------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
China's Li Peng in India to Put Ties on Track
Albright Gives Advice to Powell
Argentina says nuclear ship won't enter its waters
The military uses of DU
Kosovo doctors play down uranium scare
NATO and EU discuss weapons fears
Uranium health checks stepped up
Weapons threat
Britain latest country to test vets for depleted uranium
NATO issued warning about uranium-tipped weapons in 1999
Britain to begin testing veterans' health
MoD climbdown on depleted uranium
Climbdown on Gulf war syndrome
Armed forces minister's statement on depleted uranium
Aftershocks from anti-tank shells
EU and NATO to discuss depleted uranium
Uranium use in Kosovo war suspected
EUROPEANS FEAR BALKANS AMMO STILL LETHAL
Depleted uranium is chemically poisonous: British scientist
1999 U.S. Document Warned of Depleted Uranium in Kosovo
NATO Ducks Uranium Ban Amid Clamor for Research
Scientists Doubt Uranium Weapons Cancer Link
NATO won't end use of uranium shells
NATO, the Balkans and Radiation Dust
NATO, EU to examine uranium ammo effect
UK Offers Soldiers Uranium Screening
NATO Under Fire Over Use of Depleted Uranium
Pressure on NATO Over Depleted Uranium Bombs
Ask Alex Kirby
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER FOR THE ARMED FORCES
Iraq Accuses U.S. Of Crimes Against Humanity
Schroeder tells Nato to ban use of toxic shells
EU Orders Nuclear Experts To Investigate Effects Of Uranium Arms
NATO shoots down Italy's plea
NATO Vs. Italy: Troops Boycott Balkans Duty
Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance
Effects of depleted Uranium examined
Italy to ask NATO to suspend uranium weapons use
South Asia buzz
Kazakhstan to Increase Uranium Production
$30 Billion Urged for Russian Nuclear Security
Reviving the Test Ban Treaty
Bush Courts Key Lawmakers for Support on Defense Goals
Safety errors signal 'trend' at Rocky Flats
EPA stifled by new regulation, removal of lone investigator
Bush's Military Views Reportedly Shifting
Bush Focuses on Policy Matters
Clinton's left wing legacy
MILITARY
Britain may be seeking halt to Iraq bombing
Burma junta clamps down on freedom party
Myanmar junta holds secret talks with Suu Kyi, dialogue planned
MYANMAR: U.N. IN NEW TALKS
U.N.: Myanmar, Suu Kyi Launch Talks
Treat Aung San Suu Kyi as leader
UN says Aung San Suu Kyi met Myanmar junta leader "more than once"
Colombia Rebels Say They May Free 100 Prisoners
DRUG DEALER PLEADS GUILTY
Dozens Wounded in Kashmir Explosions
Indian army launches battle for hearts
Iowa
Defending Taiwan
U.N. Report Maps Hunger 'Hot Spots'
CROATIA: U.N. PROSECUTOR ON WAY
Satisfied With U.N. Reforms, Helms Relents on Dues
Cole Suspect Tells of bin Laden's Involvement
Cole Panel Urges U.S. Military to Increase Troop Protection
Official: No U.S. personnel to be disciplined
Cole crew won't face punishment
'Be All You Can Be' no more
Panel on Cole Attack Urges Increased Spending on Intelligence
OTHER
In Challenge to Bush, Forest Chief Bars Logging of the Oldest Trees
Forest Chief calls for preserving old growth
German Officials Quit Over Mad Cow Issue
Antibiotics on the Farm
Court Limits Scope of Clean Water Act
Court limits scope of Clean Water Act (2)
It's Time Now to Mend Our Energy Ways
States
Wild about wildlife
``StopTracker'' Solution for Managing Police-Citizen Contacts
Winnie Mandela Leads Raid on Pensioner's Home
Conneticut
American Embassy Reopens in Rome
MANHATTAN: TERRORISM TRIAL
ACTIVISTS
Turner, Nunn Unveil 'Nuclear Threat Initiative'
Turner targets nuclear threat
Protester's tomato targets Blair
Protesters fight police over vote in Thailand
Israelis Protest Plan to Divide Jerusalem
More than 200,000 protest in Jerusalem
Marchers trample Clinton peace bid
Beijing courts sentence banned sect members
FRANCE: MAD COW PROTESTS
China Says Protest Papers Are Distorted
China calls Tiananmen Papers fakes
Tiananmen Legacy
Papers cast new doubt on China reform views
ANGOLA: THOUSANDS STRIKE
Washington
FTAA Campaign Materials
-------- NUCLEAR
China's Li Peng in India to Put Ties on Track
Reuters
January 9, 2001 Filed at 8:01 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-india-c.html
BOMBAY, India (Reuters) - China's parliament chief Li Peng arrived in Bombay Tuesday, the first stop on a nine-day visit to India which analysts say could help iron out differences between the world's two most populous countries.
Li, China's second-most powerful leader, arrived with a delegation of about 120 people, the chief protocol officer of the government of Maharashtra state told Reuters.
He was due to meet Maharashtra governor P.C. Alexander later Tuesday. Li will travel from Bombay, India's financial hub, to the capital New Delhi Thursday morning.
Relations between the two Asian giants, which fought a brief border war in 1962, have been strained since India conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998.
But analysts said China wanted good ties with India and Li's January 9-17 visit showed Beijing recognized India's growing influence in Asia.
``Li Peng's visit shows that the Chinese are practical. They want to put aside the controversies created after India's nuclear weaponization,'' former Indian foreign secretary J.N. Dixit told Reuters.
``China recognizes India is an important nation and it does not make any sense to have an antagonistic relationship with New Delhi,'' he said.
INDIA'S CONCERNS
India's main concern about its relations with China are China's military assistance to Pakistan, a flood of cheap Chinese consumer goods into India and a 40-year-old border dispute.
Li, chairman of China's National People's Congress, is due to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, leading industrialists and heads of India's booming software sector during his trip.
He will be in the Indian capital from January 11 until January 13 for talks with government officials, business associations, foreign policy experts and lawmakers.
The final leg of his tour will take him to Bangalore, India's information technology hub in the south.
Monday, politicians from several parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, asked New Delhi to use Li's visit to tell China firmly about Indian concern over the flood of Chinese consumer goods and China's military aid to Pakistan.
Industry groups say the entry of Chinese-made goods such as toys, locks, sports shoes and bicycles had hurt Indian manufacturers, at least for the short term.
``It's a transitional phase (coming in of Chinese goods). Our manufacturers will adjust and soon be able to compete,'' Gurpal Singh, director of the Confederation of Indian Industry, told Reuters.
``Chinese goods are not only coming into India, but into Southeast Asian countries as well,'' Singh said.
For much of the past 40 years ties between the two countries have been cool.
China defeated India in the brief 1962 border war and the two sides have for decades harbored rival claims to parts of the Kashmir region to India's north and parts of the northeastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
But on the trade front, the situation has improved in recent years.
Bilateral trade, worth only $265 million in 1991, when India kicked off its economic reforms, rose to $2.33 billion in the first 10 months of 2000.
---
Albright Gives Advice to Powell
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Albright.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declaring ``the story in the Balkans is not finished,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged designated successor Colin Powell to stay the course there -- and on the Korean peninsula, as well.
In an unusually frank and public burst of advice, Albright said Tuesday that the Clinton administration's policy of military intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo had been vindicated by the emergence of democratic trends.
Unfortunately for Powell, she said, by the time his 1995 book appeared questioning U.S. intervention in the Balkans ``the limited application of limited force in Bosnia was working.''
The timing, Albright said, ``was probably ironic.''
As for North Korea, Albright at a news conference said of the incoming Bush administration, ``I hope they pick up where we left off.''
Albright referred to a policy of trying to improve U.S. relations with the insular Communist regime while also freezing its nuclear weapons and urging it to halt development and proliferation of missiles.
She made a historic trip in October to Pyongyang to try to talk Chairman Kim Jong Il into curbing his missile program. President Clinton considered a visit but said Dec. 28 he would not make the trip because he did not have enough time to make it successful.
Clinton also said he looked to his successor, Bush, for more progress on curbing the North's missile program before more aggressive engagement with Pyongyang.
In mid-December, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Bush agreed to meet soon to discuss cooperation in dealing with North Korea.
Kim, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his rapprochement initiative toward the communist neighbor, sent Bush a message after his election saying he wanted continued U.S. support for his ``sunshine policy'' of peaceful engagement with North Korea.
``I keep making the point with individuals, and as I speak out publicly, that foreign policy doesn't come in four-year blocks,'' Albright said with just 11 days left on the job. ``There is a continuum.''
Powell, who spent 35 years in the military, long has counseled restraint in the use of American force.
On a book tour in 1995, he said he supported the deployment of 20,000 U.S. troops to Bosnia as part of a NATO peacekeeping force but doubted the long-term prospects for peace there.
``Is the national interest at stake?'' is the way he has summarized his cautious doctrine. ``If the answer is yes, go in, and go in to win. Otherwise, stay out.''
Powell said in October that the Bush administration would undertake an immediate review of U.S. deployments in Kosovo, Bosnia and other places once the new administration takes over.
``Our forces are stretched rather thin,'' he said, ``and there is a limit to how many of these deployments we can sustain.''
Albright has had several meetings with Powell in this period of transition. Powell told reporters on Capitol Hill, where he visited senior senators, that he would not speak about Balkans issues until his confirmation hearing next Tuesday.
At the beginning of the Clinton presidency, Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued against U.S. military involvement in the ethnic conflict in Bosnia.
Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a strong advocate of using force to end ethnic slaughter, is said to have stared at Powell and asked: ``What's the point in having this superb military you are always talking about if we can't use it?''
In his book, Powell said of the incident: ``I thought I would have an aneurysm. American GIs were not toy soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global gameboard.''
More than 9,000 American troops are stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, part of peacekeeping missions negotiated by the Clinton administration following the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in 1991.
President-elect Bush in his second debate with Vice President Al Gore, said he would ``very much like to get our troops out'' of the Balkans and would work with the European allies ``to convince them to put troops on the ground.''
Supporters of the peacekeeping mission see the presence of U.S. troops as a guarantee that the United States would use its diplomatic, economic and political weight to ensure the region did not explode again into armed conflict.
Albright, at Tuesday's news conference, said ``there needs to be a policy where diplomacy and force work together, and the limited application of limited force in various area is useful.''
And, she said, ``I believe that the story in the Balkans is not finished, and that the next administration needs to keep in mind that our presence there is very important.''
However, she pointed out, most of the peacekeeping force and economic assistance to promote democracy ``is coming from the Europeans, as it should be.''
On other subjects Tuesday, Albright said:
-- ``It is only frustrating at this point that, with so few days left, that we've not been able'' to conclude a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
American mediator Dennis B. Ross is to leave Wednesday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. ``We are going to work as long as possible,'' Albright said.
-- She was sorry the Clinton administration had ``the issue of Saddam Hussein'' to pass on to the next administration. But, she said, the Iraqi president is weaker and has been contained.
-------- argentina
Argentina says nuclear ship won't enter its waters
Excite News
January 9, 2001
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010109/21/environment-argentina
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The Argentine government sought Tuesday to ease concerns about the possibility of a toxic spill by a British ship carrying nuclear waste around treacherous Cape Horn, saying the vessel Pacific Swan would not enter its territorial waters.
"The information given to us about the boat's planned route indicates it will pass around Cape Horn and it is not expected to enter Argentina's territorial waters," the Foreign Ministry said, responding to protests by local environmental groups.
The statement came as Argentine navy planes spotted the Pacific Swan midway down Argentina's south Atlantic coast on the edge of its territorial waters.
Plans to transport the highly radioactive 80-ton cargo of French-processed, spent nuclear fuel around Cape Horn -- one of the world's most treacherous stretches of water -- has alarmed Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, whose coastlines are on the planned route.
The Pacific Swan, which is owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), set sail from Cherbourg, France, Dec. 19 with a cargo of Japanese nuclear reactor waste mixed with glass. The vessel is due to dock in Aomori in northern Japan in February.
The environmental group Greenpeace fears the passage around South America's southern tip could become the preferred route for transporting nuclear waste between Europe and Japan, replacing the traditional, shorter route through the Panama Canal.
-------- depleted uranium
The military uses of DU
BBC
Tuesday, 9 January, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1108000/1108058.stm
As concern grows over the effects on Nato peacekeepers of using depleted uranium (DU) ammunition, BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala considers the military applications of DU.
The main military use of DU is in penetrating armour, but its penetrative qualities have also led to its use in missiles deployed against other targets such as barracks.
It is a very heavy substance, 1.7 times denser than lead, and has substantial performance advantages over other materials used for the same purposes.
When munitions made with DU strike a solid object, like the side of a tank, they go straight through it and then erupt in a burning cloud of vapour.
The high temperature fragments created as DU passes through armour can spread to strike everything inside a tank and set fire to its fuel and ammunition.
Defensive use
DU's density and physical properties make it ideal for use as armour plate.
The high density of DU also makes it useful as a counter-balance for large commercial aircraft, including the Boeing 747, and in yacht keels.
DU is a by-product of the enrichment of natural uranium, either for weapons-making or for reactor fuel.
The United States and British Armed Forces used depleted uranium munitions and armour for the first time during the Gulf War.
Alternatives
Britain, France, Russia and the US are the only commonly acknowledged users of DU munitions.
The great majority of armies use tungsten alloys for the same purpose.
The US Department of Defence has argued that the DU the most effective material for piercing armour, because of its high density and the metallic properties that allow it to "self-sharpen" as it penetrates armour.
In contrast, US military officials say, anti-tank munitions made from other materials tend to mushroom and become blunt as they penetrate.
The alternatives to DU do have a 20% lower penetrative performance, and are more expensive.
Tungsten emits no radiation, but, its particles are poisonous.
---
Kosovo doctors play down uranium scare
Nato soldiers are measuring radiation levels
BBC
Tuesday, 9 January, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1107000/1107910.stm
Doctors in Kosovo have told World Health Organisation (WHO) staff that there has been no increase in leukaemia cases in the province since the conflict there in 1999.
The report comes as some Nato member countries are attempting to establish whether illness suffered by soldiers who served in Kosovo is linked to exposure to the depleted uranium used in some weapons.
But some experts have warned that leukaemia may take several years to develop following exposure to radiation.
There has been no full scientific investigation into leukaemia rates in Kosovo since the conflict.
In the recent informal survey, WHO officials simply asked doctors in the province to provide information about leukaemia cases from 1997 to the end of last year.
They found leukaemia cases among Kosovo civilians dropped slightly last year.
The information was needed by UN staff to set priorities in rebuilding Kosovo's health system.
Symptoms take years
The UK National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) says it is too early for radiation received by civilians or peacekeepers in Kosovo to be causing disease.
The NRPB's spokesman, Dr Mike Clark, says it is well known that radiation exposure can cause leukaemia.
But in the case of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs during World War II, it took about five years for the first cases of radiation-related leukaemia to appear.
Dr Clark says that while enough time may have passed for people exposed to depleted uranium in Bosnia to be showing any signs of radiation illness, it is too soon for the same to be said of Kosovo.
Dr Clark says the forthcoming screening programmes planned by governments in Europe should take into account other possible factors.
Leukaemia is believed to have a number of triggers, including viral infections and chemical toxins.
While he could not rule out depleted uranium as a factor in the recent deaths and illnesses among Balkans peacekeepers, the health problems that have collectively been dubbed "Balkans syndrome" may have more than one cause.
---
NATO and EU discuss weapons fears
CNN
January 9, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/01/09/nato.uranium/index.html
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Top NATO and European Union (EU) officials are holding separate talks over depleted uranium weapons fears.
NATO's political committee and the EU's political and security committee are both convening on Tuesday to begin addressing European concerns that the ammunition used in the Balkans has caused cancer among peacekeepers.
Renewed concern over so-called "Balkans Syndrome" arose in December after Italy announced an investigation into 30 soldiers who have fallen ill since serving with NATO. Twelve have cancer and five have died of leukaemia.
United States forces serving with NATO used the tank-piercing arms in the Bosnia and Kosovo missions and the U.S. denies any scientific evidence of a link between the uranium-tipped bullets and illness.
"There is absolutely no proof that there is a connection," U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Monday.
Scientists remain divided on the issue and a chorus of European leaders have called for a thorough investigation.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday called on NATO to release all available information on the use and effects of depleted uranium ammunition.
"We want frank information about where the ammunition was used and with what consequences," Schroeder said in Germany, where he was meeting Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson.
Despite agreeing with NATO that there is no risk, Britain is reportedly set to announce medical tests on its Balkan veterans after initially indicating there was no need.
The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Ministry of Defence will implement a testing programme for tens of thousands of NATO peacekeepers.
Weapons withdrawn
Portugal began health tests on Monday on about 10,000 military and civilian personnel who have served in the Balkans since 1996.
One Portuguese soldier has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from Kosovo.
In Greece the military said on Monday that it would withdraw depleted uranium ammunition from active use but was not yet pulling peacekeepers out of Kosovo.
One Greek soldier who served in Bosnia is suffering from leukaemia.
Experts will be testing the soil and air around the Greek base in Urosevac, in southern Kosovo, and Greece's 1,500 army personnel will be withdrawn if they uncover a health risk, Defence Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos said.
All Norwegian soldiers who have served abroad since 1990 -- about 20,000 troops -- will also be offered health checks, Norway's supreme defence command said on Monday.
Last week, two former officers said they developed cancer after serving in Bosnia.
Elsewhere on Monday, Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said his government would ask NATO whether unused bombs its planes dumped into the Adriatic during the 1999 bombing campaign contained depleted uranium.
In a preliminary report released last week, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found higher radiation levels around eight areas targeted by NATO in Kosovo.
The UNEP results were from 11 sites identified by NATO as having been hit with depleted uranium arms.
All up, 112 sites are being tested by UNEP and final results from its study are expected in March.
---
Uranium health checks stepped up
CNN
January 9, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/01/09/nato.uranium.03/index.html
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Health tests on troops who served in the Balkans are to be carried out across Europe amid mounting concern over the long-term effects of depleted uranium weapons.
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/maps/belgium.brussels.jpg
NATO ambassadors will meet on Wednesday to discuss the use of shells coated with depleted uranium (DU) ammunition after at least seven Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans died of leukaemia.
Relatives and veterans' groups estimate that around 20 soldiers from Europe have died following service in the region.
Other Balkan veterans have suffered from a range of symptoms including cancer, fatigue and hair loss, prompting calls for increased medical screening and research.
But links between the illnesses -- dubbed "Balkans syndrome" -- and depleted uranium tipped shells have been rejected by senior figures in the U.S. and UK governments.
U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition during NATO's 1999 campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. About 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighbouring Bosnia in 1994-95.
NATO officials maintained there was no proven link between the DU munitions and cancer among Western peacekeepers, a stance supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), but agreed further studies should be conducted.
NATO and European Union officials met separately on Tuesday to discuss the use of DU weapons ahead of the meeting of NATO ambassadors.
The EU's executive commission said it would set up a working group of member state medical and scientific experts to report early next month on the possible health risks.
"Ten years of conflict in the Balkans have created horrible environmental problems. We have to take care of our staff working there and also of (local) people," commission President Romano Prodi told reporters during a trip to Sweden.
Several European states have stepped up health checks on veterans and set up national inquiries into the potential risks of exposure to radioactive dust from DU missile explosions.
Belgian defence ministry spokesman Gerard Harveng that 1,600 out of 12,000 troops who served in Balkan peacekeeping missions before the Kosovo crisis had complained of a lack of concentration, sleeping problems and headaches.
He said there had been nine cases of lung, skin, blood or brain cancer, five of whom had died, but it was not yet possible to find any link between soldiers' illnesses and weapons used in the Balkans.
"That's why Belgium wants it on the NATO and EU table. (Our) minister wants to have a very big discussion, trying to find an answer and to determine if there is a danger or not," he said. Britain announced it would offer its soldiers a health test.
"Some of the recent coverage will have caused some concerns amongst our people and we do recognise a need to reassure them," Defence Minister John Spellar told parliament.
But he said studies of veterans from the Gulf War, 10 years ago, where similar DU ammunition was used, had found no evidence of abnormally high cancer rates.
"DU will remain part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future," he said.
Meanwhile the French National Assembly defence committee announced it was widening a parliamentary probe into "Gulf War syndrome" to include the Balkans, coinciding with the discovery of a fifth case of leukaemia in a Balkans veteran.
"It is not possible to ignore the emotion and concern about the health of our soldiers," said committee head Paul Quiles.
A French journalist who covered the Gulf War and Bosnian conflict said she suspected DU-tipped arms caused intestinal, neurological and muscular problems she was suffering.
But experts from the Geneva-based WHO said studies in Kosovo hospitals had shown no rise in average levels of leukaemia among the Serb province's largely Albanian civilian population.
The concern has however prompted officials in 16 European countries to announce plans for mass or voluntary screening of troops who served in the Balkans.
And the issue spread beyond Europe on Tuesday as New Zealand joined the list of countries investigating whether their troops were exposed to radioactivity from DU munitions.
Anecdotal evidence suggested New Zealand service men and women were not exposed to depleted uranium but personnel locations would be double checked, the chief of New Zealand Defence, Air Marshal Carey Adamson, said.
---
Weapons threat
New Scientist
9 January 2001
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999309
European fears over depleted uranium prompt crisis talks but it is not yet known if the reported illnesses exceed expected levels
Top officials of NATO and the European Union are holding crisis meetings this week, as more countries allege their soldiers were harmed by exposure to weapons made of depleted uranium during recent conflicts in the Balkans.
Yet it is not known whether the reported illnesses are excessive or unusual, or how many of the veterans were even exposed to depleted uranium (DU).
European Commission president Romano Prodi and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder say they want DU weapons banned if they harm soldiers' health.
But anti-DU campaigners fear a hurried, political response to the crisis may produce false medical reassurances that will blunt calls for a ban, and for cleaning up former battlefields, where civilian families are at risk.
Heavy metal
Depleted uranium (DU) is left after fissionable isotopes are removed from natural uranium and made into nuclear fuel. It is nearly twice as dense as lead and ignites on impact, making it extremely effective at piercing armour.
The US and Britain have used DU anti-tank weapons since the Gulf War in 1990. Other countries are acquiring them, says Richard Bramhall of the Low Level Radiation Campaign, which opposes DU.
Fears about the health effects of DU have been fuelled by persistent accusations by Gulf veterans that it caused their cancers, skin, neurological and kidney disorders.
US and British authorities, and the World Health Organisation, say the weapons pose little danger. But burning DU projectiles release a fine dust of insoluble uranium oxides, which can be toxic when inhaled.
US military guidelines say soldiers must wear masks when clearing debris left by DU attacks. It is not clear if European forces in the Balkans were aware of the guidelines or where US fighters dropped DU weapons.
Whitewash fears
"We do not know yet if the illnesses are unusual for this group of people," says Colonel Alain Vilet, medical attache to the Belgian Ministry of Defence, which was the first to voice its concerns. "But now the European allies will share their data, which will allow us to make a better analysis."
The results of the analysis are not expected for several months.
Bramhall fears that sharing data will not help if investigators do not make the right tests for DU exposure: "They will look for uranium in the wrong places, and claim it has no health effects. It will be another whitewash."
The following European countries are now involved:
Belgium: five veterans dead of cancer, including two with leukaemia, and 1600 claiming illness
Italy: six dead of leukaemia, twice the national incidence
Spain: eight with cancer
France: four dead of leukaemia
Netherlands: two dead of leukaemia
Germany: one with leukaemia
Portugal: one dead of an unexplained brain affliction
Czech Republic: one dead of a "blood disorder"
Britain: one veteran blames immune disorders on service in the Balkans
Correspondence about this story should be directed to latestnews@newscientist.com
Debora MacKenzie, Brussels New Scientist Online News
---
Britain latest country to test vets for depleted uranium
CBC
Tue Jan 9
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/01/09/brit_nato010109
LONDON - The British government did an about-face Tuesday, announcing it would test armed forces personnel for possible health problems caused by uranium-tipped weapons used in the Balkan conflict.
The move comes as several countries said they, too, would screen their veterans following concerns about cancer rates among soldiers who served in the Balkans.
Depleted uranium, heavier than lead, was used to harden shells fired during the wars in the Balkans. On impact, it explodes into fine uranium oxide power.
Italy announced it would ask its NATO partners to stop using the armour-piercing shells.
Last month, Italy started investigating the cases of 30 soldiers who served in Kosovo after five soldiers who had served there died of leukemia.
Portugal has said it's screening 10,000 of its military personnel. And Germany is looking into all leukemia cases among its Balkan troops.
Britain believes there's no medical proof
Scientists say there's no proof of a link between depleted uranium and cancer. The British government maintained that position as well, saying it was responding to public concerns rather than to conclusive evidence.
But some people who served there say they don't believe that.
Kevin Rudland, an engineer with the British army in Kosovo, now suffers from chronic fatigue and bowel problems. He's convinced he was exposed to radioactive dust particles.
"It's been devastating on my family, very upsetting for them and I can't think what I've put my wife through over the years, and my children."
NATO ambassadors will discuss the issue at a meeting in Brussels Wednesday.
Canada will not launch new testing program
Canada has a voluntary screening program in place, but it says reports so far show no higher level of cancer among vets than among the general population.
Military officials say that's why Canada doesn't need to launch a new, more aggressive testing policy.
"There has not been any linkage between illnesses and depleted uranium," says Defence Minister Art Eggleton.
But a lab in Newfoundland has been conducting independent tests on sick veterans from Canada, the U.S. and Britain - and finding very different results.
"Clearly their urine has a significant component of depleted uranium in it - not natural uranium but depleted uranium which doesn't occur in nature," says Greg Dunning at Memorial University. "You couldn't pick it up just walking around."
Dr. Reza Mehran served in the Balkans as an army doctor eight years ago. After his return, he had to beat first leukemia, then bone cancer.
But he can't shake suspicions about how he got the diseases in the first place.
"It's very difficult to believe that a perfectly normal individual developed such a torrid leukemia followed by bone cancer with absolutely no history," he says.
Dozens of other Canadian soldiers also came home with unexplainable illnesses, including cancer, kidney failure and chronic fatigue.
---
NATO issued warning about uranium-tipped weapons in 1999
CBC News
Tue Jan 9
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/01/08/uranium010108
BERLIN - Despite its recent denials that depleted uranium used in some of its ammunition poses a danger to the health of soldiers, NATO issued a warning about its possible dangers a year and a half ago.
The German defence ministry said on Sunday that it had received a warning from NATO in July 1999 about a possible toxic threat, and advising that measures be taken to protect people working in areas that had been targeted.
Depleted uranium-tipped weapons were used extensively in the Balkans conflicts, mostly by U.S. planes attacking tanks.
The possible health implications of those weapons came to the fore recently, when Italy announced it was investigating how 30 of its soldiers became ill. Twelve Italian soldiers have cancer; five have died of leukemia.
Other countries have also recently launched investigations and testing campaigns. Most have reported no increased health problems related to the uranium.
The Canadian government began a voluntary screening program last February. Having tested 90 Gulf War vets and 11 Balkans vets, it says levels of depleted uranium were consistent with the general population.
The U.S. forces used uranium-tipped weapons in the Gulf War, as well, and some veterans groups believe that is a possible cause of Gulf War Syndrome.
But the Pentagon denies any health risks associated with the weapons, and NATO echoes that denial.
Concerned organizations want NATO to reveal exactly what areas were targeted for attacks using the uranium-tipped weapons.
The UN Environment Program says it has visited 11 of 112 sites identified by NATO as having been targeted, and found elevated levels of radiation at eight of them.
---
Britain to begin testing veterans' health after exposure to depleted uranium
CBC News
01/01/09
KEVIN WARD
http://cbc.ca/cp/world/010109/w010943.html
LONDON (CP) - Britain reversed itself Tuesday and joined a growing list of European countries making health tests available to soldiers who served in the Balkans and the Gulf War to ensure they aren't getting sick from exposure to depleted uranium munitions.
Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said Britain has no evidence linking depleted uranium to illness among its troops. Still, the testing program represents a policy reversal for the Blair government amid growing fears of leukemia and other illnesses among the veterans.
Tens of thousands of them will be eligible for medical screening under Britain's voluntary program.
"We do recognize that some of the recent (media) coverage will have caused some concerns amongst our people and we recognize a need to reassure them," Spellar told the Commons.
Britain will also increase tests across the Balkans to ensure soldiers are not being exposed to any contamination from the use of the radioactive ammunition. Meanwhile, the armed forces will continue using the shells, favoured by military leaders because of their ability to penetrate armour.
In Brussels, members of NATO on Tuesday blocked an Italian push for a moratorium on the tank-piercing ammunition, sources told The Associated Press. Italy made a long presentation to a committee of the 19-member military alliance amid fears the depleted uranium shells cause cancer.
At least 30 Italian soldiers have experienced health problems since returning from the Balkans. Six have died of cancer, five of them from leukemia.
In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. In another development Tuesday, a group of Belgian soldiers announced they will sue their government because of health problems allegedly stemming from service in the Balkans.
The North Atlantic Council, NATO's top policy-making body, meets Wednesday to discuss the moratorium rejected by the political committee Tuesday.
Canada's Defence Department said this week that of the thousands of Canadians who served in the Gulf War and in the former Yugoslavia over the last decade, just 104 have asked to be tested as a result of the depleted uranium scare. Independent tests have failed to show any ill health caused by exposure to the heavy metal.
Despite the tests results, the military realizes that soldiers still worry about their exposure.
"This has nothing to do with medicine, science, common sense or logic," said Dr. Ken Scott, director of medical policy for the Canadian Forces.
Spellar said British troops realized there were risks of heavy metal poisoning and exposure to radiation at the point of impact when the shells were used.
A King's College study of 4,000 British peacekeepers who served in Bosnia found no difference in the health problems they experienced compared with troops who were not deployed to the Balkan country or the Gulf, he noted.
About 300 tonnes of depleted uranium was fired in the Gulf War. Nine tonnes was used by NATO in Kosovo and three tonnes in Bosnia.
Depleted uranium is used in anti-tank munitions because it is heavy and hard, allowing it to punch through armour. No nuclear fission is involved in use of the shells, dubbed the Silver Bullet by the Pentagon in the 1990s.
But some fear the impact causes pieces of the metal to be vaporized into dust, which could be dangerous if inhaled or ingested. Scientists are split on this theory.
Spellar said if depleted uranium shells are handled within regulations, they present no danger to soldiers.
"We have long recognized, however, that on the battlefield its debris might present a hazard from chemical toxicity . . . and a low level radiological hazard."
---
MoD climbdown on depleted uranium
The Times
TUESDAY JANUARY 09 2001 PA
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-64654,00.html
The Ministry of Defence today bowed to pressure for medical tests for Balkans veterans who fear they have been contaminated by exposure to depleted uranium (DU) weapons.
In a Commons statement, John Spellar, the Armed Forces Minister, announced a voluntary screening programme for tens of thousands of service personnel and civilians who served in Bosnia and Kosovo.
He said that the programme was intended to provide reassurance for veterans following growing concern about possible links between DU and leukaemia or other illnesses.
However, senior MoD officials insisted that the Government still did not accept there was any connection between the use of DU weaponry and either the so-called Balkans syndrome or the earlier Gulf War syndrome.
Mr Spellar said that, handled properly, DU shells, which are used to pierce tank armour, presented no health hazard to British troops and would remain in the Army's arsenal for the foreseeable future.
The announcement today was hurriedly arranged. Officials confirmed that the final decision to go ahead with the screening programme had only been taken in the preceding 12 hours, at a time when Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, was out of the country on an official visit to Sweden.
Today's announcement follows a wave of concern sparked by Italy's decision last month to investigate illnesses among 30 of its soldiers who had served in the Balkans, including five who died from leukaemia.
Since then, investigations or screening programmes have been announced in Germany, Portugal, Norway and Belgium, with Ireland earlier today becoming the latest country to join the list.
---
Climbdown on Gulf war syndrome
Special report: depleted uranium
The Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor, Ian Black in Brussels and Peter Capella in Geneva
Tuesday January 9, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uranium/
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,419749,00.html
The Ministry of Defence is poised to announce a significant shift in policy by agreeing to conduct medical tests on tens of thousands of veterans from the Balkans and Gulf wars for signs of contamination by depleted uranium (DU) used in tank-busting shells.
The decision, which will reverse the position held by ministers over the past decade, follows mounting pressure from ex-servicemen, MPs and Nato allies across Europe. It is expected to be announced in a Commons statement by Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, on Thursday.
For years British veterans who fought in the 1991 Gulf war have pressed forward claims that conditions such as chronic fatigue, hair loss and various types of cancer may have been triggered by contamination from fragments of DU.
The government announcement is expected to maintain that there is no established link between DU and illnesses among former soldiers. But the MoD will concede that, as a precautionary measure to set minds at ease, it will commence screening veterans in the near future.
The MoD and Gulf veterans have been deadlocked over DU for some time. Neither side can agree on doctors or medical institutes to carry out tests to see if there is any connection between DU and soldiers ill with cancer.
The MoD's signalled change of heart is partly designed to head off demands for compulsory screening by the Commons defence committee whose chairman, Bruce George, accused the MoD earlier this week of "foot-dragging" over testing Gulf war veterans.
Both the EU and Nato will discuss the growing controversy this week. Fears that there could be a link have been fuelled by a spate of reports from Italy, France, Belgium and Portugal where troops who served in Kosovo and Bosnia have been diagnosed with cancer, particularly leukaemia.
The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, joined the ranks of senior European leaders demanding a full investigation into the use of DU shells by American A10 "tankbusters" in the Kosovo war.
"We want a complete examination of where these munitions have been used and with what consequences," he said yesterday. "We want to know if there are connections between cases of illness and the use of these weapons." Mr Schröder said he would support Italy's demand - due to be discussed by the North Atlantic Council tomorrow - that Nato provide full information on where DU ammunition was used. Nato, backed by the US and Britain, insists DU shells cause no significant risk.
DU is used in the nose of armour-piercing shells because its density helps it to punch through modern tanks. Over 100,000 DU rounds were fired during the Gulf war. In Kosovo, more than 30,000 rounds were used by US A10s; about 10,000 shells were fired in the area surrounding Sarajevo in the closing stages of the Bosnian conflict.
Terry Gooding, of the Gulf Veterans' Association, said the anticipated move was "not before time". He added that it had taken 10 years during which the lives of many veterans could have been saved. But he said it would be difficult to measure DU contamination after such a long time when traces would have been excreted.
