkey were screening soldiers in Kosovo, and Spain said it would examine all 32,000 troops who have served in the Balkans since 1992. Initial tests have come back negative, Spain's Defense Ministry said last week.

Portugal's Parliament held an emergency session Wednesday after the father of one deceased Kosovo veteran demanded that his son be exhumed for a radiation exposure test. The head of the army, Gen. Antonio Martins Barrento, dismissed the father's concerns as a ``paranoid fantasy.''

Finland, which is not a member of NATO but contributed 2,000 soldiers to the peacekeeping force, said spot checks of urine samples from veterans so far have revealed no radiation exposure.

Greece said it was monitoring radiation levels in the parts of Kosovo where it has troops.

---

Alarm over NATO radiation deaths

Excite News
January 4
http://www.excite.com.au/news/story/abc/20010104/08/international/abc-4jan2001-14.inp

Italy has called on NATO to give a full account of its use of weapons, containing depleted uranium.

The call follows the death of a sixth Italian soldier from what is known as 'Balkans syndrome'.

Italy is just the latest European country to express concern about Balkans syndrome.

Finland, Spain, Portugal and France have all already begun their own investigations following a growing number of radiation-related cancer deaths among soldiers who served with NATO.

NATO has admitted that it did use weapons that contained depleted uranium in the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

It was used in armour piercing weapons and is prized as a highly effective anti-tank weapon.

In its natural state, it is only mildly radioactive but on impact it turns into a burning vapour.

The Italian concern comes after the death from leukemia of a sixth Italian soldier who had served in Bosnia.

---

Italy Asks NATO to Check Deaths Tied to Uranium

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04ITAL.html

ROME, Jan. 3 - Italy said today that it had urged NATO to investigate reports that six Italian soldiers who died after serving in the Balkans had been killed by exposure to depleted uranium from spent ammunition fired by NATO forces.

Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said in a newspaper interview alarm over the so-called Balkan syndrome was "more than legitimate."

"This is a very delicate situation," he said in La Repubblica. "We've always known that depleted uranium was used in Kosovo, but not in Bosnia. We've always known that it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances like, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound, while in normal circumstances it isn't dangerous at all. But now we're starting to have a justified fear that things aren't that simple."

NATO sources said today that the North Atlantic Council would discuss the issue at its regular meeting on Tuesday. In Lisbon, the Portuguese foreign minister, Jaime Gama, and his Belgian counterpart, Louis Michel, whose countries have also reported deaths among soldiers who served in the Balkans, told reporters that the truth had to be established.

The defense minister of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, said in an interview that NATO told Rome last month that uranium had been used in Bosnia, as well as Kosovo.

A spokeswoman at NATO headquarters in Brussels confirmed that the request from Italy "for more information on the geographic use of the depleted uranium."

"Italy is a member country, and if it requests something, the alliance will do its best to help," she said.

An association that represents the families of the six dead Italians released a copy of a document in English that it said was a list of NATO guidelines sent to commanders of Italian troops in the Balkans on dealing with depleted uranium. The head of the group, Falce Accame, said the document, dated Nov. 22, 1999, had not been given to troops before that date, although they had by then spent months in Kosovo.

The document warned, "Inhalation of insoluble depleted uranium dust particles has been associated with long-term health effects, including cancers and birth defects."

All six Italians had leukemia. The latest, a 24-year-old from Sicily, died in November after having served in Bosnia but not Kosovo.

---

No Proof of Illness From Uranium Ammunition - U.S.

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 6:09 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/science-health-balkan.html
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010104/18/science-health-balkans-dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department said on Thursday there was no proof that depleted uranium bullets used by U.S. warplanes in Bosnia and Kosovo caused cancer or other ills among European peacekeeping troops in the Balkans.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters that the United States would cooperate with any NATO study of possible deaths of troops from so-called ``Balkan Syndrome'', but had no plans to suspend future use of the tank-killing shells.

European Commission President Romano Prodi demanded on Thursday to know the truth behind a spate of recent claims that debris from depleted uranium used in NATO weapons had caused death or illness among peacekeepers.

``Based on our experience, we are pretty confident on what we have said -- there are no direct links'' between debris from extremely hard cannon shells fired by A-10 attack jets and cancer or other illnesses, Bacon told reporters, citing a number of American studies.

``We see no reason to consider a moratorium now,'' he added in response to questions about reports that troops from some European countries had died of cancer after serving in areas were U.S. warplanes were used against Yugoslav armor in Bosnia in the mid-1990s and in Kosovo in 1999.

Several European nations including the current holders of the European Union presidency, Sweden, echoed Prodi's concerns, intensifying pressure on NATO to investigate the Balkan Syndrome.

In Bosnia, the NATO-led Stabilization Forcedismissed the claims, saying ammunition with depleted uranium used during the 1992-95 war there posed only a ``negligible hazard.''

The syndrome came under the spotlight following reports that six Italian soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia had developed leukemia and died after exposure to spent ammunition.

FRANCE ANNOUNCES INQUIRY

France became the latest country on Thursday to announce that it was conducting its own inquiry into the syndrome, after four of its Balkan veterans contracted leukemia. It noted that as yet no link to spent ammunition was apparent.

Depleted uranium is used in the tips of shells and bullets to increase their ability to penetrate armor and can be pulverized on impact into a toxic radioactive dust, according to defense experts.

Bacon noted that a number of U.S. studies, including by a White House panel and the Institute of Medicine, had shown no link between depleted uranium and illness. The studies included a long investigation of health complaints from thousands of U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

``We are prepared to work through NATO on this issue and to make all of our research available,'' he told reporters. ``You never exhaust the need for studies. We will continue to study it.''

Depleted uranium and other so-called ``heavy metals'' do have toxic effects if they are handled improperly, especially for long periods of time. U.S. troops were warned after the Gulf War to wear masks if they were working around destroyed Iraqi tanks where dust from such shells might be present.

Bacon said, however, that studies had shown that depleted uranium was very low on any list of causes of leukemia. And he said there was no unusual indication of cancer or other illness among U.S. peacekeepers in the Balkans.

``If you were to hold a piece of depleted uranium in your hand for 250 straight hours, you might begin to get an overdose of radiation,'' he said. ``Nobody is doing that.''

But a scientist, who said he was intimately involved in the U.S. military effort to deal with the cleanup of uranium-238 contamination following the Gulf War, charged that the problem was massive.

Dr. Doug Rokke, an environmental physicist, said all but one member of his team of roughly 100 Gulf War personnel was sick and that 20 percent of them were dead after their work disposing of 24 tanks and other vehicles destroyed by U.S. uranium munitions.

``This is what you call an absolute denial of the health effects,'' Rokke told Reuters from his home in Rantoul, Illinois, of Defense Department statements on the subject.

---

Poland Calls for Inspection Over Kaliningrad Nukes

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 12:15 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-ru.html

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland called on Thursday for an international inspection of alleged Russian weapon stores in the Kaliningrad enclave after reports Moscow had moved short-range nuclear weapons to the Baltic region.

A U.S. official said on Wednesday there had been ``some movement of tactical nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad,'' which lies between Poland and Lithuania, raising security concerns in east European countries formerly dominated by Moscow.

Russia's Defense Ministry, quoted by Interfax news agency, said reports of such a build-up were ``absolutely untrue'' but the denial failed to overcome the doubts of some of its neighbors.

``In the name of good neighborly relations I believe we should have checks into this matter,'' said Marek Siwiec, security adviser to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Polish government spokesman Krzysztof Luft said an international inspection would end speculation on the issue.

Luft declined to say under whose auspices such an inspection could be organized, but said Poland planned to consult its partners from the NATO military alliance on the issue.

In Brussels, diplomats said NATO was likely to press Russia on the Kaliningrad issue at the next formal meeting between the alliance and Moscow on January 24.

Politicians and analysts in the region said such a nuclear deployment, if confirmed, would be a setback in efforts to build regional security even though its military importance was limited. Some called it a return to Cold War policies.

In Sweden, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, a foreign ministry official said Stockholm believed Russian denials it had shifted nuclear weapons westwards.

``Deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in the Kaliningrad region would be an extraordinarily serious and deplorable act which we hope will never be undertaken by the Russian side,'' Sven-Olof Petersson said.

COLD WAR FEARS

A Polish diplomat said the alleged deployment probably served to discourage NATO from further eastward expansion and preserve Moscow's image as a military superpower despite a decline in its conventional forces.

``It is a worrying sign that Moscow still treats Kaliningrad as a military bastion rather than a zone of economic cooperation with the Baltic region and the European Union,'' he said.

Poland has less to worry about since it gained a Western security guarantee by joining NATO in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary, two other former Soviet bloc states.

``But the installation of missiles is a bad sign for the Baltic countries, which want to join NATO, but which Moscow wants to keep in its sphere of influence,'' said Grzegorz Kostrzewa-Zorbas, analyst at the Polish Academy of Science.

``It is a step back toward Cold War realities.''

Officials in the three Baltic republics, who will soon mark the 10th anniversary of a bloody crackdown by Moscow that failed to snuff out their independence movements, gave a muted reaction, saying they hoped to consult NATO diplomats on the issue.

But the former chief of staff of Estonia's armed forces, General Ants Laaneots, linked the reports of missile movements to an apparent toughening of Russian foreign policy.

``This is a continuation ofPutin's new offensive foreign policy concept, which has been stated in Russia's military doctrine adopted last year where Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons first.''

Russia strongly opposes the bids of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for NATO membership launched after they regained independence following 50 years of forced Soviet rule.

``From the military point of view, the deployment of the tactical weapons has limited significance. But the move may persuade public opinion internationally that NATO expansion would destabilize regional security,'' said Kostrzewa-Zorbas.

The conservative Polish daily Zycie printed a front-page map on Thursday that showed the 45-mile range of the alleged Kaliningrad-based tactical nuclear weapons threatening northern provinces of Poland and southern parts of Lithuania.

---

Fears Grow About Depleted Uranium

Associated Press
January 4, 2001 Filed at 3:17 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-NATO-Uranium.html http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010104/15/int-nato-uranium

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- European governments are disturbed. Some of their soldiers are falling sick and dying, and they don't know why. Every day the question grows louder: Can the armor-piercing munitions made of depleted uranium that NATO used in Kosovo be causing cancer?

There is no answer. Nobody has made the connection scientifically. Certainly not NATO.

The United States, the only NATO ally to use depleted uranium weapons during the 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, insisted again Thursday that the munitions pose no health threat.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it is aware of the concerns being raised by some allies.

``We share those concerns,'' said Lt. Col. Paul Phillips. He said the United States has conducted many studies on depleted uranium, particularly since the 1991 Gulf War when the weapons were first used.

``In each study, we've come away convinced that the use of depleted uranium munitions does not present significant or residual environmental or health risks,'' Phillips said.

NATO spokeswoman Simone de Manso in Brussels, said: ``According to our knowledge from independent research ... there is no study that can prove a direct link between certain types of diseases of which people are now afraid and contact with depleted uranium.''

His remarks echoed those of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, SFOR. It said in a statement Wednesday that research has shown ``there is a negligible hazard'' from the ammunition.

``SFOR doesn't believe that either the troops serving within SFOR today or the civilian population in Bosnia are at risk,'' the statement said.

The reassurances haven't calmed jittery Europeans, and Thursday the 15-nation European Union added its voice.

``There will be an informal inquiry,'' said EU spokesman Jonathan Faull. He said it was too soon to say if soldiers who served in the Balkans under NATO were suffering from illnesses as a result of contact with depleted uranium. ``What we know is that community citizens have been affected.''

Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said the EU ``needs to know the truth.''

``If there exists the slightest risk, then these weapons should be abolished immediately,'' Prodi told Italian radio.

A year ago, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson confirmed that American jets had fired about 31,000 depleted uranium rounds at Yugoslav armored vehicles in Kosovo.

The U.N. Environment Program is expected to release a report on the subject next month. And the subject will be discussed at NATO's regular weekly political committee Tuesday.

Italy launched an investigation last week into a possible link between depleted uranium munitions and about 30 cases of serious illness involving soldiers who served in missions Kosovo and earlier in Bosnia, 12 of whom developed cancer. Five of the soldiers have died of leukemia.

And France said Thursday that four French soldiers who served in the Balkans during the 1999 bombing campaign are being treated for leukemia.

Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Turkey announced plans to screen peacekeepers.

Some don't believe the screening is worth the effort.

Wendla Paile of the Finnish Center for Radiation and Nuclear Safety in Helsinki said such screening was ``pointless.''

``The radiation from uranium depleted ammunition is so little that it could not explain these extra cases (of leukemia),'' Paile said.

Paul Beaver, an analyst at Janes Defense Weekly, said the countries screening their troops have no idea what to look for.

``The problem is there hasn't been any really good work done on it,'' Beaver said. ``There is no concrete information. There has been research carried out by the U.S. Army, the British and the French as well, but it seems inconclusive. I've read all the literature I can find on it, but I have no straight answer.''

---

EU Demands Truth From NATO Over Uranium Shells

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 3:55 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-health-.html

LONDON (Reuters) - European Commission President Romano Prodi demanded on Thursday to know the truth behind claims that depleted uranium used in NATO weapons had caused death or illness among Balkan peacekeepers.

Several European nations including the current holders of the European Union presidency, Sweden, echoed Prodi's concerns, intensifying pressure on NATO to investigate the so-called ''Balkan Syndrome.''

In Bosnia, the NATO-led Stabilization Forcedismissed the claims, saying ammunition with depleted uranium used during the 1992-95 war there posed only a ``negligible hazard.''

The syndrome came under the spotlight following reports that six Italian soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia had developed leukemia and died after exposure to spent ammunition.

France became the latest country on Thursday to announce that it was conducting its own inquiry into the syndrome, after four of its Balkan veterans contracted leukemia. It noted that as yet no link to spent ammunition was apparent.

Depleted uranium is used in the tips of missiles, shells and bullets to increase their ability to penetrate armor and can be pulverized on impact into a toxic radioactive dust, defense experts say.

NATO SAYS NO PLANS TO CHANGE

Prodi said that even if there were the slightest risk from the munitions, they should be abolished.

``I want the truth to be ascertained, not only concerning the soldiers, but also for the people who lived near them, the population,'' Prodi told Italian state radio.

U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition against Serbian tanks and armored vehicles during NATO's 1999 Kosovo campaign, according to a United Nations expert. Some 10,000 were fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95, NATO officials reported only last month.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity ruled out any immediate plans to destroy stocks of depleted uranium munitions.

``The onus is on those who call ill health to prove it, rather than on us, who don't,'' he told CNN.

``If things change, NATO will change.''

In a bid to establish the facts, Belgium has urged EU defense ministers to analyze and debate peacekeepers' health problems for the first time at EU level.

Sweden welcomed the proposal and said it would be discussed at a meeting next Tuesday of the interim Political and Security Committee. ``It is important that we act,'' Swedish Defense Minister Bjorn von Sydow said in a statement on Thursday.

He said that Sweden's ambassador to NATO would consult with the alliance, although the country is not itself a NATO member.

NATO ambassadors are expected to discuss the issue at their regular meeting next Wednesday, NATO sources said.

MYSTERY AILMENTS

Belgium has reported that five peacekeepers who were in Bosnia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia have died from cancer.

It said that other soldiers who had been on Balkan peacekeeping missions during the 1990s reported a variety of unexplained ailments, including headaches and insomnia.

The Netherlands reported that two soldiers who served in Kosovo and Bosnia had died from leukemia and Portugal has raised concerns over the death of one of its Balkans veterans.

Both countries, along with Bulgaria, Finland and Greece, said tests were being conducted among troops who served in the Balkans and who are still in Kosovo.

Germany and Spain said tests among their peacekeeping troops had so far turned up no evidence of ``Balkan Syndrome.''

CONCERNS GROW FOR CIVILIANS

Concerns over the risks of depleted uranium shells during the Kosovo campaign have been voiced by civilian aid workers in Britain, the Netherlands and Italy.

An umbrella group called the Italian Consortium for Solidarity, comprising some 100 non-governmental organizations active in the Balkans since 1992, cited a study by British scientist Roger Coghill which estimated some 10,000 possible future deaths from cancer due to use of uranium in the Balkans.

``I think the local people are in most danger,'' said Martina Iannizzotto, the Belgrade-based coordinator of the group's activities in Yugoslavia.

Italian fishermen urged their government to investigate whether any of the bombs dumped by planes during the Kosovo campaign and dredged up in nets contained depleted uranium.

A U.N. report in May warned that much of Kosovo's water could be so contaminated as to be unfit to drink, and that a clean-up of the province could cost billions of dollars. It warned U.N. staff not to approach any target which might have been hit by a depleted uranium weapon.

Prodi proposed setting up immediate contact with the governments of Bosnia and Serbia to discuss pollution and problems linked to depleted uranium.

SFOR said a U.N. Environmental Program was due to report early in 2001 on any possible risks after measuring radiation levels in soil samples.

--------

Defense News
Thursday, January 4, 2001 - 3:00 p.m. EST

United States Department of Defense
NEWS TRANSCRIPT
Media contact: newsdesk@osd.pentagon.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131
Public contact: defenselink@osd.pentagon.mil or +1 (703) 697-5737
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2001/t01042001_t0104asd.html

Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA
DoD News Briefing - Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA

Bacon: Good afternoon. What are you looking at your watch for? Huh? (Laughter.)

Q: Good evening.

Bacon: Good evening?! (Laughter.)

I'm going to make my briefings maybe just progressively later until my last briefing will begin at 21:30 or something like that. You say you work for a worldwide wire service, you know; any time you file, people will be reading it, right?

Okay, let me start with a couple of -- I do apologize, actually, for being late. Let me start withtwo brief announcements.

First, Secretary Cohen and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will host an honors ceremony for President and Mrs. Clinton, who is now Senator Clinton, tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. at Conmy Hall, Fort Myer. And if you plan to cover that, you should go to the Media Center located in Building 405 at Fort Myer between 1:30 and 3:00. There will be a shuttle bus to take media from the Media Center to the ceremony location. And we can give you more information on that, if you need it. [See http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/01-001.html]

Q: What exactly is it?

Bacon: This is a -- the secretary and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are going to give an award tomorrow to President Clinton and to Senator Clinton for their support of the military over the last eight years. And that ceremony will be open to the press, if you want to go. It's at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Second, the National Collegiate Athletic Association will present Secretary Cohen its highest award, which is called the Theodore Roosevelt Award, on Sunday, January 7th, at their annual convention in Orlando, Florida. And this award, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, is presented each year to a public official of outstanding accomplishment who has earned a varsity letter in college and has supported the ideals of collegiate athletic programs. [See http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2001/p01042001_p002-01.html]

As you know, Secretary Cohen was a basketball player of some repute in New England as a college student at Bowdoin. Other public recipients -- public officials who have received this award are Presidents Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan and Bush; Senator Robert Dole, Justice Byron White, General Omar Bradley, and Jack Kemp received the award, as well as Bill Cosby.

With that, I'll take your questions.

Charlie.

Q: Ken, depleted uranium is raising its ugly head again. The Spaniards and Italians are claiming that some of their troops may have died peacekeeping in the Balkans. Have any American troops suffered difficulties from that, and what's the U.S. got to say about this?

Bacon: Well, first, we have studied depleted uranium at considerable length over the years because of assertions that it might contribute to Gulf War Illness. And, as you know, we have found -- we have not been able to find any connection between exposure to depleted uranium on the one hand and the constellation of illnesses or symptoms included in Gulf War Illness on the other hand. Just before Christmas, as a matter of fact, we released a review of medical literature that reached that conclusion and it sustained a similar conclusion reached by us alone in 1998 -- by us the Defense Department alone in 1998. So we have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to depleted uranium. [See http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2000/b12192000_bt753-00.html]

We are aware of the European concerns and we are working closely with our allies. This has been brought up in the NATO context and it's also been brought up in the UN. The UN, last year, sent a team to Kosovo to take soil samples, water samples, milk samples and other tests, and they are currently in the process of evaluating those samples, I believe, at five laboratories. And that work will be done, I believe, some time in the Spring.

NATO, I understand, is going to discuss this issue next week at a meeting in Brussels. It will be brought up by the Europeans, we expect. We have been working with them; we have made a lot of information available to our European allies on this. Over quite a period of time we have worked with KFOR to put out information packets on depleted uranium which was used in Kosovo during Operation Allied Force.

On it's potential health impacts, now --

Q: Does that include how to -- what not -- what to avoid and how to handle, you know, items that have been struck by ammunitions -- that kind of thing? Or is it --

Bacon: It does. It does include what to do if you find a part of a depleted uranium round. We use depleted uranium in two ways. We use it in projectiles for anti-armor -- for use against tanks and other armored vehicles. We use it in projectiles used by the A-10 and the GAU-8 gun and we use it in projectiles used in our tank -- our main battle tank, the Abrams tank.

We also use depleted uranium in armor for the tank, and depleted uranium -- it's worth noting -- is exactly what its name implies. It is uranium that is depleted of radiation. Therefore it is uranium that is less radioactive by some 40 percent than naturally occurring uranium. Uranium is in the ground, it's in the water, it's in the air, but depleted uranium is uranium from which isotopes have been taken away in order to enrich other pieces of uranium to make it into enriched uranium, which is used in nuclear power plants, for instance.

So, the depleted uranium has less radioactivity than normal uranium. It is a heavy metal; extremely dense, and that's why it's useful in armor as well as in projectiles.

Q: Okay, thank you.

Q: Has there been any --

Bacon: Just let me finish.

Q: Oh, sorry.

Bacon: And heavy metals such as lead do have some natural chemical toxicity to it. But, having said that, we do not believe that our troops, who have been using depleted uranium rounds and been sitting in tanks armored by depleted uranium or including armor -- armored by armor that includes depleted uranium -- we do not believe that it has led to adverse health consequences.

We do not believe that it has led to adverse health consequences.

Q: So there's no indication that any U.S. peacekeeping troops in the region might have been affected by depleted uranium around the --

Bacon: No. No.

Yes?

Q: Would you just back up on the --

Q: Can I ask a follow-up to that, please?

Bacon: I'll get to you, Ivan.

Q: -- depleted uranium that was used? You said that it was used by A-10s and by tanks --

Bacon: We didn't use tanks -- we did not use tanks in Bosnia. We used tanks in the Gulf War.

Q: So from a logistic -- (inaudible) -- then, the A-10s were the only platforms firing depleted uranium?

Bacon: That's my understanding, yes.

Q: And these were just the cannon on the A-10?

Bacon: NATO reported to the UN in a letter last year that DU rounds were used when the A-10s engaged armor during Operation Allied Force. It was used throughout Kosovo in approximately 100 missions. A total of approximately 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition were used during Operation Allied Force.

Q: So that's a 20-caliber -- or actually, whatever it --

(Cross talk.)

Bacon: It's the -- (inaudible). Whatever the caliber is, that's what the gun is called, as I understand it. Depleted uranium is used also in the ballast of ships and as a stabilizing material in airplanes. It's used commercially in transportation products, as well as in weaponry.

Yes?

Q: I thought the allegations were about Bosnia more than Kosovo, or am I mistaken about that? And why would there have been much depleted uranium, if any, used in Bosnia?

Bacon: Yes. There was some used in Bosnia, but a much smaller amount.

Q: Same type of armament, though, that --

Bacon: Well, SHAPE estimates that 10,800 rounds of armor- piercing rounds were used in -- around Sarajevo in '94 and '95.

Q: That would be tank rounds, or what would that be?

Bacon: Yeah, it would have been -- well, these were not -- we did not have tanks on the ground in Bosnia in '94, and we actually didn't have any tanks around Sarajevo ever because our tanks had gone to Tuzla. These would have been used by aircraft.

Q: Also A-10s or --

Bacon: I believe so. Yes, I believe so.

Yes?

Q: (Off mike) -- also uses DU, I believe. But has the U.S. taken any particular safeguards against troops and others handling DU ammunition? Do they wear radiation badges? Do they wear protective clothing at all? Even with a 40 percent reduction, as you know, radiation is cumulative, and it would seem that there may be some kind of danger there.

Bacon: Troops are instructed to wear masks, if they're around what they consider to be atomized or particle-ized depleted uranium; that is if rounds have struck tanks, there could be depleted uranium dust around. So if they were working around an Iraqi tank that had been disabled by a depleted uranium round, they would be instructed to wear some sort of mask to prevent breathing in particles.

Q: I'm referring more to the loading of the ammunition or aircraft or whatever.

Bacon: No. No. In fact, the ammunition, I believe, is -- the depleted uranium is shielded by a very thin layer of steel, so there's no direct exposure to it. And the depleted uranium in the armor is part of a sandwich of blocking materials, so it's included in layers and it's not the outside layer.

Yes?

Q: Two questions. One is, the information package of material that you said was distributed, can we get a copy of those, or are they available on the DefenseLINK?

Bacon: We can certainly get a copy of the U.S. ones. I don't know whether we have the KFOR ones around, but we can certainly get you the type of information that the Army puts out, for instance.

Q: And my second question is, how confident can you be, and how conclusive is the evidence that there is no health effects associated with any exposure to depleted uranium?

Bacon: Well, I think that based on our experience, we're pretty confident of what we've said, which is we have found no direct link.

Q: I mean, is the science very solid? Is the medical -- or is this another case, as we've seen with many of the things relating to Gulf War illnesses, for instance, where we look at the research and we're told that it can't be ruled out, no evidence, but more study is needed. Is this an area where more study is needed?

Bacon: We've done several studies, and -- in the Gulf War context, including reviews of medical literature. There are 33 soldiers who were involved in friendly fire accidents where they were hit by depleted uranium rounds during the Gulf War. They were in vehicles that were hit. Some of them -- about 15 of them have particles of depleted uranium in their bodies -- shrapnel. They are being monitored very carefully. We have not seen any unusual health impact from the radiation from the depleted uranium in their bodies. I mean, obviously, if they were hit with shrapnel, they could have some health consequences from that. But we haven't seen any from the fact that the shrapnel is depleted uranium.

