------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
Civilian Was at Control Station of Crash Submarine
Rescued Japanese Students Return to Japan
Reaching Out to Japan
Fight to Survive Sinking of Fishing Vessel
Navy chief urged fleet safety check
Sunken Japanese boat still missing
Sub collision survivors return home
Coalition Partner Said Urging Japan PM to Resign
Bush Vows to Work with NATO on Missile Defense
Germans Urge Dialogue on Missile Defense
Germans Urge U.S., Russia Talks
In Speech, Bush Charts New Course for Military
China Attacks U.S. Missile Plans
Bush Highlights Need to Modernize Military
Bush Urges New Weapons Systems
MEETING WITH POWELL
Missile-Defense Flaw
Space Rangers
Bush wants more mobile, higher-tech military
German says Moscow amenable to missile defense
Is This Shield Necessary?
Russians to study Kursk's torpedoes
Deal reached on nuclear plant deal in Taiwan
Asia Assets Rangebound Ahead of Greenspan
Top EU Officials Head for Scandal - Riven Ukraine
Russia Offers a Motherly Embrace for Ukraine Industry
Navy sending search vessel to site of sub-boat collision
Bush takes troop pledge to front line
Ugo Fano
Privatized company reaps what it sows
Bush seeks to modernize military
Ivanov, Powell to meet this month
MILITARY
Thai-Myanmar border closes
Colombia, U.S. Look at Andean Drug Plan
Colombian officer convicted in human rights case
Bush to meet Colombian president in two weeks
U.S.-trained troops on destroy missions against drugs
Colombian general convicted
States
Militants attack army patrols in Kashmir
Iraqis Mourn Gulf War Victims
Atlantis, space station astronauts enjoy new view
U.N. Now Sees Fewer Troops in Congo Patrol
Whose rights, whose humanity?
U.S. to close Taliban N.Y. office
UN needs fewer observers in Congo
Two U.S. Army Helicopters May Have Collided
Bush Seeks $5.7 Billion Increase for Military
A Longtime Friend of Powell Is Tapped to Be Deputy
Six Dead After 2 Army Helicopters Crash in Hawaii
Top Marine Clears Osprey's Design in Crash
Marines clear Osprey design in crash
Army helicopters crash in Hawaii, killing six
Dollars and bullets
Defense spending debated
Bush promises pay raise to troops
Army helicopters crash; 6 dead
OTHER
Market and Government Are Sapping Murmansk
Human Intrusion Bodes Ill for Galápagos Creatures
Filibuster Vowed if Bush Seeks Arctic Oil Drilling
PLAN TO CUT EMISSIONS
EU proposes measures to stem mad cow crisis
French farmers demand mad cow aid
Norton making case for oil drilling
Climate change talks set to resume
EU proposes new mad cow measures
States
EU officials approve mad-cow spending plan
Surveys to Gauge Public's Perception of Police
Home Loans to Peace Officers and Firefighters
California
NSA listens to bin Laden
Bin Laden Aide Tells of Proposed Riyadh Attack
Terror Exports Are the Business of Jihad Inc
ACTIVISTS
Nobel Peace Prize Nominations
POWER PLANT PROTEST
Vegetarian Wardrobe
Seattle Drops Charges Related to Trade Protest
China Begins to Turn Light on Wide Use of Torture
Vietnam struggling to quell highlands unrest
Accounts of torture in China on the rise
CSIS predicts anarchists will bring violence
Greenpeace Challenges Bush's Missile Defense System
Reporters knew of suicides
ACLU sues over Olympic protests
-
-------- NUCLEAR
Civilian Was at Control Station of Crash Submarine
Tuesday February 13
Yahoo News
By Charles Aldinger
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010213/ts/submarine_leadall_dc_8.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A civilian, one of 15 invited aboard the USS Greeneville for a brief training cruise last week, was at one of the three control stations of the submarine as it shot to the surface and struck a Japanese fishing vessel, a Pentagon (news - web sites) official said on Tuesday.
But the official, who asked not to be identified, said the civilian was under careful supervision at the time and that the move was not highly unusual and apparently had no influence on the collision.
Separately, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to identify the 15 civilians from Hawaii who had been aboard the submarine, saying they had requested that their identities not be released.
Meanwhile, a Navy underwater robot vehicle arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to examine the possibility of raising the Japanese ship that sunk after it was hit by the U.S. submarine in a major international incident, the Pentagon said.
The U.S. ``Super Scorpio'', a cumbersome 4,500-pound device controlled from a surface ship and capable of diving 5,000 feet, arrived to look for the Japanese fishing ship Ehime Maru, Quigley said.
Nine people are missing from the Ehime Maru, which sank in about 1,800 feet of water nine miles off Diamond Head, Hawaii, after a collision on Friday with the attack submarine.
``We don't know,'' Quigley told reporters when asked whether the Navy would eventually be able to raise the ship at Japan's request. ``It would depend on the condition of the vessel itself ... we don't know the extent of damage to the hull.''