The World Health Organisation said that evidence mainly gleaned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster suggested it was unlikely that radiation exposure would lead to an increased incidence of leukaemia although other types of cancer could occur.
Mike Repacholi, a WHO environmental health specialist said: "To us, depleted uranium is a chemical toxicity issue, not one of radiation. Children in particular could be at some risk because children playing in contaminated areas tend to pick up pieces of dirt or they put their toys in their mouth, they could absorb more."
About 30,000 British military personnel were deployed in the Gulf war and some 50,000 British troops have seen service in Bosnia or Kosovo since the mid-1990s.
The issue has been added to the agenda of today's meeting of the EU's political and security committee at the request of Greece and Belgium.
Reaction in Europe
Italy Last month announced an investigation into the illnesses of 30 soldiers who served in the Balkans, five of whom died of leukaemia. Last week demanded Nato look into the risks
Germany Defence ministry is to review all cases of leukaemia in the military. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder yesterday backed the call for a full investigation
Russia Foreign minister Igor Ivanov yesterday called for an independent inquiry
Portugal Yesterday began screening 10,000 personnel who have served in the Balkans since 1996
Norway Yesterday offered check-up for 20,000 soldiers
Belgium Health questionnaires sent to 12,000 troops. Group of soldiers plan civil suit against the government
United Nations Urgent appeal to the World Health Organisation to send public health experts to monitor the possible risks to civilians.
---
Text: Armed forces minister's statement on depleted uranium
John Spellar's address to the Commons
The Guardian
Tuesday January 9, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uranium
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uranium/story/0,7369,420048,00.html
With permission Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on depleted uranium.
During the last few days concern has been expressed in the media and in this House about possible exposure of United Kingdom forces to depleted uranium in the Balkans. This reflects a series of media reports that the health of peacekeepers in Bosnia or Kosovo may have been affected by their deployment. It is suggested that some UK service personnel may have become ill as a result of exposure to depleted uranium in the Balkans.
This afternoon I will set out our position on depleted uranium, and list the steps we are taking and intend to take.
Depleted uranium is a very dense heavy metal. It results from the uranium enrichment process, and because the majority of the more radioactive isotopes are removed in this process, depleted uranium is about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium. Because of its density and metallurgic properties, depleted uranium is ideally suited for use as a kinetic energy penetrator for use in anti-armour munitions.
The UK has developed and deployed a 120mm armour piercing round for use in the Challenger Main Battle Tank. This ammunition was used in the Gulf war, where around 100 rounds were fired by us against Iraqi armour, as well as some rounds during training in Saudi Arabia. This ammunition provides a battle winning military capability.
Alternative materials are not as effective. Therefore DU will remain part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future because when this country commits our forces to conflict we fight to win. Our troops need the best available equipment to enable them to do this. To deny them a legitimate capability would be quite wrong.
Handled in accordance with the regulations, DU shells present no hazard to our forces. We have long recognised, however, that on the battlefield its debris might present a hazard from chemical toxicity, in the same way as any heavy metal such as lead, and a low level radiological hazard. The risk from chemical toxicity would arise from ingestion of the soluble depleted uranium oxides, and the radiological risk primarily from inhalation of the insoluble depleted uranium oxides. These risks arise from the dust created when DU strikes a hard target such as an armoured vehicle. In its massive form, as expended rounds or solid fragments it is a negligible hazard.
In response to the health concerns of Gulf veterans, the Ministry of Defence has, both in 1993 and 1999 published details of these hazards, together with our estimates of the risk which they might have posed to troops in the Gulf. We believe those risks to have been low, which is borne out by the findings of our Medical Assessment Programme for Gulf Veterans. There has been no evidence, during the deployment, or subsequently, of kidney damage which would be the chief indication of heavy metal poisoning. Radiological damage would only become manifested as an increased rate of cancer after a long period of latency. Furthermore, there is currently no evidence after 10 years, of a higher rate of cancer amongst Gulf veterans compared to a control group. We currently offer tests to Gulf veterans who attend the medical assessment programme for whole body load of uranium, if there is a clinical indication that uranium might be linked to the illnesses which they manifest.
Substantial amounts of research into the health risks of uranium have been conducted and published over many years. Recent work by reputable bodies has assessed this literature in the context of battlefield exposures to DU. The conclusions of all this work, including that by the Rand corporation, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the US Institute of Medicine, is that there is no evidence linking DU to cancers or to the more general ill health being experienced by some Gulf veterans.
As regards exposures, important work at the Baltimore veterans Affairs Clinic in the United States is monitoring Gulf veterans known to be at the highest risk of exposure due to "friendly fire" incidents. None of these troops, including those who retain DU shrapnel in their bodies have health problems related to DU. Testing Gulf and Balkans veterans for uranium in the US, Canada, and Belgium has failed to show any of them excreting higher than background levels unless they have embedded shrapnel.
Depleted uranium has also been fired by Nato forces during operations in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in Kosovo in 1999. Compared to around 300 tons fired in the Gulf, only 3 tons was fired in Bosnia, and around 9 tons in Kosovo, very little of it in what is now the British sector.
Conscious of the potential risks which DU posed, we issued precautionary guidance to our forces in Kosovo about the need not to approach recently struck burned out armoured vehicles possibly hit by DU, which present the main hazard, and to wear suitable protective clothing if they had to work in the vicinity of these vehicles.
The working environment of our forces in the Balkans is already closely monitored because of health and safety and environmental concerns about the theatre which extend well beyond the question of DU. There is to date no evidence of which the Ministry of Defence is aware of unusual ill health amongst our Balkan peacekeepers, or specifically any ill health that would suggest heavy metal poisoning. Indeed a thorough epidemiological study was done by King's College in the context of Gulf health, which examined a cohort of nearly 4,000 Bosnia peacekeepers. They found no difference in the level of symptoms between them and troops not deployed to the Gulf or Bosnia.
Media reports have also focused on the test firing of DU at UK ranges. Apart from a small amount of contained firing at Foulness and Aldermaston, this has been concentrated in the ranges at Kirkcudbright on the Solway Firth, and at Eskmeals in Cumbria. It is fired at Kirkudbright into the sea, and at Eskmeals until 1995 into armour plate targets. Safety at the ranges, and in their environs has been a paramount concern. The DU firing programme is subject to regulation under the Ionising Radiation regulations 2000. The Environment Agency and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency also have oversight of the firing programme. A detailed review of the environmental impact of firing DU at these ranges was undertaken by independent environmental consultants WS Atkins. The consultants concluded that the radiation doses to members of the public and the associated risks from DU released into the environment were extremely low.
I have spelt out the background to depleted uranium and ours and other's existing research on the issue. These issues are not new, and we must not unduly alarm service personnel or their families about the position.
That said, we do recognise that some of the recent coverage will have caused some concerns amongst our people, and we recognise a need to reassure them. We take very seriously our responsibility to the Service personnel and civilians given the demands which we make on them during operations.
Our response therefore will be to identify an additional appropriate voluntary screening programme for our service personnel and civilians who have served in the Balkans. We will do this on the basis of the best available science. We will consult appropriate national bodies such as the UK National Screening Committee of the UK Department of Health. Another important source of external scientific advice will be the report currently under preparation by the Royal Society which is taking an independent look at depleted uranium.
It also will be important to co-ordinate an approach with allies, many of whom are assessing the same reports as I make this statement. A crucial part of our approach will be to discuss with allies their data on risks to health in the Balkans, the health of peacekeepers in the Balkans, the responses which they plan, and to ensure that all data available across Nato is pooled as a basis for subsequent decisions. We are also conscious that the United Nations Environmental Programme have surveyed sites in Kosovo and we await the publication of their final report with interest. I should add that their interim statement refers to only slightly elevated levels of radiation at 8 of the sites they monitored. I am also announcing that the UK will enhance its existing environmental surveillance programme in the Balkans to ensure that no health threats to our forces, and indeed to the local civilian population, are overlooked.
In the meantime, any individual who believes that their health may have been damaged by service in the Balkans should seek medical advice. If their doctor considers that there is evidence that depleted uranium might have contributed to ill health then tests for uranium levels will be carried out.
I hope this statement puts the current debate in context and provides necessary reassurance to the House as well as our forces and their families and indicates the way ahead. We are providing battle winning equipment for our forces and also taking seriously our responsibility for their welfare. I am sure the House would agree they deserve no less.
---
Aftershocks from anti-tank shells
EU and NATO officials meet Tuesday, as concern mounts over use of DU bullets.
Christian Science Monitor
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2001
By Scott Peterson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/01/09/fp1s1-csm.shtml
MOSCOW
All military commanders know "collateral damage" to unintended targets, like civilians, is an unavoidable part of modern warfare.
But now the Pentagon's most potent armor-piercing weapon is itself taking a major hit. It's being accused of contributing to deaths of allied troops deployed in the Balkans, causing a major upheaval within the NATO alliance, and raising questions anew about whether it should be banned outright.
A string of suspicious deaths and illnesses among European troops that served in Bosnia and Kosovo has been attributed by some to the US use of radioactive "depleted uranium" bullets, or DU.
For years, US and allied officials denied that DU battlefield exposures could result in severe health problems. But across most of Europe in recent weeks, reported cases of cancer have emerged, causing the number of official inquiries to spiral. On Saturday, an Italian military watchdog group - set up to monitor health and safety in the armed forces - drew a link between the deaths from cancer of six peacekeepers who served in the Balkans, to DU.
In one instance shortly after the conflict in the town of Djakovica, the Monitor observed Italian troops manning a checkpoint set 100 yards downwind of a bombed Serbian position that was contaminated by radioactive DU dust. Despite strict military rules in the West regarding the handling of DU - which normally require US forces to use respirators, protective suits, and have 14 licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Kosovo residents have never been warned by NATO of any DU danger.
A toxic heavy metal, DU doesn't disappear: It loses half its radioactivity every 4.5 billion years.
"The question is: Now that the genie is out of the bottle, how do you get it back in? The answer is: you can't," says Malcolm Hooper, a medicinal chemist at the University of Sunderland in northeast England and a member of the British Legion's Gulf War Illnesses Inter-Parliamentary group.
"It will intensify the call for a ban, because these are indiscriminate weapons," he adds. "Of course, the consequence is that the military will lose a very powerful weapon."
The Pentagon and Britain's defense ministry - which both rely on DU as the most effective armor-piercing bullet in their arsenals - rule out a link between DU and any health problems, and say they see no evidence of what's been labeled "Balkan Syndrome."
When the issue is taken up Tuesday in separate meetings of the European Union and NATO security committees, European officials may call for further investigations into DU health effects - and whether it should be banned. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson will afterward visit Sweden, which presently holds the rotating EU presidency.
"It is clear that if there is even a minimal risk, these arms must be abolished," European Commission President Romano Prodi said last week. "It is important that we act," added Swedish Defense Minister Bjorn von Sydow, echoing a growing body of opinion in Europe.
The concern sweeping the continent was sparked in December, when Italy announced that 30 of its Balkans veterans had been diagnosed with serious illnesses. It has been further fanned by preliminary findings of a UN investigation, released Friday, showing that eight of 11 inspected DU impact sites in Kosovo - out of 112 identified by NATO - showed traces of radiation. DU bullet fragments were found lying exposed on the ground. Full study results are due in early March.
A host of NATO and EU members are rushing to test deployed troops and Balkan veterans. Britain and Germany have so far refused, stating that they see no need. Besides Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal in the past week have reported similar illnesses or deaths.
US forces have experienced no Balkans-related cases or health-problem patterns, officials say.
The debate over DU and its adverse effects stretches back to the 1991 Gulf War, when American forces used it in combat for the first time. One in 7 American Gulf War veterans claim a variety of ailments known as "Gulf War Syndrome," many of which are similar to recently reported European health problems.
The Pentagon says it will cooperate fully with all requests for DU data, though UN and NATO investigators in the past said they came up against a "brick wall" from Washington on the issue.
"We have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to DU," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said last week, adding that it's "premature" to link DU and leukemia.
Despite alarmist headlines in the Balkans - "NATO was worse than Chernobyl," read Serbia's popular Vecernje Novosti newspaper - Kosovo's ethnic Albanians point to another concern. Moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova has warned that the bigger risk might be an exodus of NATO peacekeepers who police Kosovo.
Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's chief UN administrator, has asked the World Health Organization to help assess DU risks in the province. The view among civilians is a "mixture of wishful thinking" that DU is not a threat, and a "feeling of being helpless to change anything, even if it is true," says Ardian Arifaj, news editor of the largest Kosovo daily newspaper, Koha Ditore, in the provincial capital Pristina.
Though there is little systematic data, "no pattern" of health problems has emerged, and so far there is "no panic," he says. "We will have to stay and face any consequences. But on the other hand, no one is ready to blame NATO for hitting the Serbs."
DU is a by-product of the nuclear industry that is an effective bullet because of its high-density, not its low-level radioactivity. A DU bullet bores through armor, burning at such intensity that gas fumes and ammunition in the targeted tank ignite. As the bullet burns, it releases clouds of tiny radioactive particles that can be eaten, inhaled, or carried long distances by the wind. Such dust emits alpha radiation 20 times more powerful than other forms of radiation and especially damaging to body tissue. "It's not rocket science," says Professor Hooper. "It's a question of internal radiation, and when alpha particles are internalized, you have a big problem."
"It was extremely irresponsible not to issue some type of warning, if [the Pentagon] knew where they shot the DU 1-1/2 years ago," says Dan Fahey, a DU expert and US veteran activist. "Hopefully they will learn a lesson from this, that if you're going to use DU in combat, you have to take basic safety measures. You have to keep people away from these areas, and mark them."
He points to a 1990 US military report that predicted public awareness of any DU use would make the weapon "politically unacceptable" and result in pressure to ban it.
"We've put a lot of evidence to [authorities] in the past, and now people are beginning to ... listen," says Terry Gooding, with the UK Gulf Veterans Association. "They say it's not a problem," he adds. "But how many people have to die before they put their hands up and say: 'We made a boo-boo?'"
---
EU and NATO to discuss depleted uranium
Irish Times
Tuesday, January 9, 2001
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0109/wor16.htm
KOSOVO: NATO and the European Union will hold separate meetings this week amid growing concern that anti-tank shells tipped with depleted uranium used in the Balkans may have caused dozens of cases of leukaemia among soldiers.
It also emerged that NATO warned its member states 18 months ago of a "possible toxic threat" from radioactive weaponry, widely blamed for the "Balkans Syndrome" that has allegedly caused deaths and cancers among peacekeepers.
The German defence ministry confirmed reports that NATO issued warnings in July 1999 recommending that countries take their own "preventative measures".
Meanwhile Friends of the Earth and a Scottish parliamentarian demanded the clean-up of waters around Scotland where shells were test fired for 10 years.
The demand came after Britain's defence ministry said it had fired more than 6,000 shells with depleted uranium into the Solway Firth over the past decade and left them on the seabed.
Mr Richard Dixon, spokesman for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "We are calling on the defence ministry to bring in their detection equipment and remove these shells." A Scottish Nationalist MP, Mr Aladair Morgan, joined in the demand. A ministry spokeswoman said retrieval would be "almost impossible".
Depleted uranium (DU) is used in missiles, shells and bullets to increase armour penetration. Defence experts say it can be pulverised on impact into a toxic radioactive dust.
Amid a clamour for clarification of where, when and how much DU ammunition was used in the Balkans, NATO insists there is no known risk of contamination.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, joined a chorus of support yesterday for an Italian demand for NATO to investigate claims that Western troops in the Balkans fell ill through exposure to the depleted uranium. oder told reporters in Hanover. "Of course we also want to know if there are connections between cases of illness and the use of these weapons." Six Italian soldiers died of leukaemia after serving in the Balkans, provoking demands from Rome last week that NATO look into the risks the troops had been exposed to.
NATO political advisers will discuss the DU row today ahead of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council - the alliance's permanent ambassadors - in Brussels tomorrow. The alliance's medical chiefs will also discuss the depleted uranium issue at talks next week.
EU foreign ministers are also expected to add the issue to the agenda for their monthly meeting in Brussels on January 22nd.
Yesterday's Die Welt newspaper in Germany reported that NATO would have put together by today a detailed overview of all flight operations over Bosnia in 1994/5 which had involved depleted uranium munitions. Such a map already exists for Kosovo, the newspaper said.
Mr Schröder said the Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, who has come under opposition attack for refusing to test all Germany's 60,000 Balkans peacekeepers, had already acted last year to examine soldiers serving in risky areas.
Up until now those tests had shown no connection between time in the Balkans and leukaemia, the chancellor said.
Portugal is to send ministers to Kosovo, a government statement said yesterday. The Defence and Interior Ministers, Mr Julio Castro Caldas and Mr Severiano Teixeira, are to meet Portuguese members of the NATO-led Kfor force, while the Science and Technology Minister, Mr Mariano Gago, will meet representatives of the Portuguese Institute for Technology and Nuclear Power, who are already in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, Greece said it was stepping up health checks and radiation controls for its 1,400 troops in Kosovo, while Norway offered health checks to all staff who served on foreign missions in the last 10 years.
Croatia said it would press NATO to clarify whether alliance aircraft had dumped depleted uranium bombs in the Adriatic Sea as they returned from Kosovo to bases in Italy.
----
Uranium use in Kosovo war suspected
Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 09/01/2001
By Burt Herman in Berlin
Associated Press, The Guardian
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0101/09/text/world5.html
NATO warned countries with armies and aid workers in the Balkans as early as July 1999 about the possible dangers of depleted uranium ammunition, it emerged yesterday.
The German Defence Ministry has confirmed it received a warning on July 16, 1999, of the risks from the ordnance, used by the United States during air campaigns across Yugoslavia for its armour-piercing qualities.
Concern is mounting that the depleted uranium (DU) may be the cause of serious illnesses in soldiers who served in Kosovo following NATO's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999.
Senior officials will meet in NATO headquarters in Brussels today to consider how to respond to pressure on governments faced with evidence linking DU shells with cancer. The European Union has announced an inquiry into the health risks of the shells.
Across Europe, calls continued at the weekend for a more thorough look into the possible effects. Switzerland on Sunday joined France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Finland in setting up screening programs for soldiers who served in the Balkans - leaving Britain and the US increasingly under pressure in their defence.
American A10 aircraft fired more than 30,000 rounds of DU shells in Kosovo and more than 10,000 in Bosnia, mainly around Sarajevo.
According to an internal Defence Ministry document obtained by the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper, NATO warned soldiers and aid workers in a letter of a "possible toxic threat" and advised them to take "preventative measures". The document said NATO planned no further steps, according to the newspaper.
The ministry said it immediately responded with orders for soldiers on how to behave in areas targeted with DU, although it previously said it began health checks on soldiers who had come into possible contact with it that same month - as UN peacekeeping forces were still entering Yugoslavia's Kosovo province after the bombing.
Concern over DU arose in December after Italy announced an investigation into 30 sick soldiers who served in the region. Twelve have cancer and five have died of leukaemia.
The US has denied the ammunition poses any health risks.
In Britain, the Ministry of Defence has asked for an independent study but has no plans to screen veterans, a spokesman said. The ministry has admitted depleted uranium was used at two firing ranges within the country for more than 10 years.
The House of Commons defence committee is to meet tomorrow to decide whether to summon ministers to explain the Government's policy.
DU, which increases penetration of ammunition, carries two threats - radiation and chemical poisoning. There is no conclusive link between the uranium and sick soldiers.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which opposed the NATO bombing, said investigations would have to determine "why such weapons were used and with what results".
The head of the UN Environment Program criticised NATO for not being more forthcoming about where it used the ammunition.
---
EUROPEANS FEAR BALKANS AMMO STILL LETHAL
DANGER FROM DEPLETED URANIUM SHELLS DEBATED
Chicago Tribune
January 9, 2001
By Ray Moseley Tribune Foreign Correspondent
http://chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-0101090236,FF.html
LONDON -- Despite denials by the Pentagon and NATO, nations across Europe are increasingly concerned that deaths and serious injuries among soldiers who served in the Balkans may have been caused by depleted-uranium shells fired by U.S. forces during the conflicts there.
Eleven nations have ordered health checks on their troops following reports that 16 soldiers have died of leukemia and scores more became ill after serving in the Balkans.
The U.S. Defense Department has repeatedly denied that depleted uranium poses a health risk, and NATO says it represents a "negligible hazard."
The World Health Organization in Geneva said Monday that it doubted Balkan peacekeepers ran a "high risk" of contracting leukemia as a result of depleted uranium. But it said children playing in former conflict areas could be at risk.
Depleted uranium, used to penetrate tank armor because of its hardness, has been a source of public concern since the Persian Gulf war against Iraq in 1991. Some American and European veterans who suffered unexplained illnesses after that war suspect depleted uranium was the cause of what has become known as Gulf War Syndrome.
About 300,000 rounds of depleted-uranium shells were fired by U.S. forces near the Iraqi-Kuwait border in the war, and Iraqi authorities have long claimed that childhood leukemia and birth defects have risen sharply in that area.
Dr. Chris Busby, a British specialist on low-level radiation, recently studied soil and air samples in the area for Arab Television. Soil samples showed lower levels of contamination than expected, he said, but air samples revealed levels of ionizing radiation 10 times higher than in the nearby city of Basra and 20 times higher than in distant Baghdad.
His findings thus challenge U.S. claims that microscopic breathable particles of depleted uranium quickly disperse and become harmless after shells are fired.
Busby reported his findings to the Royal Society, Britain's national science academy, and said he believed U.S. claims about the health impact of depleted uranium have been underestimated by as much as 1,000-fold.
The Royal Society said Monday that it would not release his findings until its Depleted Uranium Working Group makes a full report this summer.
Busby works with Britain's Low Level Radiation Campaign, an independent pressure group.
Richard Bramhall, a spokesman for the group, said that when a depleted-uranium shell is detonated, the uranium is converted at high temperature into ceramic particles of dust that have been found at "huge distances" from the battlefield.
He said experimental work on animals has shown that if this dust is ingested or inhaled it will concentrate in the lymph nodes. "So it's no surprise that you get leukemia and similar illnesses in people exposed to it," he said.
Bramhall said scientific studies of radiation effects previously have concentrated on external rather than internal effects and therefore are "a massive source of error." He said there was an immediate increase in childhood leukemia cases in various parts of the world after the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in Ukraine in the 1980s carried radioactive dust around the world.
But in Geneva, Dr. Michael Repacholi of the World Health Organization said no increase in leukemia had been detected as a result of uranium dust from Chernobyl.
He also said a study carried out over the last year showed that in a worst-case scenario exposure of troops in the Balkans was only half that in the uranium industry.
He also said leukemia would not normally show up for several years in people exposed to ionizing radiation.
But a preliminary report by the WHO said not enough information was yet available on the exposure of NATO personnel in Kosovo to make definitive conclusions on the cancer risks they ran. "Breathing ultra-fine particles could lead to a theoretical risk of cancer," it said.
The WHO said Saturday that it had found no evidence of an increase in leukemia cases among civilians in Kosovo since the 1999 war. On the contrary, it said there were slightly fewer cases in 2000 than in 1997 and 1998.
U.S. A-10 aircraft fired 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium shells in the Kosovo campaign and 10,000 rounds in Bosnia in 1994-95.
Six Italian soldiers who served in Kosovo have died of leukemia and 30 are ill. Belgium has had five deaths, Portugal and Spain two each and Switzerland one. Four soldiers in France, eight in Spain and several in the Netherlands are seriously ill.
NATO political advisers will discuss the issue in Brussels on Tuesday ahead of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council on Wednesday. European Union foreign ministers also are expected to raise the topic at their meeting in Brussels on Jan. 22.
Health checks on soldiers have been ordered in Belgium, Italy, France, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Greece and Norway. Portugal sent a scientific team to Kosovo on Saturday to examine depleted uranium sites.
The British Defense Ministry has supported the U.S. and NATO claims that depleted uranium poses little health risk and has declined to order examinations of soldiers despite protests from several politicians.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged NATO on Monday to investigate whether depleted uranium has caused illnesses. He also said he did not believe it was right for the U.S. to continue to use such munitions.
Schroeder spoke after German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said he saw no reason for health tests on all 60,000 German soldiers and civilian personnel who have served in the Balkans.
The German armed forces said last week they had found no evidence that soldiers serving in Kosovo had fallen ill because of depleted uranium.
But the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper reported Monday that NATO warned last year of a "possible toxic threat" from depleted-uranium munitions and recommended that countries with troops in Kosovo take their own "preventive measures" because NATO had no decontamination program.
The newspaper quoted an internal German Defense Ministry document dated July 16, 1999, which referred to the NATO warning. The ministry confirmed the report.
The UN Environment Program announced Friday that it had found evidence of radioactivity at 8 of 11 sites tested in Kosovo. Germany's TAZ daily said the test found the sites were in part "considerably contaminated."
But Pekka Haavisto of Finland, the chairman of the UN's depleted-uranium assessment team, said the team found only a "slightly higher" than normal level of beta radiation. He indicated that was based largely on soil, water and vegetation samples, not on air samples.
---
Depleted uranium is chemically poisonous: British scientist
Yahoo News
Tuesday, January 9 4:57 AM SGT
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010109/world/afp/Depleted_uranium_is_chemically_poisonous__British_scientist.html
LONDON, Jan 8 (AFP) - An eminent British scientist said depleted uranium was chemically poisonous on Monday and warned the government to take seriously the dangers linked to Washington's use of the material in Bosnia and Kosovo.
"We do have to be careful because depleted uranium is mildly radioactive, it's chemically poisonous and there is also a possibility that it behaves likes metals - like nickel - which aren't radioactive but can at sufficient doses promote an increased risk of cancer," Brian Spratt told Channel 4 News.
"So there are reasons to take this seriously and to investigate," said the member of the Royal Society, Britain's highest scientific authority.
"It's not that easy to test for depleted uranium, you can test for uranium but to test for depleted you need quite sophisticated technology," Spratt said.
NATO is to meet on Tuesday in Brussels at the request of Italy, a member which has 18 suspected cases of "Balkans Syndrome" cancers, eight of whom have already died, according to a defense ministry medical commission.
The European Union will also hold high-level talks on the issue the same day.
On a visit to Burkina Faso late on Monday, the president of the European parliament, Nicole Fontaine, said she was preoccupied by reports that depleted uranium could have terrible effects on human health.
The United States has admitted firing at least 31,000 depleted uranium projectiles in Bosnia and Kosovo since 1994.
Several NATO and EU member states have begun testing their military personnel who served in the Balkans conflicts for contamination.
Britain has rejected calls to conduct health tests, but the Royal Society has launched an independent inquiry.
"I think that as long as they're done properly (the tests) and we can get some measures that are reliable then I'd be happy with that," Spratt said.
"Of course if the answer is that there are significant levels of depleted uranium in urine then I think the MoD (British defence ministry) would have to start thinking very carefully about testing British veterans."
Five Belgians, two Dutch nationals, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech have died after tours in the Balkans. Four French soldiers and four Belgians have also contracted leukemia.
While depleted uranium emits low levels of radiation it is thought to be dangerous if inhaled or ingested in the form of dust or powder.
---
1999 U.S. Document Warned of Depleted Uranium in Kosovo
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By MARLISE SIMONS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09NATO.html
PARIS, - After the NATO bombing campaign of 1999, the United States urged allied armies to take special precautions on entering Kosovo because American ammunition littering the landscape contained depleted uranium that posed possible health risks.
A document called "hazard awareness" issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned soldiers and civilians against touching spent ammunition or other contaminated materials. It said personnel handling the heads of anti-tank shells or entering wrecked vehicles should wear protective masks and cover exposed skin, and people involved in the more hazardous clearing tasks should undergo health assessments afterward.
The document, dated July 1, 1999, was circulated among the militaries of the countries involved in the Kosovo campaign, and Germany, France and other countries passed along the warnings to their soldiers.
The Dutch defense ministry said it gave specific instructions about how troops were to confront the uranium problem before they went to Kosovo. "Our troops were told to mark or cordon off contaminated areas, avoid any contact and call in special demolition units," a spokesman at the foreign ministry said.
A growing number of former peacekeepers from Europe and Canada have contracted cancer or cancerlike diseases. At least 15 have died of leukemia - 6 in Italy, 5 in Belgium, 2 in the Netherlands and 1 each in Portugal and Spain.
While acknowledging the hazards, both the Pentagon and NATO, pointing to medical experts, have denied that any links could exist between exposure to depleted uranium and the illness and deaths of veterans.
Defense ministries in several countries have acknowledged receiving the American document, which has not been released. It was made available to The New York Times in Europe today by a military official from a NATO country.
While NATO officials said it was normal practice to inform troops about hazardous materials, the warnings about depleted uranium are likely to deepen concern in Europe. Ten countries have ordered investigations into possible links between the illness of soldiers and their exposure to depleted uranium.
Only American planes fired such uranium-tipped weapons during the 11-week Kosovo air campaign, using some 30,000.
Uranium is one of the heaviest metals, which makes it effective in piercing targets like tanks or concrete. A byproduct of enriched uranium, the depleted form is only mildly radioactive, but when it pulverizes in an explosion or fire, its dust is considered potentially hazardous if ingested or inhaled.
The German government said today that while it would not order mandatory screening of those who served in the Balkans, all 50,000 of them could ask for a free checkup at a military hospital.
Portugal dispatched three cabinet ministers to Kosovo today and also sent a team of military inspectors after the recent death of a soldier from leukemia. The Dutch ministry of Defense said it was reopening the investigation into the recent deaths of all soldiers, although only two died of leukemia.
Several governments said they were still poring over health records to establish whether cancer rates among peacekeepers were different from those of the same age group of the population.
The American document said that D.U., as depleted uranium weapons are known, "is a safe and effective munition." But "residual heavy metal toxicity in armored vehicles struck by D.U. perpetrators could pose possible health risks for those that access those vehicles," it said.
The document says soldiers entering armored vehicles hit by depleted uranium weapons should wear masks and cover exposed skin, and should be examined and their potential exposure recorded. The document does not mention radiation, which is said to be weak in the employed form of depleted uranium. It recommended that suspicious debris be reported for clearance. It also said potential risks should "be passed on to both nongovernmental organizations and returning refugees."
Despite such warnings, 14 scientists from the United Nations Environment Program said they found remnants of uranium-tipped ammunition still lying around. The team, recently returned from a two-week mission in Kosovo, said it found remnants of depleted uranium ammunition accessible to playing children and animals. The team has urged that contaminated sites be restricted and cleaned as soon as possible.
---
NATO Ducks Uranium Ban Amid Clamor for Research
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-health-.html?pagewanted=all
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the United States on Tuesday opposed a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons, heightening political tensions within the 19-member NATO military alliance.
The two NATO allies shot down a request from Italy during a meeting of alliance officials in Brussels for a halt on DU arms until they had been deemed safe.
Controversy over the alliance's use of tank-busting shells coated with depleted uranium has erupted after at least seven Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans died of leukemia.
Many other Balkan veterans have fallen ill, with a range of symptoms from cancer to fatigue and hair loss, prompting calls for increased medical screening and alliance-wide research.
NATO officials maintained there was no proven link between the DU munitions used in the Balkans and cancer among Western peacekeepers, but agreed further studies should be carried out.
NATO ambassadors were due to meet formally Wednesday and would issue a statement, alliance diplomats said.
Belgian defense ministry spokesman Gerard Harveng told Reuters that 1,600 out of 12,000 troops who served in Balkan peacekeeping missions before the Kosovo crisis had complained of a lack of concentration, sleeping problems and headaches.
He said there had been nine cases of lung, skin, blood or brain cancer, five of whom had died.
He said it was not yet possible to determine any link between soldiers' illnesses and weapons used in the Balkans.
``That's why Belgium wants it on the NATO and EU table. (Our) minister wants to have a very big discussion, trying to find an answer and to determine if there is a danger or not,'' he said.
NATO MEMBERS STEP UP SCREENING
Several other European states stepped up health checks on veterans and set up national inquiries into the potential risks of exposure to radioactive dust from DU missile explosions.
Bowing to overwhelming pressure, Britain announced it would test soldiers for possible health problems caused by DU arms, but insisted there was no evidence of a link.
``Some of the recent coverage will have caused some concerns among our people and we do recognize a need to reassure them,'' Defense Minister John Spellar told parliament.
He said studies of veterans from the Gulf War, 10 years ago, where similar DU ammunition was used, had thrown up no evidence of abnormally high cancer rates.
``DU will remain part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future,'' he said.
The French National Assembly defense committee announced it was widening a parliamentary probe into ``Gulf War syndrome'' to include the Balkans, coinciding with the discovery of a fifth case of leukemia in a Balkans veteran.
``It is not possible to ignore the emotion and concern about the health of our soldiers,'' said committee head Paul Quiles, calling on the United States to open its files on DU weapons.
A French journalist who covered the Gulf War and Bosnian conflict said she suspected DU-tipped arms caused intestinal, neurological and muscular problems she was suffering.
U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition during NATO's 1999 campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. About 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95.
CALLS FOR RESEARCH
The European Commission said it was setting up a working group of member state medical and scientific experts to report next month on the possible health risks from DU bombs.
``Ten years of conflict in the Balkans have created horrible environmental problems. We have to take care of our staff working there and also of (local) people,'' Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters during a trip to Sweden.
The World Health Organization has backed NATO's line that there is no proof linking DU weapons to leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer.
Experts from the Geneva-based WHO said studies in Kosovo hospitals had shown no rise in average levels of leukemia among the Serb province's largely Albanian civilian population.
Other scientists said it was unlikely that DU exposure caused poor health and leukemia among Balkan peacekeepers, but backed calls for more research into the possible health risks.
``The diagnosis of leukemia in many of these people is very soon after the alleged exposure. Whilst you can never say never in science, this does seems extraordinarily unlikely to be causal,'' Professor Eric Wright, an expert on radiation-induced leukemia at Britain's University of Dundee, told Reuters.
Defense experts urged NATO to agree alliance-wide research.
``There is no doubt in my mind -- there has to be an alliance-wide epidemiological survey,'' British military analyst Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Weekly, told Reuters.
Russia, which has so far found no evidence of leukemia among its Balkan veterans, insisted an international inquiry was the only way to check claims of so-called ``Balkans Syndrome.''
---
Scientists Doubt Uranium Weapons Cancer Link
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-balkans-scien.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists backed calls for more research into the health effects of uranium-tipped weapons on Tuesday but said it is unlikely they are the cause of poor health and leukemia among Balkan peacekeepers.
