------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
World Wary of Bush Presidency
Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium
Plutonium replaces uranium as NATO scare
Plutonium row may contaminate Bush's European debut
Germany slams US for silence on radioactive arms
Tests for Balkans veterans
Nuclear Submarine Protested in Spain
North Korean Placed Focus on Business in China Visit
A New Threat for a New Century
Main challenge for Bush will be foreign policy
Missile defense shield plan may strain U.S. relations
Ike's Warning to Bush
MILITARY
Drug kingpin may have escaped in laundry truck
Our Role in Colombia
Mexico's Drug Kingpin Escapes
Four rockets explode in Iranian capital
Pentagon to Examine Heart Illness on Vieques
Dangerous Deceptions on the Osprey
OTHER
Environmental Justice
ACTIVISTS
Protesters clash with Police during Bush inauguration
-------- NUCLEAR
World Wary of Bush Presidency
January 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-World-Reax.html
LONDON (AP) -- As George W. Bush takes his first big turn on the global stage, the outside world is proving itself a tough audience.
Bush's inauguration as America's 43rd president on Saturday drew the customary expressions of good will and good wishes from world leaders -- but in most countries, news coverage of the event ranged from indifferent to sharply critical.
Around the world, much of the commentary in Sunday's newspapers centered on the new president's perceived lack of experience in foreign affairs. The Taipei Times, an English-language daily, quipped that the new president's ``knowledge of the world has been shown to be, shall we say, modest.''
In Britain, traditionally the closest U.S. ally, some observers suggested Bush's presidency would do little to bring America closer to Europe -- or the rest of the world.
``The day George W. Bush was sworn in, the Atlantic doubled in width,'' said an opinion piece in the respected Observer newspaper.
The paper's lead editorial, focusing on what it described as the deeply held conservatism of some key White House appointees, was headlined: ``Beware Bush's American Dream -- This President Is Not To Be Trusted.''
As far as many overseas were concerned, Bush will have to work hard to emerge from the shadow of his father, former President George Bush. Writing in Britain's Independent newspaper, author Will Self referred to him as ``boy George,'' and the dynastic theme was heavily emphasized in coverage elsewhere as well.
``George W. Bush Inherits the White House,'' said France's weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, illustrating the story with a photo of Bush kissing his mother, Barbara, on the cheek, his arm around his father.
Le Journal du Dimanche's editorial expressed concern that the new Republican White House could usher in an era of withdrawal from world affairs -- as symbolized in particular by the national missile defense system Bush favors.
``It is not healthy that a great world power renounces participation in world affairs,'' it said. ``The world has nothing to gain from the isolationism of the United States.''
After weeks of intensive worldwide coverage of America's drawn-out electoral battle, some news outlets appeared to be suffering from Bush fatigue. In Russia, ORT television, the only channel seen throughout the country, did not even mention the inauguration in Sunday night's newscast.
Britain's more serious newspapers all played the inauguration on Page One, but its tabloids instead favored the saga of U.S.-born twins adopted over the Internet and seized by social workers from their prospective British parents.
In many commentaries, the lack of a clear-cut electoral mandate was a much-emphasized theme.
``Seldom in the past has the arrival of a new president in the White House been accompanied by so many questions as those hanging today over George Bush,'' Greece's Kathimerini newspaper said.
Still, some were optimistic about Bush's ascendancy.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said in remarks published Sunday that his country will respond if Bush takes steps to rebuild relations. Hamid Reza Asefi said there was a ``good opportunity'' for improved ties with the United States under Bush.
In both Israel and the Palestinian lands, there have been repeated expressions of concern in recent weeks about Bush's expected low level of involvement in the Mideast peace process, in contrast to former President Clinton's deep personal involvement. Coverage of the inauguration, however, was largely brisk and straightforward.
In Asia, South Korean officials said they expected the Bush administration largely to stay the course of engagement with North Korea. But they were uneasy because the GOP has traditionally been tougher than the Democrats on the North's Stalinist regime.
The Bush administration ``should not pour cold water on the thawing of the Korean peninsula by excessively pushing the North, which has just begun to open its door,'' South Korean daily newspaper Kyunghyang said in an editorial.
In Taiwan, there was hope that Bush will be more willing than Clinton to provide military assistance, because the GOP is perceived as favoring the island's interests over those of rival China.
But The Taipei Times newspaper worried that the new leader would be too influenced by his father, who was thought to have taken a lax stance toward Beijing after its 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square.
In Africa, analysts and government officials have expressed fears that the region will be far from a top priority. Sean Jacobs, an analyst at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said Sunday that it was clear the new administration intended to adopt a far more hands-off approach.
For example, he said, Bush's team was ``showing no interest in getting involved to solve the crisis'' sparked by the assassination of Congo's Laurent Kabila.
-------- depleted uranium
Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium
CBC News
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/
(1) Depleted uranium is the super weapon of the '90s; used in the Gulf War and the conflict in Kosovo. But now Canadian troops, soldiers and peacekeepers alike, may be exposed to depleted uranium with its potential danger. Now this threat wasn't one raised by a hostile enemy, but by the arms used by the United States and other NATO allies. They defeated the toughest armoured vehicles with the use of depleted uranium. It packed a knockout punch, but what soldiers often didn't know was that depleted uranium poses a threat to victor as well as vanquished. Dan Bjarnason reports this cautionary tale. The story producer was Marijka Hurko.
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/about/profiles/bjarnason.html
Jerry Wheat went off to war in the Gulf, He drove a Bradley armoured personnel carrier for the Third armoured Division. Then the war followed Jerry home to New Mexico.
"I have had real bad joint pain, abdominal problems," Wheat says. "I get real bad headaches. I went from 220 pounds down to 160 pounds for no reason, and that's when I started suspecting that it was something related to the Gulf."
The shadows of that war eight years ago still haunt him. Wheat brought back more than victory from the front. Awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in combat, Wheat came home with pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body and with mysterious body pains. Jerry Wheat is convinced these ominous souvenirs from the firing line are connected.
The ground campaign in the Gulf War involved much fighting by armoured forces. Wheat's unit was in the thick of it, and his vehicle was accidentally hit twice by fire from his own side. What Wheat did not know was that the shells that hit him were made from depleted uranium, the pride of the American arsenal.
"It blew off my helmet and blew me into the front of the vehicle," Wheat recalls. "I could feel it. I could feel the burning because when the rounds went through, the aluminum melted. And as it goes in you, just burns; it cauterizes as it goes in. At that point, I felt the shrapnel hit me in the back -- hit me in the back of the head. I had second and third degree burns on the back of my head."
It's the new wonder weapon the Pentagon calls a "silver bullet."
What is depleted uranium?