Now this is what's been laid out in -- by the Gulf War people over the years in their studies, and you can get them; they're all on the web site [ http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_index.htm]. The --

Q: Well, could I just repeat my question? I guess what I meant to ask was, is more study needed on this question, or is the scientific verdict in on depleted --

Bacon: No, I think the lesson of the Gulf War illness studies, starting in 1996, when we changed direction on dealing with Gulf War illness, is that you never exhaust the need for studies. And we are constantly studying these. We have studied depleted uranium for the last 10 years, and we'll continue to study it.

The -- some of the news stories that I have read out of Europe recently link leukemia with depleted uranium. Now the largest external cause of leukemia is cigarette smoke.

So there's a 20 percent contribution from cigarette smoke to leukemia. Radiation has a very, very low contribution to causes of leukemia. Leukemia frequently does not develop quickly. So I think that the first thing that's necessary, if we're dealing with allegations that there is a connection between leukemia and depleted uranium, is an epidemiological study that would determine first if there's an unusually high incidence of leukemia among soldiers who have served in either Bosnia or Kosovo. It could take a long time to produce that study.

But that would be a logical starting point to find out if there is any reason for proceeding further. First of all, a basic epidemiological study. That's something that could be done by European allies, it could be done by us. But it hasn't been done yet. And until people do that basic type of epidemiological work, which involves comparison groups, et cetera, I think it's premature to talk about any link between depleted uranium and leukemia. We have found nothing to link the two in our research.

Q: Ken, if there is no health effect, why would American soldiers handling some of this material be urged to wear masks?

Bacon: Well, what we're talking about is a material that, if you -- like most things in our lives -- if you were to hold a piece of depleted uranium in your hand for 250 straight hours, you might begin to get an overdose of radiation. Nobody is doing that. So we have given people standards and training for the people who deal with depleted uranium for protecting themselves from anything that might occur, but we have not found any connection between depleted uranium -- I mean, if you drank too much water, you could theoretically get into trouble, but we don't go around worrying about water.

Q: But you aren't asking your soldiers to wear masks when they're handling water.

Bacon: No. All we're --

Q: You're asking them to wear masks when they're handling depleted uranium.

Bacon: In a small number of cases where a depleted uranium round has hit an armored vehicle and where there may be dust -- now, all our studies show that in cases where there is dust, it is washed away and nullified by the first heavy rain. But there aren't a lot of heavy rains in the desert, so obviously, when we were advising our soldiers how to deal with depleted uranium damage, or damaged vehicles in the desert, we were careful to point out that they should wear masks.

Q: And it is the radioactivity, not necessarily the other toxicities contained in this --

Bacon: Well, I'm not enough of a scientist to be able to differentiate between the two. The radioactivity -- as I pointed out, the radioactivity is 40 percent less than in natural occurring uranium; hence the name "depleted uranium." There is a certain amount of toxicity in heavy metals. Mercury is a heavy metal; it's highly toxic. But we're not talking about mercury, we're talking about something entirely different.

Q: Right, that's what I'm trying to figure out is, is it the substance itself or the radioactive of the substance itself that could be a potential health factor?

Bacon: I can't answer that question. I mean, if you'd like, we can get a depleted uranium expert down here to run you through not only what we've learned during our Gulf War studies -- we could have Bernie Rostker come down and talk about those. And we'd be glad to bring down a scientist to talk about other aspects of depleted uranium. If there is a vote for this, we will definitely do it. In fact, I may do it anyway. (Laughter.)

Q: In monitoring the health of troops in the Balkans, which was instituted as a result of the Persian Gulf stuff, wouldn't a spike or a higher incidence of leukemia than normal, isn't that something that would be readily apparent?

Bacon: We have not found that in American troops. And there was depleted uranium used in several areas, at several sites in the American sector; one is Urosevac -- during Operation Allied Force. We have not found any unusual health effects at all from our soldiers in the Balkans, and we do give them very extensive health audits on the way in and on the way out. And we have certainly found nothing linked to depleted uranium. So we have found nothing that would make us suspicious, and certainly nothing that would make us -- that would make us think that there was any link -- nothing to link depleted uranium to leukemia.

Q: Has any attempt been made to track the health, specifically, of troops who work with depleted uranium, whether in the states or in deployments -- that kind of thing?

Bacon: Well, I don't know the answer to that, but probably as a group in the United States, people in the uniform of the military have more ready access to health care and better chances of being tracked, year to year, than almost any other group in the United States because they all participate in a health care plan and they are vaccinated and examined fairly regularly, not only when they deploy and when they return from deployments, but they have to take physicals and that type of thing.

Q: But if you don't do that, I mean, how can you know whether there's a problem -- whether any problems are arising associated with exposure to depleted uranium on the part of troops?

Bacon: If we saw unusual health patterns within the military we would work very hard to correlate those patterns to particular duty. We have not seen such unusual patterns and therefore we have not seen any -- we have not seen anything that would correlate it or lead us to try to correlate it to duty in armored corps, for instance.

Q: One more question. The Italians have called for a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium munitions. Is that something that the United States would consider doing?

Bacon: We don't see any health reasons to consider a moratorium at this stage. We will work with our allies, as I said, in health studies, but we see no reason to consider a moratorium now.

From our standpoint, depleted uranium saves lives of soldiers in two ways. One, it increases the kinetic potential and destructive potential of both tank rounds and A-10 rounds in use against armor. And two, it provides better armor protection to our tanks.

Not one tank, not one American tank protected by armor containing depleted uranium was killed, so to speak, by an Iraqi tank during Desert Storm.

Yes?

Q: Related to that question, has the Pentagon made any assessment as to why it seems there's suddenly this huge outcry in Europe about the issue? And do you think it could be aimed at forcing the U.S. and NATO to give up depleted uranium projectiles and armor?

Bacon: Well, you know, there has been a very concerted campaign against depleted uranium by our enemies, first Saddam Hussein, and second, Slobodan Milosevic. And if you log on to Serb web sites, particularly the Serb web sites that were put up by the Milosevic (inaudible) during the war, Operation Allied Force, you will see a lot of ranting about depleted uranium. We don't think that it reflects the science at all, but it's there. And I don't know whether this type of emotionalism has infected other countries or not.

I also think that whenever a soldier is sick, there is an understandable effort to find out why and to try to figure out if some terms of his service or her service contributed to the illness. And there may be some of that going on there.

We have been cooperating with our allies on this. We have given them a substantial amount of information. All our studies are available on the Web [ http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_index.htm]. You can look at them; anybody else can look at them. They aren't in Italian, but Italians can read them in English. And we are prepared to work, through NATO, on this issue and to make all our research available. What we're asking people to do is to look at the science.

Yes?

Q: This one might have to wait for your uranium expert, but you've explained the difference in levels of radiation between uranium and depleted uranium, but what's the difference between depleted uranium and ambient radiation in a normal tank?

Bacon: Well, I mean, there is ambient radiation, and I don't know the -- I mean, I've seen figures on that.

I don't have them at my fingertips, but we could give you something that answers that.

Q: Would that tell us how many more -- how much -- many more times radiant -- you know what I'm saying -- depleted uranium is than --

Bacon: We're not talking -- depleted uranium, as I said, is used in commercial airliners, it's used in cargo ships. For all I know, it may be used in private yachts in their keels, because that's the type of place that it's used. So it is around us in our life and, as I say, uranium, which is naturally more radioactive than depleted uranium, is around us in our lives as well. I'll get you some analysis of that.

Yes --

Q: Can I ask -- is the subject exhausted?

Bacon: I don't know. (Laughter.)

Q: It's depleted!

Bacon: It has a long half-life, I can see.

Q: I have a related question.

Bacon: Sure.

Q: Is this Defense Department at all concerned about the Russians moving their tactical nuclear weapons --

Q: Radiation! Radiation! (Laughter.)

Q: -- and if so, have they determined the reason why they're being moved?

Bacon: Well, I can't answer that question directly because I can't comment on intelligence reports, and I won't. I will refer you back to what my colleague at the State Department, Richard Boucher, said yesterday on this. We do not think there has been a dramatic change in the military balance in Europe recently, certainly, and we are aware that the Russians have made statements saying that as their conventional forces get weaker that they will look more and more to their nuclear forces. But beyond that, I can't comment on any specific reports.

Yes, Tony?

Q: The Russian foreign minister yesterday accused the U.S. of repeatedly violating the START I Treaty in terms of not properly destroying MX ballistic missiles. Do you have any reaction to that?

Bacon: Well, I would say it's a classic case of old wine in old bottles. They've made this charge repeatedly. We and the Russians have a disagreement about this. We contend that if we -- I think their latest charges dealt with Peacekeepers missiles, as I understand it. First of all, if we did nothing to our Peacekeepers missiles, we still wouldn't be in violation of START II, but we are destroying Peacekeeper missiles. We regard a Peacekeeper missile destroyed if we destroy the top stage; the upper stage. They regard it destroyed if the whole missile is destroyed.

We argue that if we destroy the upper stage, the missile is destroyed, and we can use the rest as a launch vehicle for satellites or other things. That's basically the argument.

But this is something they've said repeatedly, and therefore I call it old wine in old bottles.

Q: I don't think you've destroyed Peacekeepers missiles -- (off mike) --

Bacon: We have destroyed two of them.

Q: Two of them?

Bacon: Yeah.

Q: Can I ask you a Cole follow-up? We've had a lot of stories in the last --

Q: Before we -- before you go on to that new thing --

Bacon: Oh, yeah --

Q: Oh, excuse me.

Q: -- I've got a Kaliningrad thing. Back in -- I think it was the Bush administration, the U.S. Navy took tactical nukes off its ships, and I don't think there was ever a treaty or agreement with the Russians on this. But I think they did something similar, perhaps, or perhaps it just applied to the Baltic fleet. I'm not sure. But at that time, might they have taken Navy tactical nuclear weapons off of their ships and put them into headquarters of the Baltic fleet, which is Kaliningrad? Or does this -- might this be something that's been around for a few years?

Bacon: It's highly possible that they took tactical nuclear weapons off their ships and stored them in Kaliningrad.

Q: How about Army weapons?

Bacon: It's highly possible they stored Army and Air Force weapons at storage sites in Kaliningrad.

Q: And they might have done this several years ago?

Bacon: Yes, they might have.

Yes?

Q: On another issue --

Q: No, I have a question with that --

Bacon: Yeah?

Q: Can you comment on the security of Kaliningrad? And is there any risk of those weapons falling into the wrong hands?

Bacon: Our experience has been that generally the Russians have been quite diligent in securing their weapons.

Yes?

Q: Ken, some, I guess, office business: There are a number of reports and studies hanging fire that the SecDef has ordered. Is he going to try to clean up everything before he leaves office?

For instance, is the V-22 study going to be completed and released before --

Bacon: No.

Q: -- you know, this in-depth study out of the program at -- sorry. And the F-22 -- is there going to be a decision on whether or not to go ahead on an initial full-rate production of the F-22, or --

Bacon: In terms of the V-22, Secretary Cohen ordered a broad review of the program. That will not be complete before he leaves. It'll probably take at least several months to complete that.

Q: So he's going to leave that for the next --

Bacon: The terms of reference, I think, were just published yesterday. And it will take some time for the team of three to complete that.

The F-22 Defense Acquisition Board was supposed to have -- was originally scheduled to have taken place on January 3rd. It had to be delayed for a number of reasons, and it has not been rescheduled. So it's unclear when that will in fact happen. The Air Force is working to meet all the criteria necessary in order to allow the board to take place, but we don't have a date on that yet.

Q: Isn't Ganzler -- sorry. Is it this weekend he's leaving?

Bacon: Yes, he is leaving on -- tomorrow is his last day. We will miss him. He's, as you know, the under secretary for acquisitions, technology and logistics. And he is leaving for academia tomorrow.

Q: Well, wouldn't you have to --

Bacon: Well, he has a deputy and he has a whole organization of people who would review this. But one of the issues, of course, is whether this decision will be ready to be made before the 20th, and if it is, whether we should make it or leave it for the next administration.

Q: I guess what I'm asking is, is it likely that you will? Is it likely that it will be ready, number one. And if you -- is the secretary inclined to leave this until the next --

Bacon: I cannot answer that question because, so far, it's just not -- the decision is not ready to be made. The Air Force hasn't met all the criteria. One of the reasons is that weather -- the crippling weather in the Southeast over the last couple of weeks has delayed their flight program. They are working diligently to try to get everything done; I don't know whether they will.

Q: But again -- again, I'm sorry to --

Bacon: Charlie, I can't answer the question. There are two elements. One, I can't answer the question because I don't know whether the Air Force will in fact complete all its work that's necessary for the review to take place, and even if they do, then we have to make a decision whether we're going to decide it now or leave it to the next administration. I thought I was clear about that. But in other words, we haven't made a decision.

Q: Speaking of the next administration, what's the latest on the transition effort here?

Bacon: The transition effort has been greatly accelerated by the fact that they chose as secretary of Defense one who has already been secretary of defense and knows a lot and has been following this issue very closely. His team has been meeting with people. Secretary-designate Rumsfeld will meet with Secretary Cohen tomorrow for breakfast. And they have had at least one phone conversation, maybe more.

And we have provided a lot of information to their transition team and made all officials they've requested available to them.

Q: They're meeting here -- here at the Pentagon?

Bacon: Here, right.

Q: And there is a photo-op at breakfast. Is that right?

Bacon: We are in the process of trying to arrange that now and we'll let you know.

Q: And what time will that be?

Bacon: It's in the morning. I don't know exactly when.

Yes.

Q: On the Cole report, can you give us a state of play, in terms of when it may be released and publicly briefed?

Bacon: It may be released early next week.

Q: Can you comment on any of the press reports in terms of their accuracy and the thrust of the report that there were security violations, and --

Bacon: No, I think we'll just wait for the report to come out.

Q: Can I ask you an F-22 follow-up?

Bacon: Sure.

Q: Does the Pentagon have any reaction to Philip Coyle's December 20th, five-page report suggesting that they not make the production decision because testing has not progressed as much as it should have?

Bacon: Well, I said earlier that one of the reasons the Defense Acquisition Board was delayed from January 3rd was because the Air Force had not completed all of the tests. It's striving to do that as quickly as possible. Whether it does so or not in time for a new Defense Acquisition Board to be held quickly remains to be seen.

And they may -- the Air Force may have more up-to-date information on it, but as of this morning they had not completed all of those tests.

Q: Coyle's report suggests that just even if they don't do all the ten criteria this program is so far behind schedule it's going to take another year to complete full-scale development, therefore you don't really need to buy these next 10 airplanes. Has this --

Bacon: That's exactly the type of decision that would be looked at when they sit down to review the program. And since we haven't had that review, we haven't considered all the points raised by Phil Coyle.

Q: But they will be taken into consideration, is that --

Bacon: This is exactly the type of thing we take into consideration, right.

Yeah.

Q: Well, getting back to that, do you know, or can you comment on if flying aircraft 4006 will have -- they'll have some sort of clemency with that that they actually won't have to get that aircraft off the ground to consider all criteria met?

Bacon: No, I can't answer that question.

Q: And back to the V-22, will the V-22's continue to remain grounded until that report is in -- the several-month-long study?

Bacon: I don't know the answer to that question. I don't know if any decision has been made on it. The V-22 could depend more on the Marine crash investigation than the overall review of the program. Q: Do you have any update on that crash investigation?

Bacon: I do not. I do not, no. I mean, the Marines have been very forthcoming about reporting information when they have it. And I'm sure that when they learn more and they have some confidence in it, they'll report that as well.

Yes, Dale.

Q: Ken, the Senators Warner and Stevens were in the building earlier and I understand they met with Secretary Cohen. Can you give us any kind of readout on that, and specifically whether there was discussion of the Crouch-Gehman report and the other reports pending on the Cole, and any steps that the Congress might be asked to take regards enhancing force protection?

Bacon: Secretary Cohen gave a lunch this afternoon for the so-called "Big Eight." These are the chairman and the ranking minority members of the Senate and House Armed Services committees and the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and the Defense Appropriations subcommittees to those committees.

And that's why Senators Stevens and Warner and Levin and Inouye were here, as well as all of their congressional counterparts except Congressman Murtha, who wasn't able to come. So the discussion, it was really an event talking about the overall relations, good relations between the Pentagon and the committees that supervise us, and not about specifics.

Q: So it was in the nature of a farewell kind of luncheon, is that --

Bacon: Yes, that would be a good way to describe it.

Yes, Ivan?

Q: A new topic, if I may?

Bacon: Sure.

Q: Vieques. Has this department made a decision on what it's going to do if the new governor of Puerto Rico abridges the existing agreement/treaty?

Bacon: Well, Governor Calderon, who was sworn in early this week, has made some very clear statements about Vieques. We are waiting to sit down and talk with her about the way ahead on Vieques. The Navy's view and the department's view on this is very clear, that we have an agreement that calls for a referendum to decide the future of the Navy range on -- the Navy use of Vieques. We have set a date for that referendum. I believe it's in November of this year, November 6th or 7th, as I recall, of this year. And we are prepared to move ahead with that. And there are some land transfers and other actions to take place before that. We did not make any land transfers at the end of December as originally planned because we wanted to be able to sort out with the governor-elect, now Governor Calderon, exactly what her plans are for Vieques. And I hope we'll be able to do that relatively soon.

Q: I have a business regulation question. About three weeks ago, the Office of Management and Budget put out a regulation that would allow contracting officers to essentially blackball or debar companies accused of federal crimes. The Pentagon, according to business leaders, was opposed to that regulation. The Pentagon, however, declined to release its comments publicly while the process was pending. Can you check with Diedre Lee's office -- she's the director of procurement -- to see if that document can now be released? It is still a hot issue in the business community.

Bacon: Yeah. See Captain Taylor about that. This one has escaped me.

Q: I know.

Bacon: But it -- we'll -- yeah?

Q: Any information yet on where Secretary Cohen is going to go next?

Bacon: Well, I think when he is prepared to announce his future plans, he will. And he is not prepared to make an announcement yet.

Initially when he leaves he'll move over into some offices in Crystal City, as Secretary Perry did after he left as secretary, to organize his papers and complete various loose ends, and he'll be over there for a while. And then he'll make his announcement at the appropriate time.

Yes?

Q: Yes, back to Vieques. Now the governor has been sworn in, has said as recently as yesterday that she's going to withdraw the SWAT team at the entrance of the gate which provides protection to the range. She still vows that she's going to have her own independent referendum. She still has called once again on President Clinton to use his powers as commander-in-chief to order the withdrawal of the Navy now. When does the department finally decide that the agreement is null and void, or is there any hope that she can get what she wants?

Bacon: I can't answer those questions. As I said, there has to be a meeting between the governor or her team and either the Navy or the administration. As you know, the current agreement was hammered out over a number of months during a number of meetings at the White House and here and elsewhere, in San Juan, and we'll continue the process.

We believe this agreement gives us, gives the Navy, the right to use Vieques as a training range until the referendum is held, under the terms that were set in the agreement -- no live fire but inert ordnance -- and our plans are to continue to do that. But we will attempt to sit down and talk with the governor about this.

Thank you.

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SFOR, IS THE U.S.GOVERNMENT;
SFOR says depleted uranium "a negligible hazard"

By Nedim Dervisbegovic
Thu, 4 Jan 2001 18:25:46 -0500 (EST)

All americans must see it take 15 years for cancers to develop in the human. It only been 10 years from the GULF WAR, 35,000 U.S. Troops have died since the war from exposures to the 1991 gulf war.

EDWARD J. BRYAN HEALTH CARE LIAISON FOR GULF WAR VETERANS DISABLED GULF VETERAN BLUE RIBBON PANEL 1/24/2001

--

SARAJEVO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia said on Thursday the ammunition with depleted uranium it had used during the 1992-95 war there posed only a "negligible hazard."

"SFOR does not believe that either the troops serving with SFOR today, or civilian population are at risk from DU (depleted uranium) ammunition," SFOR said in a statement, issued as a row erupted over alleged "Balkans syndrome" among peacekeepers.

NATO ambassadors are expected to discuss the mysterious illness next week following claims that six Italian peacekeepers died after being exposed to depleted uranium from spent ammunition, NATO sources said earlier on Thursday.

The six Italian soldiers, who all served in the Balkans, died of leukaemia. Several other NATO member states have also voiced concern about the problem.

Italian Defence Minister Sergio Mattarella told Italian troops in Sarajevo during a visit on Thursday that a commission he has set up to investigate the problem would establish whether the causes of the Italian soldiers' deaths were inter-linked.

SFOR said the alliance had conducted research to establish whether the ammunition with depleted uranium -- used by NATO troops in 1994-95 -- posed any medical risk.

"The result of that research showed that there is a negligible hazard, and that there is no significant risk to deployed troops or to the local population," SFOR said.

"Negligible hazard means that no threat or medical hazard exists that is any different from what is experienced in normal day-to-day life," the peace force said.

It added that a U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP) assessment team had been tasked in November last year with investigating any possible risks by collecting and analysing soil samples and measuring radiation levels.

"We will be informed of their results early this year," SFOR said, noting that the International Commission on Radiation Protection did not list depleted uranium as a health hazard.

SFOR said depleted uranium is 40 percent less radioactive than naturally occurring uranium. Armour-piercing rounds tipped with DU have the ability to "self-sharpen" as they penetrate, whereas other types tend to mushroom, blunting their impact.

According to the Pentagon in Washington, the major health concerns about DU relate to its chemical properties as a heavy metal rather than its low radioactivity.

Since 1993, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been monitoring 33 American victims of "friendly fire" in the Gulf, half of whom still have DU fragments embedded in their bodies and show higher than normal levels of uranium in urine.

Their reproductive health has been normal and babies have shown no birth defects, according to a Pentagon fact-file.

NATO officials outlined the Alliance's use of depleted uranium during the Bosnian conflict only last month, when they said some 10,000 rounds were fired in 1994-95.

The Pentagon, under pressure from critics who accused it of covering up the issue, said NATO forces fired 31,000 rounds against Yugoslav armoured vehicles in the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

An Italian spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Italians carried out checks two weeks after their troops first deployed in the Yugoslav province in June 1999 and found that levels of radioactivity did not pose a health risk.

He said the troops had nevertheless been warned from the start to avoid bomb-damaged vehicles and not to pick up anything from the ground and had also warned civilians via local radio.

Luljeta Krasniqi, a 30-year-old Albanian woman living near a former Yugoslav army barracks in the western town of Pec, confirmed there had been warnings.

"We were regularly warned not to touch anything at the bombed barracks because it might be dangerous for our children and for us. We haven't had any problems so far," she said.

(additional reporting by Shaban Buza in Kosovo)

---

Pentagon, Rand DU Cover-Up As Epidemic Spreads
Pentagon rejects moratorium on depleted uranium use

From: kevcross@webtv.net
Thu, 4 Jan 2001 22:11:22 -0800 (PST)
Pentagon, Rand DU Cover-Up As Epidemic Spreads [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

WASHINGTON, January 4 (AFP) - The Pentagon rejected Italian calls for a moratorium on the use of radioactive depleted uranium (DU) munitions, saying it had found no link to leukemia or any other health problems among troops who served in the Balkans.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the US military had detected no adverse health effects either among US troops who have served in the Balkans or those who handle DU rounds or work in tanks protected by DU armor.

"We don't see any health reason to consider a moratorium now," he said at a briefing here.

Italy's defense ministry called on NATO to discuss its proposal for a moratorium on the use DU munitions, while acknowledging it had found no direct link between the armor-piercing munitions and the deaths from leukemia of six Italians who served in the Balkans.

NATO has agreed to take up the DU concerns at a meeting Tuesday in Brussels that had been requested by Italy, Belgium and Portugal. France joined the others Thursday in urging NATO to provide more information on the use of depleted uranium.

The concerns have been fanned by a number of reported leukemia cases among Balkans veterans in a number of European countries whose families believe resulted from exposure to depleted uranium.

Bacon said the Pentagon was aware of the concerns and would work closely with NATO.

"We have not found any unusual health effects at all," Bacon said of the US troops who have served in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Bacon said that US A-10 Thunderbolt attack jets fired 31,000 depleted uranium rounds during 100 missions carried out during the 1999 NATO air war in Kosovo.

Another 10,800 DU rounds were fired in Bosnia in 1994-95, according to NATO's military headquarters.

Last year, NATO provided UN inspectors with possible coordinates of 112 sites in Kosovo that were targeted with DU rounds.

UN experts who visited 11 of the sites in November found remnants of DU ammunition and low levels of radiation at impact points at eight sites, but did not detect "any wider area of contamination," according to the UN Environment Programme.

A US survey in March of nine DU target areas in the US sector of Kosovo found no trace of DU, Pentagon officials said.

DU was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War both as munitions and in armor on US heavy tanks and fighting vehicles.

Twice as dense as lead and with low levels of radioactivity, depleted uranium is prized by the US military because it can slice through enemy armor while protecting US tanks against attack.

Bacon credited DU armor for the fact that not a single US tank was destroyed by the Iraqis during the Gulf War.

After the war, DU exposure was suspected by some as a possible source of the mysterious illnesses experienced by Gulf War veterans. But a Pentagon investigation concluded last month that depleted uranium was unlikely to have been the cause.

A study by the Rand Corporation said that "cancer is the only radiation-associated disease that has been shown to be related to inhalation of radioactive particulates in humans, but there is no evidence documented in the literature of cancer or any other adverse health effect related to radiation received from exposure even to natural uranium, which is more radioactive than DU."

The US Veterans Administration has been tracking 33 veterans of the Gulf War who were wounded in "friendly fire" incidents involving depleted uranium rounds, at least 15 of whom still have DU fragments embedded in them.

Uranium has been found in their urine, but so far they have manifested no kidney disease or other symptoms attributable to radiation effects, the Rand study said.

A separate review by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, however, concluded there was not enough evidence to determine whether uranium exposure is associated with adverse health outcomes.

"While the studies did not suggest that uranium has adverse health effects, the studies were of insufficient quality, consistency or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence or absence of an association in humans," it said.


---

Italy alarmed by 'Balkan syndrome'

The Guardian Special report: Kosovo
Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday January 4, 2001http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-417492,00.html

Concern about the use of depleted uranium shells by US forces intensified yesterday when Italy asked Nato to investigate claims that six of its soldiers who died after serving in the Balkans were killed by exposure to the munitions.