European members of NATO are demanding an investigation into depleted uranium (DU) ammunition and a possible link to so-called ``Balkan Syndrome'' after six Italian soldiers died of leukemia following exposure to the spent weapons while serving in the former Yugoslavia.
Cases of cancer have also been reported among soldiers from France, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium.
``The diagnosis of leukemia in many of these people is very soon after the alleged exposure. Whilst you can never say never in science this does seems extraordinarily unlikely to be causal,'' Professor Eric Wright, an expert on radiation-induced leukemia at the University of Dundee, told Reuters.
SYMPTOMS CAN TAKE 10 YEARS TO SHOW UP
Leukemia is a relatively rare cancer of the white blood cells. Like most cancers, scientists suspect people may have a genetic predisposition to the disease that makes them vulnerable to exposure to cancer-causing agents.
The period between exposure to the development of symptoms is two to 10 years. According to Wright, all the scientific evidence for leukemia that has definitely been caused by radiation shows it needs a similar period of time to develop.
``My initial reaction is driven by biology. It is unlikely that one would see high numbers of leukemia one to two years after exposure to radiation.''
Wright also said the Italian cluster of leukemia cases could be a statistical fluke that may not be due to any particular cause.
NATO and the World Health Organization insist there is no scientific evidence to link the illnesses to the controversial weapons, but Wright said there have not been many studies.
``I am not aware of any real radiobiological research in depleted uranium,'' he added.
INFORMATION NEEDED ON EXPOSURE AND RISKS
Depleted uranium is a dense waste product of the natural uranium enrichment process. It is used to enhance the ability of the weapons to pierce armored vehicles.
When a uranium-tipped weapon hits an object it produces a vapor that is weakly radioactive but can be dangerous depending on the amount of exposure.
The United Nations says it has found evidence of radioactivity at eight of 11 sights tested in Kosovo after they were struck by NATO ammunitions with depleted uranium.
According to a preliminary assessment by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) of the potential dangers of depleted uranium during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, kidney dysfunction is the main chemically induced effect of oral exposure to uranium in humans.
But the report added that soluble uranium could have contaminated the soil or migrated to the surface of ground water which could lead to human exposure.
``One of the problems is we don't know how high the exposures might be and whether the risks are incredibly small or just modest,'' said Professor Brian Spratt, chairman of the working group on depleted uranium of the Royal Society of British scientists.
``There is not a lot of evidence that these low levels of radiation that troops are likely to be exposed to cause leukemia,'' he added.
The academy of scientists announced plans Monday to conduct an independent study into the possible health effects of depleted uranium. It also supported calls for further research and testing soldiers who had served in the Balkan and Gulf Wars.
``It is not impossible that there is a cause and effect relationship,'' said Wright.
``But if there is, the potential mechanism that underlies that relationship is one that we are not yet familiar with or could extrapolate from any of our existing knowledge.''
---
NATO won't end use of uranium shells
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 10:34 PM ET
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue10.htm
BRUSSELS - Tanks and warplanes of the NATO alliance will remain armed with shells containing depleted-radiation uranium, despite Italy's plea Tuesday to ban them as too dangerous for those who handle them.
But at a meeting here today, top representatives from the 19 NATO nations are expected to back a plan to reassure the public that the health of troops will be carefully monitored and perhaps new scientific studies undertaken on the controversial weapons, officials said.
Depleted uranium was first used in the Persian Gulf War a decade ago because its extreme density allows it to penetrate enemy armor. Uranium is poisonous and should not be ingested.
However, despite numerous Pentagon studies prompted by Gulf War Syndrome, no link to illness has been proved.
Now, despite official doubt, military leaders are taking a fresh look because of a series of unexplained illnesses, including cancer, among allied troops serving in Kosovo. Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal are among the nations that say some of their peacekeepers who served in the Serbian province fell ill at a rate they considered suspicious. "NATO would not use weapons that would harm its own soldiers," NATO spokesman Mark Laity said.
About 31,000 depleted uranium rounds were fired by the U.S. Air Force's A-10 "Warthog" jets, which attacked Serbian army columns that had moved into the separatist province of Kosovo. Most of the spent shells are still on the ground.
A team from the World Health Organization that tested contaminated sites in Kosovo concluded Monday that the radiation emitted by the shells was slight and a health risk unlikely. It also noted that no unusual health problems have emerged among people who live there. But the controversy has mushroomed as officials scramble to address the issue:
Portugal recently sent a team of experts to conduct an independent survey of the area where its troops serve.
Italy, which has recorded six cancer cases among its Kosovo veterans, asked for NATO to suspend all use of the weapons until it is proved they don't cause cancer or other illnesses.
Germany called for a thorough investigation and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder questioned the use of weapons with depleted uranium. The U.S. Army denied Tuesday a published report that it used depleted uranium in training exercises in Germany, although it stores the shells there.
Britain, while agreeing with the United States that there was no known risk, said it would begin a screening program for its veterans.
Russia, a non-NATO country that opposed the war but sent peacekeepers afterward, said it would step up monitoring of its troops. Russia said it had so far not recorded any unusual health problems.
A group of soldiers announced plans Tuesday to sue the Belgian government because of health problems allegedly caused by service in the Balkans.
About 400 Norwegian peacekeepers refused to sign contracts for service in Yugoslavia, demanding clarification of the risk from depleted uranium, the TV-2 network said. Romania said it would test almost 1,500 soldiers who served in the Balkans.
Privately, NATO officials complain that depleted uranium has become an issue because of propaganda from opponents of the Kosovo intervention, including Russia. False alarms were spread on the Internet and in the press, they say, casting doubt on scientific evidence that the weapons don't pose a hazard.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, an ardent supporter of the Kosovo intervention, said Tuesday that she hoped the issue would be handled calmly. "As far as I have been told there is no scientific evidence that would link" depleted uranium to the health problems, she said. "I think what is very important is for the facts to be made known, and not to have hysteria and emotion take over."
---
NATO, the Balkans and Radiation Dust
New York Times
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/opinion/L09NAT.html
To the Editor:
"Italy Asks NATO to Check Deaths Tied to Uranium" (news article, Jan. 4) reports that NATO deliberately used ammunition containing radioactive material in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
What is the purpose of using weapons with depleted uranium? Was Yugoslavia's general population contaminated, too? Why was this practice denied by NATO officials during the war, and who is the mastermind behind such a terrible practice? How can it be justified?
The attack on Yugoslavia has been portrayed as a humanitarian action - a classification that can no longer hold. There is no humanity in deliberately polluting one country with radioactive dust that may affect generations to come. It is infuriating that no question was raised about the possible contamination of Yugoslavia's general population. Are a few unfortunate NATO soldiers more important than thousands of innocent people?
PAULO MIRANDA Santa Barbara, Calif., Jan. 4, 2001
The writer is a research associate at the Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids, University of California at Santa Barbara.
---
NATO, EU to examine uranium ammo effect
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-20011921201.htm
BRUSSELS - NATO and the European Union will examine the possible health risks of depleted uranium ammunition used in the Balkans, and the U.N. administrator in Kosovo made an "urgent appeal" yesterday for help from the World Health Organization.
NATO's political committee and the EU political and security committee scheduled talks for today. The use of depleted uranium has led to rising fears in Europe since Italy began investigating soldiers who have become ill after serving in the Balkans. Twelve have cancer and five have died of leukemia.
-------
UK Offers Soldiers Uranium Screening
Yahoo News World News
Tuesday January 9 4:35 PM ET
By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010109/wl/depleted_uranium_9.html
LONDON (AP) - Britain will offer screening to veterans of the Kosovo and Bosnian wars for signs of illness, the government said Tuesday, joining its European allies in a scramble to allay concerns about depleted uranium in tank-busting weapons.
However, Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said there was no medical evidence of a risk from depleted uranium ammunition, which he said would remain part of Britain's arsenal.
Screening will not begin until experts have identified what they should be looking for and how, and the tests will be voluntary, Spellar said.
``It will also be important to coordinate an approach with allies ... and to ensure that all data available across NATO (news - web sites) is pooled as a basis for subsequent decisions,'' he said.
The potential health hazards come from inhaling or swallowing the dust created when the ammunition hits its target, and could lead to cancer from radiation decades after exposure, or kidney damage from metal poisoning.
Experts say it is unlikely that any cancer currently detected in Balkan veterans would be connected to depleted uranium because the disease would not have emerged so soon. Kidney damage would be expected earlier.
Depleted uranium has not been widely studied and experts say they don't know exactly how much must be consumed to be harmful. The few studies that have been conducted, on veterans of the Gulf War - where depleted uranium ammunition was used in much higher amounts - have found no evidence of a connection to cancer or any other illness reported by troops.
``These issues are not new and we must not unduly alarm service personnel and their families about the position,'' Spellar said. ``That said, we do recognize that there are some concerns among our people and we recognize a need to reassure them.''
He dismissed calls for a ban on the weapons.
``This ammunition provides a battle-winning military capability. Alternative materials are not as effective,'' Spellar told the House of Commons. Depleted uranium ``will remain part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future.''
The announcement followed a wave of concern across Europe, sparked by Italy's decision last month to investigate illnesses among 30 of its soldiers who had served in the Balkans, including five who have died of leukemia.
Since then, investigations or screening programs have been announced in a number of other European countries, with many civilian aid agencies also checking workers. Ireland and Denmark also announced screening plans on Tuesday.
Retired U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, who led the 1999 NATO campaign in Yugoslavia, told Greece's Mega Channel Files program Tuesday he was not convinced there is a link.
``It's very important that when soldiers are taken ill, that all of the possible causes were examined, and those causes range from everything, from allergic reactions to particular dusts or soil contamination in the area, through food that people have eaten, into the cigarettes they're smoking,'' he said.
``It could be a number of factors, and so I don't quite understand what's caused this public linkage with depleted uranium,'' Clark said.
Some 300 tons or depleted uranium was fired by NATO forces in the Gulf War, compared to nine tons in Kosovo and three tons in Bosnia, Spellar said.
NATO, meeting in Brussels, Belgium, took up the issue of depleted uranium Tuesday for the first time since the issue flared in recent weeks, but the allies quickly shot down an Italian plea for a moratorium on the weapons.
While the alliance is not a scientific organization, one suggestion at the Political Committee meeting was that NATO could act as a clearinghouse for information on depleted uranium. Those studies, however, are the domain of member nations or outside organizations, officials said.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, visiting his country's peacekeepers in Kosovo, called Tuesday for a ban on depleted uranium weapons.
Meanwhile, Norwegian peacekeepers refused to sign contracts for service in Yugoslavia, demanding information on the risk from depleted uranium, Norway's TV-2 network reported.
A group of Belgian soldiers announced plans to sue their government because of health problems allegedly caused by service in the Balkans.
In Stockholm, Sweden's military said soldiers who served in the Balkans will be informed about possible health risks from depleted uranium and will be invited to fill out a questionnaire about their health.
--------
NATO Under Fire Over Use of Depleted Uranium
Yahoo News
World News
Tuesday January 9 6:39 AM ET
By Ian Geoghegan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010109/wl/health_balkans_dc_9.html
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) came under pressure on Tuesday to set aside political differences and face up to growing European concerns of a possible link between uranium tipped bombs and cases of cancer among Western peacekeepers.
Controversy has erupted over the alliance's use in the Balkans of armor-piercing shells tipped with depleted uranium although health experts have cast doubt on links to blood cancer among soldiers.
Depleted uranium (DU) is used in missiles, shells and bullets to increase heavy armor penetration. Defense experts say it can be pulverized on impact into a radioactive dust.
Political advisers at both NATO and the European Union (news - web sites) met separately to discuss the issue.
NATO appears split between those, like Britain and the United States, who argue there is no health risk from DU weaponry and others -- including Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium -- who want a full NATO inquiry.
U.S. attack jets fired 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition against Serb targets during NATO's 1999 campaign to drive the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. Some 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95.
The controversy echoes the long-running row which followed the West's use of DU munitions in the Gulf War that resulted in thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the birth of deformed babies and claims of ``Gulf War Syndrome (news - web sites)'' among soldiers.
Growing List Of Veteran Casualties
Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands have reported deaths from cancer among soldiers who served in the Balkans. Many others have fallen ill, prompting widespread calls for increased medical screening and alliance-wide research.
But NATO has insisted there is no known link between the depleted uranium arms and illness among troops.
``There's absolutely no proof that there's a connection,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (news - web sites) said Monday.
World Health Organization (news - web sites) experts in Geneva doubted that DU weapons had caused leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer, among troops sent to the Balkans.
WHO experts said studies in Kosovo hospitals had so far shown no rise in average levels of leukemia among the largely Albanian civilian population of the Serbian province.
But they warned that children playing in former conflict areas where the weapons had exploded could be at risk and recommended that soldiers who had taken home depleted uranium shell parts as souvenirs should dispose of them.
The Royal Society of leading British scientists has said it plans to study the safety and health effects of depleted uranium in weapons used by NATO in the Balkans.
No Russian Cases, But Screening Stepped Up
Russian defense officials were quoted Tuesday as saying Moscow had so far found no peacekeepers ill with leukemia due to DU from NATO weapons used in Kosovo. Russia has around 4,000 troops in Kosovo and Bosnia.
But Moscow insisted an international inquiry was the only way to check claims of so-called ``Balkans Syndrome.''
The RIA news agency quoted Lieutenant-General Nikolai Staskov, first deputy head of Russia's paratroop forces, as saying some 10,000 servicemen who had served in the former Yugoslavia would be examined in Russia.
In London, a Defense Ministry spokesman denied media reports that Britain planned to screen war veterans. An official said later that the government would make a statement on depleted uranium at 1530 GMT.
Defense experts said it was time to clear the air and urged NATO to agree on research into any possible health risks.
``I think NATO should lead from the front,'' said British military analyst Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Weekly.
``There is no doubt in my mind -- there has to be an alliance-wide epidemiological survey,'' he told Reuters. ``This is not just military and medical, this is political.
Bruce George, chairman of the British parliament's influential defense select committee, told BBC Radio: ``It is vitally important that all the major countries who are going to examine their forces do so with a common methodology.
``It would be ludicrous if one group of people -- the Portuguese -- embarked on one approach and the Americans and British had different approaches.''
Former army engineer Kevin Rudland, the first British ex-serviceman to say contact with DU dust in the Balkans had caused him to suffer a related illness, said it was scandalous that the authorities were dragging their feet.
``There are so many people in the same boat as me. I think they should sort this out once and for all,'' he said.
--------
Pressure on NATO Over Depleted Uranium Bombs
Yahoo News
World News
Tuesday January 9 8:34 AM ET
By Ian Geoghegan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010109/wl/health_balkans_dc_10.html
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Pressure grew on NATO (news - web sites) Tuesday to unite and face up to European concerns about a possible link between uranium-tipped weapons the alliance used in the Balkans and cases of cancer among Western peacekeepers.
Italy said it would ask its NATO partners to stop using the armor-piercing shells tipped with depleted uranium (DU) that have stirred controversy throughout the alliance, although health experts doubt any link to blood cancer among soldiers.
``We shall ask...the alliance to avoid using (depleted uranium ammunition) until we are certain it is not dangerous,'' Italian Defense Minister Sergio Mattarella told Italian television before a meeting of NATO officials in Brussels.
DU is used in missiles, shells and bullets to increase heavy armor penetration. Defense experts say it can be pulverized on impact into a radioactive dust.
The EU's executive Commission said it was setting up a working group of member state medical and scientific experts to report early next month on the possible health risks.
Spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said the Commission would use that report to determine what measures to take to protect the ''hundreds, if not thousands'' of EU staff and contractors who worked on ongoing Balkan reconstruction projects.
A French journalist who covered the Gulf War and Bosnian conflict said she suspected DU-tipped arms caused intestinal, neurological and muscular problems she was suffering.
``I'm not saying that uranium was certainly the cause, but I am ill and have the same symptoms as the veterans,'' Marie-Claude Dubin told the daily Le Parisien.
Diplomats said political directors from the International Contact Group on the Balkans would meet Thursday in Paris to discuss the health effects of DU weapons.
The meeting will assemble the senior officials, and possibly the foreign ministers, from the six Group countries -- the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, France and Italy.
Nato Rift
NATO appeared split between those, like Britain and the United States, who argue there is no health risk from DU weaponry and others -- including Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium -- who want a full NATO inquiry.
Alliance spokesman Mark Laity played down talk of a rift, saying NATO partners had a ``difference of emphasis'' over the issue which had increased public pressure in some countries.
He insisted NATO was cooperating with member states and maintained there was no link between DU radiation and cancer.
``NATO would not use weapons that would harm its own soldiers,'' Laity told Sky Television.
U.S. attack jets fired 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition against Serb targets during NATO's 1999 campaign to drive the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. Some 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95.
The controversy echoes the long-running row which followed the West's use of DU munitions in the Gulf War that resulted in thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the birth of deformed babies and claims of ``Gulf War Syndrome (news - web sites)'' among soldiers.
Growing List Of Veteran Casualties
Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands have reported related-illness deaths among Balkan veterans.
Others have fallen ill with a range of symptoms from cancer to fatigue and hair loss, prompting widespread calls for increased medical screening and alliance-wide research.
While the United States has maintained there is no known link between DU weaponry and illness among troops, Britain was expected to bow to pressure and announce some screening for war veterans. A statement was due at 1530 GMT, officials said.
``There's absolutely no proof that there's a connection,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (news - web sites) said Monday.
World Health Organization (news - web sites) experts in Geneva doubted that DU weapons had caused leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer, among troops sent to the Balkans.
WHO experts said studies in Kosovo hospitals had so far shown no rise in average levels of leukemia among the largely Albanian civilian population of the Serbian province.
No Russian Leukemia, But Moscow Wants Inquiry
In Moscow, Russian defense officials were quoted as saying they had so far found no cases of leukemia due to DU from NATO weapons used in Kosovo.
But Russia insisted an international inquiry was the only way to check claims of so-called ``Balkans Syndrome.''
Western defense experts said it was time to clear the air and urged NATO to agree on research into possible health risks.
``I think NATO should lead from the front,'' said British military analyst Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Weekly.
``There is no doubt in my mind -- there has to be an alliance-wide epidemiological survey,'' he told Reuters. ``This is not just military and medical, this is political.''
Former army engineer Kevin Rudland, the first British ex-serviceman to say contact with DU dust in the Balkans had caused him to suffer a related illness, said it was scandalous that the authorities were dragging their feet.
``There are so many people in the same boat as me. I think they should sort this out once and for all.''
--------
Ask Alex Kirby
BBC News
Tuesday, 9 January, 2001, 16:28 GMT
Alex Kirby answered your questions http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/forum/newsid_1106000/1106746.stm
There is growing concern across Europe at the possibility that depleted uranium (DU) munitions, used in Bosnia and Kosovo, could still be a threat years after the conflicts ended.
Transcript
Sanjay Sood, Bangalore, India: When one DU shell explodes, how much radioactive dust is generated? Is it possible to clean-up the radio-active traces left behind?
Alex Kirby: The amount of radioactive dust generated when a DU shell explodes varies according to circumstances but NATO, the Pentagon, and the UK Ministry of Defence argue that however much dust there is, it stays put very close to the site of the explosion.
What is worrying is the fact that the dust moves around: in one accident in the US, DU dust was found 42 kilometres from the place the accident happened. So it can be transported over long distances and it can also filter down into ground water. Cleaning up what you find on the surface is good so far as it goes, but doesn't go nearly far enough.
Trish Carter: Surely, apart from being possibly radioactive, uranium is a highly toxic heavy metal.
Alex Kirby: Yes it is a highly toxic heavy metal, and the risk of chemical poisoning caused by it is recognised. There is a risk to the kidneys of anyone who swallows or breathes in a particular of DU or who has a piece of shrapnel embedded in them. But we need to remember that DU appears to be a double risk, both chemically and radioactively poisonous.
Shqipe Pantina, Pristina, Kosovo: I live in Kosovo where a lot of noise is made here concerning Uranium that was used here during the NATO bombings. There is a fear among my people that in ten years we will have a lot of handicapped babies born. What has really happened here (concerning uranium) and what will be the consequences?
Alex Kirby: I don't think anyone really knows what has happened there or what may happen. But the experience of Iraq suggests that there may be a problem. Far more DU weapons were used there than in Bosnia and Kosovo and so the scale of any problem is much larger. But many people inside and outside Iraq believe that the use of DU weapons there contributed to Gulf War Syndrome.
The group of complaints from which many veterans of the war are suffering, and also is partly responsible for what is said to be a far higher rate of various cancers and birth defects in Iraq itself. What Iraq needs is a proper testing programme to establish the scale of the problem, but the sanctions policy makes impossible. I hope that Kosovo and Bosnia may manage to avoid what appears to be a horrific problem in Iraq.
Andrew Thompson: Obviously there must be those scientists who work for the government who deny any connection between DU pollution and other problems. What is their reasoning?
Alex Kirby: I have no idea how they can fly in the face of what seems very clear evidence. For example a 1995 report from the US Army Environmental Policy Institute said: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences."
I suspect that part of the reasoning of those who insist that DU cannot be a problem is that weapons made from it are very valuable to the armed forces. In March 1991, a Colonel Ziehman from Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote a memo which said: "There has been, and continues to be, a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. If no one makes the case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefields, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and be deleted from the arsenal."
There is also the argument that any uranium absorbed by someone in the Balkans or Iraq will have worked its way out of their body within about 10 years. So if tests for DU are indefinitely delayed, the evidence will have disappeared.
Paul Sweeney: Exactly what is DU?
Alex Kirby: DU is what is left over after ordinary uranium has been enriched for use either in nuclear weapons or in reactors. It is mildly radioactive but in its solid form is little if any risk. The risk comes when a DU round strikes a solid object like a tank. It then bursts into a burning spray of radioactive dust. That is where the problem starts.
Alan Prosser, The Hague, Holland: Many people who helped dig their 747 out of the apartment block at Bijlmermeer (Amsterdam) are reportedly suffering from a similar illness and yet El Al insist there is no serious risk? (DU was evidently used to weigh down the nosecone.)
Alex Kirby: The 747 which crashed in Amsterdam was one of a generation of aircraft which were built with DU weights in part of the airframe to balance them. Nowadays tungsten is used instead. There was another 747 crash in the UK in 1999 close to Stansted Airport when DU was also involved. El Al will insist that there is not a serious risk because it wants to be able to go on flying sensitive cargoes through Amsterdam Airport. There are reports that many of the items on the plane which went down were far more dangerous than DU.
B. Samson, Oxford, UK: I wonder if the stubborn refusal of US, UK and NATO officials to admit any possible health damage from depleted uranium might be explained by a very risk, if they do, to face questions and prosecution about civil victims of this weapon in Bosnia and Serbia?
Alex Kirby: I think you may well be right about that. They will also be concerned at the possibility that thousands of veterans of the Gulf War and the Balkan Wars will seek compensation.
Pal, Budapest, Hungary: Hungarian officials are telling us that our soldiers who were or are on peacekeeping duty in the former Yugoslavia have never faced any risks resulting from the use by NATO of DU. Is this true?
Alex Kirby: I don't know if it true, but I hope it is. The risks vary according to the sector in which the peacekeepers are serving. Italian peacekeepers, who have suffered six deaths from leukaemia, are operating in the sector of Kosovo where a lot of DU weapons were used. It would have been easier to assess the risks more accurately early on if NATO had agreed to provide the information the UN asked it for.
Cyrus Medora: Having served in an armoured regiment for two and a half years as an operations and training officer, I know that the moral and confidence of troops, especially those handling large shells is vital. I think the fears must be addressed soon and thoroughly. I know of men who now refuse to touch the things - not good in war!
Alex Kirby: I couldn't agree more. If British forces have to go to war they should have the weapons which will let them end it as quickly and humanely as possible. The trouble is that DU appears to be as much of a risk to them as those on whom it is targeted. I hope that everything will come out very soon and that men and women who served their countries will get the treatment and consideration they deserve.
Stephen Morris, Peterborough: I understand the effects of DU particles emitted post-detonation of tipped weapons, but why is it used?
Alex Kirby: There is a clear military argument for using DU weapons, because the uranium component is very heavy and dense, almost twice as dense as lead. So it will easily punch its way through the side of an armoured vehicle. But it appears that the price of this success is a serious question mark over the health of the soldiers using it and of civilians living in the area where it was used very many years afterwards. Perhaps armies will now try to find something that is as effective but less dangerous.
Mike Bird, Toronto, Canada: Can anyone really believe that NATO or the Americans would approach this issue honestly? Look at how ignorant and intransigent the Americans were when confronted with the health risks of Agent Orange. Can anyone really trust them?
Alex Kirby: You wouldn't expect me to comment on the trustworthiness of NATO or the Pentagon or the British Defence Ministry - would you? There do seem to be strong grounds for believing that all of them have been economical with the truth, that they have not warned their own troops whose welfare should be their priority of the dangers to which military policy was exposing them. But then again people have been getting away with murder (literally) for centuries in the name of military priorities. I hope you and I are not cynical, but always sceptical.
Paul Mainwood: Why is the discussion focussing on the (very low level) radiation of these things. Surely heavy metals are poisonous in their own right. Official denials have only focussed on the radiation from the DU.
Alex Kirby: I am interested that you are so confident that the radiation level of DU particles if very low. A 1992 document from the US Defence Nuclear Agency described DU particles as a "serious health threat". No one pretends that there is no risk of chemical poisoning from DU but a lot of people have insisted for a long time that that is the only threat. There is increasing evidence that they should think again and face up to their responsibilities for their countries' troops.
--------
Category: Depleted Uranium
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER FOR THE ARMED FORCES ON DEPLETED URANIUM
mod.uk
09/01/2001
http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=2&nid=1059&view=856&cat=0#news1059
With permission Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement on Depleted Uranium.
During the last few days concern has been expressed in the media and in this House about possible exposure of United Kingdom forces to Depleted Uranium in the Balkans. This reflects a series of media reports that the health of peacekeepers in Bosnia or Kosovo may have been affected by their deployment. It is suggested that some UK service personnel may have become ill as a result of exposure to Depleted Uranium in the Balkans.
This afternoon I will set out our position on depleted uranium, and list the steps we are taking and intend to take.
Depleted uranium is a very dense heavy metal. It results from the uranium enrichment process, and because the majority of the more radioactive isotopes are removed in this process, depleted uranium is about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium. Because of its density and metallurgic properties, depleted uranium is ideally suited for use as a kinetic energy penetrator for use in anti-armour munitions. The UK has developed and deployed a 120 millimetre armour piercing round for use in the Challenger Main Battle Tank. This ammunition was used in the Gulf war, where around 100 rounds were fired by us against Iraqi armour, as well as some rounds during training in Saudi Arabia. This ammunition provides a battle winning military capability. Alternative materials are not as effective. Therefore DU will remain part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future Because when this country commits our forces to conflict we fight to win. Our troops need the best available equipment to enable them to do this. To deny them a legitimate capability would be quite wrong.
Handled in accordance with the regulations, DU shells present no hazard to our forces. We have long recognised, however, that on the battlefield its debris might present a hazard from chemical toxicity, in the same way as any heavy metal such as lead, and a low level radiological hazard. The risk from chemical toxicity would arise from ingestion of the soluble depleted uranium oxides, and the radiological risk primarily from inhalation of the insoluble depleted uranium oxides. These risks arise from the dust created when DU strikes a hard target such as an armoured vehicle. In its massive form, as expended rounds or solid fragments it is a negligible hazard.
In response to the health concerns of Gulf veterans, the Ministry of Defence has, both in 1993 and 1999 published details of these hazards, together with our estimates of the risk which they might have posed to troops in the Gulf. We believe those risks to have been low, which is borne out by the findings of our Medical Assessment Programme for Gulf Veterans. There has been no evidence, during the deployment, or subsequently, of kidney damage which would be the chief indication of heavy metal poisoning. Radiological damage would only become manifested as an increased rate of cancer after a long period of latency. Furthermore, there is currently no evidence after 10 years, of a higher rate of cancer amongst Gulf veterans compared to a control group. We currently offer tests to Gulf veterans who attend the medical assessment programme for whole body load of uranium, if there is a clinical indication that uranium might be linked to the illnesses which they manifest.
Substantial amounts of research into the health risks of uranium have been conducted and published over many years. Recent work by reputable bodies has assessed this literature in the context of battlefield exposures to DU. The conclusions of all this work, including that by the RAND corporation, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the US Institute of Medicine, is that there is no evidence linking DU to cancers or to the more general ill health being experienced by some Gulf veterans. As regards exposures, important work at the Baltimore veterans Affairs Clinic in the United States is monitoring Gulf veterans known to be at the highest risk of exposure due to "friendly fire" incidents. None of these troops, including those who retain DU shrapnel in their bodies have health problems related to DU. Testing Gulf and Balkans veterans for uranium in the US, Canada, and Belgium has failed to show any of them excreting higher than background levels unless they have embedded shrapnel.
Depleted uranium has also been fired by NATO forces during operations in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in Kosovo in 1999. Compared to around 300 tons fired in the Gulf, only 3 tons was fired in Bosnia, and around 9 tons in Kosovo, very little of it in what is now the British sector.
Conscious of the potential risks which DU posed, we issued precautionary guidance to our forces in Kosovo about the need not to approach recently struck burned out armoured vehicles possibly hit by DU, which present the main hazard, and to wear suitable protective clothing if they had to work in the vicinity of these vehicles.
The working environment of our forces in the Balkans is already closely monitored because of health and safety and environmental concerns about the theatre which extend well beyond the question of DU. There is to date no evidence of which the Ministry of defence is aware of unusual ill health amongst our Balkan peacekeepers, or specifically any ill health that would suggest heavy metal poisoning. Indeed a thorough epidemiological study was done by King's College in the context of Gulf health, which examined a cohort of nearly 4,000 Bosnia peacekeepers. They found no difference in the level of symptoms between them and troops not deployed to the Gulf or Bosnia.
Media reports have also focussed on the test firing of DU at UK ranges. Apart from a small amount of contained firing at Foulness and Aldermaston, this has been concentrated in the ranges at Kirkcudbright on the Solway Firth, and at Eskmeals in Cumbria. It is fired at Kirkudbright into the sea, and at Eskmeals until 1995 into armour plate targets. Safety at the ranges, and in their environs has been a paramount concern. The DU firing programme is subject to regulation under the Ionising Radiation regulations 2000. The Environment Agency and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency also have oversight of the firing programme. A detailed review of the environmental impact of firing DU at these ranges was undertaken by independent environmental consultants WS Atkins. The consultants concluded that the radiation doses to members of the public and the associated risks from DU released into the environment were extremely low.
I have spelt out the background to Depleted uranium and ours and other's existing research on the issue. These issues are not new, and we must not unduly alarm service personnel or their families about the position.
That said we do recognise that some of the recent coverage will have caused some concerns amongst our people, and we recognise a need to reassure them. We take very seriously our responsibility to the Service personnel and civilians given the demands which we make on them during operations.
Our response therefore will be to identify an additional appropriate voluntary screening programme for our Service personnel and civilians who have served in the Balkans. We will do this on the basis of the best available science. We will consult appropriate national bodies such as the UK National Screening Committee of the UK Department of Health. Another important source of external scientific advice will be the report currently under preparation by the Royal Society which is taking an independent look at depleted uranium.
It also will be important to co-ordinate an approach with allies, many of whom are assessing the same reports as I make this statement. A crucial part of our approach will be to discuss with allies their data on risks to health in the Balkans, the health of peacekeepers in the Balkans, the responses which they plan, and to ensure that all data available across NATO is pooled as a basis for subsequent decisions. We are also conscious that the United Nations Environmental Programme have surveyed sites in Kosovo and we await the publication of their final report with interest. I should add that their interim statement refers to only slightly elevated levels of radiation at 8 of the sites they monitored. I am also announcing that the UK will enhance its existing environmental surveillance programme in the Balkans to ensure that no health threats to our forces, and indeed to the local civilian population, are overlooked.
In the meantime, any individual who believes that their health may have been damaged by service in the Balkans should seek medical advice. If their doctor considers that there is evidence that depleted uranium might have contributed to ill health then tests for uranium levels will be carried out.
I hope this statement puts the current debate in context and provides necessary reassurance to the House as well as our forces and their families and indicates the way ahead. We are providing battle winning equipment for our forces and also taking seriously our responsibility for their welfare. I am sure the House would agree they deserve no less.
---
Iraq Accuses U.S. Of Crimes Against Humanity Re DU Weapons
Iraqi paper likens US to Dracula for its use of DU weapons
Tuesday, January 9 8:50 PM SGT
[STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (AFP) - An Iraqi newspaper on Tuesday compared the United States to Dracula, accusing it of resorting to use of weapons of mass destruction and "crimes against humanity" in a drive for world domination.
"America is a country without roots which relies on terrorism -- as did Dracula who sucked blood from humans and pillaged their riches -- to impose itself as a great power," the official Al-Iraq said. "The leaders of this terrorist country commit the most atrocious crimes against humanity by using banned weapons of mass destruction, not only with the goal of extending its colonial hegemony but also exterminating humanity to impose its domination, as was the case with the Red Indians," the paper said.
It was referring to reports that depleted uranium (DU) ammunition used by US NATO forces in the Balkans may be to blame for a rash of cancer cases among troops posted in the region.
In Brussels, NATO and EU officials on Tuesday examined calls for more probing into a possible link.
According to Al-Iraq, "America considers the world a dumping ground for its toxic rubbish and a laboratory for its fatal experiments".
Europe is now paying the price for having ignored the decade-old "Gulf War Syndrome" dating from when US and British forces blasted Iraq with DU weapons, Iraq's ruling Baath party said Monday. "It's the turn of the Europeans to pay the price for their follow-the-leader attitude towards the American bull," said the party's mouthpiece, Ath-Thawra, referring to the "Balkan Syndrome."
Seven Italian soldiers, five Belgians, two Dutch, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech have died from cancer since returning from tours of duty in Bosnia or Kosovo.
Ath-Thawra said the symptoms in Europe were "no more serious than the damage inflicted by the Americans and the British on the Iraqi people" during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.
Baghdad, protesting that cancer rates have quadrupled in areas of southern Iraq bombed by the allied forces, has said the United States and Britain fired more than 940,000 DU weapons during the conflict.
DU emits low levels of radiation, and is so far only considered to be dangerous if it is inhaled or ingested. The material is used to penetrate armour and concrete bunkers because it is denser than other metals.