Depleted uranium is still uranium. There are three types of uranium, U238, U234 and U235. Uranium 234 and 235 are fissionable material, the kind used in bombs. Depleted uranium is what is left over when the U234 and U235 is removed. The remaining U238 is still highly radioactive.
Depleted uranium shell
A DU round is made from the leftover U238. The killing punch comes from the solid depleted uranium metal rod in the shell. A 120 mm tank round contains about 4000 grams or 10 pounds of solid DU.
DU shell hits
A DU rod is very dense. At high speed, it slices through tanks like a hot knife through butter. It burns on impact, creating flying bits and dust that are toxic and radioactive with a half-life of 4.2 billion years.
In the Gulf War, the U.S. fired almost a million DU rounds, leaving a battlefield littered with 1,400 wrecked radioactive Iraqi tanks, crawled over by victorious GI's who were breathing in contaminated dust.
Jerry Wheat and the other Gulf vets were never told of the risks of being exposed to a DU campaign. But after the shooting stopped and back home in Los Lunas, New Mexico, Wheat -- now out of the army -- grew mystified as his health deteriorated. Military doctors had no answers.
Then a year after war's end, Wheat got startling evidence from his father -- a technician at the famous Los Alamos Nuclear Research Centre, who just out of curiosity tested the shrapnel that came from his son's body and gear. The shrapnel was radioactive. Today, eight years after the Gulf War, that shrapnel still lights up a Geiger counter. He also keeps other pieces.
"This is shrapnel out of my gear. And there was just a couple pieces that I took out of my body -- a couple small pieces... I kept it since I found out the vehicle was hit with a DU penetrator, I just kept it so I would have it. Just kind of proof," Wheat says.
The pieces on the table are not a danger, he says. "But if you actually got a piece that was depleted uranium and you had inhaled it or swallowed it or something, then you would have a potential heavy metal problem," Wheat says.
Jerry's great fear is that whatever he brought back with him from the Gulf is now afflicting his family. His older son Joe was hospitalized with breathing problems the day after Wheat dragged his contaminated gear into the house. Derrick, his youngest son, who was born after the war, suffers strange blisters on his hands. His wife suffered a miscarriage. Jerry himself recently had a tumour removed from his shoulder. He now worries continually about cancer.
Jerry says the military has never shown any interest in his shrapnel. The military said Jerry's health problems are due to post traumatic stress.
At the Pentagon, depleted uranium is no mystery weapon. The American military has been testing it for 40 years, yet no one in the corridors of power gave much attention to ensuring that American GI's knew how to handle the new weapons system. Bernard Rostker is the under secretary of the army, and he admits that over the years, troops were given no proper training. Rostker himself reported in 1998 that American soldiers in their thousands had been unnecessarily exposed to DU; this seven years after the end of the Gulf War, when it was first used.
"We were not diligent in training our troops," Rostker says. "That doesn't mean that there were any health consequences. These are men who survived friendly fire incidences and have been traumatized; some had been burned, some have lost limbs. So they are not without health problems. But those health problems are not attributable to the heavy metal toxicity or the radioactivity of depleted uranium."
"So what do you tell the vets who are ailing from something and they feel it's because of depleted uranium weapons?" reporter Dan Bjarnson asks.
"We, first of all, don't believe that this is people's imagination. We think people are ill. We have an extensive program trying to understand what they may have been exposed to on the battlefield. We have published over 23 reports. Unfortunately, we have not found a smoking gun."
The number of Gulf War vets who were in contact with radioactive tanks or breathed in contaminated dust could be in the tens of thousands. Yet so far, only a fraction -- about 200 vets, like Jerry Wheat -- are being monitored. The Pentagon still insists there is not enough evidence to link exposure with illness.
Doug Rokke is a thorn in the side of the military today because of what he learned eight years ago in the Gulf, where he served as lieutenant with the U.S. Army Preventitive Medicine Command. There he led army teams that cleaned up contaminated vehicles hit by DU rounds. Now he is collecting evidence that the Pentagon knew of the health hazards to himself and other vets all along. He now teaches at Jackson State University in Alabama.
"It's obvious today that the military did know, but they didn't inform anybody," Rokke says. "There were two memorandums that came to us in March of 1991 as we started the cleanup of the contaminated equipment and the casualties in the Gulf. One memo was known as the Los Alamos memorandum."
The Los Alamos memo, written by a Lt.Col. M. V. Ziehmn read, in part, "there has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus, be deleted from the arsenal. ...Keep this sensitive issue in mind when after action reports are written."
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html
"The Los Alamos memorandum specifically gave us guidance that said when we are writing a report, or reporting our findings, make sure -- make sure that we don't disrupt the future use of depleted uranium munitions," Rokke says.
Then a second memo, from the Defence Nuclear Agency, arrived about the same time. It read "Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expended rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and intact rounds is a serious health threat..."
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc2.html
"The two memos, added together now after eight years of thought and research and discussions now, in my mind, are very clear. The United States and the world know about the health and the environmental consequences of using this munition and they don't care," Rokke says.
We asked Roskter, if there is no DU problem, why these warnings about DU hazards issued as far back as 1991?
"There has been concern all along with every weapon," Roster says, "We have done testing on depleted uranium, from the beginning, to determine whether it is of particular concern."
After the Gulf War, Doug Rokke was assigned to produce a Pentagon training video to teach soldiers how to handle depleted uranium. It was a video that was ultimately shelved and never shown to the troops.
"There are four general situations during which depleted uranium may present hazards to soldiers. One: if the equipment is damaged or destroyed in combat or in an accident," the video says.
"This is part of the training video that we finished in 1995," Rokke says. "The important part here, what we learned from our research, is everybody involved in working with depleted uranium contaminated equipment must wear respiratory protection and they must have some kind of coveralls or covering that can protect their clothes. What we learned, is you can't get this off the clothing."
"In the Gulf, we basically just had dust masks. We were told that the dust masks and the surgical masks would work and we could wear gloves. And all we had was the uniforms that we had available."
"And they knew no better; no one had ever hinted to them they were in peril?" Bjarnason asked.
"And that's criminal," Rokke replies.
The CBC showed that training video to Bernard Rostker at the Pentagon.
"Very interesting film, because you notice something that has been very confusing to some of the troops. Some of them were in full mop gear -- chemical protective gear and a gas mask. But they show other soldiers who were in a bandanna. In fact what you really need is a dust respirator and that's to meet the standards of the EPA. That does not mean anybody who didn't meet the standards during the Gulf War have levels of depleted uranium were likely to be impacted permanently."
The Pentagon built a high security, high priced, high tech cocoon at the Savannah River nuclear facility in Georgia to process radioactive materials from contaminated equipment. It has special walls and flooring to prevent any air or dust from escaping into the outside world. It's known as Building 101.