The request came after an official investigations by France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland into the effect of DU weapons.

The Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, told the newspaper La Repubblica that alarm about the "Balkan syndrome" was "more than legitimate".

"We've always known that [depleted uranium] was used in Kosovo, but not in Bosnia. We've always known that it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances like, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound, while in normal circumstances it isn't dangerous at all.

But now we're starting to have a justified fear that things aren't that simple."

His defence minister, Sergio Mattarella, said Nato had told Rome only last month that DU had also been used in Bosnia.

US A10 aircraft fired more than 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition in Kosovo. More than 14,000 rounds fell in the area of Kosovo now controlled by Italian troops, according to Italian the deputy ecology minister, Valerio Calzolaio.

DU is a by-product of converting natural uranium into the enriched form used in nuclear weapons and reactors. It is about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium.

The US fired more than 850,000 rounds during the 1991 Gulf war. This as been linked to birth defects in Iraq.

The six Italians who have died since returning from the Balkans all had leukaemia. The latest was Salvatore Carbonaro, 24, from Sicily, who died in November after serving twice in Bosnia but never in Kosovo.

Doctors have said there is insufficient evidence to link the deaths to exposure to DU shells but the Italian media say the number of deaths is too high to be coincidental.

A group representing their families has released a copy of a document in English which it said was a list of Nato guidelines for dealing with DU. It said the document, dated November 22 1999, was not distributed to troops before that date, although soldiers had by then spent months peacekeeping in Kosovo.

Last month the British armed forces minister, John Spellar, admitted that advice on the potential danger of DU shells failed to reach British troops in the Gulf war.

The Ministry of Defence said yesterday it was not planning to review the effect of DU weapons in the Balkans. It said the radioactivity from the shells was no higher than from household appliances.

The US agency for toxic substances and disease registry had said that no human cancer of any type has ever been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium".

Nato sources said yesterday that the North Atlantic Council would discuss the issue at its regular meeting next week.

---

Europe Worried about "Balkans War Syndrome"

Radio Netherlands
by our Internet Desk, 4 January 2001
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/nato010104.html

European governments are expressing concern about a so-called Balkans War Syndrome, now that several soldiers who served as peacekeepers in Bosnia have died of leukaemia. The disease has killed six Italians who served in Bosnia - and Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato has said the alarm over the situation is more than legitimate. To get to the bottom of it, he's requested information from NATO.

Following Italy's urgent request on Wednesday, NATO has agreed to look into the use of depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans conflicts. A meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's highest decision-making body, and the alliance's political committee is slated for next Tuesday.

Italy called on NATO to investigate claims that six Italian soldiers who died after serving in the Balkans were killed by exposure to depleted uranium from spent ammunition fired by NATO forces. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato spoke of a "very delicate situation". He added that "we've always known that depleted uranium was used in Kosovo but not in Bosnia. We've always known it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances like, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound, while in normal circumstances it isn't dangerous at all. But now we're starting to have a justified fear that things aren't that simple."

No Coincidence Mr Amato's remarks come amid widespread media coverage in Italy about the links between the use of depleted uranium in the Balkans and the recent deaths of six peacekeepers. All of them died of leukaemia. The latest casualty died in November. He had served twice in Bosnia, but never in Kosovo. Italian media suggest that the number of deaths is too high to be coincidental.

But NATO officials point to statements of medical experts in Italy, who claim that there is insufficient evidence to link the deaths to exposure to armour-piercing uranium bullets. The alliance's chief spokesman, Mark Latey, says NATO will meet Italy's request to provide information on the exact location of munitions used in Bosnia. Asked how harmful the use of depleted uranium in combat really is, he told Radio Netherlands that when it comes to the potential hazards, there are two issues involved:

"First, there is the effect of radiation emitted from depleted uranium, which is very small indeed, because it's less than naturally occurring uranium. Besides, it's often used to protect people from the harmful effects of x-rays and the International Committee on Radiation protection doesn't list DU as a health hazard. The other potential harm comes from the heavy metal toxic poisoning, which could be compared to lead poisoning, but again, you would have to get very heavy exposure to that for a very long time to get for instance kidney problems. It's difficult to see how these high dosage could be administered"

Concern among other European countries Portugal and Belgium have joined Italy's call for answers, urging the creation of an international commission of inquiry. Earlier, Belgium already urged European Union defence ministers to discuss the health problems suffered by peacekeepers in the Balkans.

Five Belgian former peacekeepers have reportedly died from cancer after serving in the Balkans and one Portuguese soldier has also died in another case linked to uranium contamination. Portugal has reportedly ordered medical tests for 10,000 military and civilian personnel who served there. Concerns have also been raised by service members or civilian aid workers in Britain and the Netherlands. NATO, however, has no plans for its own inquiry into the matter. Its spokesman Mark Latey explains why.

"We're a military alliance, not a medical alliance: it's up to the member states to conduct an inquiry. There was similar concern over depleted uranium during the Gulf conflict, which prompted Britain and the United States to do extensive inquiries into the use of DU, but they incidentally didn't find anything. NATO, however, is aware of the concerns of its members and will do what its members ask it to do. Italy hasn't asked us to launch an inquiry, but to provide information and that's what we'll do."

Meanwhile, our Rome correspondent Marc Leijendekker adds that there is broad political support, cutting across party lines, for a parliamentary inquiry. "History shows that NATO hasn't always given full information, and this may be a starting point for a full inquiry into what happened and into the precise dangers to which soldiers were exposed both in Kosovo and in Bosnia. NATO should realise that withholding information may reduce Italy's willingness to participate in future peacekeeping operations."

---

EU presses Nato over uranium arms

BBC News
Thursday, 4 January, 2001, 16:44 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1100000/1100332.stm

European Commission President Romano Prodi has said he wants to know the truth about the effect of Nato weapons on soldiers who served in the Balkans, and on the civilian population.

In an interview with Italian state radio, he said that weapons using depleted uranium (DU) should be abolished, if they posed any risk to human health.

Italy on Wednesday became the latest European country to ask Nato to investigate the so-called Balkan syndrome, after a sixth Italian soldier died of leukaemia.

France, which has revealed that four soldiers are being treated for leukaemia, has also added its voice to requests from Portugal and Belgium for an inquiry.

Five soldiers have died in Belgium and one in Portugal.

Nato help

The Czech army health service also said on Thursday that it was investigating the death of a helicopter pilot from a blood disorder.

Mr Prodi said the commission must establish the truth not only about European soldiers, but also about the civilians living in affected areas.

He said: "I will propose immediate contacts be made with the governments of Bosnia and Serbia, to discuss with them the pollution and the problems linked to the depleted uranium."

The Italian defence ministry has acknowledged that no link had so far been found between depleted uranium munitions and the deaths of the six Italians, but said it had nevertheless urged Nato to stop using the projectiles.

Nato spokesman Mark Laity told the BBC on Thursday that the alliance would not launch an investigation itself, but would provide any information requested.

"Nato's position is that we are going to help the Italians in every way we can," he said.

"They have asked for information and we are now trying to find it."

No guidelines

Italian politicians have claimed that US troops went to the Balkans fully briefed on how to protect themselves in areas where DU weapons had been used, whereas Italian soldiers did not.

"Guidelines were issued to some people, but when they were issued, who they were issued to, and what they were is I think one of the things that is going to be sorted out," Mr Laity said.

He said Nato was also co-operating with studies by the United Nations Environment Programme into possible environmental contamination, but would be surprised if it they suggested there was a major environmental hazard.

The alliance's North Atlantic Council and its political committee are going to discuss the problem in the next few days.

Last week, Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut called on all European Union defence ministers to examine the issue.

Gulf War syndrome

Finland and Spain have already begun looking into the matter.

The French defence minister, Alain Richard, on Thursday called on the United States to be more open about the matter, but said that there was no reason at the moment for the weapons to be withdrawn.

Nato has acknowledged that it did use some DU weapons in the Kosovo conflict, though little more than half the quantity the Belgrade authorities say were fired.

Depleted uranium is a heavy substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, and used in armour-piercing munitions.

Many Gulf War veterans believe it is implicated in a range of medical problems they are suffering from, known collectively as Gulf War Syndrome.

Because of its ability to punch through armour, DU is prized as a highly effective anti-tank weapon.

In its natural state, it is only mildly radioactive, but on impact with a solid object it turns into a burning vapour.

The US Defence Department and the UK Ministry of Defence accept that the resulting dust can be dangerous, and say troops entering vehicles hit by DU weapons need to take precautions.

---

Radiation tests for NATO troops

CNN
January 4, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/italy/01/04/kosovo.troops.03/index.html

ROME, Italy -- Six NATO countries are to screen troops who were stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo for possible side-effects from depleted uranium ammunition.

The move by Portugal, Finland, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Greece comes as concern grows among some NATO countries about a possible link between cancer-related deaths and illnesses among soldiers who served in the Balkans and uranium bullets used in the war.

Fears have been raised about a possible link after six Italian soldiers died of leukaemia and four French servicemen were diagnosed with the illness.

Member countries are calling on NATO to provide information on the armour-piercing weapons, while the European Commission's President Romani Prodi has demanded to "know the truth" about their use in the Balkans.

Prodi told Italian state radio RAI: "If there exists the slightest of risk, then these weapons should be abolished immediately."

NATO has said that U.S. warplanes operating in Kosovo fired armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium during the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999.

It has agreed to help member countries investigate any link, but no scientific evidence has been found to date.

Media reports in Italy said NATO used around 31,500 bullets and shells capped with uranium during the campaign.

Italy last week launched a probe in to a possible link after 30 cases of serious illness were reported -- 12 soldiers developed cancer and five died of leukaemia.

The latest soldier to die was a 24-year-old from Sicily who served twice in Bosnia but never in Kosovo.

Some 60,000 Italian soldiers and 15,000 civilians served in the Balkans during the 1990s.

Italy wants NATO to discuss the issue when the alliance's political committee meets on Tuesday, the Italian foreign ministry said.

Italy's Foreign Minister Sergio Matarella flew to Bosnia on Thursday in an effort to reassure troops still serving in the region while Undersecretary Marco Minniti will travel to Kosovo on Friday.

'Balkan syndrome' fears

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said in an interview published in La Repubblica newspaper that alarm over the so-called "Balkan syndrome" was "more than legitimate."

He added: "We've always known that it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances ... while in normal circumstances it isn't dangerous at all," he said. "But now we're starting to have a justified fear that things aren't that simple."

Four French soldiers are in a "satisfactory" condition while being treated in a military hospital for leukaemia, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Defence Minister Alain Richard has asked for tests to be undertaken to determine whether the soldiers were exposed to anything during the conflict that might have caused the illness.

Richard repeated the hope that NATO's political committee will discuss the issue "so each partner can benefit from the expertise of the other."

Greece will screen more than 1,000 of its soldiers and will send experts to test areas where they are serving as peacekeepers, the defence ministry said.

Premier Costas Simitis also ordered his ministers of defence, environment, health and foreign affairs to meet and examine details requested from NATO about the ammunition.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said: "It is an open issue for us that will be dealt with responsibly and without exaggerations."

The Defence Ministry said none of the 3,000-plus soldiers that served in Bosnia and Kosovo have developed cancer or any other sickness that could be linked to radiation or uranium poisoning.

Sources at the ministry added that 10 peacekeepers had been examined by specialists at a nuclear research facility in Athens and tests were negative.

A team of military and civilian nuclear specialists would travel to Kosovo and conduct further radiation tests. A similar survey conducted in March 2000 was negative.

About 1,481 Greek troops are serving in Kosovo, while a reduced contingent of 120 is stationed in Bosnia.

Belgium has called for European Union defence ministers to discuss health problems suffered by peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia.

Portugal has ordered medical tests for its military and civilian personnel serving in Kosovo to check for exposure to radiation and Defence Minister Julio Castro Caldas has proposed a meeting of NATO countries to share information and agree common methods of testing.

Concerns have also been raised by service members or civilian aid workers in Britain and the Netherlands.

---

NATO arms illness claims denied

CNN
January 4, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/italy/01/04/kosovo.troops.04/index.html

LONDON, England -- Defence officials from a number of NATO member countries have denied any link between illnesses among Balkan veterans and uranium weapons.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/maps/england.london.jpg

The U.S., Spain, Germany and France on Thursday rejected claims that any of their soldiers who served as NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo had fallen ill because of exposure to depleted uranium ammunition.

A wave of concern has swept across Europe after six Italian NATO veterans died of leukaemia, sparking claims from relatives that radioactive ammunition fired by NATO had caused so-called "Balkan syndrome."

Four French soldiers who served in the Balkans have also contracted leukaemia, but the French Defence Ministry said there was nothing to link their illness to NATO's use of the weapons.

In Madrid, Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo said examinations had been carried out on about 5,000 of the 32,000 Spanish soldiers sent to Bosnia and Kosovo and no trace of mysterious illnesses had been found

"The results have always been negative," a ministry spokesman said.

A former NATO soldier from Spain died of leukaemia in October, and one of his colleagues fell ill.

An organisation representing Spanish soldiers accused the government of providing sparse and contradictory information and blamed the soldier's death on exposure to depleted uranium.

Germany's armed forces said it had conducted on-going tests since 1999 and it found "no evidence that German soldiers serving in Kosovo have fallen ill as a result of depleted uranium munitions."

Belgium and the Netherlands, though, have said they are concerned about the problem, with Dutch officials saying on Thursday that they would investigate the issue.

"As far as we know two soldiers have died from leukaemia. One was based in Kosovo and one in Bosnia," a spokesman for the Dutch Defence Ministry said.

It brings to eight European countries -- the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey -- that have announced plans to screen peacekeepers, even though some of them reject any danger.

No significant health risk, says U.S.

The United States, the only NATO ally to use depleted uranium weapons during the Balkan campaigns, insisted again on Thursday that the munitions pose no health threat.

Depleted uranium is used both in the tips of missiles, shells and bullets to increase their ability to penetrate armour and can be pulverised on impact into a toxic radioactive dust, defence experts say.

American jets fired about 31,000 depleted uranium rounds at Yugoslav armoured vehicles in Kosovo.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it was aware of the concerns being raised by some allies.

"We share those concerns," said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Phillips, but he said the United States had conducted many studies on depleted uranium, particularly since the 1991 Gulf War when the weapons were first used.

"In each study, we've come away convinced that the use of depleted uranium munitions does not present significant or residual environmental or health risks," Phillips said.

NATO spokeswoman Simone de Manso said: "According to our knowledge from independent research ... there is no study that can prove a direct link between certain types of diseases of which people are now afraid and contact with depleted uranium."

The reassurances have not calmed jittery Europeans, and on Thursday the 15-nation European Union added its voice.

Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said the EU "needs to know the truth."

"If there exists the slightest risk, then these weapons should be abolished immediately," Prodi told Italian radio as the EU announced plans for an informal inquiry.

Italy is holding its own investigation into what has become a domestic scandal.

Italy's Foreign Minister Sergio Matarella flew to Bosnia on Thursday in an effort to reassure troops still serving in the region while Undersecretary Marco Minniti will travel to Kosovo on Friday.

The U.N. Environment Program is also expected to release a report on the subject next month and the subject will be discussed at NATO's regular weekly political committee on Tuesday.


-------- iraq

Iraq expects UN dialogue to start

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 1/4/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq is banking on upcoming Iraqi-U.N. talks about weapons inspections as a step toward ending the sanctions that have been punishing the country for years, a Baghdad newspaper said Thursday. Al-Thawra, a mouthpiece of Iraq's ruling Baath Party, said Iraq "sees the dialogue as an opportunity to show goodwill, for the U.N. to move seriously toward putting an end to sanctions and to put a stop to threats Iraq has been exposed to." The paper's front-page editorial said the talks with the United Nations were expected to start in the next few days. A U.N. spokesman had said earlier this week that the talks, which were supposed to have begun in early January, may not take place until next month. Topping the United Nations' agenda will be the return of weapons inspectors, who have not visited Iraq since late 1998.

-------- russia

A Russian Base in the Baltics Is Reported to Have Nuclear Arms

Associated Press
January 4, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04MILI.html
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405659225

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - United States intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia has moved short-range nuclear weapons onto one of its military bases in the Baltics, senior Clinton administration officials said today.

The move would be in conflict with Moscow's stated policy of keeping the Baltics free of nuclear weapons, though it would not appear to violate any legally binding arms control agreement, American officials said.

The Russian Navy, whose Baltic fleet has its headquarters at the base in Kaliningrad, denied the report, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass said. It quoted Anatoly Lobsky, assistant to the fleet commander, as saying that Russia was unconditionally fulfilling its pledge to keep the Baltics a nuclear-free zone.

Two senior American officials with access to intelligence reports on the subject said there had been recent indications of movement of Russian nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad. They said some weapons might have been there a year or longer. Both officials agreed to discuss the matter on condition that they not be identified. The officials would not discuss numbers or specific types of Russian weapons in Kaliningrad.

Kaliningrad, which was the well- known Prussian university town Königsberg before World War II, is a Baltic Sea port between Poland and Lithuania on a sliver of Russian territory not connected to the main part of Russia.

The movement of Russian nuclear weapons, first reported in The Washington Times today, may reflect Moscow's response to NATO's eastern expansion in 1999 when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined the alliance.

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - which were part of the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991 - want to be the next new members. Russia, which has said it could not tolerate NATO so close to its border, views NATO expansion as a potential military threat and has said the expansion would undermine arms control.

A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said he could not comment on specifics of Russian nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad but expected the topic to be raised with Moscow. "It's an issue that we want to take up, that we want to discuss with them," he said. "It's something that we follow carefully, and that's about as far as I go."

One administration official said the matter had already been discussed within NATO councils.

Mr. Boucher said Russian leaders had made unilateral pledges in the past to keep nuclear weapons out of the Baltics. Those promises stem from the period immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when both Washington and Moscow took unilateral steps to reduce the number of tactical nuclear weapons outside their borders. That was partly a response to the end of the cold war and partly a desire by both governments to reduce the chances of unauthorized transfers of nuclear weapons materials.

Moscow has long argued for the removal of all American short-range nuclear weapons from Europe. The United States withdrew many missiles and other nuclear weapons from Europe in the 1980's and 90's but maintains some nuclear bombs for aircraft based there.

Liiga Bergmane, a spokeswoman at Latvia's Foreign Ministry, said Latvia would inquire into the reports. "We don't see any reason why Russia should want to change its policy of keeping these kinds of weapons out of the Baltic region," she said. "Russia pledged not to increase nuclear arms here and we can't imagine why it would reconsider."

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Russia Moving Warheads

Wash Post
Thurs, Jan 4 2001
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer

Over the past year, Russia has been putting tactical nuclear warheads into storage facilities at a naval base in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, senior U.S. officials said yesterday.

While Russia's motives are unclear, the placement of battlefield nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad could be a response to NATO's expansion and an attempt to compensate for the decline of Russia's conventional military might, the officials said.

Under informal agreements reached in 1991-92 by President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Russia withdrew its tactical nuclear weapons from the former Warsaw Pact states in Eastern Europe and promised to place them in "central storage facilities."

The agreements, which never were turned into a treaty, did not specify the storage sites. But American intelligence sources said yesterday that Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet, became a depot for tactical nuclear weapons removed by the Russian navy from its ships.

It was unclear yesterday whether the warheads that have been moved to Kaliningrad over the past year were sea-based weapons belonging to the Russian navy or land-based weapons belonging to the army. But senior U.S. officials said they are neither surprised nor alarmed.

"We have been following the handling of nonstrategic nuclear weapons at stockpile sites for more than two years, so this is not news to us," one official said.

The Russian move was first reported Wednesday by the Washington Times, which also said that Russia had test-fired a new "Toka" missile in Kaliningrad last April. U.S. officials said the Russian news agency Tass reported an April test from the Baltic base of the SS-21 Tochka, an older short-range missile that can carry a nuclear or conventional warhead.

In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said yesterday that the Washington Times article "does not conform with reality" and that Russia's tactical nuclear warheads are at their "permanent stationing sites and have not been transferred anywhere."

But the ministry's statement did not clarify whether Kaliningrad is considered a permanent stationing site.

Anatoly Lobsky, a spokesman for the commander of the Baltic Fleet, said "The Baltic Sea is a nuclear-free zone, and Russia's Baltic Fleet scrupulously observes its international commitments." But that statement was also something less than a flat denial, because Russia may not consider Kaliningrad to be part of the nuclear-free zone.

Experts gave widely varying interpretations of the Russian action. Bruce Blair, president of the nonprofit Center for Defense Information, said Russian generals had warned him two years ago that redeploying tactical nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad would be "a likely response to NATO expansion."

William M. Arkin, a consultant on nuclear weapons to the Natural Resources Defense Council, portrayed the move as an attempt to offset Russia's deteriorating conventional military forces. "What is it people expect, given the fact that Poland is now in NATO and the Baltic nations take part in military exercises with the United States?" he said, adding that Russia "doesn't have the capability to respond conventionally."

Correspondent David Hoffman contributed to this report from Moscow.

---------

Russia stirs concerns with nuclear arms shift

Boston Globe
4/Jan 2001
By David Filipov, Globe Staff, 1/4/2001

MOSCOW - It is not exactly the Cuban Missile Crisis II. But Russia's secret transfer of short-range nuclear weapons onto one of its military bases on the Baltic Sea appears to have caused some consternation in the Clinton administration and raised concerns in the three tiny, Western-leaning Baltic states about Moscow's intentions.

Senior Clinton administration officials said yesterday that Russia has moved an unspecified number of battlefield nuclear weapons to the Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad, a small Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania.

It was unclear yesterday whether the move was intended to put pressure on NATO, or whether it was a reflection of Moscow's increased dependence on its nuclear deterrent as its conventional forces slowly deteriorate.

One thing was clear: These weapons will not change the overall strategic balance, because Russia could easily annihilate the United States several times over with its nuclear arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles in a matter of minutes.

But the transfer follows threats made by Moscow several years ago to position battlefield nuclear weapons closer to NATO's eastern borders in response to the Western alliance's eastward expansion.

''Over the last six months there has been some movement of tactical nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad. We don't know how many, we don't know what type, and we don't know why,'' one US official told Reuters.

Russia, which bases its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad, denied the report, which was first published yesterday in The Washington Times. Russian television quoted Anatoly Lobsky, an assistant to the fleet commander, as saying that Russia continues to fulfill its pledge to keep the Baltics a nuclear-free zone.

But two senior US officials with access to intelligence reports on the subject told the Associated Press that there have been recent indications of movement of Russian nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad. Speaking on the condition that they not be identified, the officials said some weapons may have been there a year or longer. They refused to discuss numbers of specific types of weapons.

''It's an issue that we want to take up, that we want to discuss with them,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington yesterday. ''It's something that we follow carefully, and that's about as far as I go.''

The move does not appear to violate any legally binding arms control agreement. But, coming nearly a decade after Moscow withdrew the weapons, it could have worrisome implications for the three Western-leaning Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which would like to join NATO.

Speculation yesterday centered on Russia's angry reaction to NATO's eastward expansion in 1999, when Moscow's former allies Poland, Hungary. and the Czech Republic joined the Western alliance, and to NATO's air raids against Yugoslavia that year.

Some Russian politicians and generals proposed moving tactical weapons into Belarus, the pro-Russian former Soviet republic that borders Poland,or into Kaliningrad, to counter what many in Moscow see as a threat to Russian security.

In 1999, Vladimir V. Putin, who was at the time secretary of the Kremlin's Security Council, announced that Russia would begin beefing up its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons.

Putin, now Russia's president, has actively sought strong diplomatic ties with the West, but at the same time has remained firm on Moscow's opposition to US plans for national missile defense.

Russia has also said that it would never tolerate Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which had been part of the Soviet Union and which all share borders with Russia, joining NATO.

The Baltic States expressed concern yesterday but said they didn't know enough to fully assess the potential threat.

''We don't know whether it's true or not,'' the office of the Estonian foreign minister, Toomas Ilves, quoted the minister as saying. ''But if it is true, it is regretful, because it decreases the stability of the region.''

It is possible that the move was aimed at putting pressure on the United States to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Europe.

After the end of the Cold War, Washington and Moscow announced nonbinding agreements to reduce the number of tactical nuclear weapons outside their borders. At the time, the Kremlin said that all tactical nuclear weapons had been removed from Eastern Europe to more secure areas in Russia, although it was never clear whether that included nuclear weapons based in Kaliningrad.

Those deals were a result of improved ties between the two nuclear superpowers, but also a step aimed at reducing the chances of nuclear weapons materials falling into the wrong hands.

Moscow has long argued for Washington to do the same, but the United States maintains some nuclear bombs for aircraft based in Europe.

The transfer would reflect Moscow's greater reliance on its nuclear deterrent. ''Tactical nukes can be a cheaper way of maintaining your deterrence capabilities as opposed to the more expensive, larger conventional forces,'' one of the US officials told Reuters.

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 1/4/2001.

----

US fears over Russia 'missiles on move'
Russia wants to cut down on nuclear warheads

Thursday, 4 January, 2001,

The US plans to talk to Russia about reports that Moscow is moving tactical nuclear weapons into its Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic sea.

A Pentagon official confirmed on Wednesday that Russia is believed to have moved short-range nuclear weapons, and said it was part of a "disturbing trend" that raised questions about Moscow's commitment to pledges it has made on arms control.

Russia has flatly denied the report, first carried by The Washington Times newspaper.

The US Pentagon and State Department declined to confirm the report, saying it involved intelligence matters.

But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher admitted there were some concerns.

"This is a situation that we are following closely' he said.

"It's something that we'll be talking about with the Russians, as we do on all arms control issues, but I don't think I can go beyond that."

Russian Defence Ministry sources denied the report, according to the Interfax news agency.

"This report can only be a political provocation," said Anatoly Lobsky, a spokesman for Russia's Baltic Fleet.

Weapons agreement

The Washington Times, citing unnamed US intelligence officials, said the movement of the new battlefield nuclear arms to Kaliningrad, a Baltic Sea port located in a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania, had been detected in June.