--------
Schroeder tells Nato to ban use of toxic shells
By Imre Karacsin Berlin, Stephen Castle in Stockholm and Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
9 January 2001
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-01/karacs090101.shtml
Germany called for the banning of uranium shells yesterday as several European countries ordered health checks for soldiers who served in the Balkans, while Nato and the EU scheduled urgent meetings to discuss the risks.
Although the United States continued to deny its armour-piercing shells made out of depleted uranium posed a threat, several Nato allies came close to accusing Washington of lying. "I have a healthy scepticism about munitions that can damage our own troops when they are fired," said the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. "I don't consider it right to use such munitions."
Portugal, in equally sceptical mood, is sending three ministers to Kosovo today to investigate for themselves the possible effects of depleted uranium. "We want our own information based on our own tests," said António Guterres, the Prime Minister, clearly mistrustful of Nato reassurances. "It's the best guarantee of getting to the truth."
The ministerial mission backs up a Portuguese scientific team sent to Klina, near Kosovo, at the weekend to examine the ground with Geiger counters for radiation. The initiative follows mounting public concern over "Balkan syndrome", a form of leukaemia some experts fear is caused by radioactive fall-out.
Portugal began testing 10,000 soldiers yesterday who served in the Balkans, acting on reports that five soldiers have suffered ill effects and two have died. Spain also opened a Defence Ministry hotline to handle concerns from Spanish soldiers, while still insisting that cases of cancer detected in those stationed in the Balkans were due to "natural causes" and were no higher than average.
Three medical specialists began staffing Spain's telephone hotline in a special Defence Ministry department set up to examine cases of soldiers who think they may be affected, but the number was increased to 12 amid the pressure of calls. Spain acknowledges three cancer-related deaths among Balkan veterans. But the veterans' pressure group, Soldiers' Defence Bureau, said that four had died, four were ill and 12 cases needed further investigation. The Spanish Red Cross said it was submitting its 58 members who had served in the Balkans to health checks as a precaution.
US jets fired 31,000 depleted uranium shells during the Kosovo conflict, and another 10,000 rounds during peace-keeping work in Bosnia. They are used for piercing armour, releasing upon impact a dust of uranium oxide, which is highly toxic as well as radioactive.
Six Italian soldiers have died from leukemia since returning from the Balkans, sparking a national outcry against the use of depleted uranium in tank-busting ammunition. Belgium and Greece have pressed for a debate on depleted uranium at today's EU meeting, and the European Commission is examining whether it has the power to act. But the US and Britain are resisting demands for a formal inquiry, arguing that there is no evidence of health problems connected with the use of depleted uranium.
Italy was the first Nato member to call for a full investigation of the weapon. Germany has until now denied any direct link between leukaemia and the depleted uranium shells. A German NCO diagnosed with the disease had served in Mostar during the Bosnian conflict, but the Berlin authorities insist that he could not have come into contact with the shells there.
But German trust in American words appears shaken. "We want a complete examination of where these munitions have been used and with what consequences," Mr Schröder said, after meeting Goran Persson, Sweden's Prime Minister. "Of course we also want to know if there are connections between cases of illness and the use of these weapons."
An international team of experts has already visited some of the sites in Kosovo, and has found higher than normal radiation levels. The full results of their study will not be completed until March.
Russia, which has 3,000 peace-keeping troops in Kosovo and 1,000 in Bosnia, wants the UN involved. "The main thing is to have independent, objective checks at the level of experts of the United Nations and other specialist bodies - the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organisation," said Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister.
Nato's use of depleted uranium in Kosovo and Bosnia faces fresh scrutiny today when the alliance and the EU hold separate talks on the "Balkan syndrome". Sweden, which holds the presidency of the EU, said it has put the issue on the agenda of today's political and security committee, and Italy will raise the matter at the alliance's political committee.
---
EU Orders Nuclear Experts To Investigate Effects Of Uranium Arms
From: kevcross@webtv.net
[STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Tue, 9 Jan 2001 13:13:43 -0500 (EST)
BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (AFP) - Responding to worries about possible cancer-causing weapons used in the Balkans, the European Union on Tuesday ordered experts from its nuclear energy agency to assess whether the munitions pose a risk.
Ambassadors of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation also met to discuss the controversy over depleted uranium (DU) ammunition, which was used in the Balkans and has been blamed for causing cancer in some military personnel who served there.
But NATO ambassadors were expected to leave decisions to the permanent council which meets Wednesday and could name a body to lead an inquiry into the possible health risks.
The EU experts -- doctors and scientists who specialise in radiation and its effects -- are members of the so-called Group 31, which was set up as an independent task force by Euratom, the European nuclear energy agency. The European Union will "draw the necessary conclusions for its personnel and for setting up aid programs in the Balkans" based on the expert findings, said EU spokesman Jean-Christopher Filori. Details of their inquiry have not been finalised but EU officials said they may travel to the site where the weapons were used and will have access to all necessary documents.
EU countries are considering an aid program to Bosnia and Yugoslavia if the weapons have caused a potential health risk, Filori added.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ratcheted up the pressure on NATO and the EU to tackle the issue seriously by saying on Monday that it was not "right" to use the weapons. "We want to know if there is a relationship between cases of diseases (of soldiers) and the use of this ammunition," Schroeder said in Hanover. "All the facts must be laid on the table", Schroeder said.
European politicians have been pressing for an account of DU's health risks following the suspicious deaths of several European soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo, but NATO's top brass and doctors said links to cancer have not been found.
In Moscow, the Russian defense ministry said a group of experts would be dispatched to Kosovo to examine the zones where Russian peacekeepers are stationed to see if NATO used depleted uranium shells there.
Britain's defence ministry was also reported on Tuesday to be ready to announce screening of its soldiers to check for the effects of depleted uranium. Junior defence minister John Spellar was due to make the announcement in parliament, according to a defence ministry spokesman.
The NATO meeting was called at the request of Italy, where there have been 18 suspected cases of "Balkans Syndrome" cancers, eight of whom have already died, according to a defense ministry medical commission.
As the controversy heated up, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday there was no proof of a link between the munitions and the deaths of NATO soldiers. "There is absolutely no proof that there's a connection. We have forces there also, so we would have been concerned," she told reporters at the United Nations headquarters.
However retired general Wesley Clark, who was NATO's supreme allied commander during the Kosovo conflict, warned that soldiers should take precautions when handling the material. "It is clear that it's up to the military chiefs to warn (soldiers) of all possible dangers, to recommend that nothing be touched," Clark said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The New York Times said on Tuesday that Washington had warned its NATO allies to take special precautions on entering Kosovo because of depleted uranium in US ammunition. The newspaper said recommendations were made in a document called "hazard awareness" that it received from a military official from a NATO country.
UN observers have discovered the presence of radioactivity at eight sites in Kosovo where DU warheads exploded.
According to experts, the danger from the munitions, designed to penetrate the armour of heavy tanks, comes not from the low-level radiation they emit but from the poisonous dust created on impact.
---
NATO shoots down Italy's plea
InfoBeat News - Afternoon Edition
1/9/2001
By JEFFREY ULBRICH Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405750337
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - NATO quickly shot down an Italian plea Tuesday for a moratorium on tank-busting weapons that contain depleted uranium - weapons that some European nations fear may cause cancer.
Italy made a long presentation to NATO's Political Committee about its concerns for Italian troops who have served as peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo, where weapons using depleted uranium have been fired. But several NATO members opposed any moratorium, some quite strongly, according to sources familiar with the discussions at the meeting.
Tuesday's Political Committee meeting was the first occasion for all of NATO's 19 members to discuss the matter since the latest wave of concern about depleted uranium emerged.
Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its bombing of Yugoslavia.
Numerous studies into the effects of depleted uranium have not revealed any connection between the metal and cancer. But concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, six of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia.
In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. And a number of nations and aid agencies have begun screening personnel who have served in the Balkans.
At NATO's meeting, all members agreed that there is a common concern and that NATO needs to act.
The results of the Political Committee discussions were to be passed on to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top policymaking body, which meets Wednesday. It was expected that the council may develop some recommendations.
Across town at the European Union, meanwhile, the EU's executive arm asked a group of experts for a scientific opinion on whether EU personnel who have worked in the Balkans might face health risks from exposure to depleted uranium.
EU spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said the EU experts from the member states should have a clearly defined opinion by early next month. Based on their opinion, the EU's executive arm will decide how to adapt its aid programs in the region.
European officials cautioned that determining whether there is a link between depleted uranium and any illness may take a long time. Nonetheless, anxiety about depleted uranium popped up in a host of European nations Tuesday.
In Norway, about 400 peacekeepers refused to sign contracts for service in Yugoslavia, demanding clarification of the risk from depleted uranium, the TV-2 network reported. In Romania, the government announced plans to test almost 1,500 soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans.
In Belgium, a group of soldiers announced plans Tuesday to sue the Belgian government because of health problems allegedly caused by service in the Balkans. The group said five Belgian veterans of peacekeeping missions in Croatia and Bosnia have died of cancer and four others have contracted the disease.
In Germany, the government urged NATO to impose a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium ammunition, and the U.S. Army Europe denied a published report that American soldiers may have fired depleted uranium ammunition during training exercises in the country.
In Kosovo, meanwhile, the depleted uranium scare was becoming a political issue: A key ethnic Albanian leader said Tuesday that the scare is being misused by those who opposed NATO intervention in Kosovo in hopes it will lead to the withdrawal of the NATO-led peacekeeping force.
Ibrahim Rugova named no countries but appeared to be alluding to Russia, a vehement critic of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.
---
NATO Vs. Italy: Troops Boycott Balkans Duty
Tue, 9 Jan 2001 11:27:36 -0500 (EST)
by JEFFREY ULBRICH
Associated Press Writer
[STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- NATO quickly shot down an Italian plea Tuesday for a moratorium on tank-busting weapons that contain depleted uranium -- weapons that some European nations fear may cause cancer.
Italy made a long presentation to NATO's Political Committee about its concerns for Italian troops who have served as peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo, where weapons using depleted uranium have been fired. But several NATO members opposed any moratorium, some quite strongly, according to sources familiar with the discussions at the meeting.
Tuesday's Political Committee meeting was the first occasion for all of NATO's 19 members to discuss the matter since the latest wave of concern about depleted uranium emerged. Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its bombing of Yugoslavia.
Numerous studies into the effects of depleted uranium have not revealed any connection between the metal and cancer. But concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, six of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. And a number of nations and aid agencies have begun screening personnel who have served in the Balkans. At NATO's meeting, all members agreed that there is a common concern and that NATO needs to act.
The results of the Political Committee discussions were to be passed on to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top policymaking body, which meets Wednesday. It was expected that the council may develop some recommendations.
Across town at the European Union, meanwhile, the EU's executive arm asked a group of experts for a scientific opinion on whether EU personnel who have worked in the Balkans might face health risks from exposure to depleted uranium. EU spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said the EU experts from the member states should have a clearly defined opinion by early next month. Based on their opinion, the EU's executive arm will decide how to adapt its aid programs in the region.
European officials cautioned that determining whether there is a link between depleted uranium and any illness may take a long time. Nonetheless, anxiety about depleted uranium popped up in a host of European nations Tuesday.
In Norway, about 400 peacekeepers refused to sign contracts for service in Yugoslavia, demanding clarification of the risk from depleted uranium, the TV-2 network reported.
In Romania, the government announced plans to test almost 1,500 soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans.
In Belgium, a group of soldiers announced plans Tuesday to sue the Belgian government because of health problems allegedly caused by service in the Balkans. The group said five Belgian veterans of peacekeeping missions in Croatia and Bosnia have died of cancer and four others have contracted the disease.
In Germany, the government urged NATO to impose a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium ammunition, and the U.S. Army Europe denied a published report that American soldiers may have fired depleted uranium ammunition during training exercises in the country.
In Kosovo, meanwhile, the depleted uranium scare was becoming a political issue: A key ethnic Albanian leader said Tuesday that the scare is being misused by those who opposed NATO intervention in Kosovo in hopes it will lead to the withdrawal of the NATO-led peacekeeping force. Ibrahim Rugova named no countries but appeared to be alluding to Russia, a vehement critic of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.
[Damn those Untermenschen Slavs! Besides, NATO is our air force, cluster bombs and uranium dust and dismembered refugees and all - IR]
---
Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind the headlines
From: "Janet M Eaton" <jeaton@fox.nstn.ca>
Tue, 9 Jan 2001 21:16:22 +0000
International Action Center 39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011 212-633-6646 Fax: 212-633-2889 iacenter@iacenter.org www.iacenter.org Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
For Immediate release Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott 212-633-6646
WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM? READ METAL OF DISHONOR TO SEE WHAT IS BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The breaking news in Europe of troops from Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal who served in the Balkans dying of leukemia has reawakened interest in the dangers posed by depleted-uranium weapons.
In April 1999, the International Action Center published the second edition of a book of essays and lectures on depleted uranium. Its title is Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium. The first edition had been published in 1997.
The Peoples Video Network, in collaboration with the IAC, produced a 50-minute-long video with the same title, Metal of Dishonor, that was favorably reviewed at film festivals in Italy.
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at: http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
In addition to exposing the deadly duplicity of the Department of Defense, the book documents the genocide of Native Americans and Iraqis by military radiation, the connection between depleted uranium and Gulf War Syndrome, the underestimated dangers from low-level radiation, the legal ramifications of DU Production and Use, and the growing movement against DU. (Table of Contents below)
The Pentagon used DU weapons in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in 1995 and in Yugoslavia-especially in Kosovo-in 1999 in large enough amounts to have a significant impact on the environment. Besides endangering occupation troops it of course is a major environmental threat to the population of those regions.
Of the 697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, some 130,000 have reported medical problems ranging from respiratory, liver and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and birth defects among their newborn children.
During the Gulf War, munitions and armor made with Depleted Uranium were used for the first time in combat history. Over 940,000 30-millimeter uranium tipped bullets and "more than 14,000 large caliber DU rounds were consumed during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield." (U.S. AEPI Report 1994) These largely untested weapons were used indiscriminately throughout the siege of Iraq with no concern for the health and environmental consequences of their use. Between 300 and 800 tons of DU bullets are now scattered on the ground in Iraq and Kuwait.
The Pentagon now admits to having fired over 18,000 DU shells in Bosnia and over 31,000 such shells in Kosovo.
Up to 70% of the depleted uranium within these weapons aerosolizes on impact and as radioactive dust it is easily ingested. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people, both victims of war and combat soldiers, have suffered the effects of exposure to these highly toxic, radioactive weapons.
WHAT IS DU?
DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Much like natural uranium, it is both toxic and radioactive. Over a billion pounds of DU exists in the United States and must be safely stored or disposed of by the Department of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, DU's radioactivity effectively lasts forever.
DU is so abundant the government gives it away to arms manufacturers. Because it is extremely dense--1.7 times as dense as lead--when turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that easily penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric--that is, when it strikes steel, heat from the friction causes it to burn.
When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of poisonous and radioactive uranium oxide in aerosol form, which can then travel for miles in the wind. Humans can ingest or inhale the small particles. Even one particle, when lodged in a vital organ--which is most likely to happen from inhalation-- can cause illnesses from headaches to cancer.
The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S. and used it in combat for the first time against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. It was very effective in destroying Iraqi tanks, as well as their occupants and anyone in the area. At least 600,000 pounds of DU and uranium dust was left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S. and British forces during that war.
Although the U.S. government and military continue to minimize the environmental and health dangers from depleted- uranium weapons, even they have to admit these dangers exist.
DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000 reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." The chronic symptoms of this ailment range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss, chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in veterans' children.
Dr. Mona Kammas is a professor of pathology at Baghdad University and director of a study of the environmental impact of U.S. aggression against Iraq. At the Gijon symposium, she reported on a paper that showed an almost five-fold increase in cancers, a more than three-fold increase in spontaneous abortions, and a nearly three-fold increase in congenital anomalies in a study group of those exposed to combat.
The paper also reported on environmental damage due to the Pentagon's destruction of the water-supply and sanitation systems and the destruction of oil refineries and factories that used toxic chemicals in the production process.
Iraqi researchers believe that the different relative frequency of various types of cancer now as compared with before 1990 in the Basra region was a significant indication of a major change, and that this pattern continuing long after the war indicated that DU's impact was long-lasting.
Besides the contents listed below, the second edition of Metal of Dishonor has chapters reporting on a study from Iraq and from Bosnia, and a new chapter by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a physicist and medical doctor who examined U.S. troops hit by DU "friendly fire."
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at: http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
Contents What Government Documents Admit and What the Government is Telling Us Preface (full text)
Acknowledgments
Biographies of the Authors (full text)
Section I: Introduction and Call to Action Against DU
1. The Struggle for an Independent Inquiry (full text) By Sara Flounders, Organizer--International Action Center
2. Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (excerpt) By Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark
3. A New Kind of Nuclear War (excerpt) By Dr. Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility
4. International Appeal to Ban DU (full text)
Section II: How DU Weapons Harmed Gulf War Veterans
5. Collateral Damage: How U.S. Troops Were Exposed (excerpt) By Dan Fahey, Gulf War Syndrome activist researching DU use in the Gulf region
6. Living With Gulf War Syndrome (excerpt) By Carole Picou, Veteran of Medical Unit on the Iraqi Front
7. Another Human Experiment (exerpt) By Dolores Lymburner, National Organizer of the Depleted Uranium Citizens' Network
Section III: The Politics of War and the Pentagon's Coverup
8. A Tale of Two Syndromes: Vietnam and Gulf War (excerpt) By John Catalinotto, former organizer, American Servicemen's Union
9. Military and Media Collaborate in Coverup of DU (excerpt) By Lenora Foerstal, N. American Coordinator, Women for Mutual Security; editor, Creating Surplus Population: the Effect of Military and Corporate Policies on Indigenous Peoples
10. Burying the Past, Protecting DU Weapons for Future Wars (excerpt) By Tod Ensign, attorney; Director, Citizen Soldier
11. 'National Security' Kept Atomic Veteran's Suffering a Secret (excerpt) By Pat Broudy, Legislative Director, National Associaion of Atomic Veterans and National Associaiton of Atomic Survivors
12. A Bizarre Recycling Program--the Arrogance of Power (excerpt) By Alice Slater, President, Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
Section IV: Indigenous Peoples Victimized by Military Radiation
13. Uranium Development on Indian Land (excerpt) By Manuel Pino, Environmental Activist
14. Uranium, the Pentagon and the Navajo people (excerpt) By Anna Rondon, Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum
15. Nuclear Testing, Government Secrecy and the Marshall Islanders (excerpt) By Glen Alcalay, anthropologist; National Committee for Radiation Victims
16. Declaration of the Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit (excerpt) Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 5-8, 1996 Section V: What Risks from Low-Level Radiation?
17. Depleted Uranium: Huge Quantities of Dangerous Waste (excerpt) By Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY
18. Nuclear Testing, Power Plants and a Breast Cancer Epidemic (excerpt) By Dr. Jay M. Gould, author, The Enemy Within
19.Nine-Legged Frogs, Gulf War Syndrome, and Chernobyl Studies (excerpt) By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Founding Member/President, International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Editor in Chief, International Perspectives in Public Health.
20. DU Spread and Contamination of Gulf War Veterans and Others (excerpt) By Leonard A. Dietz, physicist, charter member, American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
Section VI: Environmental Cost of Gulf War to Iraquis and Others
21. Gravesites: Environmental Ruin in Iraq (excerpt) By Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz, anthropologist; journalist, WBAI-NY
22. DU Shells Make the Desert Glow (excerpt) By Dr. Eric Hoskins, Medical Coordinator, Harvard Study Team's surveys of health and welfare in postwar Iraq
23. How DU Shell Residues Poison Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (excerpt) By Prof. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, Founder/President, Austrian Yellow Cross International
24. Note From Permanent Mission of Iraq to UN Center for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, May 21, 1996 (full text)
25. U.S. First to Target Nuclear Reactor (excerpt) By Suzy T. Kane,Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; author, The Hidden History of the Persian Gulf War
Section VII: Can a Legal Battle be Waged to Ban DU?
26. The Role of Physicians in the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (excerpt) By Dr. Victor Sidel, Co-president, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; co-editor, War and Public Health
27. UN Subcommission on Human Rights Votes Ban on DU (excerpt) By Philippa Winkler, attorney; Project Director, Hidden Casualties, The Environmental, Health and Political Consequences of the Persian Gulf War
28. Depleted Uranium and International Law (excerpt) By Alyn Ware, Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy Appendices
Appendix I: Government Documents on DU (under construction)
Appendix II: Ordnance Containing DU (under construction)
Appendix III: Locations Involving DU Research, Testing and Storage (under construction)
Appendix IV: Report from LAKA Foundation, Netherlands (under construction)
Appendix V: DU Around the World (under construction)
Appendix VI: International Action Center (full text)
Appendix VII: Organizations and Resources (full text)
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter@iacenter.org web: http://www.iacenter.org CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889 *To make a tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
--------
Effects of depleted Uranium examined
InfoBeat News - Morning Coffee Edition
1/9/2001
By JEFFREY ULBRICH Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405744243
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - NATO and the European Union will examine the possible health risks of depleted uranium ammunition used in the Balkans, and the U.N. administrator in Kosovo made an ``urgent appeal'' Monday for help from the World Health Organization.
NATO's political committee and the EU's political and security committee scheduled talks for Tuesday. The use of depleted uranium has led to rising fears in Europe since Italy began investigating soldiers who have become ill since serving in the Balkans. Twelve have cancer and five have died of leukemia.
In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. One Portuguese soldier has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from Kosovo. Several other European countries have begun screening soldiers who served in the Balkans, with many civilian aid agencies doing the same.
European officials cautioned that determining a link, if there is one, between any particular illness and depleted uranium _ a dense metal used against armored vehicles because of its penetrating power _ may take a long while.
``It's not easy to find a definitive conclusion to this problem, but the process will start tomorrow,'' said Sweden's Defense Minister Bjoern von Sydow, whose country holds the EU presidency.
The United States, the only country to use depleted uranium munitions during the 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Bosnia during 1994 and 1995, insists the ammunition poses no significant health threat.
Radiation levels from depleted uranium are much lower than natural uranium, a U.S. Defense Department report said last month. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, quoted in the report, said: ``No human cancer of any type has ever been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium.''
Scientists remain divided on the issue, and worry about the risk from breathing dust from the exploded munitions. Yugoslav experts and officials claim the depleted uranium will remain in the soil, filtering into ground water and moving into the food chain.
The German Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that in July 1999, NATO warned of possible dangers from depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans and called for proper precautionary steps to be taken.
Many countries whose troops are serving in Kosovo have sent or are now sending medical teams to examine soldiers for ill effects. The outgoing U.N. administrator in Kosovo sought help gauging what effects, if any, the depleted uranium may be having on civilians.
Bernard Kouchner made an ``urgent appeal'' to the World Health Organzation to send public health experts to monitor the possible health risks, said U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel.
On Monday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on NATO to release all available information on the use and effects of depleted uranium ammunition.
``We want frank information about where the ammunition was used and with what consequences,'' Schroeder said. He added, however, that he harbored a ``healthy skepticism'' that the ammunition caused the illnesses.
While depleted uranium fears spread, others advised caution.
Ljerka Obradovic, a hematologist in the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, said the leukemia rate among the 500,000 residents of that section was the same as before the Bosnian war.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that according to initial findings by WHO and the Kosovo Department of Health, ``there has been no increase of incidents of leukemia among adults over the last four years.''
WHO said Monday that soldiers and civilians exposed to depleted uranium in the Balkans probably did not receive large enough doses of radiation to cause leukemia. The U.N. health body agreed that radioactive dust from the exploded munitions could end up in the body, but said the amount would have been low.
Dr. Mike Repacholi, WHO's coordinator for occupational and environmental health, stressed that the organization's position was based on a review of existing research and could not say whether areas bombed by depleted uranium now are safe.
``If parents have children playing in contaminated areas, they should be careful about this. There are going to be radioactive fragments,'' Repacholi said.
A Serb health official said Monday that ethnic Albanian villagers were letting cattle graze on soil contaminated by depleted uranium, putting people at risk of consuming milk or meat that could become toxic.
Villagers in Bratoselce removed a fence sealing off contaminated land, said Miroslav Simic, a health official in Vranje, 180 miles southeast of Belgrade.
U.N. scientists who visited 11 of 112 Kosovo sites identified by NATO as having been targeted with ordnance containing depleted uranium found higher radiation levels at eight of them. The U.N. team intends to visit more sites in the spring.
``Once we have concluded the tests we will know precisely what environmental and health damage the uranium weapons posed, if any,'' Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
---
Italy to ask NATO to suspend uranium weapons use
Planet Ark
ITALY: January 9, 2001
Story by Raffaella Malaguti
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9482
ROME - Italy will ask NATO on Tuesday to introduce a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium ammunition until the alliance was certain it was not linked to leukaemia among soldiers exposed to it, Italy's defence minister said.
Speaking on a late-night television programme on Monday, Defence Minister Sergio Mattarella said Italy would make the request at a meeting of NATO's political committee in Brussels on Tuesday.
Italy has led a recent wave of demands from NATO member states to probe the health risks to troops serving in the Balkans, where the uranium ammunition was used.
"We shall ask...the alliance to avoid using (depleted uranium ammunition) until we are certain it is not dangerous," Mattarella told the programme on state television RAI.
Armour-piercing depleted uranium ammunition has taken centre stage in recent weeks after claims that the death from leukaemia of six Italian soldiers who had served in the Balkans were linked to the peacekeepers' exposure to the spent ammunition.
"While doubts exist as to whether the illnesses and deaths of Italian soldiers may or may not be attributable to depleted uranium, and, considering this substance could pollute the environment, I think it would be be fair to ask that before using this ammunition (again) NATO evaluates the issue and suspends its use," Mattarella said.
NATO's political advisers were due to discuss the depleted uranium issue ahead of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's permanent ambassadors, in Brussels on Wednesday.
NATO's medical chiefs were also scheduled to discuss the issue next week as were European Union foreign ministers at their monthly meeting on January 22.
Fears the ammunition could be linked to the deaths of Italian soldiers has sparked outrage in Italy and has made headlines in the Italian media for weeks.
Italy's Defence Ministry has set up a special commission to look into at least six deaths and some 12 other leukaemia cases among soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo.
A separate probe has also been opened by a Rome military court and the defence committee of the lower house of parliament was due to discuss the risks of depleted uranium ammunition later on Tuesday.
Other deaths or illnesses claimed to be linked to the weapons have also been reported in Portugal, Belgium and France, which have also urged NATO to look into the issue.
But as calls for clarity mount - Germany, Russia and European Commission President Romano Prodi have also asked for an investigation - US military leaders and NATO chiefs insist there is no known risk of contamination.
World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said on Monday they doubted depleted uranium weapons had caused leukaemia among Balkan veterans.
US attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition during NATO's 1999 campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. About 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighbouring Bosnia in 1994-95.
-------- india / pakistan
South Asia buzz
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
Embassy Row News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
James Morrison
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-200119213355.htm
A candidate for assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs is a woman born in India, raised in Pakistan and educated in the United States, where she later served on President Reagan's foreign policy team.
South Asian newspapers are reporting that Shirin Tahir-Kheli is the front-runner to fill the position now held by Karl Inderfurth, who is expected to leave the post later this month.
Other candidates include James Clad, a professor at Georgetown University who worked as a journalist in India for the Far-Eastern Economic Review and Sandra Charles, currently with a private consulting firm, who has served in the Pentagon.
Indian and Pakistani newspapers are focusing on Mrs. Tahir-Kheli as the likely nominee because of her strong contacts with members of President-elect George W. Bush's transition team.
Pakistani-American groups are lobbying for her appointment, and Pakistani Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi also supports her, according to reports last week.
"She is said to be particularly close to sections of the Republican Party's foreign policy circle," said the Indian newspaper Asian Age.
It noted she is favored by Bush adviser Paul Wolfowitz and Zalmay Khalilzad, an assistant undersecretary of defense in the administration of Mr. Bush's father and now advising the transition team on personnel recruitment for national security positions.
Asian Age quoted sources who called Mr. Khalilzad, now a senior analyst at the Rand Corp., her "political godfather."
Reflecting the regional rivalry between two new nuclear powers, Pakistani journals praised her possible appointment while Indian newspapers questioned whether she is biased toward Pakistan.
The Times of India said, "Some observers . . . suggest it would be inconceivable for a job of this nature dealing with combustible South Asia to be spearheaded by such an obviously partisan choice.
"That would hardly be the propitious start the Bush administration would be looking for in the Indian subcontinent."
The Clinton administration, after developing strong ties with India, last year had to defend itself from criticism that it was tilting toward India and against old Cold War ally Pakistan.
The Pakistani newspaper, the News, first identified Mrs. Tahir-Kheli as the leading candidate for the position in an upbeat story last week.
The News said she has been "tipped" for the position and noted she "grew up in Pakistan" and is the "daughter of famous scientist Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqui," a key nuclear advisory to Pakistan's military government.
Mrs. Tahir-Kheli is married to an Afghan-American.
-------- kazakhstan
Kazakhstan to Increase Uranium Production
Russia Today
Jan 9, 2001
Times of Central Asia
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=248410
Kazakhstan is to increase uranium production 30 percent year-on-year in 2000, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik said.
Kazakhstan produced 1,588 tons of uranium, up 16.3 percent from 1998. According to a development program for the Kazakh uranium industry, it is planned to continuously increase production until 2005.
Shkolnik also announced that in 2001 Kazakhstan will invest about 3.5 billion rubles ($24.3 million) in developing the uranium industry. It is planned to invest these funds in beryllium production, particularly in the production of copper-beryllium alloy and beryllium bronze at the Ulba Metallurgy Plant, the largest producer of fuel for nuclear power plants in the CIS. This plant is part of Kazatomprom.
Shkolnik also announced that it is planned to partially reconstruct tantalum production at the Ulba Plant.
In addition, the Kazakh government hopes that joint ventures set up this year by Kazatomprom, Canadian Cameco and French Cogema will begin producing uranium ore in the south of the republic in the next year and a half - two years.
As reported earlier, in 2000 Kazatomprom invested about $36 million in developing uranium, tantalum and beryllium production. This year the concern began to produce niobium pentoxide and ferro-niobium pentoxide and produced its first beryllium ingots.
Kazatomprom plans to reach capacity beryllium production at Ulba Metallurgy Plant in the second - third quarter in 2001. In addition, by the end of next year it is planned to set up niobium ingot production at the plant.
Of $11 billion in foreign direct investment in the Kazakh economy since 1994, the energy and mining-metallurgy industries have received $8.6 billion.
-------- russia
$30 Billion Urged for Russian Nuclear Security
Wsshington Post
Tuesday, January 9, 2001
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39255-2001Jan9.html
A blue-ribbon task force recommended today that the United States spend up to $30 billion over the next eight years to improve security over Russia's nuclear stockpile.
Arguing that the possible theft or sale of Russian nuclear materials presents "a clear and present danger ... to American lives and liberties," the bipartisan panel concluded that U.S. spending on nuclear security programs in Russia should be increased to $3 billion a year from the current $700 million.
The task force's report was released by its co-chairmen, former senator Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) and Lloyd Cutler, President Clinton's former White House counsel.
Baker and Cutler acknowledged in an interview that congressional support for such programs could be endangered by Moscow's promotion of its civilian atomic energy business, particularly through sales to Iran. "The Russians think of their nuclear stockpile as gold" at a time when they are desperate for foreign trade, Baker said.
But, he added, "even though we may be pouring money into a bottomless bucket, it's a gamble worth taking."
Baker said the panel's report had been given to Donald H. Rumsfeld, President-elect Bush's nominee for defense secretary. He added that he believes Bush and Vice President-elect Richard Cheney "share our conviction that this is one of the most important problems we face."
The task force, established early last year by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, received U.S. intelligence briefings and visited Russian nuclear sites. Its report urges the incoming administration to take a hard look at the Russian situation, saying that the current U.S. effort leaves "an unacceptable risk of failure and the potential for catastrophic consequences."
While praising the Russian government for cooperating on nuclear security at many facilities, the Baker-Cutler report also warns that without greater transparency and access on the Russian side, "full success will not be achievable."
Above all, the report argues, the pace of activity must rise. For example, under present plans, it will take at least seven years to build a facility to convert nuclear weapons material to a mixed oxide fuel for civilian nuclear reactors.
One way to accelerate the process, the report says, would be to consolidate Russia's estimated 40,000 nuclear weapons and its many tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium into a smaller number of centralized storage facilities. Russian weapons are now spread over more than 100 storage sites.
The panel also calls for a realistic audit of the Russian nuclear stockpile. As of today, the report says, it is unclear whether the Russians know what they have.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Reviving the Test Ban Treaty
New York Times
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/opinion/09TUE1.html
By refusing to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty 15 months ago, the Republican-led Senate set back American efforts to discourage additional countries from developing nuclear weapons. The incoming Bush administration has now been offered a timely opportunity to revisit the treaty issue. Last week, at the request of President Clinton, Gen. John Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposed a set of practical steps that the next administration could take to address the Senate's concerns about the treaty and make it possible for George W. Bush to resubmit it for a successful ratification vote in the near future.
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush opposed the treaty, but pledged to continue America's eight-and-a-half-year-old moratorium on nuclear testing. He should now reassess his position, taking into account the Shalikashvili recommendations and the support for ratification previously expressed by his own designee for secretary of state, Gen. Colin Powell, also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. With Mr. Bush's endorsement, the test ban treaty could probably win Senate ratification. Though ratifying treaties requires a two-thirds majority, the newly elected Senate is more moderate than the one that rejected the accord.
The treaty serves American interests by committing other countries to follow Washington's example and forgo nuclear tests. Without tests, countries that lack nuclear weapons cannot develop reliable ones and nations that already have the bomb cannot significantly upgrade their arsenals. The treaty also establishes new international verification procedures for detecting nuclear explosions that would supplement those Washington already uses. Senate opponents feared that even with this additional monitoring, some illegal tests might still go undetected. They also worried that a permanent test ban might make it impossible to ensure that warheads in America's nuclear stockpile had not deteriorated.
General Shalikashvili's recommendations respond to these legitimate concerns. He calls for increased American investment in verification tools, including satellites, seismic monitors and instruments for detecting radiation releases and nuclear electromagnetic pulses. With these in place, American political and military leaders could be fully confident that any remaining undetected explosions would be too small to be militarily significant. The recommendations also call for improving the periodic evaluation of aging warheads for signs of deterioration. Continued production of replacement parts, including the warheads' plutonium cores, would allow for necessary maintenance.