"If they're going to spend millions and millions of dollars to clean up the contaminated equipment that's come back from the Gulf, which you have seen here, then how could they say there is no hazard?" Rokke asks.
"Look at the amount of effort we do to take asbestos out of a building or lead paint. That doesn't mean that if you walk past a window that has had lead paint that you're going to immediately get lead paint poisoning," Rostker counters.
Doug Rokke's experiences in the Gulf ended eight years ago, but he still fights his battles with the Pentagon from his home in Jacksonville, Alabama. He is convinced his health started to slip away because of his work among contaminated vehicles over there in the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait.
"The problems that I have are breathing problems. My lungs have scar tissue in them. When I run or exercise, there are secretions -- fluids just fill up in the lungs. I don't have the fine motor control to do all the fine things that I used to be able to do because the nerves don't work like they should. Eye problems, vision problems, kidney problems," Rokke says.
Rokke has one important ally in his fight with the Pentagon. He is Dr. Jack Zerimba, head of the Gulf War Clinic at a U.S. Veteran's affairs clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. He studied Rokke's breathing problems and the scar tissue on his lungs and says, "That is consistent with uranium exposure and other things too, such as metal exposure."
This official affirmation of a link is for Doug Rokke, his biggest victory in eight years.
In Washington, the Gulf War vets have enlisted the attention of many politicians. Wisconsin Democrat Senator Russ Finegold pressed for and got an investigation by the high powered and independent General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
"The evidence is contradictory with regard to the connection between depleted uranium and the many soldiers from the Gulf War who are complaining of ill effects," Finegold says. "Some reports indicate a real problem here; others question it. I think we need an independent investigation to determine whether this is really true. We have been through this before with many years of denial with regard to Agent Orange and its use in Vietnam. I don't want to see our government in any way, in fact or in perception, stonewall this issue of the health effects of depleted uranium.
In the latest chapter of this revolutionary new weapons system, DU ammunition was fired in this spring's NATO war in Yugoslavia. As usage becomes more frequent, for Finegold, the need for answers becomes more urgent.
"Keep in mind that depleted uranium was used recently in Kosovo and may well have effected people there as well," Finegold says, "This is not just old news. It is real current news for those who are ill from the Gulf War. And we may be finding other people, from the Kosovo conflict, who will experience similar problems in the future because of depleted uranium."
2)Canada once had depleted uranium in its inventory shells for the Navy during the Gulf War, but they were never fired and are now being disposed of because of the expense of special handling and storage facilities.
But Canadian troops must still deal with DU in Kosovo. Some 1,400 soldiers are now on patrol as part of a NATO peacekeeping contingent. They're equipped with small radiation detection devices and they're also under orders to stay away from any damaged Serb vehicles they come across; vehicles that may have been contaminated by DU ammunition fired by American planes last Spring during the air offensive.
At Defence headquarters in Ottawa, Brig.-Gen. David Jerkowski is in charge of all the operations of all Canadian troops overseas; their supplies and movement and safety.
"Our soldiers are not at risk," Jerkowski says. "There are other risks that are much greater than depleted uranium: there are many many more threats out there: landmines, diseases, reptiles. It depends on where we work in the world, and there are many greater risks than that."
A Canadian Forces routine order refers to "the inhalation of radioactive material as a primary health hazard."
"It depends on who wrote that particular order," Jerkowski says. "They are making sure that our troops are going to heed this and stay away from tank hulks, for example."
But U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Doug Rokke, who once ran the DU Project for the Pentagon, insists that an order simply to stay away from damaged vehicles is far from enough.
"Just staying away from it is only part of an answer, because unless the contamination is completely removed from all areas, how are you going to avoid it? How do you avoid it on a battlefield that's littered with uranium?"
Thousands of returning refugees are now fanning out across Kosovo, through a countryside strewn with rubble and war wreckage. No one has the particular task of keeping them clear of high-risk areas. U.N. environmental teams are running tests to check for signs of contamination; they need maps indicating where NATO DU hits were made. The Pentagon has not obliged.
"I don't think it's necessary and I don't know whether they could, even with any rigour, be created," Rostker says. "I mean the targets were combat vehicles and I'm not sure the pilots would have known where they were. The best thing you could find is the destroyed vehicle and I don't know of any that have been reported."
The stockpiling of DU weapons is spreading. As depleted uranium is becoming more, not less popular with the world's generals, more than 20 countries now have DU In their arsenals. If the lessons from past eras are anything to go by, there is often great ignorance about the path being charted when new weapons come along. For example when atomic testing was all the rage in the '50s, or when Agent Orange was used in Vietnam. When revolutionary new technology is introduced on the battlefield, no one at the time has any real idea of the consequences.
"The next time we go to war, the enemy may fire uranium at us," Rokke says. "So whether or not we decide to have it or not, or decide to use it or not, somebody else may decide to use it. We need to make sure that everybody knows what medical care to provide and how to complete the environmental cleanup. Everybody needs to know."
The military predict that depleted uranium will shape the battlefields of the future, but the future is already here.
tv.cbc.ca
Depleted Uranium Case Documents
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/docindex.html
Home Page
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/index.html
Condition and legibility of scanned documents depends on quality of original source.
1.The Los Alamos Memo
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html
2.Defence Nuclear Agency memo
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc2.html
---------
Plutonium replaces uranium as NATO scare
Sunday, January 21, 2001
Environmental News Network
By Douglas Hamilton
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/01/01212001/reu_plutonium_41508.asp
Just when it thought it had the depleted uranium scare under control, NATO may face a fresh onslaught of concern as the United States belatedly confirms that some DU munitions contain minute traces of plutonium.
Uranium is one thing. Plutonium is quite another, especially if it arises from flaws at a problem-plagued U.S. nuclear plant.
Plutonium is a heavyweight in the lexicon of scare words, according to media reports, a particle as small as a millionth of an ounce, if inhaled, can cause a fatal cancer.
German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping last Wednesday took the highly unusual step of calling in the U.S. charge d'affaires in Berlin to seek more information - after a German television network reported on the plutonium factor.
Washington can rightly claim that the plutonium issue was not a secret - but its spokesmen have omitted to mention it.
U.S. experts brought in by NATO in the past 10 days to calm fears of a cancer risk from DU ammunition used in Kosovo, Bosnia and the Gulf stressed that DU is 40 percent less radioactive than the natural uranium people eat, drink and breathe.
What they did not say was that some DU comes from recycled nuclear fuel, not ore, and contains traces not only of highly radioactive uranium-236 but of plutonium as well.
A review of transcripts and audio files shows that U.S. Army medical experts flown from Washington failed to mention the word plutonium once. One, asked if DU might contain uranium-236, said: "I can't answer. I just don't know."