But the movement was not reported in an internal US Defence Intelligence Agency report until December, it said, citing the same unidentified officials.

The officials said the movement was "a sign Moscow is following through on threats to respond to Nato expansion with the forward deployment of nuclear weapons".

The newspaper said the weapons involved were probably for use on the new Tochka short-range missile, which is thought to have a range of about 70km (44 miles).

Russia and the US have a non-binding agreement to reduce arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons. In November Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that both countries cut their nuclear arsenals to 1,500 warheads each.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis refused to comment on the report, saying it was not confirmed.

"Similar reports have been appearing several times a year but after raising public concern they after some time are usually forgotten."

---------

Russia's Neighbors Concerned Over Nuclear Report

Jan 4 2001
Reuters
By Marcin Grajewski

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland and other countries bordering Russia's Kaliningrad region reacted with cautious concern on Thursday to reports that Russia had secretly moved short-range nuclear weapons to its Baltic enclave.

A U.S. official said in Washington on Wednesday there had been ``some movement of tactical nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad,'' which lies between Poland and Lithuania. Moscow said reports of such a buildup were ``absolutely untrue.''

Politicians and analysts in the region said such a move would be a step backward in building regional security even though its military importance was limited. Some called it a return to Cold War policies.

``The problem is whether we can treat assurances that there are no nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad as credible,'' Polish Defense Minister Bronislaw Komorowski told public television.

``We treat these signals very seriously... Our appropriate services are carefully analyzing the issue,'' added government spokesman Krzysztof Luft.

A Polish diplomat said the deployment probably served a double purpose of discouraging the NATO (news - web sites) alliance from further eastward expansion and preserving Moscow's image as a military superpower despite a decline in its conventional forces.

``It is a worrying sign that Moscow still treats Kaliningrad as a military bastion rather than a zone of economic cooperation with the Baltic region and the European Union (news - web sites),'' the diplomat said.

Poland has less to worry about since it gained a Western security guarantee when it joined NATO in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary, two other former Soviet bloc states.

``But the installation of missiles is a bad sign for the Baltic countries, which want to join NATO, but which Moscow wants to keep in its sphere of influence,'' said Grzegorz Kostrzewa-Zorbas, political analyst at the Polish Academy of Science.

``It is a step back toward the Cold War realities.''

Officials from the Baltics, which are soon to mark the 10th anniversary of a bloody crackdown by Moscow aimed at snuffing out their independence movements, gave a muted reaction, saying they were hoping to consult NATO diplomats on the issue.

``We are monitoring the situation closely... If it (the deployment) is true it is very sad and we would have to make a statement,'' said Madis Mikko, head of the Estonian defense ministry's media and information department.

Russia strongly opposes the Baltics' bids for NATO membership, which they launched after regaining independence from the Soviet Union after 50 years of forced rule by Moscow.

``From the military point of view, the deployment of the tactical weapons has limited significance. But the move may persuade public opinion internationally that NATO expansion would destabilize regional security,'' said Kostrzewa-Zorbas. The conservative Polish daily Zycie printed a front-page map on Thursday, which showed the 50-mile range of the Kaliningrad-based tactical nuclear weapons as threatening northern provinces of Poland and southern parts of Lithuania.

--------

Russia Dismisses Fear of Baltic Nuclear Buildup

Thursday January 4
(Reuters)
By Daniel McLaughlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian officials and defense experts on Thursday dismissed U.S. claims that the Kremlin had stationed nuclear weapons in its Baltic enclave Kaliningrad, saying such a move was impractical and made no military sense.

A U.S. official said in Washington on Wednesday there had been ``some movement of tactical nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad,'' which lies between Poland and Lithuania. Moscow called reports of such a build-up ``absolutely untrue.''

The U.S. comments, made after the story broke in Wednesday's Washington Times newspaper, sent a shudder through Kaliningrad's Baltic neighbors and prompted regional politicians and analysts to warn of a return to the tense days of the Cold War.

But on Thursday Kaliningrad governor Vladimir Yegorov dismissing the Washington Times report as a ``dangerous joke'' and military analysts said it seemed inaccurate and highly unlikely.

Yegorov, who became governor last month and is in charge of Russia's powerful Baltic Fleet, said Kaliningrad's designated non-nuclear status was safe: ``No one has infringed on this situation and plans to,'' he told RIA news agency.

Russian military commentators agreed.

``I'm quite sure it's not true,'' defense writer Alexander Golts told Reuters. ``It looks like absolute rubbish to deploy warheads in Kaliningrad.''

He said he had never heard of the Toka missile the Washington Times said had been deployed in the impoverished Russian enclave, and said the paper had probably confused it with a rocket the Russians actually call Tochka.

Golts said it would also be odd for Russia's cash-strapped nuclear forces to deploy warheads on a type of missile with a range of only about 44 miles, which could strike only marshland in northern Poland and southern Lithuania.

``It looks more like Washington is probing for a reaction from Russia...to see if they will say strongly that they will stick to their arms control agreements with the United States,'' Golts said.

Analyst Says U.S. Claim Far-Fetched

Independent defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer also said the story seemed far-fetched.

``It makes no military sense at all, unless they are just doing testing to check systems are working. But they cannot put missiles right on the border (with Poland) and do not have the delivery system to get them very far,'' Felgenhauer said.

Golts said NATO inspectors regularly checked that there was no nuclear buildup in Kaliningrad and said Russia had been withdrawing nuclear weapons to stockpiles for more than a year.

``I cannot believe, knowing the condition of our armed forces, that they are tough enough to redeploy,'' he said.

But analysts said it might be a sign of hardening military positions between the two Cold War superpowers, as President Vladimir Putin tries to strengthen Russia's bargaining power against President-elect George W. Bush's professed aim to build a missile defense shield to protect the U.S. from attack by ``rogue states.''

Putin has said the shield would shatter the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and last year deployed nuclear-capable ``Bear'' bombers close to the Bering Straits after calling them a cheap alternative to the U.S. shield.

``Russia has been playing a strange game in the Arctic, and we may be seeing a return to the old games,'' Golts said. ``Games designed to increase Russia's ambition and show it is still a powerful nation.''

On Thursday Russia's foreign ministry accused the United States of breaching the START-1 nuclear disarmament treaty by destroying only one of the three stages of its MX ballistic missiles.

The ministry said the U.S. might want to keep the second and third stages for future use. Washington asserts that the agreement obliges them to destroy only the rockets' first stage.


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

-------- new york

Con Ed Restarts Indian Pt. Plant, Despite Protest

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04NUKE.html

Ten months after being shut down because of a radioactive leak, Consolidated Edison's Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., was put back in operation yesterday, despite the protests of the Westchester County executive and environmentalists, who declared the reopening premature and unwise in light of two recent minor leaks.

Con Edison restarted the plant yesterday at 2:14 a.m., bringing it up to 30 percent of its 1,000-megawatt generating capacity as a prelude to full power in about a week. The restart, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was delayed because of what regulators called minor leaks that posed no risk to the public and did not warrant closing the plant.

One of the recent leaks involved a faulty gasket on a steam pipe, which is part of the system that feeds water from the Hudson River into the plant and was not radioactive. The other, a few days before, occurred in the reactor coolant system and resulted in a small leak of radioactive water, which was contained in a tank.

The amount of water that leaked, about eight-tenths of a gallon a minute, was well within the permitted limit of 10 gallons a minute, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Andrew J. Spano, the Westchester County executive, said he was not notified of either leak, and he became irate at learning of the latest radioactive leak from a television reporter.

Mr. Spano criticized the utility and the regulatory agency for what he said were shortcomings in keeping county officials and the public abreast of developments.

Mr. Spano acknowledged that the leaks were not serious. But, he said, the utility should have notified officials. Con Edison's chairman, Eugene R. McGrath, planned to meet with Mr. Spano today, a spokesman said.

-------- tennessee

NRC probe targets TVA security clearances

Thu, 4 Jan 2001 10:46:15 EST
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/21304.shtml</A>

NRC probe targets TVA security clearances Contractor may have falsified screening data January 4, 2001 By Richard Powelson, News-Sentinel Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating allegations that a TVA contractor apparently fabricated and falsified security screening data, allowing five contract employees to be given security clearances to work on TVA nuclear plant outages. The contract workers' incomplete background checks went undetected for two years before TVA's Office of Inspector General received a tip and began its investigation.

TVA officials, after learning of the security screening breakdown, suspended the workers' security clearances until they passed background checks. But the bigger questions being explored by the NRC are how this could happen at a nuclear power facility with closely controlled radioactive materials, and whether other nuclear power producers were provided improperly screened workers.

NRC spokesman Ken Clark in Atlanta confirmed that the TVA incident is under investigation, but he provided few details.

The NRC identified the screening company involved as RCM, but no home city was provided. Five contract employees "may have been granted ... inappropriate access" to one or more TVA nuclear plants, the NRC said, "based on incomplete information" from the screening company.

No TVA sites using improperly screened workers were named. TVA operates two nuclear plants in East Tennessee -- Watts Bar near Spring City and Sequoyah near Chattanooga, plus a third plant, Browns Ferry, in North Alabama.

Richard Levi, a lawyer for TVA's Office of Inspector General in Knoxville, said the affected workers did not work inside a nuclear plant control room but did help TVA with scheduled shutdowns of nuclear plants for periodic maintenance and refueling. He did not specify their jobs except to say one affected job was an instrument mechanic.

Asked how long the improperly screened workers worked at TVA sites before their detection, Levi said: "a couple of years."

However, after the TVA investigation found the security problem, "TVA Nuclear (division) took immediate action to fix the problem," Levi said.

The screening company no longer works for TVA, according to the IG's summary.

TVA nuclear officials, while rechecking the affected contract workers, informed supervisors in case they tried to get access to TVA nuclear sites before their background checks were completed and approved, the case summary said. The NRC was notified and TVA asked the Nuclear Energy Institute to issue a bulletin to members about what happened.

In addition, TVA officials wrote to other contractor security companies who were eligible to do business with TVA and other companies "re-emphasizing the importance of providing factual information in background investigations," the IG summary said.

TVA spokesman John Moulton said he could provide no details of the events while the NRC is investigating.

Richard Powelson may be contacted at 202-408-2727 or PowelsonR@shns.com.

-------- us nuc politics

Cabinet complete

Washington Times
EDITORIAL • January 4, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-house-20011419038.htm

In rounding out his Cabinet on Tuesday with the appointment of the secretaries of transportation, energy and labor, President-elect George W. Bush called his cumulative choices "one of the strongest [Cabinets] that any president has been ever able to assemble."

In doing so he has made plenty of room in the Republican "tent" for both philosophical and racial variety. It includes, for example, those who defend racial preferences - such as Colin Powell - and those who uphold abortion rights - such as Christie Todd Whitman. In his latest round of appointments he added a bipartisan touch to his Cabinet. After Louisiana Sen. John Breaux and other Democrats rejected overtures from Mr. Bush to join his administration, the president-elect finally succeeded in convincing at least one Democrat - Norman Mineta, a former California congressman who is now secretary of commerce but who will head the Department of Transportation under Mr. Bush - to join his Cabinet.

Yet, when all is said and done, Mr. Bush has put together an unmistakably conservative Cabinet. Social conservatives, who proved themselves to be one of the largest and most indispensable contributors to Mr. Bush's presidential victory, were rewarded with the three Cabinet departments they coveted the most. Mr. Bush nominated former Sen. John Ashcroft, one of the party's strongest conservatives, to be attorney general. Wisconsin's staunchly pro-life governor Tommy Thompson, who spearheaded the nation's welfare-reform movement, will become secretary of health and human services. For secretary of labor, Mr. Bush named Linda Chavez, a former official in the Reagan administration who opposes affirmative action and bilingual education and supports government programs that promote Latino assimilation. Conservatives were also happy with Rod Paige, the Houston school superintendent and proponent of accountability whom Mr. Bush selected as his secretary of education.

With Mr. Cheney, Mr. Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, who will become secretary of defense, and national security adviser-designate Condoleezza Rice advising Mr. Bush on foreign policy and national security issues, the priorities of the United States will change from ill-advised, attention-diverting, "nation-building" schemes to a determined effort to protect the nation and its allies from the growing threat posed by rogue nations acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them by long-range missiles.

On the domestic-policy front, conservatives were especially happy about the appointment of Mitch Daniels to be director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). A former political director under President Reagan who later became the head of the conservative Hudson Institute think tank, Mr. Daniels has impeccable conservative credentials, unlike David Stockman and Richard Darman, who headed OMB during previous Republican administrations. Meanwhile, property rights advocates were absolutely ecstatic over the nomination of former Colorado attorney general Gale Norton, to be secretary of the interior. Needless to say, Secretary of Energy-designate Spencer Abraham, the former senator from Michigan and the son of an auto worker, will bring those welcome perspectives to his department.

It's a Cabinet that has much to offer Mr. Bush, and this country, as he prepares to take the reins of government in the days to come.

-------

Bush Chooses Campaign Manager to Head FEMA

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/politics/05FEMA.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 -- President-elect George W. Bush today named his campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an organization that usually appears in the news when there is bad news.

"The person who runs FEMA really is the first voice, oftentimes, that someone whose life's been turned upside down hears from," Mr. Bush said in announcing his choice in Austin, Tex. "I can't think of a better man to take the job than Joe Allbaugh."

Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, acts of terrorism and other events that turn lives (and sometimes houses) upside down are what FEMA deals with. In its 22-year history, the agency has aided people affected by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island in 1979 and other episodes with little in common except their disruptive effects on people's lives.

The agency also tries to prevent disasters. It describes its mission on its web site (www.fema.gov) as "to reduce loss of life and property and protect our nation's critical infrastructure from all types of hazards through a comprehensive, risk-based, emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery."

Mr. Allbaugh said he was "humbled" to have been selected, although the choice was not a surprise. As one who worked hard for Mr. Bush in the campaign, especially in the pivotal state of Florida, he was expected to be rewarded with a job in the administration.

"I am excited about being at FEMA," Mr. Allbaugh said. "I can't think of a better place to help our countrymen when they are in time of need."

His appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

Mr. Allbaugh spent several weeks in Florida, watching over Mr. Bush's interests as the vote counting, recounting and court fights over the state's all-important 25 electoral votes played out.

Mr. Allbaugh will replace James Lee Witt, who has headed FEMA since 1993. The agency was formed by an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, who decided to combine the functions of several federal agencies into one.

---

Bush Chooses Campaign Manager to Head Crisis Agency

Associated Press
January 4, 2001
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/politics/04CND-FEMA.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 -- President-elect George W. Bush today named his campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an organization that usually appears in the news when there is bad news.

"The person who runs FEMA really is the first voice, oftentimes, that someone whose life's been turned upside down hears from," Mr. Bush said in announcing his choice in Austin, Tex. "I can't think of a better man to take the job than Joe Allbaugh."

Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, acts of terrorism and other events that turn lives (and sometimes houses) upside down are what FEMA deals with. In its 22-year history, the agency has aided people affected by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island in 1979 and other episodes with little in common except their disruptive effects on people's lives.

The agency also tries to prevent disasters. It describes its mission on its web site (www.fema.gov) as "to reduce loss of life and property and protect our nation's critical infrastructure from all types of hazards through a comprehensive, risk-based, emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery."

Mr. Allbaugh said he was "humbled" to have been selected, although the choice was not a surprise. As one who worked hard for Mr. Bush in the campaign, especially in the pivotal state of Florida, he was expected to be rewarded with a job in the administration.

"I am excited about being at FEMA," Mr. Allbaugh said. "I can't think of a better place to help our countrymen when they are in time of need."

His appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

Mr. Allbaugh spent several weeks in Florida, watching over Mr. Bush's interests as the vote counting, recounting and court fights over the state's all-important 25 electoral votes played out.

Mr. Allbaugh will replace James Lee Witt, who has headed FEMA since 1993. The agency was formed by an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, who decided to combine the functions of several federal agencies into one.

-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

New York Times
January 4, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

SWITZERLAND: MITTERRAND ACCOUNTS TO BE FROZEN Swiss prosecutors have indicated they will comply with a request by France to freeze the bank accounts of Jean- Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the late French president. Mr. Mitterrand, suspected of involvement in illegal arms trafficking in Africa, is being held in a French jail. Mr. Mitterrand, who remained in jail after being unable to pay $750,000 bail, received payments of some $1.8 million through a Swiss account, but said the money came from an oil deal. Elizabeth Olson (NYT)

-------- colombia

Eleven Killed in Northwestern Colombia Town

Reuters
January 4, 2001 Filed at 4:51 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/world/colombia-killings.html

BOGOTA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Suspected far-right paramilitaries killed 11 people in a northwestern Colombian region in the first massacre of the new year in this conflict-torn nation, police said on Thursday.

Police in Bogota said the victims were shot dead in Wednesday's attack in a rural area near the town of Yolombo, in the department of Antioquia, which is the scene of frequent battles between paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas for territorial control.

The secretary of the Yolombo government told reporters the massacre, which he blamed on paramilitaries, had sparked ``anxiety, panic and commotion.'' Police said there were unconfirmed reports that the killing was the result of a clash with guerrillas from the main leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.

Colombia's four-decades-old conflict pits leftist rebel groups, the 17,000-strong FARC and 5,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN), against the paramilitary forces.

Human rights groups allege the paramilitaries, which number some 8,000 and are grouped into the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), have links to the military. The army, which says paramilitary numbers are rising, vehemently denies it colludes with the squads or turns a blind eye to their activities.

Colombian police say there were 205 massacres in 2000, in which 1,226 people were killed. The majority was attributed to paramilitaries.

The northwestern Antioquia region is the scene of fierce clashes. Colombia's conflict has claimed at least 35,000 civilian lives in the past decade alone.

Some 10 municipalities in Antioquia remained without power on Thursday after attacks by the FARC on electricity pylons which have cut off power to around 14 towns in the past two weeks. Local officials say the worst affected area is Uraba, the country's main banana-producing area.

The Yolombo killing comes as a government peace drive with the FARC was floundering. The FARC, which says it is targeted by the paramilitaries, pulled out of peace talks in November.

-------- drug war

McCaffrey advocates drug prevention

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2000
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405658303

WASHINGTON (AP) - The longtime rallying cry of a ``war on drugs'' to describe the effort to curtail illegal drug use in the United States has become ``misleading'' the White House drug policy director says.

A more accurate comparison is to the fight against cancer _ ``Prevention coupled with treatment accompanied by research,'' Barry McCaffrey said in his final report on America's drug problem.

``Although wars are expected to end, drug education _ like all schooling _ is a continuous process,'' the retired four-star general said in the report to be presented Thursday at the White House.

``The moment we believe ourselves victorious and drop our guard, drug abuse will resurface in the next generation. To reduce the demand for drugs, prevention must be ongoing,'' according to the report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

McCaffrey, who is stepping down Friday as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, was adding treatment as one of the goals of the National Drug Control Strategy.

Treatment programs, he said, can ``reduce the consequences of addiction.'' Providing access to them for ``chronic drug abusers'' is ``compassionate public policy and a sound investment.''

Among the other elements of the drug control strategy:

_Educating and enabling youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco.

_Increasing Americans' safety by reducing drug-related crime and violence.

_Shielding air, land and sea frontiers from the drug threat.

_Breaking foreign and domestic drug sources of supply.

``Along with prevention and treatment, law enforcement is essential for reducing drug use,'' McCaffrey said. ``Illegal drug trafficking inflicts violence and corruption on our communities. Law enforcement is the first line of defense against such unacceptable activity.''

McCaffrey also is urging the Bush administration to continue successful anti-drug programs. He cites a 21 percent decline in drug use by teen-agers in the past two years as well as a 50 percent drop in overall drug use. Drug-related crimes and murders also have plummeted, he said.

``Drug abuse and its consequences can be reduced,'' he said. ``By historical standards, present rates of drug use are relatively low. With the concerted effort outlined in the National Drug Control Strategy and this report, we can lower them further.''

McCaffrey also plans to name Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla., as areas where drug manufacturing and sales flourish and where federal, state and local law enforcement agencies cooperate.

---

Malpractice Case Begins for Specialist in Addiction Who Used a Cold-Turkey Method

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By IVER PETERSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04DETO.html

MERCERVILLE, N.J., Jan. 3 - Prosecutors began their malpractice case here in the suburbs of Trenton today against Dr. Lance L. Gooberman, the South Jersey addiction treatment specialist whose unorthodox cold-turkey method of treating opiate addiction cost the lives of at least seven patients, according to the state's complaint.

Dr. Gooberman and a detox center staff member, Dr. David Bradway, stand to lose their medical licenses if an administrative law judge, Jeff S. Masin, finds against them in a trial expected to last until Feb. 28.

The two have been charged with using unproven medical treatments, administering general anesthesia without proper supervision and discharging their patients without providing for adequate after-care.

The hearing is not a criminal trial, but one intended to determine whether the two doctors violated state medical rules and should lose their licenses. Several clients are suing Dr. Gooberman for malpractice damages.

Dr. Gooberman maintains that seven deaths out of 2,300 patients treated is not an unusual postoperative mortality rate, particularly when compared with the much higher likelihood of death for unchecked heroin users. He will also present patients who say they were cured of their addiction after numerous failed attempts by more conventional means.

Dr. Gooberman, a graduate of a medical school in Juárez, Mexico, said he did not expect to lose his license, but added that he had also begun to attend law school. Dr. Bradway is a graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Since 1994, Dr. Gooberman has operated U.S. Detox Inc. in this Philadelphia suburb. His method, derived from techniques pioneered in Europe, involves having a nurse-anesthesiologist put a patient to sleep for four or more hours and inject naloxone and naltrexone, which block the effect of opiates, putting the patient into withdrawal while unconscious.

Naltrexone pellets in a timed-release form are then also inserted under the skin to stop any subsequent craving for drugs. Dr. Gooberman charged $3,000 to $3,600 for the procedure but stopped using it under a consent decree in October 1999.

The procedure is used under hospital conditions, with patients remaining at least a night, in other centers around the country. It is the outpatient nature of Dr. Gooberman's practice, the absence of a supervising anesthesiologist with a medical degree and the lack of postoperative care, along with failures to warn patients of the dangers, that form the foundation of the state's case.

Instead of monitoring patients after the procedure in hospitals, said Douglas J. Harper, the deputy attorney general prosecuting the doctors, Dr. Gooberman and his company sent patients home or to motels a few hours after they had emerged from general anesthesia, often with instructions to untrained friends or family members to administer prescription medicine, including injections.

Dr. Gooberman maintains that some of the fatalities evidently resulted from patients using nonopiate drugs like cocaine immediately after the treatment. "Some of these people had multiple medical problems that were undetectable prior to the procedure," Dr. Gooberman said during a break in the hearing.

According to the complaint filed against the two doctors, seven patients died within hours to a few days after undergoing the procedure. They are identified only by their initials, and Mr. Harper started the day with the case of Mike J., whose mother was the first witness.

Mrs. J. said she and her husband drove Mike to U.S. Detox after seeing one of Dr. Gooberman's big yellow billboards, which promised a rapid cure from heroin addiction. Dr. Bradway performed the procedure on April 16, 1998, and made a follow- up phone call to their home that evening. At that point, Mike's lips and later his hands were badly swollen, he was having trouble breathing and had been vomiting violently, Mrs. J. testified.

"He looked at me, he closed his eyes and he never spoke to me again," Mrs. J. testified. "He died in my arms."

---

From Addiction to Helping to Save Lives

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By AARON DONOVAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04NEED.html?pagewanted=all

Inside his father's office at a West 37th Street truck garage, James Addison Jr. felt his knees became weak, and he sat down in a swivel chair and covered his face with his hands as he digested the news.

Mr. Addison went to his father's office that morning almost a decade ago to ask for money to feed his crack addiction. Instead of giving him the $10 he hoped for, his father, James Sr., told him that he was a grandfather.

The revelation, which hit as he was in his late 30's, caused him to reflect on his life. "I am a grandfather and my daughter doesn't know me," James Jr. recalled thinking. "What have I done with my life?"

For five years he had been addicted to crack, living in city-run homeless shelters, a city park or in a cell at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility on charges of criminal trespassing and petty theft.

But the moment his father told him that he was a grandfather, he knew he had to change.

He remembered that an organization called the Life Experience and Faith Sharing Association had been holding weekly meetings at the men's shelter in Washington Heights where he lived. He had never bothered to attend before, because he was too concerned with finding his next high. But he went to the meeting the following week and met Sister Teresa Skehan, a Roman Catholic nun and a founder of the group.

After about a month, during which she saw that he was attending the meetings each week, Sister Teresa told him about a program run by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Called the Educational Outreach Program, it is supported in part by money from The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

"Its chief aim is targeting people who have been homeless, been basically outside, have not been participating in our society for a while," said George B. Horton, the program's director. "Our hope is to give people a greater sense of their own dignity and to help them grow in self- esteem and to realize the wonderful resources they can draw on to strengthen their own lives."

Mr. Addison applied for the three- month program and was accepted on the condition that he join a recovery program. He signed up for help at the Reality House drug rehabilitation center on West 125th Street.

Under the Educational Outreach Program, 10 to 15 people, most of whom are recovering drug addicts, meet twice a week in the evening to talk about the problems they face and how they are working to overcome them.

"It took me out of my neighborhood," Mr. Addison said, recalling the day he went to his first meeting, at the archdiocese's offices on First Avenue in Midtown. "The people all around, the nice building, I was like, `This is all right.'

"Each person gets a mentor to help them work on their short-term goals and their long-term goals. My goals were simple: get a recovery, get an apartment, get a job. They helped me accomplish all three."

At the meetings, the members tell their life stories and attend workshops intended to help them get out of the cycle of dependency.

"You know how you have an old car that just needs a jump start to get going?" asked Mr. Addison, 46. "That was like my jump start, to help me get focused on my goals."

Mr. Horton said the simple act of telling one's life story could be therapeutic. "It's important for them to realize they have something they can share with others," he said. "When they stand up there in front of the group and tell their story and people applaud them and praise them, it's a great moment."