Although hope had dimmed for any survivors, Quigley stressed that a search by U.S. rescue aircraft, helicopters and ships was still under way for the missing Japanese.
Bush Apologies For Accident
President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said he apologized to the Japanese for the accident in a telephone call to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (news - web sites).
``I apologized on behalf of our nation for the accident that took place and the lives that are missing,'' Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One while returning from a visit to Norfolk Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia.
``He asked me to do everything I could, which we are doing, to locate the missing folks,'' he added. ``I think we need to do what we need to do to get the bodies out of there, if they're there.''
The Super Scorpio submergence unit, flown from San Diego, carries a sonar and video cameras capable of examining underwater objects.
Quigley said a Klein side-looking sonar device was also being sent to Hawaii and a ``deep drone,'' another remotely-operated vehicle designed to aid deep ocean recovery efforts, was standing by at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, ready to be flown to the scene.
The deep drone can descend to a depth of 7,200 feet.
Quigley on Tuesday repeated denials by U.S. defense officials that the Greeneville had simply ignored the rescue operation after the Japanese ship was struck and quickly sank. He said the sub broadcast appeals for help but did not want to add danger for the passengers of the ship by getting too close.
``Lousy'' Rescue Platform
``A submarine is a lousy platform to recover people from the water or bring rafts alongside,'' the spokesman said, noting that the round hull of the submarine is slick and that seas were running four to six feet.
``The rafts or individuals (from the Japanese vessel) could have been slammed up on the hull and injured, or even killed,'' Quigley added.
Anguished relatives of the missing have pleaded for two days to have the wreck raised so they would know if their loved ones had been trapped inside. The request -- also being pushed strongly by the Japanese government -- was forwarded to top U.S. government officials.
The accident occurred when the Greeneville shot out of the depths directly underneath the 499-tonJapanese ship being used as a fisheries training school.
The Greeneville was staging an emergency training drill in which it made a sudden drop to a depth of 400 feet and then a rapid push to the surface, when the accident took place. It had used passive sonar and scanned the surface twice with a periscope, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites).
At the Pentagon, Quigley told reporters that passive sonar was the best search device for the Greeneville to use under the circumstances because the active sonar on the ship was designed to find ice floes in the Arctic.
---
Rescued Japanese Students Return to Japan
February 13, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-japan-s.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nine Japanese students who survived after a U.S. nuclear submarine sank their training trawler off Hawaii returned home Tuesday while schoolmates prayed for four others presumed entombed in the vessel on the seabed.
The high school students, among 26 people rescued after the disaster, arrived at Osaka airport en route to anxious families and their homes in the southwestern city of Matsuyama.
The students, many visibly tired or tense, kept their heads down as officials led them through a mob of reporters in the airport lobby.
``I feel fine,'' one told Japanese television.
The USS Greeneville had surfaced suddenly off the coast of Hawaii, sinking the trawler Ehime Maru run by a Japanese high school and probably entombing nine of its 35 crew at the bottom of the sea.
Mindful of possible public backlash at home, the Japanese government said it was preparing to send a sophisticated unmanned deep-sea research vessel and minesweepers to the scene of the disaster.
Earlier in the day, tearful students and teachers at their small fisheries high school gathered to pray for those still missing amid diminishing hopes for their safety.
``Let us pray that the missing students and teachers will be safely rescued,'' Vice-Principal Kazumitsu Joko told some 140 students gathered at Uwajima Fisheries High School in southwestern Japan.
As he read out the names of the missing, some students started sobbing, an official at the high school said.
``I trust that all of them are safe and waiting for help,'' Joko said.
The school canceled all classes scheduled for the day, the official said.
Thirteen students from the high school were aboard the trawler when the USS Greeneville surfaced, struck it and sank it at 6:45 p.m. EST Friday.
Four of the students, all 17 years old, two teachers and three crew members were still unaccounted for. Nine students who were rescued shortly after the incident were expected to return home later Tuesday.
JAPAN READY TO HELP
Earlier Tuesday, Japan urged the United States to use whatever technology is available to salvage the sunken trawler, saying that the nine missing may have been trapped inside.
``We want the United States to make utmost efforts to salvage the trawler by using technologies available today,'' Bummei Ibuki, state minister in charge of crisis management, told parliament.
``There is a possibility that the nine people were trapped in the ship.''
He added that Tokyo may offer technological support to raise the trawler from the 600-yard seas.
Japan was also prepared to send the unmanned deep-sea probe ''Kaiyo'' to the scene.
Kaiyo is equipped with a remote vehicle ``Hyper Dolphin'' which has a maximum diving depth of 3,000 yards and could monitor the trawler's condition with an underwater camera, Science Minister Nobutaka Machimura said.
Japan's Defense Agency said it was ready to dispatch minesweepers to Hawaii to locate the sunken ship, although it would wait for a request from Washington before doing so.