A NATO spokesman said pointedly that reporters were "getting exactly the same briefings as the NATO ambassadors just got."
Two days later, NATO had to issue a statement saying the presence in DU of U-236 and plutonium in minute quantities had "long been established" but was "irrelevant" as it did not increase the extremely limited DU risks openly acknowledged.
The furor erupted over DU munitions in early January, but there has been no mention in NATO public records of serious safety failures at the Kentucky plant which made the material.
Last Thursday, as the Clinton administration bowed out, the outgoing Pentagon spokesman was asked about U-236 traces.
"As you know, we discovered some stray elements, transuranics they're called, in depleted uranium, the Department of Energy did, a year or so ago," Kenneth Bacon said.
"They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in production in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in Paduhac, Kentucky."
Bacon said operations resumed after a 90-day examination.
"Now, the labs in Europe have found tiny elements of U-236, which is not normally in depleted uranium," he added. These were so small that United Nations scientists said they did not change the very low radiotoxicity of the depleted uranium...
"We're looking into how this could have happened."
A World Health Organization team is going to Kosovo this week to take more samples in places where DU anti-tank rounds were fired by U.S. planes in the 1999 NATO campaign.
If plutonium shows up with any regularity, it may not matter that levels are too small to pose a serious health risk, as the United States and NATO insist: public doubt is likely to grow and opposition to the munitions will rise with it.
Even minute levels could fuel speculation that a "bad batch" of DU from Paduhac contained more plutonium than expected, and may have been inhaled in dust kicked up later.
The Paduhac plant, which has made nuclear weapons material for 50 years under government contractors, is being sued for $10 billion for concealing health risks from workers and locals.
A February 2000 U.S. Department of Energy report said the plant "operated in a climate of secrecy, with a strong sense of national need, and a lack of understanding of a number of environment, safety and health risks."
Workers had "become ill because of workplace exposures."
The Paduhac plant was cited for scattering plutonium at 1,200 times the normal background level beyond its grounds and attempting to cover up this and other safety violations.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said 1,760 tons of nuclear weapons parts were littered around the grounds below ground and in ground-level storage areas.
There is no proof of any mystery illness among NATO peacekeepers and no "Balkans syndrome" to be explained, the medical chiefs of NATO's 19 armies all agreed last week after a day of comparing records.
But the issue remains one of credibility as much as health. Finger-pointing could proliferate if governments faced renewed charges of not informing the public in good time of what some will suspect they knew all along.
The information is all available on the Internet from U.S. newspapers and groups using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
In a January 2000 letter to the activist Military Toxics Project, the U.S. Department of Energy said it believed minute quantities of plutonium might be contained in U.S. stocks of depleted uranium, but in amounts too low to pose risk.
It noted health and safety concerns at Paduhac and said DU test rounds "almost certainly" contained recycled uranium but did not directly answer: did they contain plutonium?.
The Department's letter was recently passed on to NATO.
Neverthless, European governments appeared unprepared for media "revelations" about plutonium traces in DU rounds and at NATO there are differences about whether Scharping and others facing a media grilling should have known what to expect.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen had said earlier this month that DU was no more dangerous than "leaded paint," and a U.S. Army briefer assured reporters it was safe enough to eat.
Now that the word plutonium has been mentioned, that may have been a public relations miscalculation.
---
Plutonium row may contaminate Bush's European debut
Sunday, January 21, 2001
By Douglas Hamilton
Environmental News Network
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/01/01212001/reu_plutonium_41513.asp
Europe's relationship with the George W. Bush administration could kick off with an angry row Monday over charges that the United States failed to warn allies of plutonium contamination in munitions.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to discuss a wave of public concern about the alleged health risks of depleted uranium shells can expect to hear complaints by Germany that Washington kept its European allies in the dark.
Portugal and Spain were also unprepared when the United States finally confirmed media reports and a Swiss laboratory finding that the "low-risk" material held minute traces of highly toxic plutonium and highly radioactive uranium 236.
If other EU states which also belong to the 19-member NATO alliance feel they too were inadequately informed to deal with the furore over DU, incoming U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's dealings with the allies may have a frosty start.
"It should be the damned duty of a friendly nation to inform their partner," German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping told journalists on a weekend visit to Bosnia and Kosovo.
NATO felt it was getting public "hysteria" over DU munitions under control until the presence of plutonium was disclosed.
Top medical officers from all 19 armies met in Brussels last week to compare data and announced a day later there was no "Balkans syndrome" and no unseen health risk from DU.
The Pentagon had twice sent U.S. Army medical experts to NATO headquarters to help reassure the European media. But while they said DU was even less radioactive than ubiquitous natural uranium, they never mentioned plutonium.
On Thursday, Defence Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon said plutonium was detected a year ago and a nuclear plant was shut for 90 days. "As you know, we discovered some stray elements ... in depleted uranium ...." Bacon said.
"They consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. Now these are very, very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating possibly a flaw in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the operation at this plant, which is in Paduhac, Kentucky."
Despite a lack of evidence that DU has caused cancer among NATO peacekeepers serving in the Balkans, public concern had already prompted calls by some allies and by the European Parliament for a moratorium on the munitions.
Depleted uranium is prized as the best armor penetrator in anti-tank shells. About 40,000 rounds were fired in Bosnia and Kosovo, all by U.S. ground attack aircraft.
The U.S., Britain and France have dismissed demands that they give up a military advantage on account of unfounded fears, and the Bush administration is unlikely to waver, although American anti-DU campaigners say it caused Gulf war cancers.
Scientists say that inhaling one millionth of an ounce of plutonium can cause a fatal cancer. That scares many people and frightens governments, as reaction to the latest developments indicates.
Scharping took scientists with him to the Balkans to make on-the-spot tests for plutonium. Spain ordered its medical experts to investigate. Switzerland said it would call for a total ban on DU ammunition at the United Nations this year.
A World Health Organization team was set to scour DU blast sites in Kosovo for traces of plutonium, and NATO member Portugal said the alliance must quickly back up assertions that the plutonium levels posed no health threat.
In a letter to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres called for a full explanation of where and why such ammunition was used.
Washington can rightly claim that the presence of plutonium was not a secret, if allied military attaches cared to read the newspapers or look at relevant Internet sites.
"The Internet is not the way to share information between governments," said Scharping as criticism mounted at home over his alleged failure to inform German voters of the facts.
In a bitter comment, he said that after summoning the U.S. charge d'affaires last week, he had been told of nine incidents possibly involving DU munitions at U.S. bases in Germany.
"That's not in order. We can't accept that," he said. "I'm quite certain that I would not have been informed of this had I not created such pressure."