After three years of daytime treatments at the Reality House, Mr. Addison overcame his addiction to crack. In 1994, he got a full-time job as a discussion group leader and financial officer with the Life Experience and Faith Sharing Association that had been so important to him.

And last May, he became engaged and moved with his fiancée, Phyllis Haskins, 42, into a two-bedroom apartment near the Bronx Zoo.

He has also re-established contact with his son, Guy Satterwhite, 21, who lives down the street from him, and his daughter, Tara Robinson, 28, who lives in the South Bronx and first caused Mr. Addison to rethink the direction of his life by giving birth to a son, Ashanti Bullock, who is now 8.

"When I got well, it just wasn't me that got well, my whole family got well," he said. "My community got a little bit better and therefore our world got a little bit better."

Now, Mr. Addison leads two workshops a year with the Educational Outreach Program and goes into shelters three days a week with the Life Experience and Faith Sharing Association so that he can help others struggling against addictions.

"It's been a journey," Mr. Addison said as he sat on a soft couch in his warm, carpeted living room, which contains pictures of his family, a painting of Harriet Tubman spiriting slaves north along the underground railroad and a signed photograph of Mr. Addison shaking hands with Cardinal John J. O'Connor.

"Every day I come home," he said, "and I have my own clean sheets. I have a decent place, but there's always the thought of the others who are still out there in the cold."

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Governor Pataki's Wish List

New York Times
January 4, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/opinion/04THU3.html

Gov. George Pataki offered New Yorkers a broadly appealing menu of promises yesterday on education, the environment, gun control and reform of state drug laws. But as veterans of Albany wisely cautioned, the governor's seventh State of the State address is simply a speech, perhaps even the launching of his campaign for re-election in 2002. His state budget, which should give dimension to these proposals, appears with all its promise - or potentially deflating details - in the next few weeks.

Still, there were heartening ideas in this year's package. Mr. Pataki promised to "dramatically reform" New York's unfair Rockefeller drug laws, which have packed the state's prisons with nonviolent drug users. Genuine reform of these draconian laws is long overdue. Another law enforcement measure - creation of a special police unit to stop trafficking of illegal guns across state lines - would add muscle to the governor's stringent gun-control law enacted last year.

The governor sought to add to his environmental record by pledging to push for reauthorization of the state's vital Superfund program to help clean up toxic waste sites and by announcing the acquisition of 26,000 more acres of protected Adirondack lands. But he shied away from assuming state responsibility for assessing or coping with the skyrocketing prices for electricity last summer and for heating oil this winter.

With Florida's voting fiasco a fresh memory, the governor also suggested, correctly, that it was time to look at balloting problems in New York State. He is expected to propose a commission to study ways to improve both the voting process and the counting of ballots. Mr. Pataki showed bad faith, however, in omitting mention of his own proposal on campaign finance reform, which was announced with little fanfare in 1999 but did not even make his long wish list this year.

The governor made potentially dramatic proposals in education, including a pitch for mayoral control of schools and a plan to revamp the state's school aid formula. He would consolidate the 11 current funding categories, which are so complicated that few school officials fully understand them, into one "flexible, easy-to-use aid category." But skeptics will need to read the fine print of the budget to see whether this actually benefits New York City's students, who have been shortchanged in the state education formulas for many years.

Mr. Pataki too often leans over backward to help his political friends in the upstate regions, and this year's opening legislative address was no exception. He proposed a series of tax cuts and economic incentives for businesses and the elderly, mostly upstate, that sound worthy but deserve careful scrutiny, not least because the state might not be able to afford such expenses if the economy cools.

The governor's opening salvo gives only the barest outline of this year's legislative possibilities. At this stage, the rhetoric sounds promising but the reality will emerge only when he provides the budgetary details.

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N.Y. gov. calls for drug law reform

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2000
By LYNN BREZOSKY Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405658353

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. George Pataki on Wednesday called for the easing of New York's tough Rockefeller drug laws, which were enacted in the 1970s and have contributed to a surge in the number of people behind bars.

The laws, enacted under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, are among the harshest in the nation and can bring mandatory life sentences for possession of even relatively small amounts of narcotics.

``However well-intentioned, key aspects of those laws are out of step with both the times and the complexities of drug addiction,'' the Republican governor said in his seventh annual State of the State address.

Pataki offered no details about how to ease the drug laws except that he wants to do so dramatically.

The 1973 Rockefeller drug laws were enacted as a get-tough approach to the state's burgeoning drug problem. A person found guilty of a single four-ounce sale of a controlled substance can face a minimum prison sentence of 15 years to life _ the same penalty as someone convicted of second-degree murder in New York.

There are currently more than 21,000 prisoners serving time for drug-related offenses out of the state's 70,000 inmates, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. About 600 of those inmates are serving 15-year-to-life sentences under the most severe of the Rockefeller laws.

In recent years, the laws have come under increasing attack from such figures as White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey.

Some studies have noted a disproportionate number of minorities locked up for a decade or more for nonviolent drug offenses. Opponents of the laws say they tear minority families apart.

A recent report by the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group, said the state could trim $96 million, or 4 percent, from its $2.3 billion prison budget and improve public safety if it eliminated ``unnecessary and sometimes counterproductive imprisonment.''

In 1999, Pataki proposed some minor changes that would have affected an estimated 250 inmates. His proposal died in the Legislature.

Among those lobbying against the laws Wednesday at the state Capitol was retired New York City Detective Frank Serpico, whose exposure of police corruption was dramatized in the Al Pacino movie ``Serpico.'' Serpico said the drug laws have only served to increase corruption within the NYPD.

``If the governor means what he's saying today about serious reform, it is about time,'' Serpico said. ``From my experience, it would alleviate some temptation for officers.''

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ILLEGAL DRUG USE DOWN DRAMATICALLY IN U.S.

Morrock News, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001
THE MORROCK NEWS DIGEST
Fast, free and independent http://morrock.com

Use of illegal drugs in the U.S. has plummeted by 50 percent in the last 20 years, White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey said Thursday in his final annual report.

McCaffrey warned that the war against drugs isn't over. "There is no question that we are still looking at a U.S. society in which 6 percent of us last month used an illegal drug -- 14 million Americans."

But he said teen drug use has plunged downward by 21 percent in the past two years, and drug-related crimes are also dropping.

Crediting the Clinton administration, of which he is part, with successes in combating the sale and use of illegal drugs, McCaffrey said President-elect George W. Bush must ensure continuity in the national drug strategy.

McCaffrey was a key proponent of the Clinton administration's controversial efforts in Colombia, where the U.S. is providing $1.3 billion in military assistance to try to choke off exports of cocaine and heroin. As part of the program, U.S. military advisers train Colombian forces to fight drug trafficking -- a fight that pits them against leftist groups that profit from drug sales.

Whether the Bush administration will extend the program remains to be seen. So far, Bush hasn't named McCaffrey's successor.

McCaffrey also said that Jacksonville, Fla., and Las Vegas, Nev., have been declared high-intensity drug trafficking areas, and that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are mounting a joint effort to share evidence and information about drug trafficking and money-laundering operations.

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Governor George E. Pataki: State of the State Address

New York Times
January 4, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04GTEX.html?pagewanted=all

Following is the address given to the New York State Legislature in Albany by Gov. George E. Pataki on Jan. 3, 2001.

It's an honor to once again report on the state of the State. And it is a pleasure for me to be able to report that our State is strong, and our future bright with possibilities.

I feel great confidence when I consider New York's strength today. And I feel tremendous optimism when I think of the future that is within our reach ?? not just the future of New York, but the future of America.

Our nation has just witnessed an extraordinary election. Some pundits predict that the legacy of this election will be political paralysis in Washington, as each party looks to the next election.

It is a natural tendency to think of government primarily in political terms - electoral margins, governing majorities, and poll ratings. But when the voting is over, the campaigning must stop so the governing can begin. And that governing is not about politics, but public service.

While some observers look at the results of the 2000 elections and see nothing but bitterness and narrowly drawn divisions, doomed to produce more partisanship and gridlock, I believe there is another perspective to be seen, and another conclusion to be drawn.

It's true, these elections were hard fought. But that is no more than the natural and necessary process of democracy.

Our Founding Fathers knew this well. In the first of the Federalist papers, a great New Yorker, Alexander Hamilton, wrote about the "intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties." And he complained that it seemed, from the tone of the discourse, that politicians sought to "increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives."

So Americans are no strangers to strong debate and close elections.

But if you look beyond the campaign rhetoric and partisan divide, there was a recognition of what America must do.

We need to:

Fix the Social Security system for future generations.

Secure the future of Medicare.

Help our seniors with the cost of prescription drugs.

Reform public education, so America's schools are once again the best in the world.

And give America's taxpayers, America's businesses, and the American economy the tax relief they need and deserve.

It is of course true that differences remain ?? different ideas about how to best reach these common goals. And in due time, those differences will be aired vigorously, honestly, and respectfully. But if partisan differences are put aside in Washington, there are great opportunities for progress.

With a foundation of common sense and common goals, I see every reason to look to the future with optimism in the coming year, because much can be done if our minds are set to it.

Here in New York, we've shown what can be accomplished when leaders are willing to work across partisan lines.

Last year was the most productive legislative session we've seen in New York in a generation.

Why? Because old divisions gave way to a new spirit of shared purpose. And that enabled us to pass the most important and far-reaching legislation in years.

Senator Bruno, you and your colleagues were instrumental in advocating for such initiatives as reform of our sexual assault laws, and expansion of the EPIC program to provide prescription drugs for New York's seniors.

And Speaker Silver, you and your house's commitment to combating hate crimes and expanding health care coverage for all New Yorkers was instrumental in our historic progress on both of those important issues.

It's true that many of us in this room will stand before the voters again, and some might understandably be turning their thoughts to that election. Some may think that now is the time to fight harder for partisan advantage, in the hopes of gaining a stronger hand in the years to come.

I hope not. Because the elections are over, and the real work, the task of governing, is now upon us. And there is much to be done-but we can only do it if we think not in terms of the next election, but rather in terms of the next generation, and the ones to follow.

The spirit of bipartisanship shouldn't stand in the way of honest and constructive debate ?? but in the end, pride and partisanship must not stand in the way of progress.

We need to continue our efforts to ensure that every child receives the best health care.

We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that every student in New York has the benefit of first?class teachers, and first-class schools.

We need to expand our affordable housing programs that have already provided good homes for more than 75,000 low and moderate-income families.

We need to continue to cut taxes, to strengthen New York's families and New York's economy.

We need to build upon our successful, six?year long effort to keep our streets safe, so that future generations can grow up without the fears of crime that can cripple a community.

We need to take a long, hard look at New York's electoral system to guarantee that every citizen's right to vote is respected, and that every vote is counted equally and accurately.

And, as we have before, we must always consider the long term consequences of the actions we take today, and never more so than now.

Now is the time to look beyond today, beyond tomorrow, to govern with a vision of creating a future worthy of our children, and theirs.

To be satisfied with today's prosperity would be to squander the promise of tomorrow.

And the promise of tomorrow is rooted in the children of today, and the opportunities that we provide for them to learn and fulfill their true potential.

Over the last five years, we have worked together to improve New York's public education system.

For four years in a row, we've increased school aid by record amounts -- $3.4 billion in total, a 33 percent increase in funding-three times the rate of inflation. We've made record investments in school infrastructure, and provided significant new resources for better textbooks and technology. We made historic governance reforms to make New York City schools more accountable.

We've created a nationally recognized charter school program. We've created programs like Teachers of Tomorrow to bring new teachers into our classrooms. We've established tough educational standards, including rigorous graduation requirements and statewide testing for 4th and 8th graders. And we've developed school report cards, to help parents track their children's schools.

But still we need to do more.

Whether the issue is welfare, crime, or economic growth, we've always had the greatest success when our reforms strike at core problems.

The fundamental flaw with welfare was the way the system encouraged dependency. We changed that. The fundamental flaws in our criminal justice system were the weak laws that perpetuated violence. We changed that. The fundamental flaw with the economic climate we inherited was the crushing tax and regulatory burden New Yorkers faced. We changed that.

The time has come to fix a fundamental flaw that ties the hands of local schools: the dinosaur that is the state school aid formula.

Over the past four years we have launched the largest campaign of new education-related investments in state history. For four consecutive years, we've provided record-breaking increases in funding, and this year, I will again propose the highest level of education funding in our history.

But make no mistake: Simply providing more money has not, and cannot, solve the problems. We must do more.

This year, we should throw out the incomprehensible school aid formula and instead give school districts the flexibility they need to put these resources to use in the most efficient manner possible.

We've given localities the authority to run their own schools-but then we micro-manage their budgeting practices, telling them how to spend virtually every dollar.

If a district wants to target more money towards computers, they should be able to do that.

If a district wants to target more resources toward teacher's salaries, they should be able to do that.

Too many school districts aren't able to take full advantage of the record funding we've provided because the overly complex school aid formulas limit the ability of schools to direct resources where they're needed the most.

Let's leave the old, convoluted school aid formula on the ash heap of history, and instead put children and teachers first, and paperwork and bureaucracy last.

I will propose consolidating 11 different complex funding formulas, that in the past have tied the hands of school districts, into one flexible, easy-to-use aid category. And in so doing, we can save funds that are wasted on administrative costs, and instead send that money into the classrooms where it's needed.

As we provide more funding, and more flexibility in spending it, we also need to establish more accountability in the system.

Let's make this the year that we put control of our major urban school systems where it belongs-in the hands of the mayors. Parents must know who's responsible for educating their children, and they should have the authority to hold those people accountable at the voting booth.

Another essential foundation for strong educational reform must be a renewed focus on our teachers.

Last year, we initiated the Teachers of Tomorrow program, a series of initiatives like tuition assistance and training that will, over the next decade, attract more than 50,000 well qualified teachers into the classrooms that need them the most.

This year, I ask for your support to double the funding for Teachers of Tomorrow and to expand it to draw upon another untapped reservoir of potential teachers ?? our paraprofessionals who work in classrooms every day. Teacher's aides have shown a commitment to our children. Let's provide them with a career ladder so they can become certified teachers.

Expanding and improving Teachers of Tomorrow is the best way to ensure that every student has great teachers, whether they live in the South Bronx or the Southern Tier.

And there is another pool of potential teachers we should draw from: retired public employees, from police officers to medical researchers. Many of these retirees could make outstanding teachers. Let's allow them to become public school teachers while still receiving their retirement benefits.

I also believe that parents should know whether their children's schools have leaking roofs, or whether they're in good condition. Parents have a right to know the condition of their children's school, and taxpayers have a right to see that their money is being spent wisely. Let's require a new School Facilities Report Card for every public school in the State, so that school districts will become more accountable for their spending.

And we need to do more to provide every student with the broad range of opportunities and experiences that are available in first?rate after?school programs. These programs give working parents the security of knowing that their children have a safe, educational after-school environment.

Two years ago, we started the Advantage After?School programs, and today they're operating in 133 sites across the state, providing more than 20,000 students with high?quality after?school programs that keep them safe and off the streets.

Many of these schools receive matching grants through our unique partnership with The After?School Corporation. We need to expand these valuable programs and get more partners involved in this effort.

Let's work to ensure that, over the next five years, every school district that wants to open an after?school program has the resources to do it. We can start that process immediately by doubling our spending on this program this year. And we can redouble our efforts to build partnerships with local schools, community based organizations, foundations and philanthropists to provide additional resources.

And this year, we must expand the frontiers of opportunity for children who come to this country from foreign lands. New immigrants are a source of strength for our State and an important part of our future. Children who need extra help learning English should have the right to enroll in an Immersion Program during the summer months. This year, let's give them that right.

Someone once said that cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society. Certainly educating children is a reflection of how we cherish them. Our commitment to New York's children has never been greater, and it must not waver this year.

New York has set the national standard when it comes to providing comprehensive, quality health care. Medical care is not a luxury, it's a necessity, and no state is doing more to ensure that its residents have access to it, especially children.

Our state's Child Health Plus program is, by far and away, the most effective and compassionate program of its kind in America.

This summer, I got an e-mail from Mrs. Eileen Gellerstein, a mother of three children whose husband became ill while she was on maternity leave. She writes:

"While my husband was in the hospital, we learned that we no longer had health coverage. I saw a Child Health Plus booth on Staten Island. My precious children now have coverage-and not just any coverage. They still have the doctor we wanted-no clinic or long lines. Please understand just how wonderful Child Health Plus is."

When I addressed you for the first time in 1995, there were 90,000 children enrolled in Child Health Plus. Today, more than 530,000 of New York's children are getting comprehensive, quality health care through this program.

And the best news is that we're enrolling children into this program faster than ever.

Mrs. Gellerstein is right when she says that Child Health Plus is a wonderful program.

Child health experts are right when they say that it's a model for the rest of the nation. And I think that I am right to say that being the best shouldn't prevent us from being better.

That's why we're making the same commitment to all New Yorkers through Family Health Plus, the most comprehensive health care plan in the nation. Starting this year, we will help up to 600,000 uninsured working New Yorkers get the health coverage they need and deserve.

And just two days ago, the expansion of our prescription drug program for seniors went into effect, nearly doubling enrollment in the EPIC program to more than 215,000 seniors.

New York is fortunate to have the best health care system in America. But today's technology gives us the opportunity to make it better.

All New Yorkers should have full and instant access to the information they need to make sound, safe and informed decisions about the care of a loved one.

In the past, if you wanted to know if a nursing home or hospital had been repeatedly cited for bad or even illegal practices, you had to wend your way through some bureaucracy, begging for information.

Because of the law we passed, New Yorkers will soon be able to get that information over the Internet in a matter of seconds.

We all want the best possible care for our loved ones-the kind of care that only a qualified, committed and compassionate professional can provide.

That's why I will propose conducting criminal background checks for all nursing home and home care employees.

And it's time to change a misguided law that stacks the deck against people with disabilities.

Under current law, many of New York's working disabled lose their Medicaid benefits if they earn above a certain income level.

People with disabilities should not have to choose between going to work or having health insurance. The budget I will submit will give people with disabilities an opportunity to purchase their health insurance through Medicaid.

Over the past six years, we've made women's health care the top priority that it should be. We passed the 48?hour Maternity Bill. We ended drive-through mastectomies. And we continue to fund a wide range of programs to advance our aggressive fight against breast cancer.

This year, we must do more.

Fighting breast and cervical cancer is difficult enough. Women shouldn't also have to fight the system to get the treatment they need.

The budget I will submit in two weeks will expand Medicaid eligibility for the treatment of cervical and breast cancer.

We must also combat the leading killer of women in America -? heart disease.

There's a false perception that heart disease is a male disease, and it is deeply rooted in the minds of Americans and in the minds of too many physicians. We need to change that perception. This year, we will support a program to educate women about their risk of heart disease and the warning signs of a heart attack.

And we will assist in physician training to give women better information, better counseling and a better chance of overcoming heart disease.

Six years ago, New Yorkers were being taxed too much to subsidize a government that gave them too little in return.

The lesson learned was that high taxes don't make government better, just bigger. So we forged ahead on two fronts. We aggressively cut taxes while reducing the size, scope and cost of government. We ended the destructive cycle of high taxes perpetuating more bureaucracy and more spending. And in the process, we improved virtually every facet of government efficiency.

But making government smaller and smarter is not a one-time endeavor. If we're going to continue cutting taxes-and we are-we must continue to eliminate the bureaucracy that created those taxes in the first place.

That is why I have once again directed every commissioner of every State agency to find innovative ways to increase efficiency while reducing the waste that is inherently marbled throughout the bureaus of government.

Someone once said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Not while I'm governor.

Instead, we're using that power to cut taxes, which strengthens families, creates jobs, and expands the frontiers of freedom.

The tax cuts we've passed since 1995 will save New York's families and businesses more than $100 billion. No state in the nation even comes close.

In the interest of time, I'm not going to read you the complete list of all the taxes we've cut. I would simply invite you to visit our State's web site to see the complete list of taxes New Yorkers no longer have to pay.

Now is not the time to stop cutting taxes. It never is. Today, I ask you to cut taxes on the people of New York for the 7th straight year.

The budget I submit will expand the most ambitious tax cutting program in the nation.

Thanks to STAR, the average senior pays 55 percent less in school property taxes than three years ago. Some 200,000 seniors now pay no school property taxes at all-not one dime. And when STAR is fully phased in this year, all other homeowners in New York will have seen their school property tax reduced by an average of 27 percent.

But the STAR program isn't about numbers and percentages. It's about real people like Mrs. Clair Lane of Genesee County who sent me a letter saying that "Relief from school taxes saved our home."

Every endeavor we undertake should be measured by the positive impact it has on people.

By that standard, STAR is not just a good program, it's a great program. And great programs are meant to be duplicated.

We've cut school property taxes. Now it's time to cut county property taxes.

This year, I will propose enacting Co-STAR, which will dramatically reduce the burden of county property taxes on the New Yorkers who need it most: seniors and farmers.

I will also propose a measure to preserve the intent and integrity of STAR.

Let me be clear: Over the past four budgets, we've increased funding to New York's schools by record amounts-by $700 million in 1997, $800 million in 1998, $900 million in 1999, and $1.1 billion last year.

Despite that record funding, some districts have used the STAR program to mask unnecessary tax increases. That is why I implore you to protect STAR by capping local spending levels.

And as we continue to cut taxes on working families, we must also continue to cut taxes on the businesses that keep them working.

They say you can't run a business without taking risks. Six years ago, doing business in New York was the risk. For too long, New York's businesses were over-regulated, over-taxed and under-appreciated.

We changed that. We made it clear that the reward for enterprise, ingenuity, risk taking and success should not be more regulations and higher taxes. We cut the taxes that were killing small business, killing investment and killing jobs.

There are those who said that our sweeping tax cuts would hurt our state's finances and weaken New York's credit. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Six years and 57 tax cuts later, the results could not be more clear. Since 1995, New York's economy has produced more than 776,000 new private sector jobs.

For the first time in 20 years, New York's rate of job growth outpaced the national average for two years in a row.

And just two weeks ago, Standard and Poor's upgraded New York's credit rating not one, but two levels. It's the first time New York has ever received a two step upgrade, and it brings our credit rating to its highest level in 21 years.

New York has made such remarkable progress because of our unwavering commitment to reducing regulations, controlling spending and cutting taxes.

Many of the additional tax cuts I propose today will be aimed at further strengthening our upstate economy, and I'd like to discuss that with you for a moment.

Today, upstate New York has more private sector jobs than at any time in its history.

Companies like Corning and IBM-both of which were expanding and creating jobs in other states when I took office-had been waiting to see if our commitment to less government, fewer regulations and lower taxes was just a passing trend or a permanent new way of doing things.

We now have a proven record. Citing that record, companies that were leaving a decade ago are now coming back. Just as important, the bright and talented native New Yorkers who followed those companies across our borders seeking opportunities are coming home-because they now believe they can find those opportunities here, in the state where they grew up.

The Associated Press wrote about this reverse exodus recently. It told the stories of people like Chris Gardner, a 40?year?old dot?com pioneer who grew up in Cortland then moved to Massachusetts at the height of New York's economic crisis.

This year, Chris left the Internet company he co?founded and moved home to upstate New York.

"Six months ago," he said, "I was afraid it would be the upstate New York I left in 1978. It's not."

He's right. The upstate economy is better than it was, but not nearly as good as it's going to be if we continue to make the changes that are encouraging investment, sparking growth, and creating jobs.

The progress we've made is truly remarkable, especially when you consider it in the proper context. Throughout our history, many of our upstate communities thrived on the success of one or a handful of large employers, usually manufacturers.

But for over a generation, hundreds of these companies were forced out of our state by high taxes, irrational regulations and a hostile business climate. The exodus of these companies devastated the upstate communities they once supported.

You and I inherited the problems that drove these companies out of New York. That is why we've spent the last six years cutting taxes and regulations to bring them back.

But there is more to do.

Last year I asked you to abolish one of the leading producers of pink slips in upstate New York-the Gross Receipts Tax on manufacturers.

I applaud you for taking that giant step, and it IS a giant step-one that's going to lower the cost of energy by nearly $400 million a year.

Now, as we continue to move into a competitive electric market, we need to protect consumers against unwarranted price spikes like the outrageous double-digit increases in New York City last summer. Right now, the power to prevent that from happening again rests solely in the hands of federal regulators. That is wrong. The State should have that authority, and this year I will ask our congressional delegation to join me in the fight to get that authority.

Now that the job-killing Gross Receipts Tax is where it belongs-in the dumpster-I implore you to join me in supporting a common sense three-point plan that will continue to strengthen New York's manufacturing industry.

First, we need to fix the tax on manufacturers, so it looks as though someone designed it on purpose. It's one tax, but it taxes businesses three times: on their payroll, on their property and on their receipts. That's two times too many. This year, let's get rid of the tax on payroll and property so these manufacturers can invest, grow and create new jobs.

Second, the Alternative Minimum Tax sends a very clear message to manufacturers. It says: If you invest in New York, you will be penalized. That is why we've cut that tax in half since 1995. This year, let's finish our work and put the Alternative Minimum Tax in the trash can where it belongs.

Third, we must recognize that an investment in the technical development of our workforce is a down payment on a brighter future. Let's make that investment this year by providing ongoing, high-tech training to the men and women who work in manufacturing.

We must also expand our successful Empire Zone program. And I want to applaud both chambers for enacting the legislation that created these zones. After just one year, Empire Zones are sparking investment and creating jobs in every corner of New York.

In the Plattsburgh Zone, Mold-Rite invested $4.3 million, creating one hundred new jobs.

In Buffalo's Zone, Adelphia Communications is investing $100 million, creating over 1,000 new jobs in the heart of downtown.

In the Syracuse Zone, Fiserv is investing $5.2 million and creating over 200 jobs.

In the Kingston Zone, United Health Care is investing $9.4 million and creating 532 jobs.

And we all know what's happening in the East Fishkill Zone: a $2.5 billion investment by IBM to build the world's most advanced chip?fab plant. That's the largest private sector investment in state history-the largest anywhere in America in five years-and it's going to help create thousands of new jobs.

And today I'm pleased to announce that K-Mart will purchase 350 acres in Amsterdam's Empire Zone to build a $100 million distribution center that will create 1,000 new jobs.