As a further safeguard, General Shalikashvili asks the Senate to specify that 10 years following ratification, a review will be carried out to determine if the treaty continues to be in the best interest of the United States. If not, the White House would be encouraged to give six months' notice of withdrawal. Withdrawal could be initiated by the president even sooner if changed conditions warranted it. Mr. Bush has said that he wants his administration to take strong measures to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. Adopting these recommendations and resubmitting the test ban treaty to the Senate would be a good place to start.
---
Bush Courts Key Lawmakers for Support on Defense Goals
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By ERIC SCHMITT with STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/politics/09BUSH.html?pagewanted=all
AUSTIN, Tex., Jan. 8 - President- elect George W. Bush summoned senior lawmakers from both parties in Congress here today to inaugurate a campaign to build bipartisan support for his two top defense goals: modernizing America's armed forces and fielding an expansive national missile defense.
Although Mr. Bush offered few new details about his national security policies, he strongly advocated moving ahead with a missile defense, even as he acknowledged the opposition to a system at home and abroad.
"It's a sensitive subject for some members," Mr. Bush said, referring to Democrats in Congress who oppose moving ahead with a system, including several of the Congressional military experts who joined him here today. "I understand that. It's a sensitive subject for leaders of different countries around the world."
"On the other hand," he continued, "I think it's our obligation to do everything we can to protect America and our allies from the real threats of the 21st century."
While he did not signal when he would move forward on developing a missile defense, a new and pressing deadline is approaching for his decision. Pentagon officials now say the Bush administration will face a critical decision within weeks of taking office if it hopes to begin work this year on the limited ground-based system that President Clinton declined to approve last September.
Under a timetable being drafted by the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization for the incoming administration, Mr. Bush will have to decide by March to authorize initial construction of a sophisticated new radar station at Shemya Island in Alaska if he hopes to begin work during the relatively short summer season this year.
If Mr. Bush decides against starting construction soon, the system will face at least a year's delay since the harsh weather in the Aleutian Islands means that work cannot begin again until the spring of 2002.
That would in turn delay completion of the system well beyond the period when a commission headed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, now Mr. Bush's designee as secretary of defense, warned that the United States could face the threat of long-range missile attack from countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
A decision to move ahead with the construction of the radar at Shemya would not necessarily violate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 right away, since under the new schedule, workers would not pour concrete for the site until next year. But since the treaty requires six months' notification to withdraw, a decision now would put the United States on track to withdraw from it by the end of this year or early next year if the new administration does not persuade the Russians to accept changes in the treaty.
For that reason, moving ahead with initial construction will almost certainly face criticism not only by Russia and China, but some of the NATO allies, confronting the new administration with a significant diplomatic challenge in its infancy.
Whether to proceed with a missile defense is only one of many difficult choices facing the incoming president in the area of defense and national security, and today's meeting with senior members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and defense appropriations subcommittees represented an early effort to forge some common ground.
Mr. Bush has promised to upgrade the Pentagon's arsenal, but he may have to reduce or eliminate some major weapons, like new generations of fighter jets and destroyers, to help pay for a missile shield.
Today, the subject of canceling weapons never even came up. Instead, lawmakers made strong pitches to buy more combat ships, B-2 bombers and C-17 transport planes. Legislators raised other contentious topics from peacekeeping missions to new rounds of base closures, but did not try to reach a consensus on how to address them.
Mr. Bush, who has called for a "bottom-to-top review" of the military's priorities, renewed his commitment to revamp the Pentagon before submitting his proposals for defense spending.
"First and foremost, our job is to make sure that we have a plan and a vision, and then the budget will follow," he said. "And it's a plan and a vision that will actually reflect the threats that the country faces in the 21st century."
Mr. Bush spoke after meeting with 15 senators and congressmen - nine Republicans and six Democrats - in a closed, two-hour lunch here in Austin. He was joined by Vice President- elect Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense under Mr. Bush's father, and Condoleezza Rice, his future national security adviser.
Mr. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary designee, had been scheduled to attend, but remained in Washington to meet with senators in advance of his confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate's Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Bush is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
While a missile defense is among the most pressing issues facing the new administration, today's meeting covered a broad array of issues involving the military.
Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said he complained that the Pentagon needed $30 billion a year more for new weapons. Representative Bob Stump, Republican of Arizona, the incoming chairman of the committee, praised Mr. Bush for pledging to spend $1 billion more a year on pay raises for service members, but he warned that the military needs to do more to recruit top-flight troops and retain the ones it has.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who until Jan. 20 is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he warned Mr. Bush that he risked rupturing relations with key European allies if he rushed ahead with a national missile defense and pulled back American peacekeeping troops in the Balkans, another position Mr. Bush has publicly supported.
And even though Mr. Bush revealed little, the Democrats said what they heard gave them hope that once in office he would moderate his views on the most contentious defense issues.
"I was impressed with his flexibility," said Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
Senator Levin said Mr. Bush "recognized the complexity of a number issues," but warned that "the greater test to come will be whether we can work out those policies" in a bipartisan way.
During the campaign and the transition, Mr. Bush and his advisers have indicated that they envisioned building a more expansive missile defense than the one the Pentagon pursued under President Clinton. That system called for basing the first 100 missile interceptors in Alaska, along with the radar needed to guide them to their targets.
Mr. Bush and his advisers have advocated expanding research beyond a ground-based system to include sea- and space-based systems. Even so, the radar at Shemya - designed to detect missile launches around the globe - will be a cornerstone of any system, according to defense officials.
At the Pentagon, members of Mr. Rumsfeld's transition team have already held briefings on a missile defense, signaling they intend to focus on the issue early.
"It's very clear to me that national missile defense is one of the high- priority items - and therefore one they'll address early on," said Jacques S. Gansler, who until last week was undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology.
Under the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's timetable, Mr. Bush could face a deployment decision before the Pentagon completes any more tests of its anti-missile system, in which a "kill vehicle" mounted on a booster rocket is designed to collide in space with an enemy missile.
After the failure of its last test in July, the organization has delayed the next test until sometime between March and June, making it unlikely a test could be completed and evaluated before the March decision, according to Pentagon officials. A second test of the system is expected in the fall.
Dr. Gansler said that the new administration would not necessarily need another test before making a decision. "If you're committed to trying to make as early a possible date as you can, then you don't need to wait for another two flights," he said before stepping down. "The thing that is being tested isn't whether you can build a radar on Shemya."
Republicans in Congress who have long supported building a missile shield expect the new administration to move quickly to build the limited system begun under Mr. Clinton and then to accelerate research into sea- and space-based systems. They noted that Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, a law requiring the deployment of a system as soon as technologically feasible.
"President Bush has an opportunity to signal he is going to follow the law the Congress passed, which is that we should develop and deploy a national missile defense as soon as the technology permits," said Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi. "I think the technology is ready."
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- colorado
Safety errors signal 'trend' at Rocky Flats
Official says accidents could lead to penalties
Denver Rocky Mountain News
January 9, 2001
By Berny Morson Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
mailto:morsonb@rockymountainnews.com
http://insidedenver.com/news/0109flat7.shtml
A federal official voiced concern Monday with "the number and severity" of safety problems at Rocky Flats in recent months.
The comments by Paul Hartmann, the acting assistant Rocky Flats manager who oversees safety issues, came after workers twice last month violated safety rules designed to prevent the sort of radiation release that killed one Japanese nuclear worker and contaminated 438 others in October 1999.
Those incidents, on Dec. 21 and Dec. 28, came shortly after it was discovered that 10 workers had ingested small amounts of plutonium, an element that remains in the body and can cause cancer years later.
Jennifer Thompson, a spokeswoman for Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm coordinating the cleanup of the defunct nuclear weapons plant, said the company is also concerned about the incidents. The company has stopped work several times because of safety problems, officials said.
Hartmann also cited accidents going back to last spring, ranging from several instances in which fork-lift operators dropped containers of low-level radioactive waste to others in which workers dismantling buildings cut through live wires with power tools.
Last February, workers fouled up a ventilation system, sending plutonium into a room. No one was in the room, which has since been decontaminated.
"We haven't been asleep at the switch - we've seen a trend and we don't like it," Hartmann said.
The U.S. Energy Department, which owns Rocky Flats, levied $410,000 in penalties on Kaiser-Hill for the accidents early in 2000.
Additional penalties are a "definite possibility" for the latest incidents, Hartmann said.
Just how much money will be involved isn't clear because the incidents are under investigation, and Kaiser-Hill gets to respond and outline steps it will take to improve safety, Hartmann said.
Workers at the plant are also concerned, said James Masingale, the safety representative for the United Steel Workers, the plant's main union.
"The fact remains that we keep seeing event after event after event," Masingale said.
Under plant rules, any worker can halt an operation for safety reasons. That has been happening at least once a week since April, Masingale said.
---
EPA stifled by new regulation, removal of lone investigator
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200119223941.htm
The investigative arm of the Environmental Protection Agency is being crippled by the dismissal of its only investigator and proposed rules to limit future investigations, according to an internal agency memo obtained by The Washington Times.
In perhaps a sign of growing confusion at the nation's top environmental agency in the waning days of the Clinton presidency, Robert Martin, ombudsman for the EPA, has put a hold on all investigations of mismanagement at hazardous waste cleanup sites requested by members of Congress.
The investigator, Hugh Kaufman, was relieved of his duties Dec. 15. Mr. Kaufman was the leading critic of the EPA and exposed numerous cover-ups at Superfund sites, embarrassing the agency.
"In view of reported recent personnel transfers and pending implementation of EPA ombudsman guidelines, both of which are beyond my control as national ombudsman, all schedules for all national ombudsman cases have been put on hold and/or delayed until further notice," Mr. Martin said in the memo issued Friday.
"I will communicate with you as soon as I have received clear and consistent direction from EPA management, which will allow me to develop definitive schedules for performing work on all the pending national ombudsman cases," Mr. Martin said.
Mr. Kaufman was reassigned by Tim Fields, a Clinton appointee heading the EPA Superfund program who said the decision was not retaliatory but based on job performance.
Mr. Kaufman predicted that his reassignment was the first step in putting a stop to the investigations "that basically embarrassed the entrenched bureaucracy and Clinton/Gore politicos because they were not doing their jobs."
The proposed new guidelines governing the investigative power of the ombudsman were published Jan. 3 in the Federal Register and will take effect after the public-comment period closes March 5.
Mr. Kaufman said the new rules effectively kill the ombudsman's investigative functions.
"The new guidelines will mean the ombudsman cannot even select his own cases, the bureaucrats will decide whether they will allow the ombudsman to investigate them and it shuts down the public process," Mr. Kaufman said.
Many Western senators also are critical of the proposed guidelines, which they say are "troubling."
Sen. Michael D. Crapo and Sen. Larry E. Craig, Idaho Republicans, and Sen. Wayne Allard, Colorado Republican, wrote the agency Wednesday asking that the guidelines be deferred indefinitely.
The proposed rules raise "concerns that the integrity, function and independence of the ombudsman office may be jeopardized," the senators said.
"We feel it is imperative that the office be allowed to function independently," they said.
Mr. Kaufman said the new guidelines also would prohibit the sharing of government documents with elected officials, which was the case when Mr. Allard requested an investigation of the Shattuck Chemical cleanup in Denver.
Mr. Allard was denied access to documents that Mr. Kaufman eventually uncovered. The documents showed waste in the radioactive burial site was leaking into the Platte River, and once exposed, the EPA agreed to move the Superfund site.
Mr. Allard said he hopes the incoming Bush administration will "establish a positive relationship with the ombudsman program and not put it at risk, which is what happened with this administration."
Under the new guidelines, Mr. Kaufman said, "the people being investigated will have control over whether they are allowed to be investigated, how you will investigate them and they will not allow you to communicate with the public sector or Congress, who asked for the investigation in the first place."
"It is classic bureaucratic smoke and mirrors," Mr. Kaufman said.
Mr. Allard warned the agency against moving too quickly to put the new rules in place before the Clinton administration leaves town.
"I would hope they would not try and do anything to the ombudsman's office with a new administration coming in," Mr. Allard said.
The 20 investigations put on hold are administered under the Superfund Act and Resource Conservation Recovery Act focusing on cleanup sites located in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Indiana and Washington state.
-------- us nuc politics
Bush's Military Views Reportedly Shifting
Defense: Lawmakers say the president-elect is stepping back from his call for radical change, including cutting the U.S. presence in Europe.
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, January 9, 2001
By JAMES GERSTENZANG, Times Staff Writer
mailto:James.Gerstenzang@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20010109/t000002289.html
AUSTIN, Texas--President-elect George W. Bush, who questioned the extent of the U.S. commitment in Europe during the campaign, sounded more cautious Monday about reducing the American military role there, according to a senior senator.
The report by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and comments by other members of a bipartisan delegation of defense experts from the Senate and House suggest that as he comes face to face with the responsibilities of being commander in chief, Bush may be reluctant to make dramatic shifts in U.S. defense policy and spending priorities.
But he showed no inclination to step back from his support for a national missile defense program.
The meeting with approximately a dozen members of the House and Senate armed services committees and defense appropriations subcommittees--the legislators whose budget votes give them considerable authority over defense policy--offered the president-elect a firsthand look at the choices he must make if he tries to shift spending to beef up the military and give troops a pay raise estimated at 7%.
The conference also gave the legislators an opportunity to take the measure of the president-elect, who campaigned on a promise to change the way business is done in Washington.
Asked after the closed-door session whether Bush registered any surprise at what he heard, Levin said that "he's recognizing the complexity of the numbers" that make up the approximately $309-billion defense budget.
And, Levin said, "I think he's less committed to . . . making shifts in policy than he might have sounded during the campaign."
Addressing the questions Bush raised during the campaign about whether the U.S. should play such a large peacekeeping role in the Balkans, Levin said the president-elect now sounded "a little more cautious."
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who will be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said overseas troop deployments were discussed in the context of military morale problems and resulting difficulties in recruiting and retaining troops.
Missile Defense a 'Sensitive Subject'
During a photo session as the meeting drew to a close, Bush acknowledged that national missile defense was "a sensitive subject for some members."
"It's a sensitive subject for leaders of different countries around the world," Bush said. "On the other hand, I think it's our obligation to do everything we can to protect America and our allies from the real threats of the 21st century.
"But the missile defense subject and the budgetary matters are all matters that require a lot of discussion and a lot of give-and-take and a lot of listening, and this was a good beginning," he added.
Questions about the missile program are likely to be some of the earliest, and most difficult, defense policy matters Bush will address, involving not just budget decisions but issues that go to the heart of nuclear stability.
Critics say that because it could upset the nuclear balance, the creation of a missile defense system could set off a massive missile construction campaign in Russia and China. This is because those countries may be convinced that the only way they could restore the nuclear balance would be to increase their nuclear arsenals enough to overwhelm the defense system.
President Clinton left the decision to the next administration, saying more information on the feasibility of the project was necessary.
Bush said the group focused not so much on specific lines in near-term budgets, but on long-range policy and weapons systems that will be relevant to national defense two decades from now.
"I talked loud and clear about [how] a peaceful world really will depend upon our nation's willingness to make a concerted effort to keep the peace, our nation's effort to make sure that the men and women who wear our uniform are better paid and better housed and treated with the respect they deserve," Bush said.
'You've Been a Superb Listener'
Warner said it was the first time he could recall that a president-elect had sought out the views of congressional defense experts before inauguration.
"Defense has sort of been on the back burner . . . for many years," Warner said to Bush during the photo session. "You've been a superb listener."
Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) said Bush took "considerable" notes during the meeting.
Levin, the senior Democrat on the Senate armed services panel, said he hoped the meeting was a sign that defense issues would be addressed on a bipartisan basis.
---
Bush Focuses on Policy Matters
Associated Press
January 9, 2001 Filed at 1:33 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Bush.html
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Dogged by questions about his nominee for labor secretary, President-elect Bush nonetheless focused on policy matters Tuesday, traveling to Washington for briefings at the Pentagon and a meeting about his education proposals.
Bush also plans to work on filling more jobs Wednesday and Thursday while in the nation's capital. He must still name a U.S. trade representative, CIA director and United Nation's representative -- and sit for his official photo, which will be hung in post offices and federal buildings.
As he tends to the business of becoming president, though, Bush has been confronted with an imbroglio concerning Linda Chavez, his choice for labor secretary, because of disclosure that she provided housing and money to an illegal immigrant who did chores around her house nearly a decade ago.
Bush said the revelation, which he learned about Sunday night, hasn't changed his view that Chavez should be the nation's top labor law enforcer.
``I think she'll be a fine secretary of labor,'' Bush said Monday.
``I strongly believe that when the Senate gives her a fair hearing, they'll vote for her,'' he said. Chavez' confirmation hearings are scheduled for Jan. 16-17.
Democrats have vowed to question Chavez about when she learned that Marta Mercado, a Guatemalan, was in the United States illegally.
Mercado told The Associated Press on Monday that she informed Chavez of her illegal status at the time she was living with her in 1991 and 1992. Bush aides said Chavez told advisers that she learned of Mercado's status only after Mercado had left the United States and returned to Guatemala. Mercado now lives in Maryland legally.
The revelations cast a cloud over Bush's final days of preparing to lead the nation.
On Monday, Bush met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Austin to discuss his proposals to strengthen the military. Bush pressed for a national missile defense system, but said he realized that it was a ``sensitive subject'' for lawmakers who oppose it.
He was peppered with questions about Chavez in a briefing with reporters after the meeting.
Bush planned to spend Tuesday morning at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where moving vans were dropping off some of his belongings before traveling on to Washington.
The Bush's have moved into their new house on the ranch in remote central Texas, where they'll stay until they move into the White House.
Bush was expected to arrive in Washington Tuesday evening. On Wednesday he'll receive Pentagon briefings and get his picture taken.
Thursday he plans a meeting with ``education entrepreneurs'' to discuss to promote accountability within the public school system through more frequent testing. Also on the agenda is a Bush proposal to give parents with kids in failing schools federal money for private schooling or tutoring.
Bush planned to return to Crawford on Thursday and remain there until he leaves Texas on Jan. 16 or 17 for his swearing on Jan. 20.
---
Clinton's left wing legacy
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
Peter Parisi
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200119192649.htm
With less than two weeks remaining in his presidency, President Clinton is still desperately seeking a legacy other than that of being the first chief executive impeached in 130 years, the only one ever found in contempt of court, and just the second at risk of being disbarred.
Let me suggest a real legacy possibility: That this has been the most left-wing presidency in our nation's history.
The success of a mostly sympathetic media in portraying his administration as "centrist" notwithstanding, it has from Day One been way out on the left wing:
• Jettisoning his 1996 State of the Union assertion (which he never believed to begin with) that "the era of big government is over," his fiscal 2001 budget, by one estimate, he called for $1.3 trillion in new discretionary outlays over the next decade in 83 new programs and 155 spending increases.
• He sought to vastly expand the Family and Medical Leave Act with the use of unemployment-compensation funds to make it paid leave.
• He acquiesced in Mrs. Clinton's massive health care plan, which would have nationalized one-seventh of the nation's economy.
• He proposed expansion of Medicare to lower the age of eligibility from age 65 to 55 - when the program is financially insolvent with its current caseload.
• He has sought to expand Medicare with a prescription-drug benefit, another costly new entitlement.
• He has called for and signed the largest-ever income-tax increase (one that included a retroactivity provision) amounting to $280 billion over five years.
• He proposed early in his first term both a BTU tax and a $50 billion pork-barrel "economic stimulus" package.
• He vetoed bills that would have ended the marriage tax penalty and killed the estate tax.
• He created AmeriCorps -paid "volunteerism" - at a cost estimated at $26,000 per "volunteer."
• He sought Senate ratification of the unverifiable Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• He has shelved deployment of a true national anti-missile defense.
• He opposed constitutional amendments to balance the budget and to prevent flag desecration.
• He appointed to office such card-carrying liberals as Joycelyn Elders, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Andrew M. Cuomo, Donna E. Shalala, Carol M. Browner, Bruce Babbitt, Bill Lann Lee and many others.
• He negotiated the Kyoto global-warming treaty, a pact so extreme it wasn't sent to the Senate, because it had no hope of ratification.
• He unilaterally took hundreds of millions of acres of lands in Utah, Arizona and elsewhere for national-monument designation, without consulting local elected officials.
• He slavishly opposed private-school vouchers at the behest of teachers unions - even though he and Vice President Al Gore sent their own kids to private schools.
• He vigorously defended affirmative action, and despite his claim we should "mend it, not end it," has done nothing to "mend" its inherent unfairness to non-minorities.
• He continues to call for allowing open homosexuality in the military, which was one of his first acts as president.
• He placed the Stonewall Inn, a New York shrine to homosexuals, on the National Register of Historic Places.
• He issued a presidential proclamation declaring June as "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month."
• He pushed through one mini- mum-wage increase, and demanded another, threatening to veto it if accompanied by compensatory tax cuts for the businesses that would have to pay it.
• He admitted he'd like to see the registration and licensing of all guns. He's pushed for more federal gun laws, while those already on the books have gone unenforced.
• Despite his vow to make abortions "legal, safe and rare," he has done nothing to reduce the number, and twice vetoed bans on partial-birth abortion.
• He lifted the ban on fetal-tissue research on his third day in office.
• He was dragged kicking and screaming to welfare reform. He vetoed it twice before signing it during the 1996 election year.
• He was dragged kicking and screaming to a balanced budget, proposing in June 1995 a 10-year plan to do so.
• He integrated the sexes in military basic training, and has pushed to open more combat-related jobs to women, despite the documented adverse impact on preparedness.
• He has deployed the military for numerous nonmilitary purposes, like "nation building" and "meals on wheels" programs in Haiti, Somalia and elsewhere.
• He deep-sixed a bipartisan proposal to strengthen Social Security through partial privatization.
• He sought to sharply increase funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.
• Finally, if he's a "centrist," why is there only a "vast right-wing conspiracy," and not also a "left-wing conspiracy" - vast or merely half-vast - out to get him?
Peter Parisi is a copy editor for The Washington Times. He can be contacted at parisi@twtmail.com
-------- MILITARY
Britain may be seeking halt to Iraq bombing
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-20011921201.htm
LONDON - Britain will propose to President-elect George W. Bush ending U.S. and British bombing of targets in southern Iraq as part of a wide-ranging review of policy toward Baghdad, the Guardian newspaper said yesterday.
The Foreign Office denied that any policy change was planned until Iraq complied with U.N. resolutions, but a senior official told Reuters that Britain did indeed want to end the Southern Watch air patrols. They have been in force since the 1991 Persian Gulf war and would discuss the idea with the Bush administration.
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, paying a farewell visit to the United Nations, denied any such withdrawal by Britain was under way.
-------- burma/myanmar
Burma junta clamps down on freedom party
AP Worldstream
January 9, 2001; Tuesday 2:42 PM Eastern Time
NICOLE WINFIELD
Myanmar's military junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi bitter rivals since the junta took power 13 years ago and violently crushed a democratic uprising have launched face-to-face talks, the United Nations announced Tuesday.
It was the first confirmation that Suu Kyi and the Southeast Asian nation's military rulers have ever spoken.
The announcement came just hours after U.N. envoy Razali Ismail concluded a five-day mission to Myanmar, where he met with the military government and with Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
''During his mission, Mr. Razali was able to confirm that the two sides had started a direct dialogue since last October,'' U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement. He said the sides are ''satisfied with the results achieved so far in the area of confidence building'' and are expected to start more substantive discussions on national reconciliation soon.
Stephane Dujarric, another U.N. spokesman, confirmed that Suu Kyi herself had taken part in more than one round of talks since October with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a senior leader in the ruling junta.
The talks represent a major advance in relations between the military government and Suu Kyi, who has faced years of harassment for her attempts to bring democracy to Myanmar.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military continuously since 1962. The current generals took power in 1988, gunning down thousands of pro-democracy protesters nationwide. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy was formed two weeks later.
In 1990, the military leaders organized general elections, and the NLD easily won, taking 82 percent of the seats. But the military refused to acknowledge the results and yield power. Afterward, NLD members were subjected to a nearly constant campaign of harassment and arrests.
Suu Kyi spent the years from 1989 to 1995 under house arrest on trumped-up national security charges. Since her release, her movements and activities in Myanmar have been severely restricted.
In a cruel test of her commitment, the government in early 1999 refused to grant her husband, British academic Michael Aris, a visa to visit her, even though he was dying of cancer. The government suggested instead that she go to her spouse's side in Britain an offer Suu Kyi regarded as a one-way ticket to exile. She stayed, and her husband died in March of that year.
Suu Kyi has been held under virtual house arrest since last fall, when she tried to leave Myanmar's capital, Yangon, on party business.
Until now, Myanmar's military government has consistently refused to negotiate with the opposition if Suu Kyi took part. With word of a breakthrough Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged both sides to ''seize the momentum and work to achieve national reconciliation in Myanmar at an early date,'' Eckhard said.
Earlier Tuesday, Razali told The Associated Press in Malaysia that his mission had been ''very satisfactory'' and that he intended to return soon.
---
Myanmar junta holds secret talks with Suu Kyi, dialogue planned
Agence France Presse
January 9, 2001, Tuesday 1:09 AM, Eastern Time
Philippe Agret and Sarah Stewart
Myanmar's junta has held secret top-level talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the two sides are poised to begin an historic dialogue that could end a decade of political deadlock, sources told AFP Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the junta's first secretary and powerful chief of military intelligence, met with Aung San Suu Kyi at least once last month, diplomatic sources in Bangkok and Myanmar's capital Yangon said.
A second meeting scheduled with the Nobel peace laureate may already have taken place over the last few days.
The diplomats said they did not know what had been discussed in the talks, but indications were that they had gone well.
Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) were now expected to embark on their first official dialogue since 1994, they said.
The sources said Myanmar's ruling general had confirmed in private that contacts were underway with the opposition party which it has tried to destroy since denying it a landslide election victory in 1990.
"I think everyone here accepts it is true and that direct talks have gone on between Aung San Suu Kyi and senior people in the SPDC," one diplomat told AFP.
It was not yet clear what form the dialogue would take, but it was believed Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta would broach political issues while other topics, such as the economy and health care, were addressed on the sidelines.
The breakthrough in attempts to achieve national reconciliation in Myanmar is largely credited to UN envoy Razali Ismail, who Tuesday left Yangon at the end of his third mission to the country since he was appointed in April.
------
New York Times
January 9, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09BRIE.html?pagewanted=all
MYANMAR: U.N. IN NEW TALKS A United Nations envoy seeking to promote political talks in Myanmar held his second meeting in three days with the pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Razali Ismail, left, of Malaysia also met with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, as well as with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a top leader in the military government. The five-day visit is the envoy's third since his appointment in April as United Nations envoy to Myanmar. (AP)
--------
U.N.: Myanmar, Suu Kyi Launch Talks
Yahoo News
Tuesday January 9 2:28 PM ET
By NICOLE WINFIELD,
Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010109/wl/myanmar_un_1.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Myanmar's military junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi - bitter rivals since the junta took power 13 years ago and violently crushed a democratic uprising - have launched face-to-face talks, the United Nations (news - web sites) announced Tuesday.
It was the first confirmation that Suu Kyi and the Southeast Asian nation's military rulers have ever spoken.
The announcement came just hours after U.N. envoy Razali Ismail concluded a five-day mission to Myanmar, where he met with the military government and with Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
``During his mission, Mr. Razali was able to confirm that the two sides had started a direct dialogue since last October,'' U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement. He said the sides are ``satisfied with the results achieved so far in the area of confidence building'' and are expected to start more substantive discussions on national reconciliation soon.
Stephane Dujarric, another U.N. spokesman, confirmed that Suu Kyi herself had taken part in more than one round of talks since October with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a senior leader in the ruling junta.
The talks represent a major advance in relations between the military government and Suu Kyi, who has faced years of harassment for her attempts to bring democracy to Myanmar.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military continuously since 1962. The current generals took power in 1988, gunning down thousands of pro-democracy protesters nationwide. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy was formed two weeks later.
In 1990, the military leaders organized general elections, and the NLD easily won, taking 82 percent of the seats. But the military refused to acknowledge the results and yield power. Afterward, NLD members were subjected to a nearly constant campaign of harassment and arrests.
Suu Kyi spent the years from 1989 to 1995 under house arrest on trumped-up national security charges. Since her release, her movements and activities in Myanmar have been severely restricted.
In a cruel test of her commitment, the government in early 1999 refused to grant her husband, British academic Michael Aris, a visa to visit her, even though he was dying of cancer. The government suggested instead that she go to her spouse's side in Britain - an offer Suu Kyi regarded as a one-way ticket to exile. She stayed, and her husband died in March of that year.
Suu Kyi has been held under virtual house arrest since last fall, when she tried to leave Myanmar's capital, Yangon, on party business.
Until now, Myanmar's military government has consistently refused to negotiate with the opposition if Suu Kyi took part. With word of a breakthrough Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) urged both sides to ``seize the momentum and work to achieve national reconciliation in Myanmar at an early date,'' Eckhard said.
Earlier Tuesday, Razali told The Associated Press in Malaysia that his mission had been ``very satisfactory'' and that he intended to return soon.
--------
Treat Aung San Suu Kyi as leader not "little sister," Albright warns Myanmar
Yahoo News
Wednesday, January 9
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010110/asia/afp/Treat_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_as_leader_not__little_sister___Albright_warns_Myanmar.html
WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta must treat opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as a political leader not as a "little sister" when it meets her for talks, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Tuesday.
Albright told reporters that she welcomed the announcement that a secret dialogue had been taking place since October between the opposition leader and Nobel laureate and the core of generals that rule Myanmar, the former Burma.
"One of the things that we have wanted to have is the establishment of such a dialogue," she said.
"Obviously this is something that we will have to see where it leads and whether it is a genuine dialogue."
The Secretary of State, a consistent supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, warned however that the military must not be allowed to submit the opposition leader to "patronizing and cruel conversations that were evident when I was there."
"She needs to be respected as a political leader and not as, what was explained to me, as a 'little sister' that they have to take care of by keeping her in her house."
Albright, who visited Myanmar while US Ambassador to the United Nations in September 1995, said she was called by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday to inform her of the dialogue.
She said she believed it was "extremely useful" that UN envoy Razali Ismail was taking an "active role" in brokering dialogue in Myanmar.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Tuesday that Secretary General Kofi Annan "reiterates his call for the two sides to seize the momentum and work for national reconciliation."
Razali left Yangon on Tuesday after a five-day visit during which he held talks with government officials and with Aung San Suu Kyi.
He reported that more substantial discussions between the opposition and Aung San Suu Kyi were expected to start shortly.
The United States has been one of the most consistent supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, and vilifies the junta which refused to hand over power when her National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990.
Earlier Tuesday, Razali gave the first concrete sign of an easing of Myanmar's tortured political climate, as he arrived in Kuala Lumpur after flying in from Yangon.
"There have been talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government which started towards the end of last year," Razali told AFP.
Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the junta's first secretary and powerful chief of military intelligence, met with Aung San Suu Kyi at least once last month, diplomatic sources in Bangkok and Myanmar's capital Yangon said.
A second meeting scheduled with the Nobel peace laureate may have taken place over the last few days.
Diplomats said the preliminary talks, which "went well," were aimed at building the framework for a landmark dialogue, the first since 1994, that could end a decade of political deadlock.
The breakthrough is largely credited to Razali, who Tuesday left Yangon at the end of his third mission to the country since he was appointed in April.
The "Razali initiative" comes at a time when the junta, despite enjoying total control over the country, is under increasing pressure from a range of influences from abroad.
--------
UN says Aung San Suu Kyi met Myanmar junta leader "more than once"
Yahoo News
Wednesday, January 9
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010110/asia/afp/UN_says_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_met_Myanmar_junta_leader__more_than_once_.html
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 9 (AFP) - The UN's special envoy to Myanmar reports that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met the military junta leader "more than once," a UN spokesman said Tuesday.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy, Razali Ismail, left Yangon on Tuesday after a five-day visit during which he held talks with government officials and with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Razali met separately with Aung San Suu Kyi and with Lt. General Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
Razali confirmed that the government and the opposition "had started a direct dialogue since last October," Eckhard said.
Stephane Dujarric, an associate spokesman, said the dialogue included a direct meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and General Khin.
Asked for details, he replied "we don't have dates, but they met more than once."
-------- colombia
Colombia Rebels Say They May Free 100 Prisoners
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By JUAN FORERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/10/world/10COLO.html
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Jan. 9 - In what officials see as a conciliatory gesture that may bode well for this country's stagnant peace efforts, the largest rebel organization has announced that it may release more than 100 soldiers and police officers whom it is holding captive, Colombian news media reported today.
Citing unidentified sources, a television news program, "NTC," and two of the largest newspapers, El Tiempo and El Espectador, said the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, would unconditionally release 100 to 150 soldiers and police officers by the middle of next month. The group holds up to 500 soldiers and police officers, virtually all taken prisoner after rebel attacks.
Officials in the administration of President Andrés Pastrana would not publicly discuss the issue today. But in interviews, a top-ranking official and two members of Congress said they believed that the rebels had made the offer to placate a government that appears to have grown tired of granting them concessions.
The rebels hope to keep a Switzerland-sized swath in southern Colombia that the government ceded to the rebels two years ago to further peace talks. Mr. Pastrana has to decide by Jan. 31 whether to offer the rebels an extension, a move that has little support among Colombians grown weary over the lack of progress.
The rebels announced a freeze on talks in mid-November. The government's position hardened after the killings last month of Representative Diego Turbay, leader of a Congressional peace commission; his mother; and five others. The rebels have neither denied nor taken responsibility for the deaths.
For relatives of captive soldiers and police officers, news of the rebels' plans brought cautious optimism. "This makes me so happy, even if my son is not among the ones released," said Librada Silva, whose son Fredy Bastidas Silva was among 28 officers seized after an attack on a southern town in in July 1999. "It means that this process has begun and that some mothers will be happy."
Other relatives of captive soldiers and police officers, however, were more guarded. Noralba Gálvez de Acosta, wife of Col. Álvaro León Acosta, who was taken prisoner on April 5, 1999, said her husband, who is wounded and sick, had almost been released before. But each time, the plan fell through. "This is a move forward," she said. "But we've had so many steps back that we won't believe it until we have our family members in front of us."