---
Germany slams US for silence on radioactive arms
Sun, 21 Jan 2001
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jan2001-47.htm
Germany has criticised the United States for failing to inform its NATO partners that depleted uranium munitions could also contain traces of radioactive plutonium.
German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping says the US has apparently known for some time about the possible contamination of uranium used in munitions, with tiny amounts of plutonium.
The minister took the usual step of calling in the US minister of affairs in Berlin to seek more information about weapons fired by US forces during the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts.
The US belatedly confirmed a German television report last week that some depleted uranium munitions also contain minute traces of the more radioactive plutonium.
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Tests for Balkans veterans
Sunday 21 January 2001
The Age
By BRENDAN NICHOLSON POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/01/21/FFXJOMY56IC.html
Hundreds of Australians who served with NATO forces in the Balkans will be tested for exposure to depleted uranium used in thousands of shells fired at Serb positions.
The Federal Government will today announce a plan for comprehensive medical tests on Australians who might have been exposed during operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The tests start this week.
Acting Defence Minister Bruce Scott said 216 personnel had served in the Balkans for 30 days or more since 1993.
The Australian Defence Force was now identifying others who served there on temporary duty for shorter periods.
Mr Scott said there was no conclusive scientific or medical evidence that exposure to depleted uranium munitions was a health risk.
No claims had been lodged with the Department of Veterans' Affairs for a disease or condition arising from exposure to depleted uranium, he said.
But Mr Scott said the government had a duty of care to those who served in the Balkans.
Gulf War veterans are already being tested for exposure to depleted uranium as part of a separate study.
All serving and former ADF members who went to the Balkans will be asked to fill in a questionnaire. Tests will be carried out on blood and urine samples.
The questionnaires and test results will be examined by the Repatriation Medical Authority and independent scientists.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process and is only slightly radioactive.
Its main health threat comes from its chemical properties and not from radioactivity.
As a toxic heavy metal, it may cause kidney problems and it can be swallowed or inhaled as tiny particles dispersed by fires or when shells hit armor plating.
It is used in both armor and shells because it is extremely dense - nearly twice as dense as lead - giving it great hitting power and strength.
In medicine it is used in radiation shields.
About 31,000 depleted uranium shells were fired at Serb targets during the 1999 NATO campaign that drove Yugoslav forces from Kosovo. About 10,000 rounds were fired into Bosnia in 1994-95.
Most Australians in the Balkans served with the British forces who operated in areas where there was very little use of depleted uranium munitions.
Servicemen most likely to have been endangered by depleted uranium were in American tanks in the Gulf War whose armor contained depleted uranium and which were hit by "friendly fire" from other US tanks using depleted uranium shells.
Some had depleted uranium fragments embedded in their bodies. Others who suffered significant exposure were combat medical staff who climbed into the tanks to help the wounded and breathed fumes from the vaporised depleted uranium.
Before 1986, the Australian navy used depleted uranium shells as part of the Phalanx anti-missile system on some of its ships. That system blasted a mass of shells into the path of an incoming anti-ship missile.
After 1986, the navy switched to tungsten carbide-based munitions in the Phalanx.
Mr Scott said any current or former staff who believed they were suffering a medical condition as a result of their service in the Balkans should contact the Defence Health Service on 1800 502 771.
-------- europe
Nuclear Submarine Protested in Spain
January 21, 2001 Filed at 11:13 a.m. ET
New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Submarine-Protest.html
ALGECIRAS, Spain (AP) -- Tens of thousands of people marched through this southern Spanish town, calling for a British nuclear-powered submarine awaiting repairs in Gibraltar to leave at once.
Demonstrators on Saturday said they fear a radiation leak from the docked submarine HMS Tireless, and warned that the Gibraltar port is unequipped to handle such an emergency.
The submarine docked in Gibraltar -- a British colony on Spain's southern tip -- nine months ago, after a crack was found in its cooling system. Britain later acknowledged the problem was more serious, saying a design flaw might be responsible for the damage, and 12 similar submarines were recalled.
During the two-hour demonstration, just across the bay from Gibraltar, politicians, union leaders and environmentalists rallied behind a banner held aloft by children that read, ``For our future.'' The crowd shouted ``Tireless Out'' and sang the Beatles song, ``Yellow Submarine.''
Police said 20,000 people attended the rally, but organizers put the number at 70,000.
Repairs on the submarine are scheduled to start Monday. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has said he hopes the submarine will be removed by April.
The presence of the submarine in Gibraltar has provoked concern and anger among Spaniards living nearby and strained already-sour relations between London and Madrid over the British colony. Assurances from both countries have done little to convince many of the 250,000 people who live near Gibraltar that there is no danger of a radiation leak.
Located at the western entrance to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar has been a source of tension for Spain since the land was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
-------- korea
North Korean Placed Focus on Business in China Visit
January 21, 2001
By ERIK ECKHOLM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/world/21CHIN.html
BEIJING, Jan. 20 - The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, returned home from a secretive five-day visit to China today after giving the strongest signals yet that he hopes to begin opening his country's isolated, controlled economy to outside investment and market forces.
Mr. Kim spent nearly all the visit, his second to China since May, touring companies and discussing economic issues in Shanghai, China's commercial hub. In a meeting with President Jiang Zemin today in Beijing, Mr. Kim fully endorsed the pro- market policies that have transformed China in the last 20 years, according to Chinese accounts.
"Mr. Kim stressed that the big changes that have taken place in China, and Shanghai in particular, since China began its reform and opening-up have proved that the policies pursued by the Chinese Communist Party and people are correct," said Zhu Bangzao, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, at a news conference tonight.
Chinese diplomats said they considered Mr. Kim's remarks significant, especially because he had visited Shanghai in 1983, when the market reforms were just getting started, and criticized China at the time for "revisionism."
Mr. Kim specifically asked to visit Shanghai, where he toured joint venture enterprises of General Motors and of a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer as well as the stock exchange, the new Pudong commercial development zone and other companies. For part of the visit he was accompanied by China's pragmatic prime minister, Zhu Rongji.
Earlier this month, in another sign that changes are brewing, North Korean official news media featured unusual editorials that called for "new ways of thinking" about the economy, foreign experts noted.
Fearing a disastrous collapse of the North Korean economy and government, Chinese leaders have for years been gingerly urging the often prickly North Koreans to consider major economic change. In the last decade North Korea's economy went into a tailspin after it lost subsidies from the disintegrating Soviet Union, followed by natural disasters. Millions of its citizens have suffered malnutrition and large numbers of refugees have fled into China.
The economy began to recover last year, but Western and Chinese economists say the country cannot progress without fundamental changes in its policies of "self-reliance" and state control.
Whether Mr. Kim has the power and skill to push through deep reforms is unclear, foreign experts say. One reason he was accompanied on his visit this week by senior military officers may have been to help convince them that it is possible to loosen the economy while preserving the ruling party's grip on power, as the Chinese have.