I said earlier that good programs are meant to be duplicated. In this case, a good program should be expanded. Specifically, I will propose doubling the size of certain Empire Zones across upstate New York-from two-square miles to four.

We're going to expand the Buffalo Zone, so we can attract more companies like the ones that are investing there now-companies like Check.com.

We're going to expand the Herkimer-Oneida Zone to make more room for companies like BAE Systems.

We're going to expand the Onondaga Zone, so we can attract more companies like Oneida Air Systems.

We're going to expand the Elmira Zone, where the Taylor Corporation is growing and creating new jobs.

In all, we will double the size of 22 Empire Zones, from Jamestown to Lackawanna to Amsterdam to Watertown.

Last year, you authorized the creation of six additional Empire Zones. Over the next few months, I will announce the location of those zones. I believe that one of them should be in the Catskills.

Empire Zones-like our other economic development zones-are based on the principle that New York's prosperity is not true prosperity if certain communities are left behind.

The Empowerment Zone in Harlem and the South Bronx is breathing new life into those communities, which is why it must continue to be fully funded.

And look at what we did in Times Square. Six years ago, after decades of neglect, that historic section of New York had fallen into complete decay.

With a smart investment, we changed that. We leveraged a public sector investment of $75 million into more than $2 billion from the private sector. And today, 42nd Street is thriving like never before.

If we can do it in Times Square, we can do it in Niagara Falls-and we should. Niagara Falls, like Times Square, is a rich part of our State's history. This year, let's establish and fund a special corporation-based on the 42nd Street model-so we can bring about the same renaissance in Niagara Falls that we brought to Times Square.

As you know, Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue has been working on the Quality Communities initiative. At every one of the regional roundtables convened by the Lieutenant Governor, local officials and business leaders spoke passionately about the lost opportunities that burden their communities in the form of abandoned brownfields.

Every acre of contaminated land in our cities and towns represents lost jobs, unrealized tax dollars, and unfulfilled possibilities.

So this year I will submit a package of initiatives to give State tax credits for brownfields redevelopment, particularly for large brownfields, and to give local assistance for redevelopment.

Our great industrial legacy has presented us with significant challenges-but at the same time, tremendous opportunities. We must clean up these properties and put them back on the tax rolls, so they can once again be economic opportunities for the future, instead of lingering relics of our industrial past.

Rapid changes in science and technology are creating industries we never would have dreamed of just a few years ago. Government, of course, is not the driving force behind these industries. What's innovative today could be obsolete tomorrow, and government shouldn't decide which is which. But government can, should and must create an atmosphere that allows these emerging new industries to flourish.

To do that, we must support the high tech trends that are the surging wave of the future.

There's never been a better time to do it. And there's never been a better way to do it-linking high tech economic development with our world-class university system to create partnerships for economic progress. We have a great stock of knowledge-undiscovered technological possibilities-unimaginable to the last generation, waiting to be born for the next generation.

Now, we need to expand our efforts to capitalize upon the remarkable base of knowledge we have in our universities and research centers.

And our colleges and universities have never been stronger, because we've provided unprecedented support for them in recent years. We've held the line against tuition costs for five years-and we'll do it again this year. Enrollment is up, standards are higher, and a college education is more affordable because families can now save for college nearly tax free, and deduct tuition costs.

As a result, our universities are better prepared now than ever before to help lead the way into the hi?tech economy of the new century. Now is the time to take the next step to bridge the gap between academia and the new economy.

Companies across our State are poised to lead the nation in high-tech industries like biotechnology, computer miniaturization and fiber optic technology-and we can help them.

Nanoelectronics-cutting-edge computer miniaturization research being carried out here in Albany-will allow us to design computer chips that will replace the damaged functions of the spinal cord or optic nerves, enabling people to walk and see again.

New research being conducted in Rochester in photonics will make it possible to send an interactive hologram of a person across the world.

And research in Buffalo is producing revolutionary developments in bioinformatics. Using supercomputers to assist advanced medical research, companies will develop 21st century surgical techniques, where a tumor can be removed without cutting through the skin.

New York has the expertise, in both academia and the private sector, to lead the world in these fields. All we need to do is provide appropriate support to accommodate the development and rapid commercialization of this cutting-edge research.

Consequently, I will propose a new, one billion dollar high tech initiative to fund this research, working in collaboration with leading businesses and universities.

With an investment of a quarter billion dollars in State funds, we can, over the next five years, leverage federal and private funding to create research centers that will bring together the ingenuity of the private sector with the world-class research capabilities of our universities. This will be the largest high-tech economic development initiative in our state's history.

To start this process, we have already begun work to create the first three Centers of Excellence: One in Buffalo with the State University at Buffalo, Roswell Park and a consortium of industry partners; one in Albany with IBM and the State University at Albany; and one in Rochester with Corning, Kodak and other companies working with the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester and other schools.

And let's build other Centers: on Long Island, capitalizing on its expertise in information technology; in New York City, where 36 different medical schools, health centers and research institutions are developing collaborative research projects that will transform medicine in the future; and in other areas across our state that have the technological base to lead New York into the 21st century.

And even as we get this initiative underway, we will move forward with the NYSTAR program that is about to begin funding promising new academic research in high-tech fields throughout the State. Over the next few months, I will announce the creation of as many as six research facilities called STAR Centers. These Centers will be an integral part of our efforts to tap into the knowledge base that's available in our world-class university system.

The result of these initiatives will be an explosion of innovation that will create thousands of jobs. Good jobs. High paying jobs. Jobs for the next generation of New Yorkers.

There's no question that advances in science and technology have dramatically changed the dynamics of our economy. But throughout the long history of our State, one thing about our economy has remained unchanged: New York's leading industry continues to be agriculture.

New York's farmers are the backbone of our economy and the lifeblood of our land. Over the past six years, you and I have passed a long list of tax cuts and other initiatives to strengthen New York's farms.

We've done a lot. But because New York's farmers have done so much to strengthen our State, and because our economy relies on their ability to do so in the future, I believe we can and should do more.

This year-in addition to the tax relief I'm asking you to give farmers through Co-STAR --- we must further expand the school property tax credit for farmers who rent land.

I will also propose a one-time tax credit to offset the cost of making improvements to farmland, whether it's cleaning up pastures, building fences or repairing silos.

I will ask you to expand STAR to include every farmer in New York.

And of course, we must continue to work with our congressional delegation to seek inclusion in the Dairy Compact.

These initiatives will plant the seeds for a future of stronger farms, and a stronger New York.

Six years ago, New York was embroiled in a wave of crime and violence that endangered our children, plagued our communities and threatened our future. In newspapers throughout the state, it was described as a crisis that was "rapidly spinning out of control."

We ended the piercing epidemic of fear by ending the misguided policies that created it in the first place.

The past six years have shown that there is an irrefutable cause and effect relationship in the crime rate.

We passed tougher laws for violent criminals, the number of arrests went up, and the number of violent crimes went down.

We ended parole for repeat violent felons, and violent crime dropped by 25 percent. Then we ended parole for all violent felons, and violent crime dropped by 39 percent.

In just six years, we've seen across-the-board reductions in crime. Statewide, burglary is down 43 percent. Robbery is down 49 percent. And the rate of murder has dropped by an astounding 55 percent.

We've made remarkable progress, but when it comes to protecting people from harm, government can never rest. That is why it is imperative that we step up the fight against crime by employing the latest advances in science and technology

The DNA law we passed last year is already closing the books on unsolved crimes ?? a 1982 double homicide, a 1979 murder, and several rapes.

Without our DNA law, the criminals who committed those vicious acts would be sharing the streets with our children.

This year, let's give police and prosecutors the law they need to build on the success of our DNA law. Let's expand the DNA Database to include all convicted criminals.

We must also recognize that the passage of time doesn't make a heinous crime any less heinous.

Because DNA technology allows us to solve crimes committed 10, 20 or even 30 years ago, we must get rid of a law that protects the guilty.

When a women is raped, there is no statute of limitations on her suffering, her fear, or her pain. When a mother or father loses a child to violence, there is no statute of limitations on their grief.

There is no statute of limitations on victims, and there should be no statue of limitations for violent predators.

This year, we must abolish the statute of limitations for rape, sexual assault and other serious violent felony offenses.

We must also do more to protect battered women and their children. When these victims make the difficult decision to leave their home, they shouldn't have to worry about the expense of relocating. This year, let's provide them with emergency financial assistance so they don't have to.

Two years ago, we passed Jenna's Law, ending parole for all violent felons. Let's take the next step this year by ending parole for all convicted felons.

And last year, we passed the most sweeping set of gun laws in America-common sense laws that protect the rights of honest gun owners while keeping guns out of the hands of children and criminals.

That historic legislation sent a message to the nation that New York will not tolerate gun violence. It employs the latest technology to trace guns used to commit crimes. It closes loopholes that basically allowed criminals to walk out of a gun show fully armed. And it bans the sale of assault weapons.

We've taken the right steps on guns. But too many guns are coming into New York from states that haven't.

This year, we will reinforce our gun laws with an aggressive new initiative aimed at stopping illegal weapons before they get into our State, and seizing those that already have.

I have directed the State Police to spearhead this effort with a special new unit called (SWIFT) -- the Special Weapons Interdiction Field Team.

This elite team of specially trained agents will gather intelligence to identify, arrest and prosecute gun traffickers.

They will work with local and federal law enforcement officials to establish a strong presence along the routes gun traffickers use to move illegal weapons. They will track them down, put them in prison and destroy their weapons.

To do that more effectively, I will also propose legislation to toughen the penalties for those caught trafficking in illegal weapons.

It is imperative that you support this effort, because the time to intercept deadly and illegal weapons is before they get into the hands of the criminals who use them.

Nearly three decades ago, New York enacted some of the toughest drug laws in the nation. Today, we can conclude that -? however well intentioned -? key aspects of those laws are out of step with both the times and the complexities of drug addiction.

In the coming weeks, I will send you legislation that will dramatically reform New York's Rockefeller drug laws.

I'm hopeful that we can come together in a bipartisan way to enact meaningful reform this year.

The mounting problem of crime and violence wasn't the only social crisis that threatened our future six years ago. We also confronted a crisis of spirit that was suppressing the potential of talented people by locking them in a system that discouraged ambition.

When you subsidize dependency and poverty, you get more of both. So we changed the system.

At the same time, we're taking the crucial step of forcing deadbeat parents to be responsible parents.

Roughly one-third of the people who've left New York's welfare rolls have done so in large part because an absent parent now pays child support. Five years ago, we were collecting about $610 million a year in child support. Because we changed the law, we expect that number to reach $1.2 billion this year, which will be the second consecutive year of record collections.

This year, we must step up these efforts.

Together, we passed a law that allows us to suspend the driver's license of a deadbeat parent. Let's expand that law. It's unconscionable that a deadbeat parent can hold a professional license that enables him to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars while his children live in poverty.

In addition to suspending a deadbeat's driver's license, we should have the administrative authority to suspend their lawyer's license, their doctor's license, and other professional licenses. We must take every reasonable step to force deadbeats to pay their child support, instead of forcing taxpayers to do it for them.

After decades of experience, the welfare system taught us one thing conclusively: Encouraging people to remain dependent upon their government isn't compassionate ?? it's cruel. That's why we acted decisively to lead people trapped on welfare along the path to freedom and independence. And the results are clear: After just six years, we've reduced the welfare rolls by 876,000 people.

Five years ago, New Yorkers joined me in approving an environmental bond act to protect and enhance our natural resources. Today, I am proud to report that nearly 1,400 projects are underway, and nearly $1 billion in Bond Act funds have been invested in environmental protection. And many more projects are underway because of the record funding we've provided each year for the Environmental Protection Fund.

These projects are protecting our environment and improving the quality of life that New Yorkers enjoy.

For example, the Village of Irvington is transforming its Hudson River waterfront from an abandoned lumber yard into a new park that will offer ballfields, open spaces and a new senior citizen's center.

And Long Island Sound is undergoing a revitalization because of our investments in wastewater facilities, and through our efforts to create new public recreational access to the Sound in places like Oyster Bay and the new Nissequogue River State Park.

The success of these projects clearly demonstrates the value of making wise investments today in environmental protection projects that pay off in an improved quality of life for years to come. We need to continue to make these critical investments in coming years, and enhance the dedicated environmental programs that fund this essential work.

To that end, I will propose a record level of funding for the Environmental Protection Fund again this year.

One of our great environmental accomplishments has been the strong support we have provided for land conservation. Since 1995, we have led the nation in this effort, protecting more than 300,000 acres of land.

But our conservation work is not done. I'm proud to announce that, working with International Paper and The Nature Conservancy, we've agreed to protect more than 26,000 additional acres of land near the Whitney tract in the Adirondacks.

This unique agreement will combine State and private ownership, providing public recreational access to four pristine Adirondack lakes, which will become part of the Forest Preserve. At the same time, working forest conservation easements will strengthen the timber industry in the North Country.

Protecting our environment while maintaining time-honored economic opportunities are essential goals of our policies in the Adirondacks and the Catskills. But at the same time, we must do more to help towns and municipalities with the burden of lost property tax revenues. Let's use General Fund revenues to reimburse local governments for property taxes lost when landowners enroll in the State forest tax program.

The best stewards of land are private landowners, and we must do more to help them maintain their scenic lands. This year, I will propose establishing a tax credit for the donation of property, or conservation easements on private lands.

This is one of the recommendations that Lieutenant Governor Donohue will make as part of the Quality Communities initiative to revitalize our Main Streets and protect open spaces.

A critical part of that effort is cleaning up hazardous wastes left behind by long-bankrupt companies. I've spoken already about initiatives that we should undertake to clean up brownfields. But we have another, related responsibility as well: This year, we must re-authorize and reform the State's Superfund program, which cleans up the most seriously contaminated, abandoned sites in the State.

Along with protecting our natural resources, we must do more to promote our unique historical resources. Our American heritage is playing a greater and greater role in the State's second largest industry, tourism, and we can build upon that success. Many of America's most important historical events occurred in New York State-but far too many of them are nearly forgotten today.

We've had tremendous success in creating a Women's Heritage Trail, to teach New Yorkers about great historical figures like Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony. And I signed historic legislation to create a similar trail, a Freedom Trail, to celebrate the proud history of the Underground Railroad. October 17, 2002 marks the 225th Anniversary of a battle which took place on a farm not far from here, near Saratoga. This year, let's start work on a third Heritage Trail to teach our children about the importance of that victory and other key events of the Revolutionary War.

New York has a rich history, a history that has endured turmoil, savored triumphs and been enriched by both.

It is a history of great moments, great deeds, and great men and women who believed it was within their power to expand the promise of their day into the far reaches of time. But there's no prominent place in our history books for those who were confronted with a problem, disagreed on how to resolve it, and chose to do nothing.

It is imperative that we do today what we've done so successfully in the past, which is to chart the future on common ground. As James Baldwin said: "The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."

Time and again, we've put the common good of the people above the narrow interests of the few. We have shared a vision that extends far beyond our own interest and even our own time. We are not only the servants of today, but also the stewards of tomorrow.

A wise voice from history reminds us that "the Constitution was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity-unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity." Let this ideal guide us in the coming year and beyond.

In all that we do, let us remember that the only way to move forward is together. Let us exercise the power vested in us in ways that will touch, instruct, illuminate, uplift and endure.

If we succeed, future generations looking back will say that we laid the foundation for a 21st century of unlimited hope and opportunity.

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Two officers, suspect killed in shooting

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 01:57 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndsthu08.htm

EDEN, Idaho (AP) - The two Jerome County sheriff's deputies killed in a gunfight with a suspect were dog handlers serving a warrant to search for drugs. Both were wearing bulletproof vests, Sheriff Jim Weaver said.

Cpl. James Moulson, 30, and Cpl. Phillip Anderson, 23, were shot to death Wednesday evening along with the suspect, George Timothy Williams, 47, at a home in Eden, a town of 300 residents 10 miles east of Twin Falls.

No one else was wounded.

Weaver said other officers were backing up Moulson, a four-year department veteran and married father of a 9-month-old son, and Anderson, who was single and had been a deputy for two years.

County Prosecutor John Nicholson said no additional information would be released. The Idaho State Police was leading the investigation that continued Thursday.

The Rev. Robert Gomes, the sheriff's chaplain, said a grief support team was working with the department's officers and their families.

''We pull together because we're a family. We're a brotherhood,'' he said. ''I expect every police officer within 500 miles will probably come to the funeral.''

No details of those arrangements were available on Thursday.

Wednesday's deaths were the first killings of on-duty law enforcement officers in Idaho since Idaho State Police trooper Linda Huff, 33, died on June 17, 1998, in a shootout in her agency's Coeur d'Alene parking lot.

Two other Jerome County deputies were slightly wounded in a September 1999 gunfight while responding to a domestic dispute.

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USA Today
01/01/04
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

D.C.

The Massachusetts nonprofit group Change the Climate has bought 560 ads on buses and in Metrorail stations questioning laws against marijuana use. The group's founder, Joseph White, said he is not pushing the legalization of marijuana but is concerned about the tough penalties.

West Virginia

Charleston - The Drug Enforcement Administration has approved an application for a heroin treatment center here. The center will provide methadone treatment for people addicted to heroin, morphine or other narcotics. Many Charleston residents have been going to other states for help.

---

Drug laws denounced

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
Inside Politics
Greg Pierce News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inpolitics.htm

New York Gov. George Pataki used his seventh annual State of the State address yesterday to urge legislation to dramatically reform the state's tough Rockefeller drug laws.

The laws, enacted in the 1970s during the administration of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, are among the harshest in the nation and can require life terms for even the possession of relatively small amounts of narcotics.

"However well-intentioned, key aspects of those laws are out of step with both the times and the complexities of drug addiction," the Republican governor said.

Nonetheless, Mr. Pataki offered no details of what his proposal would include, the Associated Press reports. He said he would provide details in the coming weeks.

Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or by e-mail: Pierce@twtmail.com

-------- india/pakistan

Missile explosion kills 1 in India

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 09:36 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu06.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-India-Explosion.html
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

HYDERABAD, India (AP) - A short-range missile exploded Thursday, killing one man and injuring 10, as workers prepared to display the weapon before India's defense secretary, officials said.

Secretary Yogendra Narain was not injured when the missile blew up and a fire broke out at the state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd. Narain was observing the demonstration from a distance.

V.N. Chary, a quality control inspector, died instantly after being hit by shrapnel, officials said. Workers with burns and shrapnel injuries were taken to a nearby hospital.

General Manager Prabhakar Rao, who was explaining the working of the missile to the visitors, was also in hospital undergoing treatment for shock following the explosion. Officials refused to give details on the extent of damage or whether the fire had been put out.

The gates to the facility were shut and almost all the 3,000 employees were asked to vacate the complex. Journalists were not allowed in, and officials were asked not to speak to them. A probe was ordered into the cause of the explosion.

Bharat Dynamics, one of India's key defense equipment production units, is spread over a sprawling estate in a southeastern suburb of Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh state capital.

The unit collaborates with a design laboratory of India's Defense Research and Development Organization to manufacture key components required for India's ambitious missile program.

---

New York Times
January 4, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

KASHMIR: FIGHTING FLARES In the first fighting since a cease-fire in Kashmir began five weeks ago and was later extended by India to Jan. 26, four Indian soldiers and two civilians died in three clashes on India's border with Pakistan. A Pakistani militant group said it was responsible for two attacks, and India said Pakistani soldiers were involved in the third, which Pakistan denied. (AP)

-------- myanmar

Myanmar marks independence day

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 09:36 AM ET
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Pro-democratic opposition leaders held a religious ceremony Thursday on the 53rd anniversary of Myanmar's independence from Britain, while the military government marked the day by boasting of its achievements in development. About 150 members of the opposition National League for Democracy gathered at the party's Yangon headquarters to give alms to Buddhist monks. With party leader Aung San Suu Kyi under virtual house arrest and unable to attend, the ceremony was low-key. There were none of the usual political speeches and songs commemorating the independence struggle, an NLD official said. The NLD swept general elections in 1990 but was barred by the dominant military from taking power. Suu Kyi has been pushing for change here since then, but her movements have been limited by the government. She has been confined to her home since Sept. 22 after she tried twice to defy authorities by traveling outside the capital on party work.

-------- space

LAYOFFS AT SPACE.COM

New York Times
January 4, 2001
Metro Business Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04BBRF.html

Space.com, the Silicon Alley multimedia company founded by Lou Dobbs, the former CNNfn president, and once headed by the first American woman in space, Sally Ride, said it was laying off employees. Company officials declined to say how many employees were being laid off, but an executive close to the company said that at least 12 would be laid off. The layoffs were first reported in yesterday's Silicon Alley Daily and New York Post. Space.com, which has partnerships with the Gannett Company, said the layoffs were intended to eliminate duplication caused by the recent acquisition of the Space News newspaper, spacenews.com and Florida Today's Space Online Web site. In September, Space.com laid off 22 of its 108 employees in a restructuring. Jayson Blair (NYT)

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

Domestic Worker Sues Former U.N. Official for Back Wages

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By EDWARD WONG
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/O4DOME.html

A recently retired United Nations official from Zambia who is an adjunct professor at Columbia University is being sued by a man he employed as a domestic worker who says that he was paid less than one-eighth the minimum wage.

The worker, Mason Hikabanze, 26, filed suit last month in Federal District Court in Manhattan, charging that Yobert Shamapande, the retired official, "held him as an involuntary servant for approximately 17 months."

In the lawsuit, Mr. Hikabanze accuses Mr. Shamapande, who lives in

Westchester County, of paying him about 58 cents per hour, outside of room and board, for working more than 68 hours a week performing tasks that included caring for the family's autistic teenage son, as well as cooking and cleaning. Mr. Hikabanze, who is also from Zambia, is suing for $53,000 in back wages and lawyer's fees. "I wouldn't say my life here was any good," Mr. Hikabanze said yesterday in an interview.

But one of Mr. Shamapande's sons, acting as his father's spokesman, said that Mr. Hikabanze worked only about 20 hours per week and was paid at least the minimum wage -- $5.15 per hour -- almost exclusively to take care of the autistic teenager. The son, Sunwa Shamapande, 29, said Mr. Hikabanze might have filed the lawsuit in an attempt to stay in the United States since his work visa was no longer valid after Mr. Shamapande retired from the United Nations on Monday.

"The only thing we're thinking is that by virtue of saying some of these things, this would facilitate him being able to keep the visa," the son said. Sunwa Shamapande said he did not know exactly how much his father paid Mr. Hikabanze, but that the payment met legal requirements.

Yobert Shamapande worked for the United Nations for almost two decades. His son said he was most recently the chief editor for the United Nations's business publications, and began working last year as an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Nearly 800 migrant domestic workers hold visas allowing them to work for United Nations officials in New York. There are no American laws that address how officials of international organizations should treat their domestic workers, but State Department officials have been preparing guidelines after recent cases of alleged mistreatment.

Mr. Hikabanze said he left Zambia and began working in Mr. Shamapande's household in 1997, when the family lived in South Africa. There, Mr. Shamapande was the director of a recently opened United Nations information center. In 1999, the family moved to the New York area, and Mr. Hikabanze came with them.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Hikabanze said he signed a contract with Mr. Shamapande that said the employer would "abide by U.S. federal and state employment laws." But when he arrived, he said, the family paid him only $160 per month and promised a raise that never materialized. He said he spent most of his work hours taking care of the autistic boy, but also cleaned the house, did laundry and cooked for the family.

Mr. Hikabanze moved to the Bronx last month and filed his suit.

Mr. Hikabanze said he plans to stay in this country only long enough to get his back wages. If he returns, he said, it will be on a student visa.

---

New York Times
January 4, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

SWITZERLAND: NEW REFUGEE CHIEF Ruud Lubbers, a former prime minister of the Netherlands, began his new job as the new United Nations high commissioner for refugees, succeeding Sadako Ogata of Japan. Greeting his staff at the agency's headquarters in Geneva, Mr. Lubbers asked for a "minimum of bureaucracy and a maximum of flexibility" in helping 22 million refugees around the world. Christopher S. Wren (NYT)

AFRICA

ETHIOPIA, ERITREA: U.N. MOVING IN By late January the United Nations will have a full contingent of 4,200 peacekeepers stationed along the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a mission spokeswoman, Angela Walker, said. So far, 2,245 troops have been deployed, and more peacekeepers are being sent from Kenya, India, Bangladesh and Jordan to patrol the 16- mile-wide temporary security zone, set up after two years of war between the two nations. Christopher S. Wren (NYT)

---

To Put War Criminals on Notice

New York Times
January 4, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/opinion/L04WOR.html

To the Editor:

Re "U.S. Signs Treaty for World Court to Try Atrocities" (front page, Jan. 1):

As an American and a lawyer who believes in the rule of law, I am happy that President Clinton signed the treaty to establish the International Criminal Court. Its jurisdiction would be worldwide and encompass crimes like genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Instead of ad hoc tribunals established by the United Nations (for Bosnia and Rwanda, for example), we would have a standing court with jurisdiction for those crimes all over the world.

The simple existence of such a court would give serious pause to any tyrant who tortured his country's citizens or who invaded the territory of another nation. The court could act only if the accused's country was unwilling or unable to investigate allegations of crimes. Opposition in the Senate to the treaty is misplaced.

PETER J. RIGA Houston, Jan. 1, 2001

•To the Editor:

President Clinton's signing of the treaty to establish an International Criminal Court shows that there really are differences between the mainstream left and right on foreign policy (front page, Jan. 1). But it also shows that left and right agree on fundamental goals and differ only on tactics.

President Clinton voices the left's perspective: signing the treaty puts America in a better position to seek measures exempting American war criminals. The right disagrees, arguing that, on principle, no one should have jurisdiction over America's freedom to use violence abroad. It's too bad that those who oppose war crimes regardless of who perpetrates them don't have a place in this debate.

JAKE WERNER Evanston, Ill., Jan. 1, 2001

•To the Editor:

"A Step Toward International Justice" (editorial, Jan. 3) is on the mark. The United States as a champion of justice and democracy, not only in its own country but as an ideal for all countries around the world, has to support the International Criminal Court.