-------- drug war
New York Times
January 9, 2001
Metro News Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/nyregion/09MBRF.html?pagewanted=all
NEW YORK BROOKLYN: DRUG DEALER PLEADS GUILTY An Israeli drug dealer who once threatened to kill Salvatore Gravano, the Mafia hit man whose ferocity led to his nickname, Sammy the Bull, pleaded guilty yesterday in Federal District Court to charges of running a sprawling drug gang that flooded New York City and Arizona with nearly four million Ecstasy pills over three years. The defendant, Ilan Zarger, 31, was once captured on videotape, prosecutors have said, boasting that his organization had "someone standing by to whack" Mr. Gravano, who has been accused of running a rival drug gang in Arizona. Mr. Zarger is to be sentenced on April 6. Alan Feuer (NYT)
-------- india/pakistan
Dozens Wounded in Kashmir Explosions
New York Times
January 9, 2001 Filed at 9:56 a.m. ET
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/world/kashmir-explosion.html
SRINAGAR, India, Jan 9 (Reuters) - At least 48 people were wounded in two separate explosions in India's restive northern state of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, police said.
Twenty civilians were wounded when suspected separatist guerrillas fired a grenade at a pro-government militia member in Anantnag, but it missed its target and exploded on a crowded road instead, a police official said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack which occurred 55 km (34 miles) south of Srinagar, the state's summer capital.
Earlier on Tuesday, 28 people, including two soldiers, were wounded when a bomb exploded near a telecommunications office in the heart of Srinagar.
``An explosive device went off near CTO (Central Telegraph Office). According to initial reports, 28 people were injured,'' the police official said. There were no further details.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, which witnesses said blew out windows in several adjacent buildings.
Violence has continued to rock the troubled region despite an Indian ceasefire since November 28.
India initially announced the suspension of offensive operations against Muslim guerrillas for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and extended it for another month in late December.
But most guerrilla groups fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir rejected the ceasefire from their headquarters in neighbouring Pakistan and have intensified attacks on Indian forces and some civilian targets in the state.
In a fresh clash, three separatist guerrillas from the Jaish-e-Mohammad group were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara district near the border with Pakistan, police said on Tuesday.
The Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group was launched by Pakistani cleric Maulana Masood Azhar after he was released by Indian authorities in exchange for the release of the passengers of a hijacked Indian airliner in December 1999.
In another incident, a senior activist of Kashmir's leading separatist alliance, the All Parties HurriyatConference, Shahi-dul-Islam escaped unhurt when militants fired at him outside his Srinagar home, police said.
A police official also said four people belonging to the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen militant group had been arrested.
Both the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad had claimed responsibility for a car-bomb explosion near the main gate of a main Indian army base in Srinagar in December, which killed eight people including four soldiers.
Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed in the 11-year-old rebellion in India's only Muslim-majority state.
---
Indian army launches battle for hearts
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 07:28 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue09.htm
SIACHEN GLACIER, India - More than a year after driving Pakistani forces from the Indian-controlled Himalayas, the Indian army is waging a new struggle - trying to win over Kashmiri villagers whose loyalties are torn between the two enemies.
The fighting at Kargil in the summer of 1999 nearly turned into a war and left at least hundreds of soldiers dead.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir which has been divided between them since 1948.
''We've realized that no war can be fought unless the people are with you.
Kargil will not happen again,'' said Brig. Ashok Duggal, in charge of operations at the Siachen Glacier 20,000 feet above sea level.
As part of ''Operation Goodwill,'' the Indian army has set up a school, a hospital and vocational training center in the Turtuk region, Duggal told a group of journalists and photographers the army took to the remote area.
The villagers are learning to set up poultry farms and to use farming techniques that will let them coax at least one annual crop from the stony soil.
The army has set up a camel rearing center to breed the rare Bactrian camel, which is native to Mongolia. A few hundred of the double-humped camels live in Siachen and the breeding center plans to multiply their numbers for commercial use.
Despite the army's efforts, the villagers miss the easy access they had to the Pakistani side before the Kargil fighting.
''The army has done a great job for us, but since Kargil we have not been able to go across to see our relatives,'' said Kacho Mohammed Khan, an area resident.
But Duggal says the army is winning the support of the locals.
''The people are with us. We've won their hearts and loyalty. And if Pakistani intruders try anything again, we'll give them a bloody nose,'' he said.
Locals say the army could do more, like provide running water, heating and uninterrupted supplies of electricity.
''That's a tall order. But for now we'll settle for some new Hindi films,'' said Wasim Akram, a young Turtuk resident.
Camped among icy boulders, soldiers keep a frozen watch across the Line of Control that separates rivals India and Pakistan. Temperatures often dip to minus 40 degrees.
But morale is high. Defense Minister George Fernandes spent Christmas Day with the soldiers in Siachen.
India declared a monthlong cease-fire along the disputed border on Nov. 28 and has extended it until Jan. 28. Since the cease-fire, Pakistan has withdrawn several hundred soldiers from its side of Kashmir.
-------- space
USA Today
01/01/09
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
Iowa
Iowa City - University of Iowa scientists have an opportunity to study the magnetic field around Jupiter. The Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989, has been orbiting the planet and will be joined by the Cassini spacecraft. Scientist William Kurth and his colleagues will test the belief that Jupiter's massive magnetosphere is strongly influenced by solar wind.
-------- taiwan
Defending Taiwan
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
Jesse Helms
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200119192254.htm
When he takes office Jan. 20, President-elect George W. Bush will have a lot of mopping up to do in the realm of foreign policy. Perhaps the most incendiary issue confronting the new administration is America's looming confrontation with China over Taiwan.
While it is commonly assumed that the Korean peninsula is the likeliest place for U.S. forces to be involved in hostilities (at least in East Asia), the chances of war in Taiwan are probably greater. This is true for several reasons.
For starters, North Korean military capabilities have been degraded in many respects by the severe economic slide in that country for nearly a decade. Though the North Korean threat remains very real, North Korea is a failing power and is probably less able to wage sustained combat operations today than it was seven or eight years ago.
Second, deterrence works, and the United States has in place a very powerful deterrent in Korea with 37,000 troops and an iron-clad security guarantee contained in the U.S.-South Korean Mutual Defense Treaty.
This contrasts sharply with the developing situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Unlike North Korea, Communist China is a rising power, embarked on a massive military buildup. For 11 years running, China's military budget has increased by double digit percentages. These bulging budgets, subsidized by trade dollars from the United States and cheap loans from the World Bank, are being used to procure a raft of advanced and dangerous weaponry.
One needs only to listen to Chinese officials or read the Communist-controlled press for a day to know why China was embarked on this threatening military spending binge: the intimidation and ultimate subjugation of democratic Taiwan.
Just last month, Communist Chinese leader Jiang Zemin reportedly stated: "It is imperative to step up preparations for a military struggle so as to promote the early solution of the Taiwan issue. To this end, it is necessary to vigorously develop some 'trump card' weapons and equipment.
Make no mistake, China today is more able, and more willing, to use force against Taiwan than it was 10 years ago."
Unfortunately, that increased threat is not being countered by an adequate deterrent. Unlike in Korea, there are no U.S. troops on Taiwan, and there is no guarantee that we will help defend the island, having abrogated our defense treaty with Taiwan in 1980.
Furthermore, total U.S. force structure has been decimated by the Clinton administration. Thus, any U.S. forces dedicated to Taiwan in the event of hostilities will take days to get there and will have to be robbed from other missions, some of which (even in the Clinton era) involve vital American interests.
The preparedness of Taiwan's defense forces is also in doubt. Successive administrations have denied several badly-needed defense requests from Taiwan, solely to appease China. Moreover, it has now been more than 20 years since Taiwan has engaged in a joint military exercise with another country. Operating in such isolation, Taiwan's military cannot avoid being behind the curve when it comes to modern military metods.
U.S. policy compounds Taiwan's problems by maintaining several outmoded restrictions on military contacts between our countries:
No U.S. military officer above the rank of O-6 can set foot on Taiwan. The United States routinely sells sophisticated military equipment to Taiwan, but defense officials are often prohibited from engaging in detailed discussions with their Taiwan counterparts on how to use the equipment. When the United States sent aircraft carriers to Taiwan during the 1996 missile crisis, it was revealed that there are no direct, secure communication links between our militaries. Why not? Because to implement this common sense, life-saving idea would be seen by the dictators in Beijing as an infringement on the sacred "One China" policy.
A tyrannical aggressor engaged in a military buildup and advertising his hostile intentions. A small democracy under the gun. A complacent democratic power disarming, in retreat and appeasing the tyrant.
All of this, if not corrected soon, is a classic recipe for war.
Fortunately, Mr. Bush has signaled that he understands the problem. He has rejected President Clinton's fatuous notion of China as a strategic partner. Mr. Bush has pledged to build missile defenses with our Asian allies. And importantly, he has had the courage to think outside the box by supporting the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act (TSEA).
I authored the TSEA, along with Sen. Robert Torricelli, precisely to redress some of the aforementioned gaps in our deterrent posture in Taiwan. The TSEA requires close consultation with Congress on defense sales to Taiwan, upgraded military ties with Taipei, the removal of restrictions on U.S. military travel to Taiwan and the establishment of better communications between our militaries.
Along with a restoration of overall U.S. military power, early implementation of the provisions of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act by the Bush administration will be vital in lowering the chances of American men and women having to fight in the Taiwan Strait.
Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, is chairman of the Senate International Relations Committee.
-------- u.n.
U.N. Report Maps Hunger 'Hot Spots'
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09HUNG.html
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 8 - Hunger currently afflicts 830 million people around the world because of natural disasters, armed conflict and a grinding poverty that consigns the poor to chronic malnutrition, the United Nations World Food Program reported today.
"From generation to generation, people don't have enough food to eat," Catherine Bertini, the agency's executive director, said at a news briefing, where she distributed a map calling attention to "hot spots" where hunger is most severe. The map identifies large swathes of territory in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where tens of millions of people, most of them women and children, cannot get enough to eat.
"The combination of poverty and disaster causes people to have even less possibility to build resources to end their hunger," Ms. Bertini said.
The World Food Program defines hunger as a condition in which people fail to get enough food to provide the nutrients for active, healthy lives. Those who are considered undernourished subsist on 1,800 calories a day or less. The figure of 2,100 calories is generally recommended to sustain an average adult.
Although the data the program uses was collected for 1995 to 1997, officials said that their research shows that the scope of the problem has not improved, and in some places is getting worse.
Of the 830 million undernourished people, the report says, 791 million live in developing countries. The food agency said that 200 million are children under age 5 who are underweight for lack of food.
In more than 20 countries, hunger has been compounded by drought, which the agency said has affected 100 million people within the last year. The agency helped feed 16 million people hit by drought last year, compared with 3 million in 1996. In other areas, internal unrest has made it harder, if not impossible, to grow crops and get them to market.
"We've seen an alarming trend where the poorest nations are hit simultaneously by both natural and man-made emergencies, including in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Tajikistan," Ms. Bertini said. "Unfortunately, we see a potential for that to continue or even increase in 2001."
In sub-Saharan Africa, 180 million people, one-third of the population, are undernourished, the agency reported. The countries worst hit by hunger include Angola, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In Asia the number of undernourished people is 525 million, or 17 percent of the population, with the worst hunger found in North Korea, Mongolia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 53 million people, or 11 percent of the population, lack enough food, with the worst conditions in Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras.
Elsewhere, one of the countries with the greatest problem is Afghanistan, which is ravaged by civil war as well as the worst drought in decades.
Asked about Iraq, which has suffered from United Nations economic sanctions imposed after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Ms. Bertini said that 15 percent of Iraqis were malnourished. "Poor children under 5 are the people most at risk in Iraq," she said.
Ms. Bertini said that while conditions have improved in some countries - like Bosnia, Namibia and Botswana - they have deteriorated in others, like Afghanistan. In Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union, the transition from Communism to a free-market economy has caused suffering for people who cannot afford to eat properly.
The World Food Program reported feeding 89 million people last year, including refugees uprooted by wars and natural disasters. The food agency, based in Rome, operates in more than 80 countries.
Ms. Bertini said that countries struggling to overcome hunger need not only food but also water drilling and purification equipment and better sanitation and agricultural systems. In sub-Saharan African, progress has also been impeded by heavy government debt burdens, insufficient funding for health and education and the AIDS pandemic.
---
New York Times
January 9, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09BRIE.html?pagewanted=all
CROATIA: U.N. PROSECUTOR ON WAY The chief prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, will visit Zagreb next week in an attempt to iron out serious differences with Croatia's reformist government, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said. Mr. Racan's government has pledged to reverse the nationalist policies of the late president, Franjo Tudjman, and cooperate fully with the tribunal. However, it took a harder line last month, presenting a list of 13 conditions for cooperation, drawing criticism from Ms. del Ponte. (Reuters)
--------
Satisfied With U.N. Reforms, Helms Relents on Dues
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/10/world/10HELM.html
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - Jesse Helms, the Senate's fiercest critic of the United Nations and its budget structure, said today that he would allow the release of $582 million in American back dues to the world body, even though his goals for reform have not been fully met.
Mr. Helms, who has used his leadership position on the Foreign Relations Committee to demand reductions in American contributions to the United Nations budget and its peacekeeping operations, declared himself satisfied with a deal brokered last month by Richard C. Holbrooke, the American ambassador.
Mr. Helms, Republican of North Carolina, led the committee's senators in a standing ovation for Mr. Holbrooke, who has toiled for years to win the changes sought by Mr. Helms and the ranking Democrat, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. It was an oddly giddy scene - witnessed by several foreign ambassadors - that belied the long struggle by Clinton administration officials to conduct diplomacy under the stigma of being a deadbeat nation.
"Two weeks ago, Ambassador Holbrooke succeeded in cajoling, and maybe even a little browbeating, some of our friends at the United Nations into implementing several of the key reforms that lie at the heart of the so-called Helms-Biden legislation," Mr. Helms said.
Under the deal, the American share of the United Nations administrative budget of $1.1. billion would drop to 22 percent, which Congress required, from 25 percent. The American contribution to the $3 billion annual peacekeeping budget would be reduced from 31 percent to 26 percent by 2004.
The rollback in peacekeeping dues was not quite the 25 percent cap demanded under Helms-Biden, but Mr. Helms indicated that it was close enough, noting that it would save Americans $170 million over two years.
He said he would present legislation to free up the $582 million - the first payment from a total of $926 million - that Congress has set aside to pay back dues. United Nations officials say the United States has about $500 million in additional arrears, but Clinton administration officials expressed hope that the breakthrough would mollify other governments and allow the incoming Bush administration to begin with a clean slate.
"Through this debate, we have forced the United Nations to make much-needed reforms, and we have protected the American taxpayer from unknown increases that might have happened and been contemplated by the United Nations and its supporters," Mr. Helms said.
"Today was really an amazing, unexpected day," Mr. Holbrooke said in a telephone interview. "This was a historic turning point."
Mr. Holbrooke, who spoke tonight with Gen. Colin L. Powell, President- elect George W. Bush's secretary of state-designate, said the change would allow the next administration "to begin to strengthen America's role in the U.N. and to strengthen the U.N. itself."
Mr. Holbrooke said the American share of the budget was reduced by increasing allocations from other countries. The United States will save $100 million next year and an additional $70 million the year after, he said.
Several ambassadors to the United Nations attended the committee meeting, including envoys from Australia, South Korea, Argentina, Colombia, South Africa and Japan. With the exception of Japan, the other countries have agreed to increase their United Nations dues under the new allocation. Russia and China will take on the biggest increases in terms of their share of the budget, Mr. Holbrooke said.
Penny Wensley, the Australian ambassador, stiffened the mood slightly by voicing impatience with what many governments saw as strong-arm tactics by American lawmakers. She called on Congress to formally lift its 25 percent ceiling on United Nations payments, a restriction introduced by Senator Nancy Kassebaum in 1994.
-------- u.s.
Cole Suspect Tells of bin Laden's Involvement
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09YEME.html
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-20011921201.htm
ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 8 - A prime suspect in the attack on the American warship Cole told the authorities in his confession that he believed that the two suicide bombers had acted on the orders of Osama bin Laden, Yemeni officials close to the investigation said today.
The suspect's comments offer another circumstantial link between Mr. bin Laden and the attack on the American destroyer, which killed 17 sailors and wounded 39.
The officials did not identify the man, but described him as one of the three chief suspects in custody. He and up to seven others are expected to be tried in the bombing of the Cole on Oct. 12 in Aden harbor.
Yemen has said it has identified one of the bombers.
The authorities have yet to establish a firm connection to Mr. bin Laden, but American law enforcement officials have said several threads link the suspects held by the Yemenis to the bin Laden organization. Mr. bin Laden, whom the United States has charged with the 1998 bombings of two American Embassies in Africa, is a Saudi exile believed to be living in Afghanistan.
The jailed Yemeni's brother was described as a prominent Arab Afghan, as Islamic fighters who helped push Soviet forces out of Afghanistan in the 1980's are known. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect had confessed that he helped his brother run safe houses where Arab Afghans would meet.
The suspect reportedly said that an unidentified Syrian man supervised Mr. bin Laden's activities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and that all the Afghan Arabs who came to his brother's safe house worked for the Syrian. The two alleged bombers were in a group that the suspect said visited the house before the attack on the Cole, the officials said.
---
Cole Panel Urges U.S. Military to Increase Troop Protection
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - The United States military needs to devote much more time and money to combat the threat of terrorist attacks, a Pentagon commission that has been investigating the attack on the destroyer Cole said today.
The Oct. 12 attack, which killed 17 sailors and injured several dozen others in the Yemeni harbor of Aden, "demonstrated a seam in the fabric of our efforts to protect our forces," the report said.
That phrase and others in the 10-page unclassified summary of findings released this afternoon seemed to reflect a deliberately detached, impersonal, written-by-committee tone. There was no immediate indication of what findings are in a separate 138-page classified report.
More importantly, perhaps, there was no sign today of who will bear the ultimate responsibility for failing to prevent the attack. It had been expected that the findings released today would not address individual culpability, a point that Defense Secretary William S. Cohen reiterated at an afternoon news conference.
Asked if he were concerned that the omission of a finding of blame would make the public think a "whitewash" was going on, Mr. Cohen noted that separate inquiries on the issue of responsibility were under way, and that their findings would be given to him before he left office with the Clinton administration.
Mr. Cohen declined comment when he was asked if he thought that the destroyer's skipper, Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, had done everything he could to protect his vessel. The Secretary said he did not want to "prejudge."
The broad-brush findings released today included this passage: "The level of competence with which units execute force protection must be the same level for which primary combat skills are executed."
The Pentagon was to post the report on its Web site, www.defenselink.mil, this afternoon.
Mr. Cohen's remarks today were anticlimactic, since it has become known in recent days that officers overseeing the investigation had recommended that - whatever shipboard errors were visible in hindsight - neither the Cole skipper nor any crew members be punished. But whether Commander Lippold will ultimately be held accountable was still uncertain today.
Initially, an investigating officer concluded that the attack might not have been as disastrous if Commander Lippold had adhered more strictly to security guidelines. There was no Arabic speaker aboard when the vessel pulled into the port of Aden on the morning of Oct. 12, for example. And Commander Lippold had decided against having officers stand watch on the bridge, stationing them on the quarterdeck instead. Nor did the skipper order the crew to prepare fire hoses to repel attackers.
Even if fire hoses had been ready, they might not have made a difference, since the men on the skiff used in the attack had managed to insinuate their craft into the harbor flotilla. Another inevitable consideration is the general difficulty of preventing an attack if the attackers are willing, indeed determined, to sacrifice their lives.
"You've got to weigh the performance of the crew against the outcome," one senior officer said this week. "And had they done everything, it would not have changed the outcome."
---
Official: No U.S. personnel to be disciplined
USA Today
1/09/01- Updated 11:19 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-01-09-cole.htm
ADEN, Yemen (AP) - The Navy has decided that neither the captain nor crew of the USS Cole should be punished for failing to follow all prescribed security precautions before the fatal Oct. 12 terrorist attack, a senior defense official said.
Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations and final arbiter in the matter, has decided to endorse the determination made last week by Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, that no punishment is deserved, said the defense official, who is close to the deliberations and who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.
It remains possible that others, higher in rank than the Cole's captain, could be held accountable. Defense Secretary William Cohen plans to order an accountability review, separate from the Navy's internal investigation, that would seek to determine whether military officers responsible for U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf area can be faulted for shortcomings such as inadequate intelligence warnings of threats from terrorists, officials said.
Clark had not submitted his written endorsement Monday afternoon but was expected to soon, the official said Monday.
In an interview Tuesday with a group of reporters, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said he could not discuss the matter because Clark had not yet made public his decision. Danzig said, however, that he was pleased the matter would be concluded before he leaves office Jan. 20, since ''this happened on our watch.'' He said he had not seen Clark's written decision.
The Navy planned to announce the result of its investigation of the Cole bombing this week. The probe sought to determine circumstances of the attack and what ''force protection,'' or preventive measures, the captain ordered the crew to take.
Because the Cole's captain, Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, did not carry out all of approximately 60 planned actions to ensure the ship's protection while on a refueling stop in Yemen's Aden harbor, some believed he would be punished and his career ruined. Instead, Clark supported Natter's determination that Lippold had done what could have been reasonably expected under the circumstances and that he was not given necessary information about the terrorist threat in Aden, a major port at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
Clark and Natter also believe that even with security measures in place as prescribed, the attack would not have been prevented, officials said.
As the Cole took on fuel in Aden harbor, a small boat sidled up to the 505-foot destroyer. Explosives aboard the boat were detonated and ripped a hole 40 feet high by 40 feet wide in the Cole, damaging it so severely it almost sank. Senior Navy officials, including Natter, praised Lippold and the crew for having acted heroically to save the ship.
The nature of the attack was unprecedented, although the threat was not unimaginable. The military's written guidelines on terror threats states explicitly that harbor craft of the sort that approached the Cole ''require special concern because they can serve as an ideal platform for terrorists.'' The guidelines say fire hoses should be ready for emergency use and personnel be briefed on using them for repelling boarders, small boats and ultralight aircraft.
On his own Lippold decided not to prepare for using fire hoses, another senior defense official said, also speaking anonymously. Lippold apparently believed that fire hoses would not strengthen the ship's defenses.
Some crew members said after the bombing that they saw the small boat approach the Cole and assumed it was yet another harbor craft providing trash disposal and other services. No one on the Cole challenged the craft as it approached.
The Navy officer who conducted the Cole investigation, whose name has not been disclosed, found that the attack might have been prevented or minimized if Lippold had ensured that all preventive actions were taken. But Natter disagreed, and Clark endorsed Natter's view, the official said.
Clark has determined that no negative report related to the Cole attack should be placed in Lippold's personnel file, the official said.
In addition to the Navy probe, Cohen established a special commission, headed by a retired Navy admiral and a retired Army general, to find what force protection lessons could be learned from the Cole bombing.
The commission's report, expected to be released Tuesday, concludes that the U.S. government needs to do more to guard against terrorist attacks on U.S. military forces transiting abroad - not just ships like the Cole but also aircraft that refuel in remote places. Officials familiar with the report said it asserts the view that terrorism is a long-term threat that deserves more attention, including more resources for intelligence warnings. The officials discussed the commission's finding on condition of anonymity.
---
Cole crew won't face punishment
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 12:06 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nlead.htm
ADEN, Yemen (AP) - The Navy has decided that neither the captain nor crew of the USS Cole should be punished for failing to follow all prescribed security precautions before the fatal Oct. 12 terrorist attack, a senior defense official said.
Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations and final arbiter in the matter, has decided to endorse the determination made last week by Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, that no punishment is deserved, said the defense official, who is close to the deliberations and who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.
It remains possible that others, higher in rank than the Cole's captain, could be held accountable. Defense Secretary William Cohen plans to order an accountability review, separate from the Navy's internal investigation, that would seek to determine whether military officers responsible for U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf area can be faulted for shortcomings such as inadequate intelligence warnings of threats from terrorists, officials said.
Clark had not submitted his written endorsement Monday afternoon but was expected to soon, the official said Monday.
In an interview Tuesday with a group of reporters, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said he could not discuss the matter because Clark had not yet made public his decision. Danzig said, however, that he was pleased the matter would be concluded before he leaves office Jan. 20, since ''this happened on our watch.'' He said he had not seen Clark's written decision.
The Navy planned to announce the result of its investigation of the Cole bombing this week. The probe sought to determine circumstances of the attack and what ''force protection,'' or preventive measures, the captain ordered the crew to take.
Because the Cole's captain, Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, did not carry out all of approximately 60 planned actions to ensure the ship's protection while on a refueling stop in Yemen's Aden harbor, some believed he would be punished and his career ruined. Instead, Clark supported Natter's determination that Lippold had done what could have been reasonably expected under the circumstances and that he was not given necessary information about the terrorist threat in Aden, a major port at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
Clark and Natter also believe that even with security measures in place as prescribed, the attack would not have been prevented, officials said.
As the Cole took on fuel in Aden harbor, a small boat sidled up to the 505-foot destroyer. Explosives aboard the boat were detonated and ripped a hole 40 feet high by 40 feet wide in the Cole, damaging it so severely it almost sank. Senior Navy officials, including Natter, praised Lippold and the crew for having acted heroically to save the ship.
The nature of the attack was unprecedented, although the threat was not unimaginable. The military's written guidelines on terror threats states explicitly that harbor craft of the sort that approached the Cole ''require special concern because they can serve as an ideal platform for terrorists.'' The guidelines say fire hoses should be ready for emergency use and personnel be briefed on using them for repelling boarders, small boats and ultralight aircraft.
On his own Lippold decided not to prepare for using fire hoses, another senior defense official said, also speaking anonymously. Lippold apparently believed that fire hoses would not strengthen the ship's defenses.
Some crew members said after the bombing that they saw the small boat approach the Cole and assumed it was yet another harbor craft providing trash disposal and other services. No one on the Cole challenged the craft as it approached.
The Navy officer who conducted the Cole investigation, whose name has not been disclosed, found that the attack might have been prevented or minimized if Lippold had ensured that all preventive actions were taken. But Natter disagreed, and Clark endorsed Natter's view, the official said.
Clark has determined that no negative report related to the Cole attack should be placed in Lippold's personnel file, the official said.
In addition to the Navy probe, Cohen established a special commission, headed by a retired Navy admiral and a retired Army general, to find what force protection lessons could be learned from the Cole bombing.
The commission's report, expected to be released Tuesday, concludes that the U.S. government needs to do more to guard against terrorist attacks on U.S. military forces transiting abroad - not just ships like the Cole but also aircraft that refuel in remote places. Officials familiar with the report said it asserts the view that terrorism is a long-term threat that deserves more attention, including more resources for intelligence warnings. The officials discussed the commission's finding on condition of anonymity.
---
'Be All You Can Be' no more
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 11:59 PM ET
By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/ndswed01.htm
WASHINGTON - Two decades after launching one of the most successful ad campaigns in history, the Army today unveils a new slogan that it hopes will reconnect the service with young men and women.
The new tagline, "An Army of One," replaces the popular "Be All You Can Be," which has been used since 1981.
The Army hopes the new slogan will appeal to a generation less attracted to military service than its predecessors. The message: The Army is an egalitarian outfit that values self-growth and teamwork.
"An Army of One," crafted by the Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett, caps a yearlong effort to reshape the Army's marketing approach. The slogan first airs in a 60-second ad Thursday during NBC's Friends, a popular show with young adults. For the year, the Army plans to spend $150 million promoting the tagline on TV, in print and through direct mail.
Army officials say "Be All You Can Be" will remain part of recruiting brochures. The slogan became a cultural touchstone in the early 1980s after it helped the Army rebuild itself following the Vietnam War.
"Be All You Can Be" has been hailed as one of the best ad campaigns in history. The trade publication Advertising Age ranks it as the second-best jingle in modern history, following the McDonald's slogan "You Deserve a Break Today."
Jim Martin, a military sociologist at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, says the "Be All You Can Be" campaign helped attract a generation of high school graduates who couldn't afford college. "They viewed the Army as an entry point into society," Martin said. But today's strong economy has made jobs more plentiful and college more affordable at the expense of the Army.
"Be All You Can Be" was the brainchild of Gen. Maxwell Thurman, who headed the Army Recruiting Command. The slogan is inscribed on Thurman's headstone at Arlington National Cemetery.
The new slogan already has some critics. "What does that mean?" asks Andrew Bacevich, a former Army officer who teaches at Boston University. Bacevich says it doesn't explain the Army's post-Cold War role.
---------
Panel on Cole Attack Urges Increased Spending on Intelligence
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/10/world/10SHIP.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - The American military has failed to devote adequate resources to gathering intelligence and lacks a coordinated strategy with other government agencies to fight terrorist threats like the suicide bombing of the destroyer Cole in Yemen last October, a Pentagon commission reported today.
The commission, created by Defense Secretary William S. Cohen in the wake of the Cole attack, recommended a series of steps to tighten security for American forces around the world.
Among them are increasing spending on intelligence, assigning security experts to traveling ships and making training against terrorism as high a priority as training for combat.
The commission's findings, released at the Pentagon today, provided no new details on the events leading up to the attack on the Cole as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12. In fact, a summary of the commission's classified report mentioned the Cole by name only once.
The two retired commanders who led the commission, Gen. William W. Crouch of the Army and Adm. Harold W. Gehman of the Navy, emphasized that they had not set out to assign blame for any lapses or oversights that allowed two suicide bombers to steer a harbor skiff packed with explosives up to the Cole.
"We didn't make lists of things that people did wrong or things like that," Admiral Gehman said.
Nevertheless, many of their 30 recommendations carried the implication that more could have been done to avert the attack. Today Mr. Cohen announced that he had asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, to review their findings and those of a separate Navy investigation to determine whether any senior commanders should be disciplined.
The Navy's investigation, focused more narrowly on the actions aboard the Cole, has concluded that the ship's captain and crew failed to follow a series of required security measures. But two senior admirals have recommended that no one on board face punishment for their actions. That investigation, being reviewed by the chief of naval operations, Adm. Vern Clark, is expected to be completed later this week.
"I make this referral," Mr. Cohen said at the Pentagon today, "without any preconceived notion that someone in the chain of command was either inattentive or negligent, but rather to review all of the circumstances surrounding the attack so that we can have a full account of what happened on the ship and off."
Although not intended to assign fault, the commission's findings made it clear that the Pentagon needed to do more to protect American forces overseas, particularly those traveling alone from one spot to another, as the Cole was.
Despite efforts to heighten security after the bombing of an apartment complex in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American airmen in 1996, the commission concluded that the attack on the Cole "demonstrated a seam in the fabric of our efforts to protect our forces."
It found a lack of coordination between the military, the State Department and other agencies in preparing for visits by American forces in foreign countries. And it found that the military's intelligence efforts had shifted from a cold-war focus to today's threats "only at the margins."
Admiral Gehman and General Crouch said today that they had found no evidence of specific intelligence reports warning of an attack, and they concluded that the Pentagon had to give a higher priority to gathering intelligence on terrorist threats, both generally and in situations like the Cole's refueling stop.
"I think what the report points to is that the ship did not have specific intelligence tailored to its visit to Aden and that we need to have much greater intensity of focus," Secretary Cohen said. The commission's report recommended increasing spending on counterterrorism efforts and training but did not say by how much, leaving it to the new administration to balance fiscal constraints against the threat.
Their report echoed previous reviews of terrorist threats and even a presidential directive in 1997, which elevated the status of the nation's counterterrorism efforts, suggesting that the warnings had not taken root within the military.
"The terrorist threat is extremely dangerous," General Crouch said today. "It is enduring. It's not going away. They are persistent. They are tenacious. They're a patient opponent. We have to deal with that."
On the question of accountability, the commission's report contrasted sharply with that of the commission created after the bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in June 1996. That commission detailed a series of errors and oversights that contributed to the attack and the resulting 19 deaths. Mr. Cohen ultimately decided to withdraw the promotion of an Air Force commander, Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwalier, who was cited for failing to safeguard the complex adequately.
In this case, Admiral Gehman and General Crouch did not even interview any witnesses under oath, saying their focus was improving security to prevent future attacks.
But in their remarks today, they appeared to rule out at least some accountability questions raised in the wake of the attack.
They concluded, for example, that the "standing rules of engagement" that control the response of American troops to threats - and that in the Cole's case prohibited guards from firing pre-emptively on approaching boats - were adequate. They did not directly question the decision to rely on the port in Aden to refuel, rather than the Navy's own oilers, saying the number of oilers in the fleet was sufficient.
Asked if any of the findings or recommendations suggested that the Cole attack could have been averted, Admiral Gehman demurred.
"I don't know," he said. "We did not do an in-depth study of how this thing could have been prevented, and I just don't know what it would have taken to prevent this thing."
-------- OTHER
-------- environment
In Challenge to Bush, Forest Chief Bars Logging of the Oldest Trees
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/politics/09FORE.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 - In a clear challenge to the incoming Bush administration, the head of the Forest Service issued a policy today barring the cutting of old-growth timber on public lands.
The policy statement by Mike Dombeck, the Forest Service chief, goes far beyond any other efforts to put the oldest and biggest trees in the nation's forests off limits from loggers and mills who prize them for their commercial value. If allowed to stand, the policy would reduce by 50 percent the amount of timber on federal lands that is due to come up for auction, Clinton administration officials said.
Unlike recent environmental rules issued by President Clinton, Mr. Dombeck's forest-management directive does not carry the weight of federal law. But unlike Mr. Clinton, Mr. Dombeck has the right to remain in office for 120 days after the inauguration of President-elect George W. Bush and his directive would remain in effect until reversed by a new Forest Service chief. Barring any change, managers at each of the scores of national forests must heed the new directive in drawing up plans for any timber sales.
People close to Mr. Dombeck described today's statement as a throwing down of the gauntlet for a new administration that has signaled its intent to take a very different position on the use of public lands.
"This is as strong a departure as I can remember from the timber-driven policy approach," said Andy Stahl, who heads an organization of current and former Forest Service employees and who said the policy could have an impact far greater even than that of the forest-protection plan that Mr. Clinton announced last week.
A spokesman for the timber industry, Michael Klein, criticized Mr. Dombeck's move as the latest in a series of steps taken by the Clinton administration that had "essentially made the national forest system off limits" to commercial logging.
Since 1989, the volume of timber cut on federal lands has declined sharply, from 12 billion board feet a year to about 3 billion, in large part because of court-ordered restrictions intended to protect the Pacific Northwest habitat of the spotted owl, an endangered species.