As he did last May, Mr. Kim insisted that his visit to China be kept secret until after he left, but his entourage in Shanghai was too large and active to stay out of sight.
In the briefing tonight, Mr. Zhu, the foreign ministry spokesman, did not comment on whether China has urged the North Koreans to curb their missile program, which by alarming Japan and the United States has undermined China's opposition to Western missile defenses.
But he said that "China is opposed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and sincerely hopes to see a relaxation of tensions on the Korean peninsula," and stressed China's support for the recent steps between North and South Korea toward reconciliation.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
A New Threat for a New Century
January 21, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/opinion/L21TER.html
To the Editor:
"Dissecting a Terror Plot From Boston to Amman" (front page, Jan. 15) highlights a greater threat than that being considered by the missile defense shield proponents in the new Bush cabinet. That threat is terrorism from fundamentalist groups using aspiring martyrs as delivery systems, which are certainly simpler and cheaper to use than missiles.
The Bush administration may be gearing up to face the wrong threat, as was the case in the 1930's with the French High Command, led by Gen. Maxime Weygand, who advocated a buildup of its cavalry at the expense of mechanized tank divisions. Not great horse sense, to judge by the subsequent events.
MORRIS PRIPSTEIN
Berkeley, Calif., Jan. 15, 2001
The writer is senior physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
-------- us nuc politics
---------
Main challenge for Bush will be foreign policy
Sunday, January 21, 2001
The Hindu
New York Times
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/01/21/stories/03210001.htm
WASHINGTON, JAN. 20. Every President assumes office believing he can set the foreign policy agenda for his administration, only to discover that a major portion has already been set by the world.
The crises of the world do not take a time-out for a new American leader. Mr. Bill Clinton arrived hoping to focus on domestic issues, but was immediately faced by crises in places such as Somalia, Haiti and Taiwan, along with hardy perennials like Russia and West Asia.
Mr. George W. Bush, was confronted by the killing of the President of Congo this week, and might see the election of a hawkish Prime Minister in Israel and the crumbling of the peace accord in Northern Ireland in his first month in office. Further down the line, his enthusiasm for a missile-defence system is certain to generate fierce opposition in Europe and Russia.
E.U. rapid reaction force
During the campaign, Mr. Bush and his top national security aide, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, said European allies should carry more of the military burden on their continent. As President, Mr. Bush may find they are doing more than he would like.
The European Union is planning a rapid-reaction force of 60,000 troops for peacekeeping missions and crises in Europe and perhaps elsewhere that is to be ready by 2003. The Clinton administration has said the plans are fine as long as the U.S.- led North Atlantic alliance retains the primary role for security in Europe. To ensure that, the U.S. has proposed that NATO do the planning for the nascent force.
National missile defence
If Mr. Bush makes good on his pledge to unfurl a missile-defence umbrella over the U.S., Washington and Moscow would be entering an era of profound disagreement about how to maintain global security against the use of nuclear weapons, even as they continue to work to reduce their number.
The prospect of missile defence threatens to drag the one-time superpower rivals, as well as China, India and Pakistan, into a new arms race, experts say. Russia and China are alarmed that a new U.S. ``shield'' might undermine deterrence - that concept of strategic stability that comes from knowing that the terrible cost of using nuclear weapons is the certainty of retaliation.
Last year, Russia demonstrated that it intends to pursue an active foreign policy in Europe and Asia to defend what the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, sees as Russian national interests, whether the issue is missile defense or a desire to thwart the eastward expansion of NATO to the Baltic states in the north and to Georgia to Russia's south.
China, a rival?
During the campaign, Mr. Bush suggested he would treat China more like a rival and give stronger support to Taiwan. He will have to define what this means, most immediately in responding to Taiwan's requests to buy submarines and advanced naval destroyers.
China says it would view such sales as a major build- up and a grave intrusion into its internal affairs, but it is also building up its missile forces off Taiwan and upgrading its own naval and air power.
Mr. Bush's challenge is to bolster Taiwan's defences while still encouraging Taiwan and Beijing to negotiate about the future status of the island, which Beijing considers an inalienable part of ``one China''.
China expects to enter the World Trade Organisation this year and will start opening its markets, a longtime goal of U.S. officials who say capitalism will eventually help make China more free.
Kashmir issue
Mr. Bush can expect a roller-coaster ride through the beautiful Himalayan region of Kashmir which sits to the north of both India and Pakistan, resting like one jewelled crown on two inseparable heads. For a half-century, both nations have claimed this land as their own, and they have fought each other repeatedly to prove their seriousness. Nuclear weapons are now part of the picture, prompting Mr. Clinton to call the region ``the most dangerous place in the world.''
Mr. Bush will be tempted time and again to play peacemaker. India and Pakistan are in a nuclear arms race, but with both being impoverished nations and new to the competition, the race is more of a mosey than a sprint. The U.S. will require great effort to merely slow the development of bigger bombs, and missiles of greater endurance.
---------
Missile defense shield plan may strain U.S. relations with Russia
Sunday, January 21, 2001
Pioneer Planet
DAVE MONTGOMERY KNIGHT RIDDER FOREIGN SERVICE
http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/sun/news/docs/000105.htm
MOSCOW The United States and Russia are embarking on a potentially contentious new relationship as incoming President George W. Bush prepares to redefine U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union and push for a U.S missile defense shield opposed by Russia and other nations.
``Definitely this relationship will be very difficult,'' said Nadezhda Arbatova, an international relations expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences. ``The pendulum is going in the opposite direction, and I am really concerned about the future of our relationship. President Bush will be very tough on Russia.''
Bush's foreign policy team has criticized U.S. policy under Bill Clinton as misdirected and tending to forgive mistakes of Russia's former president, Boris Yeltsin.
Condoleezza Rice, Bush's incoming national security adviser and a Russia expert, has expressed concerns about Russian intentions and the future of human rights under Vladimir Putin, Russia's current president.
Foreign policy experts predict a relatively smooth transition period. And Russian diplomats have been plenty diplomatic, saying they welcome Bush's appointments of Rice and retired Gen. Colin Powell as secretary of state.
But the potential for conflict abounds over issues ranging from defense, to Russia's foreign relations, to human rights trends.
Though similar in age -- Bush is 54 and Putin is 48 -- the two leaders differ strikingly in personality, background, temperament and in their view of the world. Bush is a gregarious businessman and heir to a famous name, a product of both Yale and the West Texas oil patch. Putin, the son of a Soviet factory worker, is a former career KGB spy who rarely shows emotion.
Since taking over the Kremlin leadership a year ago, Putin has reached out to the West and committed himself to continuing democracy. Yet he also has shored up the power of the state, imposed restrictions on the press, and arrested a prominent media titan.