But I doubt that the misgivings of Senator Jesse Helms and the Pentagon revolve around protecting American troops from prosecution. What is unexpressed here are the implications for United States policy makers and the military.

Just imagine if an International Criminal Court were to investigate military leaders charged with the massacres of tens of thousands of people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Imagine what these leaders might reveal in the court about American involvement, naming names of political figures who pushed and financed their nefarious deeds. Here is the real reason for the difficulties the International Criminal Court will face in Congress.

(Rev.) JOSEPH TOWLE Maryknoll, N.Y., Jan. 3, 2001

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Sudan faces shortages of food, U.N. warns

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200114212515.htm

ROME - More than 3.2 million Sudanese are facing serious food and water shortages due to the combined disruptions of civil war and drought, the United Nations' World Food Program said yesterday.

"The failure of rains, exacerbated by the country's ongoing civil war, have left people in drought-affected areas with no food reserves and a severe shortage of clean drinking water," the Rome-based WFP said.

Key indicators, such as an increase in grain prices caused by recent poor harvests and serious water shortages, are creating a potential for disaster, the U.N. agency said.

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

Marines: Wallace hard on families

Infobeat
January 4, 2001
By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405658497

NEW YORK (AP) - Mike Wallace is apparently too tough for the Marine Corps.

The nation's marine commandant has written to Wallace's superiors, complaining that the ''60 Minutes'' correspondent showed ``unbelievable insensitivity'' in trying to interview the grieving family of a dead Marine pilot last month.

Wallace, who called the letter from Gen. James Jones ``foolishness,'' said he believed the Marines are trying to prevent him from reporting on the troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft.

``I did what any reporter would do,'' Wallace said Wednesday. ``I made a polite, sensitive call.''

Wallace tried to speak to the wife of Lt. Col. Keith Sweaney of Richmond, Va., within days of a Dec. 11 crash in Jacksonville, N.C., that killed Sweaney and three other Marines. Sweaney, who piloted the doomed aircraft, was the most experienced Osprey pilot in the service.

Wallace said a woman at Sweaney's home indicated that the officer's widow would not talk and referred him to the Marines' media relations officer.

In a letter to CBS News President Andrew Heyward that was quoted in Wednesday's Washington Post, Jones said Wallace persisted in trying to gather information after being told the family would not talk.

``His tenacity was considered offensive and the conversation ceased only when the family friend abruptly terminated the connection,'' Jones wrote. ``The unbelievable insensitivity of his ill-timed intrusion upon a grieving widow and her family and friends occurred during the very time that attempts to recover the remains of the crew were ongoing.''

Jones wrote that ``no amount of apologies can remove the pain such conduct has unnecessarily inflicted.''

Marine spokesman Maj. Patrick Gibbons would not make Jones' letter public, but confirmed it was sent.

Gibbons said CBS made ``repeated requests'' to talk to Mrs. Sweaney. Wallace said he made only one call, and followed it up with a note of apology when he heard the widow was upset by his contact.

''60 Minutes'' is investigating the high-tech, $40 billion Osprey program after two crashes last year. Besides the Jacksonville accident, an April crash in Arizona killed 19 Marines and raised questions about the aircraft's safety.

Wallace said he believed the Marines were trying to demonize him so other families of Marines killed in Osprey crashes would not talk to him.

Gibbons denied Wallace's assertion that the Marines have pressured Marine families not to talk to ''60 Minutes.''

``If the families want to talk to `60 Minutes,' we think that's great,'' Gibbons said. ``Mrs. Sweaney did not.''

---

USA Today
01/01/04
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Ohio

Dayton - Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will lose 251 civilian employees through early retirements and resignations in what has become an annual downsizing exercise. The base, which once had about 30,000 workers, now has about 20,000. Because of budget cuts, the base has been using retirement incentives for the past six years.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

Adirondack Tract to Be Sold to Conservation Group

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By KIRK JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04PARK.html

The largest private landowner in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, International Paper, said yesterday that it had agreed to sell 26,500 acres to the Nature Conservancy, a private environmental group, for $10.5 million in what would be one of the largest land preservation agreements in the state's history.

The agreement is complex, and people at some environmental groups said the virtues of the plan would emerge only in its details, which are to be worked out in the coming months. A portion of the land, for example, is to continue in active commercial use as timberland after the sale is completed; the amount of land and its location remain to be worked out. The purchase is to be completed within 90 days.

But state officials and leaders of the Nature Conservancy agreed that at a minimum the sale would protect in perpetuity a chain of undeveloped lakes and ponds that are considered jewels within the wilderness section of Adirondack Park. And the commercial logging that does occur will be overseen by the state.

"We wanted to find a way to satisfy the public interest in these lands, but also maintain a commercial working forest, because we think that's important, too," said Robert Stegemann, a spokesman for International Paper.

Gov. George E. Pataki said in an interview that the agreement was unprecedented, partly because of the size of the tracts involved, but also because it would complete what he said has been an environmental dream of the state since at least 1997, when New York bought an adjoining 15,000-acre tract. In that case, the seller was the Whitney family, inheritors of the fortune of William C. Whitney, the industrialist, who purchased tens of thousands of acres of upstate land in the 1800's.

Officials at the Nature Conservancy said the agreement would cover a backwoods canoeing trail that had been concentrated in the Whitney section ever since its sale, but which would now extend into International Paper land as well.

Mr. Pataki stressed that while preservation was the state's first goal, encouraging sustainable economic activity in the Adirondacks was crucial as well. He said managed logging and increased tourism on the newly opened wilderness lands would provide economic stimulus to neighboring towns.

New York State has been acquiring land in the rugged north country of the Adirondacks for more than a century. The result is a sprawling wilderness that many environmentalists have called one of the nation's last great wild places. Adirondack Park itself now includes six million acres, making it the largest public park in the lower 48 states.

A spokesman for the Adirondack Council, a private environmental group that focuses on the park region, said the agreement was "tremendous news." But the spokesman, John F. Sheehan, said there were still concerns because so many details, especially how the land would be managed, remained unsettled.

"We would have liked to see it all become wilderness," Mr. Sheehan said. "But at the very least, it will be preserved from development and the commercial operations will be overseen by the state." He said his group would be an active participant in negotiations about long-term management of the land.

The state director for the Nature Conservancy, Henry Tepper, said the delicate balancing of interests was the hallmark of the agreement. He said that while the Nature Conservancy had bought other, smaller parcels for protection while agreeing to their continued commercial use, the latest deal was by far the largest of its kind in New York.

"This agreement simultaneously maintains a managed forest landscape, conserves ecological resources and supports the local economy," he said.

Most of the land is in Hamilton County, in the town of Long Lake. The land is clustered in three large parcels that contain four large lakes, more than 12 smaller ponds, over 4,000 acres of pristine wetlands, 85 miles of rivers and streams, and a rare section of spruce and fir forest.

Mr. Pataki and the officials at the Nature Conservancy said, however, that the extension of what had been a well-established canoe route through this area of Adirondack Park was what gave the land much of its recreational appeal. Little Tupper Lake, in particular, will connect to the Bog River and Tupper Lake. Round Lake and Loon Pond, two large, remote lakes in a section adjoining the Whitney parcel, will also greatly expand the canoeing network, they said.

---

Cougar killed skier in Canadian park

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 1/4/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

BANFF, Alberta (AP) - A cougar stalked and killed a cross-country skier in Banff National Park, the park's warden said Wednesday. The 30-year-old woman died Tuesday when attacked on a cross-country skiing trail near Lake Minnewanka, about six miles outside the town of Banff. Park officials found the cougar, also known as a mountain lion, over her body and shot it immediately. "Indications were that the animal actually stalked the victim," said Ian Syme, the park's chief warden. "She may not even have been aware that this was taking place." Syme said that cougar attacks on humans are extremely unusual, and that this fatal attack was a first for the province of Alberta, in which Banff is located. Four or five cougars in the area had been coming in closer than usual to feed on elk because they were competing with a wolf pack that had settled nearby, he said. An autopsy found no abnormality that might explain its unusual behavior.

---

Manatees rescued near power plant

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 01:28 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndswed12.htm

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Crews from Sea World on Wednesday rescued two manatees in danger of freezing to death in a canal near a power plant.

The docile aquatic animals often gather near power plants in the winter because the treatment water is warmer.

But a recent cold snap has dropped the temperature of the St. Johns River near the JEA plant to only 61 degrees - and 54 degrees away from it. Manatees have difficulty surviving when the water temperature dips below 68, said Bob Wagoner, a Sea World curator.

After the two manatees were caught, a third slipped past a net.

The plant was closed for a week in November in hopes that would force the manatees to migrate. When the plant was restarted, the animals returned.

Chuck Underwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the JEA was asked to keep the plant running, even though it had planned to close it because it doesn't need the power right now.

Officials fear that if the plant closed, the manatees would die. Fewer than 3,000 manatees remain in Florida.

---

USA Today
01/01/04
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Arkansas

Fayetteville - The City Council has agreed to spend $450,000 preserving green space to avert a lawsuit by environmentalists who are upset with a new shopping center. The settlement includes a provision that a warning letter will be sent to developers outlining a more strict enforcement of a tree protection ordinance.

California

Long Beach - Aquarium of the Pacific was fined $2,060 by a federal agency for violating the Animal Welfare Act after a pregnant sea lion plunged to the bottom of a waterless tank. The 250-pound sea lion named Brandy fell 18 feet to her death early last year during an annual cleaning of her 205,000-gallon tank.

Florida

Panama City Beach - More than 140 cold-stunned sea turtles that washed ashore in the Florida Panhandle are now at Gulf World to warm up before being released. The turtles began washing ashore along a three-mile stretch of beach at Port St. Joe. At least five of the turtles died.

Minnesota

Duluth - Superior National Forest officials have drawn up a plan that would allow more than 80 controlled burns during the next seven years in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The plan is one of five proposals that range from doing nothing to allowing different amounts of forest land to be burned in an area that was severely damaged by a windstorm in July 1999.

Montana

Bozeman - Three wolves that were released in the wild last month after undergoing an experimental aversion program have not attempted to kill livestock again, a wolf biologist says. The wolves, which had killed livestock in Yellowstone National Park, were captured and fitted with collars that delivered electric shocks if they approached livestock or livestock hides.

Oregon

Portland - Federal officials have stopped construction on a bridge they believe will threaten the habitat of Willamette River steelhead. Conservationists say the halt order proves the federal government is serious about local enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Business groups worry strict enforcement of the act will mean construction delays across the Willamette Valley.

Virginia

Roanoke - The U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District collected a record $19 million in debts and fines last year. That's more than triple the 1999 amount. About half of the money, $9.4 million from the FMC Corp., paid for cleanup of the shuttered Avtex Fibers site near Front Royal. The plant is an EPA Superfund cleanup site.

Washington

Coupeville - The Park Service has taken over the 400-acre Engle farm. It will be preserved as part of the 17,000-acre Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve but will continue to be farmed under a lease arrangement. The property was acquired by the federal government for $2.9 million with interim financing from the Trust for Public Land.

---

Only EPA knows

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
Kenneth D. Smith
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200114204919.htm

In the early 1990s, Coors Brewing Company voluntarily launched an audit of its operations to ensure that it was complying with the vast array of environmental laws that applied to it. In the process, it discovered a Clean Air Act violation that probably wouldn't have been discovered otherwise. The company reported the problem to Colorado officials charged with overseeing the law, and it took steps to correct the problem. For demonstrating such environmental good will and corporate citizenship, Coors received . . . a big fine from the state of Colorado.

Hundreds of miles to the east in the small city of Bluefield, W.Va., Pete Bellini, owner of Pete's Refrigeration, discovered that he had committed a minor Clean Air Act violation while repairing automobile air conditioners. Mr. Bellini corrected his mistake at no charge to consumers and notified the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For his environmental good works, he received . . . a $4,000 fine from the feds.

It is cases like these that have led some two dozen states to reform their handling of errors discovered through self-initiated "environmental audits." The obvious question was why companies would go to all the trouble of detecting their own mistakes and reporting them to authorities - mistakes, it's worth noting again, that government officials would probably never have discovered - only to be punished as though they were the moral and legal equivalent of "midnight dumpers." Questions like that led former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat, and former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton, a Republican, to support reforms that would credit companies for coming forward to disclose and correct environmental violations. As Mrs. Norton said in a statement submitted to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, the 1994 audit law is an "environmental gain because it results in violations being discovered and corrected, violations that probably would not have been found absent an audit."

Mrs. Norton is under scrutiny these days as President-elect George Bush's nominee to head the U.S. Department of the Interior. Journalists have carelessly - or carefully - misreported how the audits work. Said ABC's Linda Douglass Sunday, "Gale Norton . . . is an ideological appointment. It is the ideology, perhaps, of drilling for oil and gas in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. It is the ideology of allowing companies to police themselves when it comes to pollution."

Self-policing? There is nothing in the law that says companies are answerable only to themselves when it comes to complying with the law. What Colorado's law does do is grant firms limited immunity, Mrs. Norton said, from fines for disclosures of civil, administrative and criminal negligence when the violation is discovered in a self-audit and corrected. No correction, no immunity. On the same basis, the law also allows companies not to disclose some documents in legal proceedings. But as noted by Ben Lieberman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who has written widely on the issue of environmental audits, there are exceptions for serious, life-threatening or deliberate violations.

Democrats out to make this a partisan debate won't find it easy. In an opinion issued in April, the current Colorado Attorney General and only statewide-elected Democrat, Ken Salazar, defended the law, saying, "Colorado's self-evaluation law creates an incentive for companies to come into compliance with the environmental laws of our state and country."

Ironically the Clinton administration acknowledged in a 1995 report, "Reinventing Environmental Regulation," the "adversarial approach that has often characterized our environmental system precludes opportunities for creative solutions that a more collaborative system might encourage." It continued, "Washington, D.C. is not the source of all answers." Unfortunately EPA hasn't gotten the word. It has vigorously opposed reforms by threatening suits of its own against self-auditors, using their own disclosures as blueprints to prosecute them.

With bipartisan help from the likes of Mr. Salazar, the Bush administration can convince regulators that Washington really isn't the source of all answers. What EPA loses in the process will be the environment's gain.

E-mail: smithk@twtmail.com

Kenneth Smith is deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Times.His column appears on Thursdays.

---

Law firm requests look into EPA files

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
By Jerry Seper
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20011422313.htm

A public-interest law firm, which accused the Environmental Protection Agency last year of refusing to turn over documents under the Freedom of Information Act, yesterday asked a federal court to ensure that none of the records end up missing.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the Landmark Legal Foundation said EPA continued its refusal to relinquish the records and asked that a preliminary injunction be granted to "preserve potentially responsive documents in their present location."

The firm asked U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts to issue the order immediately, prior to Jan. 20 when President Clinton leaves office.

"Granting the preliminary injunction plaintiff seeks will not harm EPA in the least," the firm said in its nine-page motion. "The failure to grant plaintiff's motion, however, jeopardizes any hope that the EPA will be able to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act."

In October, Landmark said in a lawsuit that EPA violated the federal Freedom of Information Act in refusing to turn over documents showing its ties to special-interest groups on pending environmental regulations. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, came after published reports that the EPA was "working feverishly" to issue a host of last-minute regulations before the end of the Clinton administration.

According to the suit, the records include:

• The identification of all new rules or regulations for which the public has not yet been given notice, but for which public notice is planned by the EPA before Jan. 20.

• The names of individuals, groups or organizations outside the EPA with whom the agency has met or talked regarding the pending rules and regulations.

• All documents concerning pending revised or new environmental rules - including notes, letters, memorandums, minutes, logs, calendars, schedules, reports, studies, analyses and plans.

• All economic-impact assessments and environmental-impact statements that have been conducted in accordance with any pending new regulations.

Landmark's concerns centered on efforts by the EPA to issue a host of new rules and regulations proposed by environmentalists and other liberal-leaning groups, but opposed by many business and industry organizations.

The EPA effort would establish more stringent standards on a number of fronts - including a ban on new road construction by the U.S. Forest Service; a curb on diesel-exhaust emissions; a regulation on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants; a limit on the use of pesticides, including diazinon and atrazine; and a compensation package for nuclear workers exposed to radiation and chemical hazards.

Landmark asked the court to block the EPA from issuing any new regulations until the agency releases the documents.

EPA officials listed at least 67 regulatory decisions looming before Mr. Clinton's second term expires this month. Several environmental groups and others have pressed the administration to take advantage of the opportunity to make changes during their remaining months in office.

Mr. Clinton already has signed more than 450 executive orders and proclamations, which don't require congressional approval. They include the implementation of the Antiquities Act to create the Grand Canyon-Parashant, Giant Sequoia, Agua Fria and California Coastal national monuments.

The orders were signed despite the objection of Western residents and politicians, who described them as an unwarranted intrusion into land-use policy.

---

Downsized cars, downsized safety

Washington Times
EDITORIAL • January 4, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-house-20011419721.htm

Nowhere are the misplaced priorities of Washington - and the Washington establishment - more in evidence than in the reportage and commentary surrounding the Environmental Protection Agency's annual release of its statistics listing the most and least fuel-efficient vehicles sold in America.

According to the latest tally of miles-per-gallon, overall fuel economy is at a 20-year low - which is viewed with great alarm in certain quarters, where saving gas is apparently more important than saving lives. For no matter how it's gussied up, extracting maximum mileage usually entails shedding weight - which necessarily makes a given vehicle less safe. This is why cars built since the advent of government-mandated "downsizing" - via Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements - have been generally less safe than the cars of the pre-downsizing era. But recently, size and mass have been increasing as customers demand more substantial vehicles. The surging popularity of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) is a case in point.

According to the most recently available data, the weight of cars and light trucks (the category which includes most SUVs) increased 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively, since 1981. Performance has also improved substantially. Zero to 60 times now average 10.3 seconds - down from 14.4 seconds in 1981. Average 0-to-60 acceleration for light trucks has moved from 14.6 seconds to 11.0 seconds.

"Consumers want cars that have certain performance features," Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Associated Press. "We sell cars that get 40 miles per gallon, but fewer than 2 percent of consumers buy them."

Dan Becker of the leftist Sierra Club's "global warming program" attributes this fact not to consumer choice but rather to the hypnotic effect of auto industry advertising propaganda - which suspends rational judgment and draws people to those bad old SUVs instead of "socially responsible" subcompacts. The automakers "have found that the American public will buy a large pile of steel with plush seats and cup holders, despite the fact that they will guzzle gas, pollute the air and roll over and kill people," he told the Associated Press.

Mr. Becker neglects to point out, though, that SUVs also offer room for five or six passengers, plus their gear - as well as superior impact protection in almost all types of accidents. Women in particular esteem SUVs because of the safety advantage they confer - and are willing to suffer a higher fuel bill in exchange.

How terribly "irresponsible" of them. The incoming Bush administration will likely prefer saving lives to saving gas, too. Too bad there are still those in government, the media and other redoubts of influence that don't mind subjecting ordinary people to greater risk if it will advance their "noble" public-policy agenda.

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

Russia to skip debt payment

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 1/4/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia won't make its first-quarter payments this year on the billions of dollars of debt owed to nations known collectively as the Paris Club, a government spokesman was quoted as saying Thursday. But the decision "does not mean and has nothing to do with a declaration of default," the Interfax news agency quoted Gennady Yezhov, spokesman for Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, as saying. "A decision on the former USSR's debts will be found after an International Monetary Fund mission comes to Moscow in late January or early February," he said. Russia owes about $48 billion, racked up by the Soviet Union, to the Paris Club countries, a group of industrialized nations that includes the United States. The debt was defaulted on in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and again in the August 1998 financial crisis when the ruble's value plunged.

-------- police

Rainbow stickers removed due to complaints

Infobeat
January 04, 2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405656227

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Rainbow stickers placed on police cars and other city vehicles earlier this month are being removed because of complaints that the emblem promotes homosexuality.

City officials said the stickers of a rainbow overlaid with human figures were meant to endorse diversity. But they drew hundreds of letters and e-mails to the City Commission because the rainbow emblem is a symbol for acceptance of gays.

Mayor Larry Hardy said he had ``no idea it had anything to do with the gay community.''

``I personally think I was kind of conned,'' he said. ``I was stupid not to know what the symbol stood for.''

The decision Tuesday to remove the stickers prompted some of the 100 residents at a meeting to weep and leave the room. Others cheered.

City Commissioner Margaret Dodd, who designed the stickers, said the design ``was never in mind just a gay thing.''

She said the stickers evolved as a result of a series of hate crimes in the community. In September, three men attacked an employee at a bar frequented by gays.

The 10,000 stickers, unveiled Dec. 19, cost around $1,800 and were put on police cars, firetrucks, snowplows and other city vehicles.

---

Jury Awards $2.25 Million in '95 Death

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By AL BAKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04OFFI.html?pagewanted=all

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Jan. 3 - A federal jury awarded more than $2 million today to the children of a Long Island man who was fatally shot on the street five years ago by a Nassau County police officer.

The verdict underscored the jury's finding two weeks ago that the officer, Anthony Raymond, violated the civil rights of the man, Christopher Wade, in December 1995 when he shot him nine times after stopping him for a search in an area known for drug activity. In 1996, a grand jury cleared Officer Raymond of criminal wrongdoing in the fatal encounter, and he is now patrolling in the same precinct in Elmont where the shooting occurred, though in a different neighborhood.

Today in Federal District Court in Central Islip, jurors awarded $2.075 million in compensatory damages - including money for pain and suffering, funeral costs and the loss of parental support Mr. Wade would have provided had he lived. The eight-member jury also awarded $175,000 in punitive damages, after deliberating for 13 days - an unusually long time for a federal lawsuit, said the county's lawyer, Paul F. Millus.

Nassau County is obligated to pay the damages on behalf of Officer Raymond, in line with state law and its police contract. Mr. Millus refused to say whether the county would appeal. Alan J. Reardon, a lawyer for the officer, said an appeal was likely.

On Friday, the county is to defend itself against the Wade family's claim that it was negligent in hiring and in not properly supervising Officer Raymond, who had been arrested twice and was the subject of complaints as a New York City police officer. The judge is to decide whether to go forward in the case, both sides said.

The plaintiffs had offered to withdraw their claim if the county agreed to bear some responsibility for the death of Mr. Wade, and consider setting up an independent review board, made up of civilians, to investigate complaints against officers that are deemed unsubstantiated by the Police Department. But Mr. Millus turned down the offer last week, and said today that the county had done nothing wrong in hiring Officer Raymond.

Frederick K. Brewington, the Wades' lawyer, said the claim against Nassau "has a potentially enormous impact on bringing an awareness to a county that needs to understand that something is broken and needs to be fixed."

Mr. Wade, 28, of Elmont, was the father of three young children, and his family said the finding today would guarantee some economic stability for his two sons and daughter, ages 4 through 10.

"I am happy that Chris's death did not go in vain," said Ervie Augustin, 26, who was Mr. Wade's fiancée and is the mother of his youngest child. "And I am happy that his three children will have a better life."

The family and Mr. Brewington said today's verdict also provided a sense of justice in a case that led to bitterness and racial animosity in Elmont, a community already mistrustful of the police. Mr. Wade's friends said they believed he had been shot because he was black; the police denied that, saying that Officer Raymond, who is white, had feared for his life.

Shortly after 3 a.m. on Dec. 30, 1995, Officer Raymond confronted Mr. Wade, who was on parole for a drug conviction, on a dark street in Elmont. They struggled, and Officer Raymond fired 16 times after Mr. Wade did not obey repeated demands to drop his weapon, the police said.

Mr. Brewington insisted that Mr. Wade was not armed. A loaded gun was found at the scene, but it had not been fired and bore no fingerprints, Mr. Reardon said.

Officer Raymond, 37, has been arrested twice. As a teenage gas station attendant, he was accused of stealing $250 from his employer. Later, as an officer in the New York Police Department, he was charged with assault and official misconduct in an on-duty brawl outside a Queens bar. He was also named in 10 civilian complaints, including 19 separate allegations of wrongdoing, during his career of nearly 11 years on the city force.

But Mr. Millus said all of the criminal charges were dismissed, and the complaints to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board were unsubstantiated - meaning that they could be neither proved nor disproved. He said Officer Raymond had made more than 1,100 arrests in the city and received 35 commendations and other awards.

"It was an entirely valid and appropriate hiring with no fault to be attributed in connection with the hiring decision," Mr. Millus said. "Nassau County would have no reason to believe that previously dismissed criminal charges should in any way interfere with Officer Raymond's goal of serving the citizenry of Nassau County."

Mr. Brewington, the Wades' lawyer, cited a report by Edward Mamet, a retired New York police captain he hired for the case, that said the Nassau department should never have hired Officer Raymond in 1994.

"The hiring and supervision of Police Officer Raymond was improper," Mr. Mamet wrote in April 1999. "It is my opinion that N.C.P.D. failed to seize a unique opportunity to weed out a `violence prone' recruit."

---

New York Times
January 4, 2001
Metro Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/nyregion/04MBRF.html?pagewanted=all

NEW YORK

MANHATTAN: AWARD REDUCED IN POLICE CASE -- A $3 million jury award in a brutality case against a New York City police officer has been reduced to $50,000 by a federal judge. The plaintiff, Irma Morales, said she was beaten by an undercover officer, Detective Anthony P. Leone, when she was mistakenly arrested in 1998. In a decision dated Friday, Judge Denise L. Cote of Federal District Court ruled that the $3 million award was "completely unsupported" by the trial evidence. Ms. Morales' lawyer, Jonathan Abady, said he would seek a new trial. (NYT)

---

N.H. lawmaker: 'Not a nut,' not quitting

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 09:22 AM ET
By Fred Bayles, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-01-03-alciere.htm

Tom Alciere is a man of many words. He has said that police deserve to die and that spousal abuse isn't bad. But Wednesday he kept it short, saying he won't resign his new seat in the New Hampshire Legislature just because his views are different.

"I'm not a nut," he told reporters Wednesday in Concord, the state capital.

Alciere, 41, an electronics worker, created a national storm when the Valley News of Lebanon, N.H., published an interview with him last weekend. The newspaper quoted him as saying he loves it when someone kills a police officer but is "too chicken" to do it himself.