But in that region in particular, old-growth timber is still the biggest commercial prize, a valuable but increasingly scarce resource now believed to account for just 3 percent of the nation's forests. The wide planks cut from big old trees are highly sought by timber retailers and command prices beyond those of smaller, more common trees.
The exact extent of old-growth timber has never been mapped, despite directives to do so under the last Forest Service policy statement, issued in 1989. The new guidance from Mr. Dombeck includes a call for more precise mapping.
In his statement today, Mr. Dombeck described the old-growth policy as an important final stage in a transformation that, under the Clinton administration, has already brought about an array of strict restrictions on logging and other development in national forests.
"Today, we are learning to use timber harvest as a tool to help restore healthier, more diverse, and more resilient forests - not simply to supply wood for society," Mr. Dombeck said in his policy address, at Duke University, in Durham, N.C. "In the future, we will celebrate the fact that national forests serve as a reservoir for our last remaining old- growth forests and their associated ecological and social values."
Mr. Dombeck, 52, who began his government career in 1978, is not entirely new to criticism. Under Mr. Clinton, he served for more than three years as the designated chief of the Bureau of Land Management but never won the required Senate confirmation to that post.
In 1997, Mr. Clinton named him instead as chief of the Forest Service, a post in which he is responsible for some 8 percent of American lands. In that post, he has been an important architect of the forest-protection plan that Mr. Clinton unveiled last week. The plan prohibits road- building and logging on about a third of the national forest land.
Mr. Dombeck also presided over the setting of less-noticed but parallel restrictions that will affect the vast network of roads already in place on the roughly 20 percent of the forest lands that have been developed.
Under those new rules, also announced last week, the current road network will shrink to a significant but still undetermined extent. The network, which is notoriously undermaintained, now extends about 386,000 miles, or 15 times around the earth.
The declared purpose of that change is not only to limit environmental harm caused by road-building and road maintenance but also to protect budgets that have never been adequate for the vast scope of forest- service roads.
Mr. Dombeck, a fisheries biologist, was named Forest Service chief in 1997 after serving as the acting head of the Bureau of Land Management. His appointment to the Forest Service job, which was not subject to Senate confirmation, was seen as a kind of consolation prize.
Under federal rules, Mr. Dombeck, as a member of the senior executive service, cannot be dismissed from his post until 120 days after a change of administration.
That sets him apart from the chiefs of other major land agencies.
People who have been watching the transition process have said there is little doubt that Mr. Dombeck would be replaced in a new administration. While emphasizing his belief in conservation, Mr. Bush has said he believes in restoring a balance that would pay more heed to the wise use of natural resources, including timber, energy and coal.
Even before Mr. Bush takes office, the names of a number of possible successors to Mr. Dombeck have circulated. All of those possible candidates have been less outspoken on behalf of conservation issues than the man who holds the job.
Still, in his speech today, Mr. Dombeck said nothing about the policies of the new administration and appeared to go out of his way to avoid a possible insult.
"Political affiliation made no difference to me or to the land," Mr. Dombeck said.
"Protecting wild and unfragmented landscapes is a bipartisan American tradition that rises above ideology."
A top aide to Mr. Dombeck, Chris Wood, said tonight that the Forest Service chief had no intention of resigning.
"Mike has stated publicly before, Mr. Wood said, "that as long as he is needed and useful that he would like to stay on as chief."
---
Forest Chief calls for preserving old growth
USA Today
1/09/01- Updated 12:01 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndstue01.htm
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service chief said Monday he was declaring all old growth trees in national forests off limits to logging, a policy that goes well beyond President Clinton's order protecting a third of national forests from timber operations.
Mike Dombeck, the service chief, said he will direct supervisors on every national forest in the country to map and protect the old growth on national forests remaining after a century of logging, and to develop a vision of how much old growth will be created for the future.
The policy would go beyond the plan signed last Friday by President Clinton, which declared 58.5 million acres of national forests where no roads now exist off-limits to new roads and most logging. President-elect Bush has not said whether he would try to roll back the new Clinton forest restrictions; but during his campaign, he suggested the proposal - announced more than a year ago - paid too little attention to concerns from Western states and the impact on logging and other industries.
Dombeck, under federal rules, has the right to keep his job 120 days after the change in administrations and his new plan would remain in effect at least that long.
Old growth now in areas known as matrix lands, where logging is allowed, would also be protected under the Dombeck initiative.
''In the not-so-distant past, old trees were viewed as overmature or decadent and targeted for cutting because of their high economic values,'' Dombeck said, in prepared remarks to a conference at Duke University in Durham, N.C.,
''Today, national forests contain our last remaining sizable blocks of old growth forest - a remnant of America's original landscape. In the future, we will celebrate the fact that national forests serve as a reservoir for our last remaining old-growth forests and their associated ecological and social values.''
In view of a record season of forest fires last summer, future logging will be in areas already developed, Dombeck said. It will be designed to reduce the risk of wildfire, especially around cities and towns, and improve the health of the forest rather than turn out logs.
Before the turn of the century, President Teddy Roosevelt created the national forests as a reserve after timber barons cleared the woodlands of the Northeast and Great Lakes. That policy changed after World War II, when the nation turned to the national forests for lumber to build homes for returning veterans.
After record logging in the 1980s left a small fraction of the old growth that was standing when pioneers moved into the West, the Forest Service sharply cut back harvest in the 1990s, partly under court orders to protect threatened wildlife such as the Northern spotted owl and salmon.
Previous Forest Service chiefs have announced policies declaring logging would be based on what's best for the ecosystem, but environmentalists continued to find individual timber sales that slated big trees for harvest and violated guidelines for protecting fish and wildlife habitat.
With a 40% increase in the Forest Service budget and a backlog of work to improve forest health and reduce fire risk, the national forests are likely to provide more timber and jobs than they do today, said Dombeck chief aide Chris Wood from Washington, D.C.
---
German Officials Quit Over Mad Cow Issue
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By ROGER COHEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09CND-COW.html?pagewanted=all
BERLIN, Jan 9 - The German health and agriculture ministers quit today over their bungled handling of an outbreak of mad cow disease that has shattered consumer confidence in beef and even the country's beloved sausages.
Andrea Fischer, the health minister and a member of the environmentalist Green party, and Karl-Heinz Funke, the Social Democratic agriculture minister, became the first ministerial-level casualties of Europe's battle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) commonly known as mad cow disease.
The illness, believed to result from the use of animal products in feed, has been linked to a nervous condition in humans, new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, from which 80 people in Britain and 2 in France have died. There have been no human casualties in Germany, but panic over beef has been at a high level for weeks.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder accepted the resignations without apparent regret, an indication that he had grown exasperated with the muddled response by the two ministers to reports of the disease and prodded them to quit. His government, riding high only weeks ago, is under pressure on several fronts.
Germany is a very ecologically-conscious country and prides itself on the untainted nature of many of its products. The outbreak of the disease has therefore come as a particular shock and this, combined with Mr. Schröder's low tolerance for errors, helps explain why the first ministers have fallen here rather than in Britain or France.
Ms. Fischer, 40, said: " I have to acknowledge that public confidence in the government's ability to deal with this problem has been shattered." She was bitterly attacked, on the eve of the Christmas holidays, for announcing that some kinds of wurst, or sausage, might be dangerous, just days after she said they presented no threat.
Many of Germany's several hundred varieties of sausage contain beef, and newspapers have been full of lists of the risk levels of the different kinds. Beef and sausage sales have plunged, while poultry is in unprecedented demand.
It was not only the sausage debacle that brought down the ministers. Ms. Fischer, an environmentalist in favor of ecological farming practices, and Mr. Funke, a beef farmer with a keen interest in the large-scale industrialized methods of modern production, found themselves at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.
The result was an often staggering confusion. Ms. Fischer was reluctant to pass on information to Mr. Funke, 54, who meanwhile took to penning poems in praise of beef farming that led some newspapers to surmise that he had gone mad himself.
When the ministries did finally come up with a plan to reform the farm sector last week, including a proposed $240 million investment to encourage ecological farming practices, Mr. Funke promptly disavowed it and promised to draw up some new ideas more favorable to large-scale beef producers.
His reputation was further damaged when it emerged last weekend that more than one scientist had informed the minister that cases of BSE existed in Germany, but he had ignored the warnings.
For a long time, the government's position was that Germany was free of mad cow disease because it used grain for feed rather than products containing animal feed. But after systematic testing began last autumn, several cases of the disease were discovered in German cattle.
In all, ten cases have been confirmed so far. The official explanation is that the cows were probably fed grain tainted with animal matter. But many uncertainties persist and in Germany, as elsewhere in Europe, the appropriate standards for testing cattle remain under vigorous debate. Meanwhile the ire of beef farmers is rising.
Ms. Fischer admitted that she had made mistakes, but suggested the real causes of the hysteria in Germany and throughout Europe were beyond the control of any minister. "The real cause of the crisis is to be found in the industrialized farming economy," she said. "Financial interests dominate and are put above consumer interests. On top of that, consumers are reluctant to pay the price for good food."
The resignations come at an awkward time for Mr. Schröder. Two other members of the cabinet have quit in recent months: Reinhard Klimmt, who was transport minister, and Michael Naumann, who was culture minister. The former was involved in a financing scandal; the latter decided to return to the publishing industry.
In addition, three key ministers - Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Finance Minister Hans Eichel and Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping - are under pressure. Mr. Fischer (no relation to Ms. Fischer) has faced an outcry over photographs showing him beating a police officer during his days as a militant leftist in the 1970s.
Mr. Eichel has been accused of using the air force plane at his disposal for personal flights, charges which have not been proved,- and Mr. Scharping is facing questions over the exposure of soldiers to depleted uranium in NATO ammunition.
These difficulties have not yet made a significant impact on Mr. Schröder's popularity, but they do provide the Christian Democratic opposition, long beleaguered, with a variety of new means to attack the chancellor in the period before important regional elections 10 weeks from now.
---
Antibiotics on the Farm
New York Times
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/opinion/09TUE2.html
One of the most striking patterns in modern American agriculture is the increasing use of antibiotics as a regular supplement in the feed and water consumed by cows, pigs and especially poultry. Most of these drugs are administered in small doses to farm animals not to cure sickness but to promote more growth on less feed and to prevent the infections that come with crowding in feedlots and confinement systems. The practice began in the late 1940's and early 1950's and has accelerated rapidly. Nobody knows precisely what volume of antibiotics is used today. But new estimates released by a public interest group this week suggest that the amount of antibiotics used nontherapeutically in American livestock has grown to 24.6 million pounds per year, a number that may be as much as 50 percent higher than it was in 1985.
These figures appear in a new report on agricultural antibiotics by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Mass. The numbers are alarming for two reasons. First, 24.6 million pounds far exceeds previous estimates. Second, it was a very hard number to arrive at because the data for antibiotic production and use - in humans or animals - are, as the report states, "shockingly incomplete." A trade group for the makers of veterinary medicines has estimated, for example, that far more antibiotics are used in treating human illness than are administered to animals. But the new estimates find just the opposite - that for nontherapeutic purposes, cows, pigs and poultry receive over all more than eight times the amount of antibiotics humans receive in the treatment of actual illness.
The public has a vital interest in this issue because the number of microbes that are resistant to antibiotic treatments is increasing, and much of the problem stems from the overuse of antibiotics, which kill off susceptible microbes but leave the resistant ones to proliferate. Giving large numbers of animals small doses of antibiotics creates perfect conditions for the development of resistant strains of microbes, including salmonella and campylobacter, that cause disease in humans. There is already widespread concern in the medical community about the prescription of unnecessary antibiotics for human use, but that problem is exacerbated by the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture. Moreover, the practice of giving animals antibiotics is largely unnecessary, as farmers in Sweden, where giving important human antibiotics to farm animals is illegal, have proved.
The public also has an interest in the quality of information concerning antibiotic usage. It is difficult to craft meaningful policy without accurate numbers. As this report convincingly argues, "even the most basic information on antimicrobial usage is not available" - not from government sources and not from industry. Indeed, government health officials have complained about the lack of reliable data on antibiotic use.
The way to ensure that antibiotics retain their efficacy against disease is to know exactly how and in what quantities they are being administered and to eliminate unnecessary usage. The Food and Drug Administration will be exploring the use of antibiotics in animals at a meeting later this month. It will need to analyze the warring estimates and find a way to end the statistical uncertainties. But there seems little doubt that antibiotic use will need to be cut back sharply before it produces even more microbes that are resistant to modern medicines.
------
Court Limits Scope of Clean Water Act
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/national/09CND-SCOTUS.html
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 - Overturning a 15-year-old environmental regulation, the Supreme Court ruled today that the Clean Water Act does not authorize the federal government to regulate the dredging and filling of isolated ponds and wetlands.
The 5-to-4 decision was based on an interpretation of Congressional intent rather than on a conclusion about constitutional limits on Congressional power. But the ruling was nonetheless very much a part of the court's continuing debate over federalism, with the majority observing that the authority that the Army Corps of Engineers claimed over isolated waters would, if upheld, "result in a significant impingement of the states' traditional and primary power over land and water use."
For that reason, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said in his opinion for the court, Congress should not be understood to have granted the agency this degree of authority in the absence of a "clear statement" to that effect. He said there was no such statement in the Clear Water Act, a 1972 law that gives the Army Corps jurisdiction over dredging and filling of "navigable waters," defined in the law as "the waters of the United States."
In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said the regulation was a "manifestly reasonable" interpretation of the Clean Water Act and was therefore entitled to the deference the Court usually gives to executive branch agencies' interpretations of their statutory authority. There was no reason to inject "the specter of federalism" into the case, he said.
Some 20 percent of the country's waters can be considered isolated. Environmental advocates said that because few states protect these areas, the decision had removed an important tool from federal regulators.
The regulation that the court invalidated was known as the migratory bird rule, because it asserted jurisdiction over waters that were or could be used by birds that cross state lines or that are protected by international treaties. The Army Corps of Engineers, which issued the regulation in 1986, invoked it to block a landfill project in an abandoned strip mine in northeastern Illinois. The old mine had partially returned to forest, with the depressions left by the mining operations having turned into ponds that had become habitat for a number of migratory birds.
---
Court limits scope of Clean Water Act
USA Today
1/09/01- Updated 02:05 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/court/nsco1442.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court's conservative majority continued its gradual erosion of federal powers over the states Monday with an important ruling limiting the scope of a landmark environmental law. The court ruled 5-4 that the federal Clean Water Act should not prevent a group of suburban Chicago localities from building a landfill atop seasonal ponds used by migrating birds.
The court found that the federal government did not have the power to stop the proposed landfill, but the justices stopped short of overturning part of the massive 1972 environmental law.
The landfill would be built atop abandoned gravel pits that are now filled with water and used as migratory bird habitat.
Congress did not intend the Clean Water Act to cover such small bodies of water, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority. Likewise, a 1986 refinement of the environmental law that deals specifically with the needs of migratory birds does not give the federal government such control, he added.
''Permitting the (government) to claim federal jurisdiction over ponds and mudflats,'' such as those in the Illinois case, ''would also result in a significant impingement of the states' traditional and primary power over land and water use,'' Rehnquist wrote.
For the last five years, the 5-4 majority has ruled that the commerce clause does not apply to noneconomic activity inside a state's borders. The Illinois case concerns a group of local governments that want to build a landfill on about 500 acres near Chicago, including about 17 acres classified as wetlands.
The Clean Water Act requires a permit from the Corps of Engineers for landfills affecting ''waters of the United States,'' including lakes, wetlands and ponds.
The local Illinois governments first requested a permit from the federal government in 1986, and have fought the case ever since. The landfill authority claims that the federal Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction in the case, since the pools do not really connect with any interstate waterway.
The Clinton administration backed the Army Corps in the case. A federal judge ruled for the government, and the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
The case is Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 99-1178.
---
It's Time Now to Mend Our Energy Ways
New York Times
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/opinion/L09GLO.html
To the Editor:
Bill McKibben, in his Jan. 5 Op-Ed article about the urgent need to stop global warming, makes a strong case for a new national energy policy that emphasizes energy conservation and non-fossil-fuel energy resources like wind, solar and hydrogen.
Rather than build new centralized power plants to meet all of our increased electricity needs, a new energy policy should encourage the use of smaller, distributed electric power systems driven by cleaner methane and renewable energy resources.
Safe and reliable new energy technologies are ready for widespread use. Strong leadership is required to bring these technologies to market and to solve our current energy problems in ways that address our present and future needs for a vibrant economy and a healthy environment.
E. THOMAS HENKEL Chapel Hill, N.C., Jan. 5, 2001
The writer is an energy and technology consultant.
---
USA Today
01/01/09
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
California
Ventura - Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail wants to hire inspectors to screen for the crop-destroying glassy-winging sharpshooter. The insect can carry Pierce's disease, a bacteria that cuts off water to wine grapes causing them to wither on the vine, posing a threat to California's wine industry.
Delaware
Dover - State officials signed an agreement with five major poultry processing companies improving the handling of waste from their operations. Farm runoff polluted by chicken litter has been blamed for harming Delaware's Inland Bays and the Chesapeake Bay. Outbreaks of Pfiesteria, a microorganism responsible for fish kills, may also be caused by the waste, officials said.
Idaho
Ketchum - A memorial is being established by The Nature Conservancy in the name of Jack Hemingway, the Idaho outdoorsman and son of author Ernest Hemingway. He died last month at age 77. The goal of the Jack Hemingway Habitat Restoration Fund will be to conserve the area along Silver Creek and other parts of Idaho, organizers said.
---
Wild about wildlife
Washington Times
EDITORIAL • January 9, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-house-200119201610.htm
With the stroke of a pen last week, President Clinton permanently outlawed logging and road-building on one-third of the nation's forest land. Environmental activists are pushing Mr. Clinton to further mold his leafy legacy by giving the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) national monument status. However, Mr. Clinton would make a monumental mistake by doing so.
The U.S. Geological Survey describes as "potentially enormous" the amount of oil in ANWR, up to 16 billion barrels or five years of U.S. imports. While the actual amount may be smaller, any oil found in ANWR would help reduce the enormous U.S. dependence on foreign oil and might help melt the rising heating bills so many consumers have faced this winter.
Opponents fear drilling would shatter the fragile creation of ANWR, conjuring up images of such destruction that one wonders why caribou have not already fled across the border to Canada. Actually, the herd has been thriving despite drilling in Prudhoe Bay. There are more than 450,000 caribou in the Western Arctic Herd, an increase of more than 400 percent since 1975. Wildlife in the area is remarkably adaptable; bears use the oil pipelines to go about daily business.
Areas nearly twice as large as Texas are already public lands in Alaska. The state contains 3.2 million acres of state parks, an area the size of Connecticut. While there are 1.5 million acres in the area of ANWR that could be opened for resource exploration - the so-called 1002 Area - Alaska contains more than 322 million acres of public lands. That ought to be enough.
-------- police
``StopTracker'' Solution for Managing Police-Citizen Contacts, Addressing Racial Profiling Concerns Sophisticated Wireless Tracking Application Unveiled at National Traffic Safety Conference in Washington D.C.
Yahoo News
Tuesday January 9, 6:47 pm Eastern Time
PSComm, LLC, Segue Technologies Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010109/md_pscomm_.html
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2001-- Law enforcement agencies have a new high-tech tool to combat realities and perceptions of racial profiling, PSComm, LLC and Segue Technologies announced today at a conference sponsored by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The StopTracker(TM) software is the first application of its kind that can track all police contacts with citizens and, by linking automatically with criminal and other public databases such as motor vehicle and driver records, push real-time information to officers about the people they stop.
This wireless capability will reduce officers' reliance on hunches, cut time filling out paperwork, and better protect officer and citizen safety. In addition, the StopTracker(TM) system creates an audit trail that can be used to independently verify key demographic information about citizens stopped by police and produce customized management reports.
``While law enforcement agencies have successfully led many community-based efforts in the past eight years to reduce overall crime, violence and traffic related injury and fatality rates around the country, too often these successes have not been fully realized within minority populations because of perceptions of bias and mistrust,'' stated PSComm President and CEO John D. Cohen during remarks to federal officials, community representatives and more than 100 leading minority law enforcement executives from across the country. Mr. Cohen, a former police officer, congressional investigator and White House policy adviser, continued, ``We identified Segue Technologies as a best-in-class provider to co-develop the StopTracker product after recognizing a critical, unmet need among law enforcement agencies for an end-to-end, scalable solution to address public perceptions of racial profiling by police.''
Segue President and CEO Michael Dyke reiterated, ``StopTracker is available today to enable law enforcement agencies to meet immediate data collection needs, regardless of their current state of technology. But it also is designed to scale up within an open architecture environment to meet the challenges and demands of tomorrow, either as a stand alone system, bundled as part of our Sentinel product line, or integrated with other reporting and data query software products in the market.''
NOBLE Executive Director Maurice Foster commented, ``I believe deployment of solutions like StopTracker will go a long way toward providing the technology, data collection, accountability and oversight necessary to move forward. Law enforcement needs solutions that assist them in strengthening, and in some cases rebuilding, the trust with the increasingly diverse communities they serve, so stakeholders can work together to proactively address other public safety and health challenges -- such as highway safety and seat belt use - that often disproportionately impact lower income and minority communities and neighborhoods.''
StopTracker(TM) can interface with mobile applications running on laptop computers in squad cars or support wireless handheld devices such as Palm. The data linking capability with RMS, CAD and local, state and federal databases allows the system to auto-populate many of the fields on the data screens, ensuring accuracy and cutting data entry time.
To schedule an interview or learn more about StopTracker(TM), Segue Technologies, Inc., PSComm, LLC/or their other products and services, call Sean Kirkendall at 301.222.1440. StopTracker Release Page Three January 9, 2001
About PSComm, LLC
PSComm, LLC is an end-to-end solutions firm that provides organizational analysis, strategic planning, technical systems and policy development assistance to public sector agencies, with a particular focus on public safety and law enforcement organizations.
The firm assists public sector agencies in improving their effectiveness by developing comprehensive strategies that address critical operations, technology and public policy issues. It is a privately held company maintaining corporate headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, and offices in Massachusetts and California. Additional information is available at: www.pscommllc.com.
About Segue Technologies, Inc.
Segue Technologies Inc. is a full-service information solutions provider to the public and private sectors specializing in the fields of custom application development, Internet, and wireless enabled systems.
Its products support the public safety, budget and financial management, and case management markets and range from small single-user applications to ones supporting organizations with worldwide operations.
The firm helps its clients create grounded, effective and affordable solutions to support their unique IT requirements. The firm is based in Alexandria, Virginia. Additional information is available at: www.seguetech.comContact:
Contact:
PSComm, LLC Sean Kirkendall, 301/222-1440 skirkendall@pscommllc.com
---
Winnie Mandela Leads Raid on Pensioner's Home
Reuters
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/world/crime-safrica-winnie.html
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 9 --- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela led a police raid on a pensioner's home to search for goods she claimed had been stolen from her daughter, police said on Tuesday.
Madikizela-Mandela, former President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife, raided 66-year-old Stella Kallmoka's home in the Johannesburg suburb of Yeoville on Sunday night, accompanied by eight bodyguards, two policemen and her daughter Zindzi Mandela-Hlongwane.
Police found no stolen goods in Kallmoka's home, but seized her car after a witness said it had been used in the alleged robbery at Mandela-Hlongwane's home in a neighbouring suburb, said police spokesman Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.
``There was a housebreaking, there was a search of Mrs Kallmoka's house and her car was taken. We could not find any proof that it was used in a crime and we found no stolen goods in her home,'' Martins-Engelbrecht said. ``Her car will be handed back today.''
She would not comment on the legality of Madikizela-Mandela's participation in the raid, but said the incident had made ``the police look bad.''
DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM MBEKI
Madikizela-Mandela is rarely far from controversy.
In a letter published by The Sunday Times last weekend she called on President Thabo Mbeki to apologise publicly for what she called his ``grievous maligning'' of her at a top-level meeting of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
In the letter Madikizela-Mandela, who is also the ANC Women's League president, asked Deputy President Jacob Zuma to intervene to repair her relationship with Mbeki, who she says criticised her at an ANC National Working Committee meeting in Durban last May.
She said Mbeki had suggested she was a rumourmonger unworthy of any serious position in the ANC, and a disloyal member of the ruling party ``bent on destroying the organisation by casting malicious aspersions on its leader.''
Madikizela-Mandela was hailed by black South Africans as the ``Mother of the Nation'' during apartheid and is still immensely popular, especially among the poor, despite her 1991 conviction for kidnapping and even though her then husband sacked her from his newly elected government in 1994.
---
USA Today
01/01/09
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
Conneticut
Shelton - An assistant fire chief charged with reckless driving en route to a 1998 fire plans to sue the police department. The state Appellate Court overturned Stephen Nesteriak's conviction in November, ruling he was exempt from standard traffic laws while driving an emergency vehicle. Nesteriak's attorney said he would sue for false arrest, defamation and malicious prosecution.
Mississippi
Moss Point - The resignation of U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott could slow a federal investigation into the 1999 death of Marcus Malone. The 32-year-old black man died while in police custody, sparking protests by the NAACP. Curley Clark, local NAACP president, said Pigott told him that uncertainty over departmental changes had delayed the probe.
Rhode Island
Providence - The state started a two-year study to see if police unfairly target minorities in traffic stops. Local and state police will record ethnicity, gender and other information about drivers they pull over. A team of experts will analyze the data.
-------- terrorism
American Embassy Reopens in Rome
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09ROME.html
ROME, Jan. 8 - The United States Embassy in Rome reopened today, three days after it was abruptly closed because of a terrorist threat.
The embassy shut down on Friday, its first security closing in a decade. On Monday, the building was surrounded by an added barrier that was put up overnight, and embassy employees received early-morning telephone calls telling them to report to work.
Embassy officials have refused to discuss the nature of the threat that prompted the closing, but the Italian media said a team of three Algerians, including a suicide bomber, had planned to attack the embassy on Friday. The reports linked the attackers to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire widely believed to be financing a network of Islamic terrorists.
Mr. bin Laden is accused in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed 224 people, and for the suicide bombing of an American warship in Yemen in October that killed 17 sailors.
---
New York Times
January 9, 2001
Metro News Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/nyregion/09MBRF.html?pagewanted=all
MANHATTAN: TERRORISM TRIAL The judge overseeing the trial of four men accused of conspiring to blow up American embassies in Africa said more people than expected were willing to be on a jury that may sit for a year. In a document filed yesterday, the judge, Leonard B. Sand of Federal District Court, rejected efforts by defense lawyers to increase juror pay from $40 per day for the first 30 days. The number of potential jurors seeking hardship exemptions was "somewhat less" than anticipated, Judge Sand wrote. (AP)
-------- activists
Turner, Nunn Unveil 'Nuclear Threat Initiative'
Washington Post
Tuesday, January 9, 2001; Page A18
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33779-2001Jan8.html
CNN founder Ted Turner and former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) yesterday formally unveiled plans for a Washington-based nonprofit organization that will focus on safeguarding nuclear weapons and fissile materials in the former Soviet Union.
Turner, a media billionaire and philanthropist who has already pledged to donate $1 billion to the United Nations, said he would give $250 million to the so-called Nuclear Threat Initiative over the next five years because nuclear weapons represent "the greatest threat humanity faces" in the short term.
"Despite the fact that we are no longer enemies, the U.S. and Russia still maintain nearly 3,000 nuclear weapons each on high alert," Turner said at the National Press Club. "An accidental exchange is not out of the question. In many ways, the threat has become more complex and dangerous."
While noting that he personally favors the "complete elimination of all weapons of mass destruction," Turner said the Nuclear Threat Initiative would pursue "pragmatic and effective steps" to reduce the threat.
Turner and Nunn will be co-chairmen of the organization. Its 11-member board of directors includes two senators, Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.). "I'm just one voice in deciding how the money is distributed," Turner said.
Nunn, who will also serve as the organization's chief executive, ran down a long list of possible projects for the new group, from funding nongovernmental organizations to aiding the families of underpaid Russian scientists who formerly produced nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
One immediate focus, Nunn said, would be to help consolidate fissile materials in the former Soviet Union so that they can be properly safeguarded. "There is tremendous vulnerability to theft and terrorism and illegal sales," Nunn said, adding that Russian scientists "are in great demand by terrorist groups, but don't know how to feed their families."
Nunn said the organization also could serve as a venture capital fund in the former Soviet Union while contributing several million dollars a year to accelerating U.S. programs for converting weapons-grade uranium and plutonium to commercial uses.
"There is a gap between the threat and the response, and we're going to try to help . . . as much as we possibly can," said Nunn, who served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee before retiring in 1996. "Fifty million dollars a year sounds like an awful lot of money, but in the sea of challenges out there in this arena, this is small potatoes. But I think we can come in where there are niches, and we can be a catalyst."
Nunn said the U.S. government clearly can do better on nonproliferation issues, and he challenged President-elect Bush to reexamine America's entire nuclear posture, including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the Senate rejected in 1999.
Nunn said the United States has done more than any other government to help safeguard nuclear weapons and fissile materials in the former Soviet Union, calling on America's NATO allies and Japan to do far more.
Nunn said two foreign experts in the field have agreed to join the Nuclear Threat Initiative's board -- former Swedish ambassador Rolf Ekeus, who headed the U.N. Special Commission in Iraq from 1991 to 1997, and Andrei Kokoshin, Russia's former first deputy defense minister who now serves in the Russian parliament.
Another board member, former deputy secretary of energy Charles Curtis, will serve as the organization's chief operating officer.
---
Turner targets nuclear threat
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
By Robert Stacy McCain
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20011922422.htm
Cable TV billionaire Ted Turner, calling the risk of nuclear annihilation "more complex and dangerous" than during the Cold War, announced yesterday the creation of a Nuclear Threat Initiative to decrease the danger.
"I am absolutely certain that the general American public, at least, is wildly underinformed about what these dangers are," Mr. Turner told a news conference at the National Press Club. He called nuclear proliferation "the greatest threat that humanity faces in the short term."
Former Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgia Democrat, will be co-chairman of the effort, to which Mr. Turner yesterday promised $250 million in funding over the next five years.
"Contrary to what many people believe, the threat posed by these weapons to our security and to the world's security remains very high," Mr. Nunn said, explaining that conditions in the former Soviet Union have increased the risk of nuclear accidents or terrorist use of such weapons.
"What we face today, 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is a situation that, despite our efforts, may be, in fact, more dangerous than during the Cold War . . . not in the sense of a global war, but in the sense of the use of these horrible weapons," said Mr. Nunn, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Turner, founder of CNN and a vice chairman of Time-Warner, said the nuclear threat "is even more urgent now, since it seems to have fallen off most people's radar screens during the last 10 years since the Cold War ended."
He said a recent CNN special about nuclear strategy, "Rehearsing Doomsday," had "brought home to all of us who were involved a key fact, that we have lived virtually our entire lives under the threat of nuclear war."
Mr. Turner said: "If there had ever been a logical reason for this state of affairs, it no longer exists. We have, therefore, decided to do what we can to work towards decreasing this threat. There is no greater legacy that we can leave our children and grandchildren than a peaceful and safer world."
Mr. Turner, a major donor to environmental and population-control organizations, has also pledged $1 billion to support the United Nations.
He has assembled a high-profile board of directors for the Nuclear Threat Initiative. In addition to Mr. Nunn, the board includes Sen. Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Republican, former Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger and Andrei Kokoshin, a member of the Russian parliament.
Speaking at yesterday's news conference, Mr. Nunn emphasized the dangers posed by nuclear technology in the former Soviet Union, the spread of chemical and biological weapons, and the recent tests of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan.
The only mention of communist China - which has expanded its nuclear weapons capability in recent years - was when Mr. Turner spoke of "the fact that we are no longer enemies with the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China."
Mr. Turner stressed that, while his new initiative does not aim at complete nuclear disarmament, that remains his own personal goal.
"I personally advocate the complete elimination of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, as quickly as possible," he said. "If fewer is better, then, in my opinion, zero is best."
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
---
Protester's tomato targets Blair
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 02:57 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue05.htm
BRISTOL, England (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair was hit by a tomato Tuesday as he encountered a group protesting the sanctions the United Nations imposes on Iraq.
''How many Iraqi children have you killed?'' a protester shouted as Blair arrived at City of Bristol College. Protesters were throwing oranges and other fruit, but only the tomato was seen hitting the prime minister.
Two women and a man were arrested, Avon and Somerset police said, but they were not immediately identified.
Blair carried on with the engagement. A stain on the shoulder of his jacket was the only apparent damage.
Later, in a question-and-answer session with party members and business executives, Blair defended Britain's policy of helping enforce the U.N. sanctions against Iraq. He said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had committed an act of ''barbarism'' by invading Kuwait, would be prepared to use weapons of mass destruction and had to be contained.
---
Protesters fight police over vote in Thailand
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 03:20 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Thailand-Elections.html
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Hundreds of people fought police in protests over the results of Thailand's elections, but officials blamed Tuesday's unrest partly on disgruntled bettors who had lost wagers on the vote.
Police sent reinforcements to 10 provinces, mostly in the south, where demonstrators blocked roads and laid siege to offices where votes were counted, said national police chief Pornsak Durongkapibul.
''They burned police cars and other property and injured several officers,'' Pornsak told Ruam Duay Chuay Kan radio.
About 1,000 protesters clashed with 500 police in the southern district of Langu, setting fire to the home of a winner in Saturday's election and torching several vehicles, said Police Col. Ratakan Kanchanachote. Twenty officers were injured. Police would not say if any protesters were hurt.
Pornsak ordered extra protection for election candidates and warned that curfews would be imposed if violence continued. Nine people were arrested.
Saturday's elections saw the apparent ouster of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's Democrat Party by the Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) party led by media tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra. By Tuesday, counting had been completed in 273 of the 400 constituencies nationwide.
Gothom Arya, a national election commissioner,said that in several areas of southern Thailand, protests were instigated by people who had bet huge amounts on the election. Vinai Seniem, an election official in Songkhla province, said bookmakers were demanding new results.
''They do not want to lose millions of baht in bets, so they instigate protests to force a recount and a revote,'' Vinai said.
In Songkhla's Chana district, police declared a midnight curfew after about 500 protesters clashed with riot police late Monday. A local election candidate said at least 15 people were injured.
There were scuffles in at least five other communities, including Trang, the prime minister's hometown.
The Election Commission is expected to pass judgment in coming weeks on widespread reports of electoral fraud. The commission is likely to disqualify some candidates and order dozens of by-elections.
Thaksin's own time as prime minister could be cut short by a court decision.