``It seems to me that there is a danger that Russia is starting to slide toward a more authoritarian state,'' Rice said during an interview last year.
Internationally, in the past year, Putin has traveled the globe and rekindled relations with Cuba, North Korea, Iraq and Iran -- moves that set the tone for potential friction with the United States.
Pavel Felgengauer, a military analyst and columnist in Moscow, said Russia has invited a foreign relations skirmish with the United States through plans to sell up to $4 billion in arms to Iran, which Washington considers a breeding ground for terrorism.
``Of course not everybody in the world agrees with our position,'' Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said during a trip to Tehran, the Iranian capital, ``but we will pursue our own goals.''
Felgengauer predicted that the sale of arms would unite Bush's Republican White House with congressional Democrats in a show of opposition from the United States. The military analyst said he envisions a ``steady deterioration of relations'' between Moscow and Washington. ``There are already so many issues that can create tension, it's hard to imagine how it won't happen,'' Felgengauer said.
The most fractious issue is Bush's insistence on a missile defense shield to protect the United States against a attacks from rogue nations.
To Putin and other Russian political leaders who recoiled at a more moderate Clinton proposal, Bush's initiative is even more unpalatable. Both missile defense plans are prohibited under the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
Bush and his advisers consider the ABM Treaty outdated and have indicated that the United States would be prepared to withdraw from the treaty if Russia refuses to consent to the missile defense plan.
``The old deterrence of the Cold War era is imperfect for dissuading the threats of the 21st Century,'' Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's choice for secretary of defense, said at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Yevgeny Volk, an analyst with the Moscow office of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Bush's stance on missile defense virtually guarantees ``very difficult and strained'' relations with Russia. ``I don't see any compromise because I believe Bush will proceed with his decision to employ a missile defense system and Putin will resist,'' Volk said.
Putin secured parliamentary approval of the long-stalled START II treaty which cuts both nation's nuclear arsenals in half, to about 3,000 to 3,500 each. But, in so doing, he pledged that Russia would withdraw from that and all other arms agreements if the United States violated the ABM Treaty.
Despite the fierce opposition from Russia, Bush's foreign policy advisers believe that Bush and Powell can negotiate a compromise. ``There are lots of things to discuss and lots of wiggle room,'' said Richard Armitage, a Bush defense adviser.
Russia's ambassador to the United States, Uri V. Ushakov, evidently agrees. ``We are willing to enter into discussions with the United States on missile defense,'' he said. But Russia would resist any move by the United States to build such a defense system without Russian agreement.
Pavel Palazhenhenko, a top adviser to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, said he believes fears of growing diplomatic tensions are overstated and predicted a ``fruitful dialogue'' between Bush and Putin.
``Their personalities are quite different but I also think they will make a real effort to establish a personal rapport,'' he said.
Ike's Warning to Bush
January 21, 2001
DAVID E. MOORE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/opinion/L21SHI.html
To the Editor:
In "Sink the Stealth Ship - Before It's Built" (Op-Ed, Jan. 15), Lawrence J. Korb recalls the powerful influence exerted a decade ago by the Marine Corps, defense contractors and Congress whereby the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was put into production over the objections of Dick Cheney, who was then defense secretary.
Forty years ago, the departing president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, warned of the danger in the conjunction of an immense military and a large arms industry. He said that this military-industrial complex's "total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government."
I encourage George W. Bush to heed the warning of his Republican predecessor. Ike's warning is as relevant today as it was four decades ago.
-------- MILITARY
-------- drug war
Drug kingpin may have escaped in laundry truck
01/21/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-01-21-kingpin.htm
MEXICO CITY - A reputed drug trafficking boss has escaped from one of Mexico's most secure prisons, apparently hidden in a laundry truck with help from prison employees, security officials said.
Joaquin Guzman Loera, 43, escaped Puente Grande prison, about 12 miles from Guadalajara, capital of the west-central state of Jalisco. He was reported missing soon after being seen at a head count of prisoners Friday evening.
Jorge Tello Peon, the federal undersecretary for public security, said preliminary evidence had given "pretty clear indications" of which prison officials were involved in the escape.
The warden, Leonardo Beltran Santana, was fired and held for questioning. Thirty-three guards also were questioned.
Guzman Loera is believed to be the head of a drug organization in the Pacific coastal state of Sinaloa in northern Mexico, although he has never been convicted on drug charges. He describes himself as a cattleman and farmer.
He was serving more than 20 years for criminal association and bribery when he escaped, and faced trials for homicide and drug trafficking. He was arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and had been at the Puente Grande prison since 1995.
He has been found innocent of drug charges in the past and was absolved of responsibility for a wild shootout between rival drug gangs at the Guadalajara International Airport that killed Mexican Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993.
Guzman Loera left behind his prison uniform, leading prison officials to assume someone smuggled in civilian clothing for him.
Puente Grande houses around 500 prisoners, including some of Mexico's most dangerous. Cell doors are controlled electronically, one door cannot open unless another closes and visitors are severely limited. Strip searches are common for visitors, and prisoners are kept in individual cells with no contact with one another. There are two guards for each inmate.
---
Our Role in Colombia
January 21, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/opinion/L21COL.html
To the Editor:
After touring Colombia and Ecuador and visiting troops there last month, I am confident that your Jan. 15 editorial "Containing Colombia's Troubles" is right on the mark.
The symptoms plaguing Colombia - instability, unpredictability and an indifference to the rule of law - are proliferating into countries now playing a minor role in cocoa production as Colombia's drug trade spills over their borders. Our financial and military assistance will help Colombia's government lead the country and, eventually, end cocoa production andstabilize the region.
Coupled with a better plan for addressing the demand side of the drug problem, a regional response will reduce drug traffic and the devastation it causes. Furthermore, our plan is bolstered by the conviction of many in Congress that we are doing what is right for America.
ELLEN TAUSCHER
Member of Congress, 10th Dist., Calif.
Walnut Creek, Calif., Jan. 16, 2001
--------
Mexico's Drug Kingpin Escapes
January 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Prisoner.html
MEXICO CITY - A reputed drug trafficking boss has escaped from one of Mexico's most secure prisons, apparently hidden in a laundry truck with help from prison employees, security officials said.
Joaquin Guzman Loera, 43, escaped Puente Grande prison, about 12 miles from Guadalajara, capital of the west-central state of Jalisco. He was reported missing soon after being seen at a head count of prisoners Friday evening.
Jorge Tello Peon, the federal undersecretary for public security, said preliminary evidence had given ``pretty clear indications'' of which prison officials were involved in the escape.
The warden, Leonardo Beltran Santana, was fired and held for questioning. Thirty-three guards also were questioned.