"It's unfortunate that cops do make it necessary (to kill them) when they're waging a war on drugs, and I view cops as enemy officers," he told the newspaper.

The article brought a wave of outrage. There were calls for his resignation by state officials, including Republican leaders who disavowed Alciere's party affiliation. Talk shows were abuzz from coast to coast. Alciere, however, remained unmoved.

Wednesday, he denied fooling voters: "I didn't really defraud them in any way because they didn't ask about my positions on the issues."

In November, Alciere finished third in a four-way race for three state House seats representing Ward 4 in Nashua, the state's second-largest city, after Manchester.

Alciere, listed first on the ballot, received 55 votes more than Alphonse Haettenschwiller, a six-term Democrat who was listed last.

"Those people who knew him knew he had some pretty far out views," Haettenschwiller said. "It never occurred to me or the other two incumbents that he was a threat."

Alciere's anti-government views on drug laws, police misconduct and domestic relations had been published in letters to the editor in several New Hampshire newspapers and on his Web site.

One letter suggested that women be dragged by their hair. Others defended those accused of murdering police officers.

"The general tenor of these letters was that it was OK to kill cops," said Timothy Hefferan, Nashua's deputy chief of police.

Alciere also has advocated eliminating restrictions on immigration and alcohol consumption by minors and has proposed eliminating public schools.

Alciere unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for a seat in Congress in 1996. He ran for the Legislature as a Libertarian before he was kicked out of that party in 1993 for his views.

Legislative leaders say there is no state recall provision to remove Alciere from office.

Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, said this is a case for ballot reform and more attentive voters. Alciere's opinions are a matter of free speech, she said.

Outgoing House Speaker Donna Sytek said the 400-seat Legislature has dealt with members "outside the mainstream" before: "He hasn't done anything wrong. This is one of those situations where you're glad you have two-year terms."

---

Corruption Files Stolen From Baltimore Police

New York Times
January 4, 2001
National News Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/national/04NATI.html

BALTIMORE, Jan. 3 (AP) - A Police Department campaign to weed out corrupt officers has been compromised by a burglary at the headquarters of a secret internal affairs unit.

Computer equipment was destroyed and internal affairs files apparently were stolen in the Christmas Eve burglary in the suburban Middle River area of Baltimore County, officials said.

No arrests have been made, and the police would not comment on possible suspects.

"The possibility certainly exists that this may be an internal matter," a police spokeswoman, Ragina Averella, said.

Among the files missing was one involving an officer who was charged in October with planting drugs on a man and then arresting him.

Unidentified police officials told The Baltimore Sun that the office was the headquarters of the department's anticorruption program. Few people knew it existed, including top commanders, the newspaper said.

--

2 Cincinnati Officers Indicted in Man's Death

CINCINNATI, Jan. 3 (AP) - Two white policemen were indicted today in the suffocation death of a black man who had struggled with them.

Officer Robert Jorg, 29, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor assault. Officer Patrick Caton, 34, was charged with misdemeanor assault.

The charges stem from the death of Roger Owensby, 29, on Nov. 7 after a struggle with the officers. They said they had wanted to question him because he fit the description of a suspect in an unspecified crime.

Mr. Owensby was sprayed with a chemical irritant and wrestled to the ground, the police said. He died at a hospital less than two hours later.

The Hamilton County coroner, Carl Parrott, said Mr. Owensby died either because of "a choke hold gone bad" or from the weight of the police officers who wrestled with him.

---

Stolen police files turn up in trash bin

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 08:05 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndsthu02.htm

BALTIMORE (AP) - The trail of evidence from a Christmas Eve burglary at a top-secret police office has led to a trash bin behind a doughnut shop.

Two bags full of confidential police documents and other items were found in a container behind a Dunkin' Donuts store.

Jim Isbell, 38, said he found police personnel folders and files, a city police officer's Rolodex, surveillance photos, mug shots, video tapes with names and addresses, and files marked ''confidential - city police Internal Affairs section.''

Isbell discovered the items on Dec. 24, he told the Baltimore Sun for Thursday editions. Isbell said he called 911 after finding the materials, and four county officers responded.

They took him to an FBI office where he was questioned.

''When they called the detective whose Rolodex it was, they got real hush-hush about everything,'' Isbell said. ''I got the impression that they didn't get everything back that they were looking for.''

Police would not comment about Isbell's discovery, and officials have refused to disclose how the break-in was discovered. No arrests have been made, but police confirmed they are investigating the crime as an internal matter.

---

2nd woman files suit against N.Y. cop

Infobeat News
Thursday, January 4, 2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405670895
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm

MASTIC BEACH, N.Y. (AP) - A second woman said she will file a lawsuit accusing a police officer of ordering her to strip and walk around after she allegedly failed a sobriety test.

Juliana Rubio, 20, said an officer stopped her Dec. 27, told her she had failed a breath test, and then ordered her to take off her clothes, attorney Gary Gramer said Wednesday.

He said the officer made Rubio walk naked in front of him and told her, ``I'm going to teach you a lesson.''

Angelina Torres, 27, who is also represented by Gramer, made a similar allegation Tuesday.

Although Rubio did not know the name of the officer who stopped her, Gramer said the description she gave fit officer Frank Wright, who Torres said made her strip to her underwear early New Year's day and walk about four blocks after he said she failed a sobriety test.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner John Gallagher said police are investigating Rubio's allegation. Gallagher said Wright does not dispute that he stopped Torres and that she removed her dress but said, ``Why she took it off is the disputed issue.''

Police said investigators who interviewed Wright have concluded that protocol was breached. But they said they were still looking into discrepancies between the accounts of Wright and Torres.

Police said they did not yet know whether the officer Rubio complained about was the one who allegedly mistreated Torres.

Wright, a nine-year veteran, has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation.

Gramer said he notified police of Rubio's complaint Wednesday. He filed a second notice of his intent to file a lawsuit against the police and the county, asking for $15 million in punitive damages for Rubio.

Torres filed a notice of claim on Tuesday in which she also asked for $15 million.

Quoting unidentified police officials, Newsday also reported a third woman phoned police and made a similar complaint but said she refused when the officer ordered her to strip. The newspaper said she would not give police her name.

---

USA Today
01/01/04
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Conneticut

Branford - A dispute over winter headgear has some town police officers hot under the collar. The police union has filed a grievance over Chief Robert Gill's order barring officers walking the downtown beat from wearing "arctic" hats, which have ear flaps. Gill said he would not discuss pending grievances.

Illinois

Cairo - Carbondale attorney John Womick is challenging Cairo's authority to issue the traffic citation he received Oct. 12 for speeding on Interstate 57. The ticket was written by a city police officer . The lawsuit claims the police officer was outside Cairo's city limits, eliminating any authority to stop Womick's vehicle.

-------- terrorism

Embassy terrorism trial begins

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2000
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405658408

NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly 2 years after the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, four alleged followers of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden went on trial under heavy security Wednesday.

The charges could bring the death penalty for two of the defendants. Relatives of the victims were in the courtroom crowd.

``I want to see what they look like. I want to look into their faces, into their eyes,'' Sue Bartley said of the defendants, who shuffled into the courtroom one by one, shackled at the feet.

Bartley's husband and son were killed in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombing at the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Julian Leotis Bartley Sr., the embassy's U.S. consul general, was the most senior U.S. diplomat killed in the bombings. His son, Julian Jr., worked at the embassy.

The twin bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Thousands more were injured.

The bombings were allegedly carried out to fulfill the commands of bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire who is accused in an indictment of ordering Americans be killed wherever they are found. Bin Laden, who is on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, is a fugitive in the case with a $5 million bounty offered for his capture.

In all, prosecutors have charged 22 men in the bombings. Bin Laden and 12 others remain at large.

Bartley's daughter, Edith, said she blamed the U.S. government in part for failing to properly heed warnings that the embassies were vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

``Our families have not signed up to have their lives lost,'' she said outside court.

The families were permitted to watch Wednesday as U.S. District judge Leonard B. Sand started jury selection. The trial is expected to last up to a year, with interpreters on hand to translate English to Swahili and Arabic for the defendants.

The trial began under the heaviest security in the courthouse's history, with bomb-sniffing dogs checking the courtroom regularly.

It is also being held in the same courtroom where six defendants were convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and 10 defendants were convicted in a failed plot to blow up New York City landmarks.

Since the embassy bombings, the defendants have found themselves facing ever-tightening security, especially after Wadih El-Hage, 40, of Arlington, Texas, ran past U.S. marshals and to within a few feet of the judge before he was tackled in a pretrial hearing.

Two months ago, another defendant whose trial has been postponed was accused of stabbing a prison guard in the eye with a comb sharpened to a point on one end. The guard was critically injured.

Besides El-Hage, a former personal secretary to bin Laden, the other defendants include Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 35, of Jordan who allegedly told investigators that shortly before the bombing he had met with an explosives expert who led a Kenyan terrorism cell.

The two men face potential life sentences if they are convicted.

Two others _ Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 23, of Saudi Arabia and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, of Tanzania _ could be sentenced to death.

Al-'Owhali allegedly told the FBI that on the day of the bombing he rode in the passenger seat of a bomb-laden van to the embassy in Nairobi and tossed a grenade at a guard outside.

Mohamed allegedly rented a house in his native Tanzania that was used as a bomb factory.

Sand warned the defendants Tuesday that they will not be permitted to disrupt the trial in any way. He said he had equipped the cell block behind the courtroom with closed-circuit TV and won't hesitate to order a disruptive defendant to watch the trial from there.

---

Berenson retrial to go forward

Washington Times
January 4, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200114212515.htm

LIMA, Peru - Peru's new president, Valentin Paniagua, said yesterday that his interim government would not interfere in the civilian retrial of Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen jailed on terrorism charges.

In his first declaration made over the Berenson case, Mr. Paniagua said he would abide by the decisions of the courts, which are hearing evidence in the case of the 31-year-old New Yorker who has consistently said she is innocent.

"We will respect the autonomy of powers and whatever the judicial authorities decide," Mr. Paniagua, who replaced disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori in November, told reporters in his first official news conference as president.

Berenson, 31, was sentenced to life in jail in 1996 by a military judge as a leader of the Cuban-inspired leftist guerrilla group the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

-------- activists

N.Y. police search for arsonists

Infobeat
January 04, 2000
By PAT MILTON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405656111

MOUNT SINAI, N.Y. (AP) - Warning ``If you build it, we will burn it,'' a radical environmental group opposed to urban sprawl has claimed responsibility for the burning of three luxury houses under construction on what was one of Long Island's last remaining farms.

A small explosive device was set off over the weekend, causing up to $30,000 in damage to each home. No one was injured. ``This hopefully provided a firm message that we will not tolerate the destruction of our island,'' the Earth Liberation Front said a statement faxed to The Associated Press on Sunday. Police also believe the ELF is responsible for millions of dollars in arson and vandalism to six other unoccupied homes on Long Island over the past month.

Police, the district attorney's office and the FBI have formed a task force to investigate the fires and identify the members of the loosely constructed environmental group, headquartered in Portland, Ore.

``This is not an environmental action. This is a criminal act,'' Suffolk County Police Commissioner John Gallagher said Wednesday. ``I am concerned with their latest statement that everything we build that they deem environmentally sensitive, they will destroy.''

The Long Island Builders Institute has offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the weekend vandalism.

The ELF, acting at times with the Animal Liberation Front, has claimed responsibility for dozens of actions across the country since 1996, including a 1998 blaze at a Vail, Colo., ski resort that caused $12 million in damage. The environmental group said the expansion project threatened lynx.

``They want to stop endless devastation of the American landscape by overdevelopment,'' said Craig Rosebraugh of Portland, Ore., who identifies himself as ELF's spokesman but says he is not a member. He said the group's leaders communicate with him by a variety of means that preserve their anonymity.

The homes targeted over the weekend at the Island Estates Development were being built on a former peach farm. A message had been scrawled in red paint on one of the houses: ``If you build it, we will burn it.''

In 1998, Suffolk County had 34,000 acres of agriculture land. At the current rate of development, land-use experts say, only 9,000 acres will remain by 2015.

Another environmental group dedicated to saving Long Island's open space called the damage ``worse than pointless.''

``They don't have to commit random acts of violence to let people know that Long Island's overdeveloped, since everyone knows we are,'' said Dick Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society.

``Should we burn down people's houses about it? No. We should probably throw some politicians out of office,'' he added.

The ELF, which maintains a Web site out of Canada, also claims to have caused millions in damage nationwide.

``We are trying to cause the rich sprawl corporation enough money so they stop destroying the planet, and thus the health and well-being and existence of humankind,'' the group's statement said. ``The Earth isn't dying, it's being killed. And those who are killing it have names and addresses.''

---

Civil rights groups to protest election

USA Today
01/04/01- Updated 07:34 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu01.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Civil rights groups will meet in the nation's capital Thursday to discuss what they contend was widespread denial of blacks' voting rights during the 2000 presidential election. In an event advertised as a ''national emergency summit,'' leaders of the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other groups will meet at Howard University to ''shape a response to the denial of voting rights'' in the Nov. 7 election.

Among events mentioned at a related gathering Tuesday was a plan by the Rev. Al Sharpton for a ''Shadow Inaugural'' march on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, to the Supreme Court building in Washington.

''This is not over,'' Sharpton said Tuesday. ''George Bush was selected by the judges, not elected by the people.''

Several groups, as well as dozens of black members of Congress, have alleged that black voters were kept from the polls in Florida and other states on Election Day, and ballots of others were systematically discarded.

Exit polls showed that nine out of 10 blacks voted for Vice President Al Gore rather than George W. Bush, the Republican governor of Texas who eked out a narrow victory by virtue of contested balloting in Florida.

Many Gore supporters believed manual recounts of ballots in disputed Florida precincts would give him the nationwide victory, but the U.S. Supreme Court halted the recounts Dec. 12. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Bush the presidency.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has alleged ''a clear pattern of voter suppression'' of blacks in Florida.

He has promised demonstrations in the days leading up to the inauguration and is to appear in a Jan. 20 rally in Tallahassee, Fla. Protests are also scheduled in Chicago and other cities.

Police in Washington said Tuesday only a handful of groups told them they planned protests.

Police had no estimates on how many demonstrators were expected.

During Thursday's meeting, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will report findings from post-election hearings it held with voters in Florida.

At the NAACP's request, the Justice Department is reviewing the allegations in Florida and elsewhere.

Members of the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus last month said Florida voters were hampered by defective voting machines, and voter lists there were improperly purged of black voters' names.

They said voters were intimidated by police, and thousands of ballots were thrown out in areas with large minority populations.

''It's a wake-up call for us, because we've ignored the issues of the details of democracy,'' syndicated columnist Julianne Malveaux said during Tuesday's event, a forum on the election.

Sharpton and others said the protests will mark the beginning of widespread voter education and registration drives. They said black leaders will mount protests against two Bush Cabinet nominations: Sen. John Ashcroft, of Missouri, and New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman.

---

Angola Priest a Soldier on the Human Rights Front

New York Times
January 4, 2001
KUITO JOURNAL
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04ANGO.html?pagewanted=all

KUITO, Angola - "Before I had the idea of being a priest, I thought of being a soldier," the Rev. Nicolau Costa confessed, laughing.

He is, after all, one of the Angolan military's chief irritants, a persistent gadfly and this town's unofficial and unpaid investigator of human rights violations by government soldiers and the police.

He is 33, and his bluejeans and sandals peek out from under his fluttering white robes. As a boy swept up in this country's long civil war, he dreamed of AK-47's and camouflage. Today his sharpest weapon is his ballpoint pen, and his followers are the thousands displaced and dislocated by decades of violence.

"I would like to know about the deaths that happened here," Father Costa, with pen and notebook in hand, said during one of his weekly visits to the vast camps of displaced people.

The homeless families pressed around him, children without shoes, young men without limbs, mothers with weary eyes. They described running from villages overrun by rebels to the safety of government- controlled camps, only to find soldiers raiding the camps and attacking the people they had promised to protect.

Priests like Father Costa raised the alarm about such incidents months ago. In November the United Nations sharply condemned the reports of food theft, rape, forced conscription and violence by soldiers and policemen in the camps.

"We ran from the fire into the fire," said Félix Londungue, 75, clutching his crumpled hat as he begged the young priest for help. "The soldiers come here and take our goods all the time. We want you to ask the soldiers to recognize they are doing something wrong."

In recent years the Roman Catholic Church has become one of the most important independent voices in this country. The church runs Angola's only independent radio station, Radio Ecclesia, and in remote provincial towns like this one the parish priests are among the few willing to champion the complaints of ordinary people.

But even a believer might think God has forgotten this place. Housing officials say virtually every house and building has been blasted by bullets and mortar shells in the last seven years. And in the city's public gardens, amid the white and yellow wildflowers, slivers of human bone still glimmer in the soil.

So many people have been killed here - some 30,000 buried hastily in public gardens and alleys - that some believe that the loneliest of souls still linger, waiting wistfully for proper funerals to complete their passage to the other side.

The green hills of Angola are still dotted with rickety signs that reflect the idealism of the heady days after independence 25 years ago. "What is most important is solving the problems of the people," pleads a fading board in a rundown airport.

But in the dusty camps where thousands of families huddle in flimsy grass huts, many people stopped believing such promises long ago.

The church has tried to revive the lost faith through vigorous advocacy.

In a series of open letters, bishops have condemned government corruption and the continuing violence and have called for dialogue between the government and the rebels, who have been fighting off and on since independence from Portugal in 1975.

Human rights groups credit the church with putting pressure on President José Eduardo dos Santos to issue a recent amnesty for rebel soldiers, and some suggest that the bishops are peace brokers in the making.

But two peace agreements have been made and broken in the last 10 years. The survivors of this long war bear its scars, some physical, some psychological, some visible, some unseen. One certainty shared by many is that misery, not hope, springs eternal.

"As a priest I go everywhere, mostly by foot, but the population is traumatized to such an extent that many people don't complain anymore," Father Costa said. "But it's hard for me to keep quiet. I speak what I feel, what I see. What I see is horrible."

He is lean and aristocratic. He teaches philosophy and French at the seminary and speaks elegant Portuguese. But when he sees the desperate families, he remembers his own four years on the run.

In the late 1970's, his family, too, was caught in the battles between the governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and the rebel group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, known as Unita. Over the years, two of his brothers were killed. He survived and became a man of faith.

But even Father Costa sometimes wonders what he can possibly offer such suffering people.

How do you minister to a city where tens of thousands of people have died and nearly half of the population is homeless? How do you ease such suffering or measure such losses?

"I lost my three brothers," said António Albino, 30, who was one of several people who offered to tell a visitor about the impact of the war on his personal life.

And then, as an afterthought, he extended his right hand. It had only four fingers.

"Shrapnel," he said.

As Father Costa walked through the camp, he smiled at the children, who danced at his feet. He urged the men to renounce guns and violence, and they nodded, slowly. He stopped by a little girl lying motionless in the dirt. Her body was completely covered by a blanket, and someone said she was sick.

"Can no one take her to the hospital?" Father Costa asked out loud.

It is a rhetorical question, really, and the homeless look at him wide- eyed and silent. There are no cars, no buses here. They have no way to get her to a hospital.

"Sometimes I feel like my words are empty words," the priest said quietly. "In terms of actions, I have nothing to offer. When they ask me for food, when they ask me for clothes - " He shook his head. "I don't have the resources."

There are small victories. There was the police officer who was persuaded not to harass a market woman on her way through a checkpoint, the human rights seminar that was attended by dozens of soldiers, who nodded when Father Costa urged them to respect their fellow citizens.

And then there are the faithful who file into the churches every morning and find solace somehow, despite the splintering pews, the broken windows and the fact that many would agree that there is no logical reason for them to believe in anything at all.

"Sometimes I look at all of these children and I ask myself, `What is the future of this country?' " Father Costa said. "But hope is the last thing to go. We hope always; there is no other way."

---

Gay advocates protest at Vatican

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2000
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405659187

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Carrying teddy bears, toys and a message for Pope John Paul II, a small band of gay Christians from the United States gathered Wednesday at the edge of St. Peter's Square to protest Vatican teachings on homosexuality.

The group, numbering 18, staged a brief, mostly silent demonstration outside the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. Arriving about two hours after the pontiff finished his weekly public audience with tens of thousands of pilgrims, they were barely noticed by the crowd.

Wearing sweatshirts with the slogan: ``God's Gay Children Bring Gifts ... Bless Them,'' they softly sang ``We Shall Overcome,'' and hoped a Vatican priest might come out and bless them. None did.

``I don't think they love God's gay children like they love God's straight children,'' said Mel White, executive director of Soulforce, Inc., based in Laguna Beach, Ca.

John Paul has repeatedly denounced attempts to legalize same-sex marriages or adoption by gays. Last summer, he bitterly denounced a gay pride festival in Rome as an ``insult'' to Christians and said homosexual acts were ``contrary to natural law.''

A second group involved in the demonstration was Washington D.C.-based Dignity/USA, which describes itself as the largest organization of homosexual, bisexual and transgender Catholics in the United States.

Toys carried by the protesters were destined for Italian orphans. They also planned to take gifts to AIDS sufferers and battered women in Rome.

---

Protest supports striking Czech TV

Infobeat
Thursday, January 04, 2000
By ONDREJ HEJMA
Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405659151

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - Defying freezing weather, some 100,000 people filled Prague's main square Wednesday to support striking TV journalists. Some protesters called for early elections.

In the biggest rally since the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ousted communism, students, entire families and pensioners, many holding banners supporting press freedom, chanted: ``Here we are,'' echoing the sentiment of the anti-Communist upheaval.

The gathering in Wenceslas Square _ site of the 1989 demonstrations _ was the high point in a 2-week-old conflict that centers on independent reporting on Czech Television, the nation's state-run TV station.

The striking journalists have camped out in the station's newsroom since Dec. 20, protesting the appointment as station director of Jiri Hodac, an ally of former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus.

The journalists, mainly supporters of President Vaclav Havel, claim Hodac's political ties would compromise the station's journalistic integrity. Hodac denies that he is politically biased and has threatened to fire the protesting journalists.

Hodac's loyalists control the transmission facilities, but permitted a broadcast of the rally.

At the gathering, actors and television announcers mingled with the crowd and delivered speeches criticizing the parliamentary committee that named Hodac to the post.

``Politicians are liars,'' said Jan Gabriel, 49, a mathematician. ``I don't like the deals they make. That's why we need freedom of speech.''

Journalistic freedom is a sensitive issue in the Czech Republic, a central European country of 10 million where many have bitter memories of the years that television was little more than a propaganda tool for the Communist Party.

Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who has so far backed Hodac and sought a compromise, denounced the rally.

``In a parliamentary democracy, demonstrations ... cannot be a way of changing the laws,'' Zeman said, according to the news agency CTK.

But demonstrators suggested that if political leaders fail to resolve the conflict, they should let voters decide.

``I hear the politicians can't find a way out of this,'' Jan Kraus told the crowd. ``We have a solution for them ... early elections.''

The next scheduled elections are in 2002.

The protesters have won support from journalists' organizations elsewhere in Europe, embarrassing the government at a time when the Czech Republic is a candidate for European Union membership.

In Brussels, Belgium, EU spokesman Jonathan Faull said the EU Commission ``is committed to principles of freedom of expression and media, as we are sure is the Czech government.''

In a letter to the strikers, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Journalists, Aidan White, said the organization calls on ``all our member organizations in more than 100 countries to show their support and to declare that they will assist you in your strike.''

Klaus, the head of the opposition Civic Democratic Party, offered a compromise Tuesday, calling for Hodac to resign in exchange for the resignation of the strike leaders. Two minor parties rejected the deal.

Havel, who has supported the journalists, had been scheduled to leave Prague on Thursday, but ``postponed his departure because of the tense political situation resulting from the crisis in Czech Television,'' his spokesman Ladislav Spacek said.

Zeman's Cabinet approved a draft amendment of a law that would make the Czech Television Council, a supervisory body that can elect and dismiss the station's director, independent from political parties.

---

50,000 Czechs Rally for Striking TV Journalists

New York Times
January 4, 2001
By STEVEN ERLANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04CZEC.html

PRAGUE, Jan. 3 - At least 50,000 Czechs came out into the cold tonight to give their support to striking television journalists who say they are trying to preserve their independence from political pressure.

The protesters packed at least half of the enormous Wenceslas Square, site of the protests that helped pull down the Communist government in 1989. The crowd was polite, but many people expressed disgust over what they considered a blatant effort by the two big parties to control state- owned Czech Television.

"The situation in the television is a symbol of the whole political situation here," said Petra Svecova, 25, who was on hand to support the journalists. "On the one hand, it's a sign of our political immaturity that the politicians try to control television. On the other, it's a good sign that so many people have come out to express their opinion openly."

Some 50 television journalists have barricaded themselves in the newsroom since Dec. 23 in protest against the appointment of Jiri Hodac as general manager of the station, and the protesters have tried to put out rival newscasts. Mr. Hodac, 53, had a troubled four months last year as news director before resigning and is considered too close to Vaclav Klaus, leader of the conservative Civic Democratic Party.

The journalists say Mr. Hodac once applied to be Mr. Klaus's spokesman, and they also oppose his appointment of Jana Bobosikova, a former adviser to Mr. Klaus, as news director.

Mr. Hodac denies political bias and has tried to discharge 30 of the dissident journalists, who have tried to protect themselves legally by declaring a strike. The journalists say their opposition to Mr. Hodac does not mean that they cannot cover Mr. Klaus fairly.

The dissident journalists have received prominent support from President Vaclav Havel, who would like to derail Mr. Klaus from succeeding him as president next year.

---

New York Times
January 4, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/world/04BRIE.html?pagewanted=all

THE AMERICAS
ECUADOR: PROTESTS CONTINUE The government, stopping short of declaring a state of emergency, called for a national dialogue as protests over higher gasoline prices continued for a second day. A police officer was wounded and 18 people arrested in protests that broke out on Tuesday. Several groups, including the nation's biggest unions, were planning further action to fight government austerity measures. (Agence France-Presse)

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