The National Counter Corruption Commission ruled Dec. 26 that he concealed a small portion of his vast wealth when he served in a previous government. If the Constitutional Court concurs, he could be barred from office for five years.
---
Israelis Protest Plan to Divide Jerusalem
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By DEBORAH SONTAG
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09CND-ISRAEL.html?pagewanted=all
JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 - Religious and nationalist Israelis poured into the contested heart of Jerusalem tonight to "pledge allegiance" to the Holy City and to put on a strong, festive show of opposition to an American peacemaking plan that seeks to split it up.
The peace plan itself, proposed by President Clinton in December, is flailing as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators await an American envoy, Dennis B. Ross, without great expectations that he can bring the two sides any closer. Mr. Ross is due to leave for the region on Tuesday.
The faltering of the peace effort did take the edge of anxiety off the "One Jerusalem" demonstration at the Jaffa Gate of the Old City tonight. But it did not dampen the spirit of a huge crowd of Israelis - many young, many wearing knitted skullcaps and many wrapped in Israeli flags - who chanted and danced under the floodlit stone walls. They particularly enjoyed a religious boys' choir's version of the disco song, "I Will Survive."
"As a religious person, I have such a love for Yerushalayim," said Uriel Rivkin, a Hasidic man, speaking in English but using the Hebrew word for Jerusalem. "Three times a day, I pray to it. I understand they're here, the Arabs. They have their neighborhoods. It's a big problem. But as best as I can tell, the peace thing is not so serious now."
Dr. Avraham Moskowitz, who lives in the settlement of Efrat, interrupted, "It is serious; it is serious."
"Then why," Mr. Rivkin asked, "aren't there two million, three million Jews surrounding Yerushalayim tonight, if it's so serious?"
Crowd estimates are always inflated and deflated by politics, but this appeared to be one of the largest Israeli rallies alongside the Old City walls in decades. The police gave no figures. Israel's Channel Two put the crowd at more than 100,000. Mayor Ehud Olmert - a principal organizer along with Natan Sharansky, the Russian immigrant leader - announced to great cheers that there were 400,000 participants present.
"I have never been so deeply moved as I am now to see all of you so pressed together here in the streets of Jerusalem, so excited and enthusiastic," Mayor Olmert said. "This is not a political rally. This is the expression of the deep emotional link of the people of Israel to our eternal and undivided capital."
If not overtly political, the rally's sponsors and its participants tended to be conservative. In addition to Mr. Olmert and Mr. Sharansky, the founding committee of One Jerusalem included David Bar-Ilan, who was spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu when he was prime minister; Dore Gold, the United Nations ambassador under Mr. Netanyahu; Tom Rose, publisher of The Jerusalem Post; and Jackie Mason, the American comedian.
The organizers said buses had come from all over Israel, from Qiryat Shemona in the north to Beersheva in the south. But it was not a cross section of Israeli society. Many in the crowd identified themselves as religious Zionists, as yeshiva students and as settlers. Many spoke English, French or Russian.
"It troubles me that the crowd is mostly religious," said Hannah Duek, 55, a settler. "I don't understand it. The others say that Jerusalem is dear to them, but they prefer to sit on their couches and deliberate between Barak, Bibi and Sharon." She referred to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Mr. Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, the Likud Party candidate for prime minister in the Feb. 6 elections.
Colette Avital, a Labor Party legislator, said she had "no doubt" that the rally was a right-wing campaign effort to associate the love of Jerusalem with the nationalist camp. "If it wasn't connected to the electoral campaign, they could have waited and done it on the seventh of February or made a committee that included some of us on the left," she told Jerusalem Post radio.
Indeed, many participants had politics on their mind. Bernice Brownstein, a Welsh-born settler who works as a nursery school teacher in Jerusalem, said she voted for Mr. Barak in 1999. "He was a kibbutznik, a general, everything you wanted in an Israeli leader," she said. "Now I'll vote for anyone but him. When it came down to it, he was prepared to sell us out. Jerusalem long ago stopped being left or right. But the politicians don't respect what the people feel."
Mr. Clinton's plan would divide Jerusalem, giving Israelis sovereignty over Jewish areas and Palestinians sovereignty over Arab areas.
Mr. Barak accepted the plan with reservations, and the principal one concerned split sovereignty over the holy plateau in the Old City. Mr. Barak said he would not accept Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount, site of the First and Second Temples of the ancient Jews, sacred to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven.
Last week, Israel's two chief rabbis declared that Jewish law forbids giving up sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Today, the highest-ranking Islamic cleric here, Ikrama Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem, issued a religious ruling saying the entire compound belongs to the Muslims. The Aksa Mosque complex belongs to the Islamic trust, he said, and "Muslims are forbidden to allow non- Muslims to control" even "its depths, no matter how far down, and the space above it, now matter how high up."
As the Israelis were gathering for tonight's rally, shopkeepers in the Muslim quarter were pulling down their metal shutters. The Hebrew odes to Jerusalem - "She is Jerusalem, ay-yi-yi" - blaring from loudspeakers on the Old City's perimeter did not penetrate into the quiet interior of the marketplace. There the rally - with such placards as "We pray to Jerusalem; they turn their back to Jerusalem and pray to Mecca" - seemed a world away.
David Weinberg, who works as a spokesman for Bar Ilan University, said this was the second rally he had attended in 20 years. The last one took place in Canada, calling for Mr. Sharansky, then a dissident, to be freed from a Soviet prison."Now Sharansky is liberated, and he's here fighting for Jerusalem," Mr. Weinberg said. "Go figure life."
On a trip to the United States last week, Mr. Sharansky raised money for the rally. The organizers would not identify the contributors. "It was the easiest fund-raising I have ever had to do," Mr. Sharansky said, "because people are so concerned for Jerusalem. I did not even have to go to New York. I could have done it all on the telephone."
Ronald Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spoke at the rally; his participation was criticized by some Israeli leftists as meddling in Israeli politics.
Mr. Sharanksy said that although the peace proposal appeared to be frozen, Mr. Clinton was trying to enshrine the points of agreement between the two sides in a written document. "Some very dangerous things are happening," he said. "They want to institutionalize all their ideas and create another international agreement, without a mandate from the people."
Part of a huge security presence, the Israeli police stood guard to prevent torch-carrying demonstrators from extending their human chain entirely around the walled Old City. The police blocked access to the Palestinian sections, turning back those who tried to march to the Damascus Gate. At that gate, in a brief skirmish, some Palestinians youths threw stones at the Israeli police.
During the rally, the Gilo neighborhood on the edge of Jerusalem came under fire from a Palestinian refugee camp. After months of nightly shooting attacks on Gilo, which prompted the Israeli Army to fire back at gunmen operating out of the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, the area had recently been quiet. The Israelis said they did not fire back tonight, and there were no injuries.
In Gaza, near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli troops. Palestinian officials said the Palestinian, Abed al-Hamid al-Hurati, had been shot during a gunfight.
At the rally, with tears in her eyes, Tobi Willig, an elderly American- born Jerusalemite, surveyed the crowd. "I see these walls, and I start to cry," she said, grasping a reporter's hand. "For so many years, the Jewish people have been saying, `Next year in Jerusalem.' What else would we say, `Next year in Kochav Yair'?" Kochav Yair is the elite suburb where Mr. Barak lives.
---
More than 200,000 protest in Jerusalem
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 07:42 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/crisis.htm
JERUSALEM (AP) - More than 200,000 Israelis jammed the streets outside the ancient walls of the Old City in one of the biggest demonstrations in Jerusalem's history. Monday's protest of proposals to give control of a disputed holy site to the Palestinians reflected opposition to a key point of President Clinton's peace ideas. It also spelled trouble for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, facing an election Feb. 6 with only one real issue - his readiness to make painful compromises for peace with the Palestinians.
Clinton was sending his Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday, as Clinton made a last-ditch effort to wring an agreement out of the reluctant neighbors before he leaves office Jan. 20.
The signs were not encouraging. The two sides disagreed about the outcome of a meeting Sunday in Cairo, chaired by CIA director George Tenet and attended by Palestinian, Israeli and Egyptian security officials.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said Tuesday that both sides had agreed to renew security cooperation by accepting a document Tenet presented at the meeting. Israel learned of the Palestinian agreement only Monday night, Ben-Ami said.
Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian security chief for Gaza, insisted there had been no such agreement - or any other - in Cairo. The Palestinians had refused even to discuss a request to arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, Dahlan added.
Israel is seeking renewed security cooperation with the Palestinians to help foil armed attacks and bombings before it eases sweeping travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza that bar Palestinians from leaving their towns and villages. The Palestinians say the restrictions must be lifted first.
Ben-Ami said that the closure of the Palestinian areas should be eased if the security situation allows it. ''In my opinion, we need to lift this,'' Ben-Ami told Israel radio.
Violence continues unabated
In the West Bank, a 27-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed late Monday in a clash with Jewish settlers. Palestinians said the confrontation started with Palestinian villagers stoning a settler's car.
Also in the West Bank, a 12-year-old Israeli boy was wounded when Palestinian gunmen ambushed his family's car.
Almost all of the 361 people killed in three months of violence have been Palestinians.
Clinton's peace proposals call on Israel to make concessions in Jerusalem in exchange for a drastic reduction of the Palestinian demand that millions of nearly 4 million refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to Israel.
Both sides have rejected the compromises they were asked to make. However, a Palestinian official, requesting anonymity, said a speech by Clinton on Sunday had a positive element - his first public mention of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The explosive Jerusalem dispute attracted a crowd of more than 200,000 Israelis to the gates of the Old City on Monday night. The focus is a hilltop where two sacred Islamic shrines, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, stand above the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples, Judaism's holiest site.
Muslims believe the shrines mark the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. The chief Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, mufti Ikrema Sabri, ruled Monday that Muslims may not give up any of the compound - or the air above it, or the ground beneath it.
That appeared aimed at a compromise idea, that the Muslims would control the mosque compound, but the Jews would have sovereignty on the archaeological sites below.
Some U.S. Jewish leaders joined the Israeli protesters. Ron Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he was representing ''millions of Jews throughout the world.'' He told the crowd, ''Tonight you should know that you are not alone.''
''Jerusalem is the center of all Jewish history,'' said former Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky, who helped organize the demonstration. ''We cannot give it away.''
Sharansky was one of many ministers who quit Barak's Cabinet last July, protesting concessions that Barak was reportedly prepared to make to the Palestinians. With the parliament poised to oust him last month, Barak called a quick election for prime minister.
With less than a month to go, Barak is trailing far behind rival Ariel Sharon, who opposes Barak's proposed concessions. Sharon's visit to the Al Aqsa compound on Sept. 28 set off the violence.
---
Marchers trample Clinton peace bid
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
By Dan Ephron
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-200119224339.htm
JERUSALEM - More than 100,000 people marched with blue-and-white Israeli flags into Jerusalem's Old City yesterday to protest President Clinton's peace plan, sounding what may have been a death knell for a deal before Mr. Clinton leaves office.
A top Palestinian negotiator also declared his rejection of the plan, providing further cause for gloom, although Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has not yet announced his final decision.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has accepted the Clinton plan as a basis for negotiations, also appears resigned to failure. In a televised news conference with American reporters yesterday, he said he was ready to unilaterally separate Israelis and Palestinians over the next two years.
Israelis began gathering at the Old City's Jaffa gate in the late afternoon in an extraordinary show of force by the country's conservative camp, which by all signs is set to capture power in next month's election.
The protesters poured into the city from Israeli towns and West Bank settlements to gather before the stone walls of the Old City, many of them wrapped in Star of David flags.
From a stage overlooking the sea of demonstrators, Ehud Olmert, Jerusalem's Jewish mayor, lambasted Mr. Barak in Hebrew for agreeing to cede part of the city, and then switched to English to deliver his message in a language Mr. Clinton would understand.
"We are a nation with long memories that go back thousands of years," he thundered. "We never forgive those who dare to raise their hands against our most precious treasures."
Thousands of police were mobilized on foot and horseback to separate the marchers from the Palestinians, who huddled in small groups in corners where the city's Jewish and Arab sectors meet and waited for the protest to end.
"They'll go home in a few hours, but the mess they made will remain," said Mohammed Riad, pointing to a mound of discarded placards and stickers.
A few miles away, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian officials spurned Mr. Clinton's ideas and said Palestinian demands had been largely ignored.
The speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qurie, said Mr. Clinton's plan was unacceptable because of flaws including its failure to guarantee unqualified Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount - which Palestinians call the Noble Sanctuary.
Palestinians also are deeply troubled by the plan's refusal to allow for a return by Palestinian refugees to homes in what is now Israel.
"We can't accept Clinton's ideas as a basis for future negotiations or a future settlement. Clinton didn't take Arafat's reservations into account, and these ideas don't offer our people their legitimate rights," Mr. Qurie said.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat added that any talks must be based on U.N. resolutions calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the land it won in war and a return of the Palestinian refugees to Israel.
Despite the setbacks, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright insisted during a visit to the United Nations yesterday that the Clinton administration would continue to work for a settlement "for as long as we are in office."
She said special envoy Dennis Ross would return to the region today, "and he is going to do everything he can to narrow the differences."
But some Israeli officials predicted that, with an agreement appearing out of reach, the United States would now ask the two sides to sign a watered-down version of the Clinton proposal that could serve as the basis for future talks.
That might be the focus of Mr. Ross' efforts, they said.
Mr. Clinton's proposal, a modification of ideas Israelis and Palestinians discussed at a failed Camp David summit nearly six months ago, calls for Palestinians to take charge of the Temple Mount, a site of deep religious significance to both sides, but give up any hope of returning to homes in Israel.
It also proffers Palestinians a state in 94 percent to 96 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza.
Both east and west Jerusalem have been under Israeli control since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel annexed East Jerusalem that year, and no Israeli leader dared suggest giving it back until Mr. Barak offered the Palestinians a neighborhood swap in the talks at Camp David.
The negotiations broke down over minutiae - the very details Mr. Clinton had sought to resolve with his latest proposal. But three months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and Gaza have intensified the disputes and deepened the distrust.
"Arafat is a genocidal murderer, not a peace partner," read a sign held out by one demonstrator in the Old City who, like most in the crowd, wore a skullcap.
Other speakers summoned history in a way only Jews and Arabs can to validate Israel's hold over all of Jerusalem, including the eastern half of the city where 200,000 Palestinians live.
"Jews were here 1,700 years before the first Arab set foot on the soil of this land," said a rabbi addressing the crowd. "No one has the right to give up any part of this holy city. It belongs to the entire Jewish people."
The remark echoed the position of Palestinians, who say Islamic shrines in the Old City are the property of all Muslims and cannot be subject to compromise. The shrines, the al-Aqsa mosque and the Mosque of Omar, sit on top of the Temple Mount, the platform on which the ancient Jewish Temple had been perched until it was destroyed some 2,000 years ago.
---
Beijing courts sentence banned sect members
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 07:36 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue03.htm
BEIJING (AP) - Beijing courts on Tuesday sentenced three followers of the outlawed Falun Gong movement to as long as six years in prison for printing and distributing flyers protesting the government crackdown.
Li Jinpeng, sentenced to six years in jail, He Yuansheng, sentenced to four, and Shi Xiufen, sentenced to three, were convicted of ''using an evil cult to destroy the implementation of laws,'' state-run Beijing Television said.
All three printed and distributed flyers about Falun Gong last year, the report said.
Police in eastern Shandong province also arrested six Falun Gong members who had clandestinely printed more than 200 different types of flyers for public distribution since June, state-run China Central Television said late Monday.
Shandong police refused to confirm the arrests or answer questions about the report.
Falun Gong members protesting the government's 18-month crackdown on the group have frequently distributed flyers during demonstrations on Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other public places.
On Tuesday, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily repeated accusations that Falun Gong was serving the interest of ''anti-Chinese forces in the West.''
Falun Gong drew millions of adherents in the 1990s with its blend of Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of founder Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk now living in the United States.
Falun Gong followers say the group's theories and meditation exercises promote health and moral living.
Alarmed by its size and tight organization, Beijing banned the group in July 1999 as an ''evil cult.''
It accuses the sect of leading more than 1,600 followers to their deaths by encouraging them to eschew modern medical care and deluding them into suicidal acts.
Meanwhile, the Higher People's Court of eastern Jiangsu province on Tuesday rejected an appeal by four members of another banned meditation and exercise movement who were sentenced to between two and four years imprisonment on subversion charges, a Hong Kong-based rights group said.
The four were among 600 Zhong Gong organizers reportedly rounded up after the group, which like Falun Gong attracted millions of followers, was banned as a cult in 1999. They four were accused of disseminating letters purportedly written by senior police officials that criticized Chinese President Jiang Zemin for the crackdowns on both sects, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
---
New York Times
January 9, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09BRIE.html?pagewanted=all
EUROPE
FRANCE: MAD COW PROTESTS Demanding more help from the government to offset losses caused by the panic over mad cow disease, French cattle dealers and slaughterhouse workers set up blockades on several of the main roads leading to Paris. Similar protests were held near Rennes, Lyon and Bordeaux. The protests, which in some areas caused 30-mile-long backups, were finished by the afternoon. But the strikers said they would renew their roadblocks if the government failed to respond to their concerns. Suzanne Daley (NYT)
---
China Says Protest Papers Are Distorted
New York Times
January 9, 2001
By ERIK ECKHOLM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09CHIN.html
BEIJING, Tuesday, Jan. 9 - The Chinese Government today defended the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 as "highly necessary to the stability and development of China."
In the first official response to the "Tiananmen papers," reportedly internal documents newly published in the United States that portray divisions among China's leaders at the time, a government spokesman also suggested that they were fake.
"Any attempt to play up the matter again and disrupt China by the despicable means of fabricating materials and distorting facts will be futile," a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Zhu Bangzao, said in a statement issued early this morning by the New China News Agency.
The documents were reportedly brought out of China by a man who told scholars that he was a Communist Party member who hoped to influence the debate over political change. The American experts who translated and edited the materials said they were convinced that the papers were authentic, though they could not be positive.
The violent suppression of the movement and the branding of its leaders as enemies of the state remain a source of bitter division in China, but no public discussion is allowed.
Copies of the documents are circulating on the Internet and are being avidly read by intellectuals, who say they have found no big surprises. There is no sign yet of any major effects on the political scene, where jockeying has begun for the top party and government positions in the next few years.
The documents depict sharp divisions among China's leaders at the time, pitting a faction led by the party chief, Zhao Ziyang, that sought compromise with the students, against hard-liners led by Prime Minister Li Peng, who feared that the party could be toppled.
The papers also confirm that the ultimate power lay with party "elders" led by Deng Xiaoping, who decided to take forceful action against the democracy movement, which had drawn in millions of people in hundreds of cities. In the documents, Mr. Deng expresses concern that the country could fall into chaos and that his plans for economic change could be destroyed.
On the night of June 3 and 4, after Mr. Deng's decision to crack down, troops poured into Beijing, shooting at crowds and killing hundreds. Mr. Zhao was placed under house arrest, where he remains.
---
China calls Tiananmen Papers fakes
USA Today
01/09/01- Updated 07:59 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue04.htm
BEIJING (AP) - China branded as fakes on Tuesday newly published documents exposing Chinese leaders' squabbles over the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and suggested their release was aimed at destabilizing the country.
In the first official reaction to their weekend release in the United States, China's Foreign Ministry labeled the documents as similar to previous efforts abroad to rekindle controversy over the divisive crackdown in which hundreds were killed.
''Any attempt to play up the matter again and disrupt China by the despicable means of fabricating materials and distorting facts will be futile,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement carried by the government's Xinhua News Agency.
Pressed by foreign reporters at a briefing later Tuesday, Zhu leveled more direct accusations.
''I have already indicated here that these are fabricated materials that distort facts,'' Zhu said. ''How much clearer would you have me be?''
Zhu defended the crackdown as ''highly necessary to the stability and development of China.'' He added that the ruling Communist Party's ''correct conclusion'' about the 1989 protests would not change.
Supposedly smuggled out of China by a disaffected civil servant and vetted by U.S.-based China scholars, the documents - dubbed the ''Tiananmen Papers'' - purportedly contain minutes of secret high-level meetings, intelligence reports and phone conversations by party patriarch Deng Xiaoping.
The documents - if authentic - show a leadership in turmoil over the million-strong democracy protests and their suppression on June 4, 1989. Their release threatens to aggravate ever-present strains among reformist and conservative factions in the party and reawaken debate over political change.
''The publication of these high-level decisions on the June 4 suppression will be positive, not only for a just resolution, but also for accelerating the advance of China's democratization,'' 111 people wounded and relatives of some slain in the crackdown said in a statement from New York-based Human Rights in China.
Ever since the crackdown, the government has maintained that the protests were an anti-government rebellion that needed to be crushed to safeguard economic growth - a view now supported by many Chinese who have benefited from free-market reforms.
But public resentment also lingers, especially in Beijing. The crackdown saw hundreds killed and thousands arrested. The actual toll is not known because the government has never allowed a credible inquiry.
Initially, the government had no comment about the documents and China's wholly state-run media did not report them. But news of the papers leaked into China via the Internet, foreign radio broadcasts and word of mouth, stirring the beginnings of debate.
Chinese Web site censors sought to silence the discussion. One message that detailed CNN's coverage of the documents was deleted within minutes of appearing on a popular chat site. But other messages got through. Excerpts from the papers and students' comments also were posted on a Beijing University Web site.
''To know whether the Tiananmen Papers are true or not, just look at them on an overseas Web site and judge for yourself. ... If one has done no wrong why fear other people knowing?'' one surfer said in a Web posting on the popular Sina.com portal that was later deleted.
The papers confirm popular perceptions that Li Peng, then the hard-line premier and now chairman of the legislature, argued for the crackdown. They also reveal how communist elders led by Deng imposed martial law, ousted reformist party chief Zhao Ziyang and replaced him with Jiang Zemin, now China's president.
Human rights groups and victims of the crackdown who have long targeted Li said the papers could help bring him to justice. New York-based Human Rights in China hoped the papers would bring Li a fate similar to Chile's Augusto Pinochet, internationally hounded to account for his brutal rule.
The very ability of someone, or a group of people, to collect the sensitive documents and spirit them out of China show that some within the Communist Party support political change and want the Tiananmen crackdown re-examined.
''Maybe the person who carried the documents is not a very high-level official, but quite senior leaders must have known about this,'' said Wu Guoguang, a former aide to Zhao and a Chinese politics scholar in Hong Kong.
But Bao Tong, also an adviser to Zhao and the most senior communist official imprisoned for the crackdown, said the documents could forestall political reform.
''It's possible some people will be scared and therefore say 'politics cannot be reformed, news must continue to be blocked off, rights must be stripped away to an even greater extent,''' said Bao, who spent seven years in prison and another year detained in a guest house for leaking word of the crackdown.
But Bao also said the documents would be a revelation to a majority of today's government officials who were not privy to the leadership battles of 1989.
''It will make them reconsider how this incident happened, what kind of problem it was, what kind of society China's is, what kind of system we work under, what procedures and systems are used in Chinese decision-making, how did Tiananmen happen and how can we avoid a recurrence?'' Bao said. ''Everyone will be bound to consider these questions.''
---
Tiananmen Legacy
New York Times
January 9, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/opinion/L09CHI.html
To the Editor:
Re "New Window on Tiananmen Square Crackdown" (front page, Jan. 6): You report on the release of documents that outline the deliberation among Chinese officials before the killing of students seeking freedoms in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The continuation of this ruthless government is in power today, and it continues to brutalize its citizens and those of Tibet on basic human rights.
As a trading partner of China, we should not expect it to be kinder to American interests than it is to the aspirations of its own people. The Chinese government does not yet play by the rules of civilized countries. The events in Tiananmen Square and in Tibet demonstrate the level of brutality that Beijing considers acceptable to support its self- interest and survival.
JOE MICKEY Fort Bragg, Calif., Jan. 6, 2001
---
Papers cast new doubt on China reform views
Washington Times
January 9, 2001
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200119223042.htm
Internal Chinese Communist Party documents made public in a new book contradict key U.S. intelligence judgments about China and reveal the current party chief to be a hard-line leader opposed to democratic reform.
The party documents present a rare inside view of Chinese leaders, who regard the United States as an enemy bent on overthrowing the communist system by backing pro-democracy protesters in the days before the bloody military crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989.
According to U.S. government and private China specialists, the material compiled by a Chinese government official with access to top-secret information also shows China's leaders were much closer to carrying out democratic political reform at the time than previously believed.
It also indicates successive U.S. administrations cultivated ties to China's current Communist leader, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and shunned reform-minded party leader Zhao Ziyang, who backed pro-democracy activists and was ousted for opposing the military crackdown.
Mr. Zhao was forced out two weeks before Chinese military forces were ordered into Beijing to impose martial law and break up peaceful protests on June 4, 1989. His ouster came after he voted against using force at a meeting of a five-member ruling Politburo Standing Committee.
According to the documents, China's rulers feared arrest during the crisis and were so divided that party "elders" - mostly retired generals - eventually stepped in to appoint Mr. Jiang by fiat and orchestrate the bloody attack.
The crackdown resulted in thousands of deaths and ended a nationwide movement in favor of democratic political reform.
According to the documents, Mr. Jiang was hand-picked to take over the ruling party apparatus by the elders on May 27, 1989. He was selected to "oppose bourgeois liberalization" and reinforce the "people's democratic dictatorship."
He also was chosen as someone who could project a false "image of reform and opening." The leader of the elders, Deng Xiaoping, called Mr. Jiang "a proper choice" for party general secretary.
Mr. Jiang won the post through what analysts say was an unconstitutional process after he supported an edict calling the protesters in Tiananmen Square "criminals" -the first step in preparing for the crackdown. He also shut down a pro-reform newspaper in Shanghai.
"This is documented proof that Jiang is no moderate," said one congressional China specialist.
Mr. Jiang has been praised by U.S. leaders as a reformer who sings Elvis Presley songs and once attended Christian missionary school.
The papers are part of a collection of 15,000 pages of Chinese language documents turned over to U.S. academics, which will be published in a book this month. They include transcripts of meetings of top Chinese leaders, decoded intelligence reports and fax communications ordering arrests of senior officials.
They provide unique insights into Chinese decision-making in the days before and after Chinese troops and tanks crushed protests in Beijing on June 4, 1989.
"These documents show that Deng Xiaoping and the [Chinese Communist] Party view the United States as out to overthrow their government and as clandestinely controlling students," said one defense official.
In Beijing, a government spokesman yesterday denounced the documents as fakes. "Any attempt to play up the matter again and disrupt China by the despicable means of fabricating materials and distorting facts will be futile," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.
China analysts in the CIA are said to be worried the documents will increase pressure for a comprehensive reassessment of the CIA's analysis on China, which is under fire from congressional Republicans.
The book, "The Tiananmen Papers," was compiled from documents supplied by an anonymous Communist Party official working under the name Zhang Liang. He wrote in the introduction that Beijing's review of the massacre is inevitable and eventually will lead to "discarding the Communist system."
"These documents show leadership indecisiveness in a crisis," said James Lilley, who was U.S. ambassador to China at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre. He said the material is probably authentic.
Mr. Lilley declined to comment when asked if the documents challenged the accuracy of CIA estimates on China. However, several of the documents seemed to reveal that some of the agency's reporting was flawed, including CIA claims of divisions between Mr. Deng and a key aide, Yang Shangkun.
"I think they made some wrong calls," Mr. Lilley said. The agency should review its China reports and "admit they were wrong," he said.
The new documents show Mr. Yang followed Mr. Deng's orders to oust Mr. Zhao, the pro-reform leader, and convinced the military to use force against the students.
One general, Xu Qinxian, refused orders to go into the square and was stripped of command of the 38th Army, based near Beijing, one report said. He was confined "to a hospital to recover his health."
Another case of flawed CIA analysis, according to some specialists, was revealed in a recent journal article by Paul Heer, the top CIA China analyst on Beijing's foreign policy. Mr. Heer stated that those who see factional politics in China's leadership are "misguided and even dangerous."
"The importance of these documents is that they undermine a common and mistaken view that the top Chinese Communist leaders are monolithic and never debate fundamental issues," said Michael Pillsbury, author of two books on Chinese policy debates published by the National Defense University.
"The documents suggest Western governments did not appreciate just how much of an extreme advocate for political reform China's top party boss Zhao Ziyang really was," he said. "Mr. Zhao should have been regarded by the Clinton administration and the West as a hero, like Nelson Mandela, rather than completely ignored during his 11 years of house arrest," he said.
Mr. Zhao and a deputy, Hu Qili, strongly opposed calling out troops to clear Beijing's central square of protesters. They were fired from their posts a short time later.
Then on June 2, 1989, the remaining committee members ordered the crackdown, supported by Mr. Deng and five other party elders.
Li Peng, China's current No. 2 party leader, is quoted in one document as blaming "a coalition of foreign and domestic reactionary forces" for spearheading the protests in order to replace socialism with capitalism.
Wang Zhen, one of the elders, then said of the protesters: "They're really asking for it. We should send in troops right now. . . . Anyone who tries to overthrow the Communist Party deserves death and no burial." In China, the worst form of punishment for someone is to leave their body unburied.
Another elder, Li Xiannian, stated that the capitalist conspiracy showed the West "really does want turmoil in China" and is "fighting a smokeless world war" against Beijing.
---
New York Times
January 9, 2001
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/world/09BRIE.html?pagewanted=all
AFRICA
ANGOLA: THOUSANDS STRIKE Thousands of government workers went on strike, shutting down ministries to protest a $30 a month minimum wage. The strike was the first union action in the former Marxist state since government troops and tanks crushed a 1995 walkout. The 110,000-member National Union of Angolan Workers called two weeks ago for a $300 a month minimum salary, a demand that was rejected. (Reuters)
Compiled by Terence Neilan
---
USA Today
01/01/09
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
Washington
Olympia - Lawmakers arriving for the opening of the Legislature were greeted by state workers chanting, "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Locke's budget has got to go." The state employees union is protesting Gov. Locke's proposed budget, which calls for some cuts in services and jobs.
--------
FTAA Campaign Materials
Sat, 9 Dec 2000 23:57:02 -0500
"Beka Economopoulos" <beka@ran.org>
1. FTAA Action Packet
This packet will prepare activists to speak on the FTAA, lead teach-ins, and organize in their communities. It will include a paper on the FTAA, talking points, an outline for a speech, a sample letter to the editor, a sample letter to Congress, a sample petition, soundbites, website and reading lists, overheads and graphs. Available the third week of January. Order from ACERCA, PO Box 57, Burlington, VT 05402, 802-863-0571, acerca@sover.net
2. FTAA "Campaign of Inquiry" Packet
Backgrounder on the FTAA, action points, and sample letters to Members of Congress and letters to the editor for a campaign of inquiry on FTAA, demanding release of the text and related documents as well as an opening of the negotiations process. The campaign will educate the public and pressure Congress, the White House, the USTR, etc. Download the packet from http://www.tradewatch.org/FTAA/ftaahome.html or contact Alesha Daughtrey, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, 215 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003, 202-454-5103, alesha@citizen.org
3. "FTAA for Beginners," a two-hour participatory workshop This workshop describes the FTAA and what it will do to our communities, starting with what people know: NAFTA. It includes NAFTA case studies; a race, gender, and class analysis of NAFTA; and a framework of expanding corporate globalization (WTO, MAI, NAFTA). It ends with a strategy planning session where participants identify local allies for a long-term anti-FTAA campaign. $25 for trainer's guide and handouts, + $25 for 2-x-3 foot flipcharts postpaid, from United for a Fair Economy, 37 Temple Place, Boston MA 02111, 617-423-2148 x 24, info@ufenet.org
4. Popular education training for anti-FTAA activists The Alliance for Responsible Trade is producing a six-hour popular education workshop for campus, labor, religious, and community use. It will prepare activists to form local coalitions against the FTAA and build support for the Quebec protests, either by recruiting people to go to Quebec or by promoting local solidarity demonstrations. After a six-hour training, ART trainers can stay in your community for several days to work with the most interested activists, but will need financial support to bring you the workshop. Available from ART, 4834 N. Springfield, Chicago, IL 60625, 773-583-7728, msn@mexicosolidarity.org
5. Printed materials from ART and Chicago AFSC -Six or eight four-page pieces that provide an overview of the FTAA, analyze its effect on various constituencies (labor, consumers, religious groups...), and offer alternatives for local organizing. -A brochure describing the Alliance for Responsible Trade, the Alternatives for the Americas, and suggestions for local organizing. -A videotape that describes the FTAA. -The Alternatives for the Americas document and a two-page summary of it. All the above will be available from ART (see #4). -Short pieces: "Questions and answers about the FTAA," "Mexico Under NAFTA," "United States Under NAFTA," "Overview of Neoliberalism," from Chicago AFSC, 59 East Van Buren, suite 1400, Chicago IL 60605, 312-427-2533, praxisafsc@igc.org
6. Pocket booklet on the FTAA "Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA): What are the Corporations Plotting This Time and Why Do You Care?" will educate activists and others about the terminology of the FTAA such as Deregulation of capital controls, Intellectual property and patent rights protection, Broader definition of investment, National Treatment, etc and what these things mean for humans and other living things. Groups that order 500 copies for $325 can sell the booklet for $1-$1.50 and make a bit of money for themselves. They also get listed on the back cover as co-sponsors. It will be available in January from the Alliance for Global Justice. Groups interested in co-sponsoring should contact mark@afgj.org
7. Environmental Action Kit on the FTAA The Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program is producing an action kit on the FTAA's environmental impacts that will include a four-page factsheet, training materials on communicating to the media and to the general public about the FTAA, and suggestions on how to build a local Responsible Trade coalition. We will support these materials by helping to organize local "town hall" meetings, conducting speaking tours, connecting Sierra Club activists to other coalition partners in your area, and supporting both local actions and participation at the Quebec Summit of the Americas. For futher information, contact Dan Seligman at (202) 675-2387 or at dan.seligman@sierraclub.org
8. Fact sheets on FTAA's impacts on forests and indigenous peoples, and Who's Behind the FTAA Rainforest Action Network will produce printed materials on how FTAA affects forests and indigenous peoples. They'll also develop materials on "Who Writes the FTAA, Who Benefits?" that will spotlight Citigroup, the Business Roundtable, and the role the private financial sector plays in back boardroom wheeling and dealing. Can provide teach-in support. Contact Beka Economopoulos at Rainforest Action Network, 917-560-3609, beka@ran.org
------- Onelist (submissions from subscribers)