Guzman Loera is believed to be the head of a drug organization in the Pacific coastal state of Sinaloa in northern Mexico, although he has never been convicted on drug charges. He describes himself as a cattleman and farmer.
He was serving more than 20 years for criminal association and bribery when he escaped, and faced trials for homicide and drug trafficking. He was arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and had been at the Puente Grande prison since 1995.
He has been found innocent of drug charges in the past and was absolved of responsibility for a wild shootout between rival drug gangs at the Guadalajara International Airport that killed Mexican Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993.
Guzman Loera left behind his prison uniform, leading prison officials to assume someone smuggled in civilian clothing for him.
Puente Grande houses around 500 prisoners, including some of Mexico's most dangerous. Cell doors are controlled electronically, one door cannot open unless another closes and visitors are severely limited. Strip searches are common for visitors, and prisoners are kept in individual cells with no contact with one another. There are two guards for each inmate.
-------- iran
Four rockets explode in Iranian capital
01/21/2001 - Updated 08:41 PM ET
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-01-21-iran.htm
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Four explosions rocked northeastern Tehran on Sunday evening, state-run Iranian radio and television reported, as a rebel group claimed it had fired rockets at offices of the Islamic judiciary.
There were no reported casualties from the explosions, which occurred at about 7 p.m. local time, witnesses said. Television news later reported that the attack caused no damage.
The rebel Mujahedeen Khalq said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, that its units "launched a heavy attack" of RPG-7 rockets on the offices of the Central Islamic Revolutionary Court.
The statement said the bombing was in response to a recent wave of executions and "brutal sentences passed on young people by the mullahs' criminal judiciary."
A Mujahedeen Khalq spokesman in Paris, Ali Safavi, told the AP that the court was targeted because of its sanctioning of "repressive policies, arrests, executions and torture. ... Anywhere else in the world they would be tried for countless crimes against humanity."
The Iraq-based Mujahedeen Khalq seeks the overthrow of Iran's Islamic government. It frequently attacks targets deep inside Iran.
This is the third attack the group has claimed in two weeks; the others targeted intelligence ministry offices and the state security forces.
"This is to show that the people are not going to sit idly and do nothing," Safavi said.
-------- puerto rico
Pentagon to Examine Heart Illness on Vieques
January 21, 2001
By ELIZABETH BECKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/national/21VIEQ.html
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - In his last hours in office, President Clinton ordered the Defense Department to examine a new study that shows a high incidence of heart problems among the residents of Vieques, P.R., where the Navy has held bombing exercises for 50 years.
Gov. Sila M. Calderón of Puerto Rico asked the president last week to order an immediate halt to the bombing based on the preliminary findings of the study, which blamed the noise from huge exercises for a high rate of symptoms of an unusual disorder known as vibroacoustic disease.
Mr. Clinton asked the Navy to find an alternative site to the Vieques range, which the Navy considers indispensable to prepare sailors and marines for overseas deployment.
"The Navy has agreed to continue to look for an alternative training site and cooperate with the Department of Health and Human Services in examining the new study," said Adm. Stephen R. Pietropaoli, a spokesman for the Navy.
Richard Danzig, departing secretary of the Navy, wrote to Governor Calderón saying that the Navy had begun its review of the new study but that the initial findings did not seem applicable to the kind of training done on Vieques, the Navy spokesman said.
The Navy is now restricted to using only inert ammunition for its training exercises on Vieques, a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, pending a referendum scheduled for Nov. 6.
In April 1999 a civilian Puerto Rican security guard was killed in a bombing accident, leading to a temporary ban on all training, which was later lifted. For the Navy, the range at Vieques had been the only training area in the Atlantic for joint amphibious aerial and ship bombardment exercises using live fire.
Governor Calderón won election last November on a platform that included a permanent end to all exercises on Vieques.
-------- u.s.
Dangerous Deceptions on the Osprey
January 21, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/opinion/21SUN2.html
It seems unbelievable that a marine colonel would order falsified maintenance reports on the accident-prone aircraft that the men in his squadron were flying, the V-22 Osprey. But that is the accusation that spurred the abrupt removal of Lt. Col. Odin Leberman from his command last Thursday, six days after an anonymous informant sent a letter and tape recording to the secretary of the Navy, Richard Danzig, alleging the fraudulent record-keeping. Pentagon officials said on Friday that Colonel Leberman had acknowledged that he doctored records.
It is not uncommon for the military services to press hard for the production of new weapons systems, but the deliberate falsification of test records would be a criminal act and a breach of the bond of trust that sustains a military organization.
Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense-designate, will have to determine if Colonel Leberman acted on his own. It is reasonable to ask if a junior officer would manipulate maintenance and reliability data without believing he had the blessings of superior officers. The Marines have been eager to rush the Osprey into full production as a replacement for an aging helicopter fleet.
The new charges about the Osprey make it more imperative to review the $30 billion program. A reassessment was ordered last year by Defense Secretary William Cohen, but Mr. Rumsfeld should bring in independent experts to help decide the aircraft's future. It is rare for a major weapons program to be killed off once production lines have opened. The Osprey, an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a fixed-wing plane, may well qualify for cancellation.
-------- OTHER
-------- environment
Environmental Justice
January 21, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/opinion/L21EPA.html
To the Editor:
Re "Whitman Promises Latitude to States on Pollution Rules" (news article, Jan. 18):
Gov. Christie Whitman's record hardly commends her to become the nation's top environmental enforcement official. She has been notoriously lax when it comes to New Jersey's environment, drastically reducing fines against industrial polluters and downsizing the state's office of environmental protection.
Across the country, everything from the siting of landfills and toxic- waste dumps to the construction of factory-style hog operations is disproportionately concentrated in poor, minority and tribal communities, resulting in environmental degradation, social dislocation and declining health. An important benchmark of Mrs. Whitman's tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency will be her stand on issues of environmental justice.
SAVONALA HORNE
Durham, N.C., Jan. 18, 2001
The writer is director of agricultural policy at the Land Loss Prevention Project.
-------- activists
Protesters clash with Police during Bush inauguration
Sun, 21 Jan 2001
Australian Broadcasting
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jan2001-17.htm
A group of about 300 self-proclaimed anarchists carrying black flags and throwing rotten fruit clashed with police as demonstrators protested against the inauguration of George W Bush.
Witnesses said dozens of demonstrators were detained by police as the protesters attempted to block off three streets close to the White House with newspaper vending machines.
Several dozen police wielding clubs forced the demonstrators back before detaining some of them, the witnesses said.
A cordon of police officers had formed to block the protesters from approaching the route of Bush's inaugural parade, which will take place later today, but about 30 demonstrators are believed to have broken through.
------- Onelist (submissions from subscribers)