President George W. Bush Saturday sent his ``regrets and condolences'' to Tokyo and Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono to convey his own and Bush's apology.
---
Reaching Out to Japan
February 13, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/opinion/13TUE1.html
The sinking of a Japanese fishing vessel by an American Navy submarine off Hawaii last Friday has prompted apologies from Washington, a promise to investigate and a moment of silent prayer yesterday from President Bush. These actions reflected appropriate sensitivity by the new administration as it moves to renew ties with Japan at a difficult time. Indeed, the submarine episode could force the administration to make some quick decisions on how to handle an apparently growing uneasiness over the presence of American troops in Japan, most of them on Okinawa. The administration also needs to decide how to address Japan's suddenly worsening economic problems.
Three days after the submarine accident, many questions remain. The first is how the 360-foot submarine could have failed to detect the presence of the 190-foot trawler, the Ehime Maru, before proceeding with an extremely rapid emergency surfacing drill. Twenty-six Japanese were rescued, but nine, including four high school students on a field trip learning to fish, are still missing. In Japan, commentators are also openly asking why the submarine did not rescue those thrown into the sea after the accident but instead waited for the Coast Guard to pull them from the water. American officials say the waves were too high for such a rescue operation, but the Japanese captain seems to be disputing that view.
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has also drawn criticism for his handling of the episode after he was reported to have asked journalists why they were interrupting him during a golf game to ask about the disaster. As President Vladimir Putin discovered last August when a Russian submarine sank in the Barents Sea, a nation's citizens can be very unforgiving if officials do not treat such incidents seriously from the start. In addition, a wave of populism is sweeping through Japan right now, and some analysts say that political parties questioning the security relationship with America could gain in the parliamentary election this summer.
Mr. Bush would do well to listen to Japanese concerns about the submarine episode and the larger security issues. Many Japanese are also uneasy over whether the new administration will embark on a missile defense program that could anger their neighbors Russia and China, or take a more confrontational approach to North Korea than was adopted by President Clinton.
Mr. Bush's choice of a new ambassador to Japan will be among his most important diplomatic appointments. Since the days of Mike Mansfield, Japan has come to expect a senior American political figure to represent American interests in Tokyo. The current ambassador, former House speaker Thomas Foley, fits that pattern, which Mr. Bush will surely want to continue when he makes his own choice.
The most urgent problem facing Japan is economic. Once again the country appears to be slipping back into a recession after more than a decade of little or no growth. Its troubles will make it all the harder for the United States to avoid an economic downturn. Recently Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill spoke disapprovingly of Washington's traditional practice of pressing the Tokyo government to change its economic or industrial policies. He said he would prefer working directly with Japanese business executives. That approach sounds unrealistic. The United States cannot afford a hands-off attitude toward the need for Japan to reform its banking system, deregulate its sclerotic industrial structure and stimulate its economy.
Right now, however, the most immediate priority is to do everything possible to investigate the submarine tragedy and make amends for those who may have lost their lives.
---
Safety Board Tells of Fight to Survive Sinking of Fishing Vessel Hit by Submarine
February 13, 2001
New York Times
By JAMES STERNGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/national/13HAWA.html?pagewanted=all
HONOLULU, Feb. 12 - In their first interviews with American government officials, the captain and some of the students from a Japanese fishing vessel that was sunk near here on Friday by a United States Navy submarine said that they had heard two loud noises and found themselves ankle deep in rapidly rising oil and water and that within five minutes their ship had slipped beneath the choppy seas.
Twenty-six of the ship's crew were pulled from the sea, and 9 are missing, four of them students.
John A. Hammerschmidt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a press briefing here this evening that the surviving members of the Japanese training vessel, the 190-foot Ehime Maru, said the ship had been traveling 11 knots, its normal cruising speed. The students said they had seen nothing when, without warning, when they felt the collision with the submarine Greeneville.
The students recalled having only the tiniest amount of time to grab life vests - some did not even have time to do that - and scampering from the mess hall where they were cleaning up 20 minutes after lunch. The lights on the ship went out after the second noise, they said, and they raced to the deck with water and oil already lapping at their ankles.
The Greeneville had been performing a surfacing drill when, from about 400 feet down, it rocketed to the surface, crashing into the Ehime Maru.
Mr. Hammerschmidt said the students reported that very quickly the stern began to sink and the bow of the ship began to rise. One student said it reminded him of the movie "Titanic," Mr. Hammerschmidt said. Some of the students leapt into the water and some reported being swept in by the sea, in which there were three- to four-foot waves.
One student clung so tenaciously to the rapidly sinking ship that he climbed up the mast as it slid rapidly under the waves. Mr. Hammerschmidt said some of the students were sucked under but bobbed back to the surface.
Mr. Hammerschmidt added that the captain reported seeing the submarine surface after the collision and that it initially steamed away from his sinking ship before turning around.
The submarine eventually came within three or four yards of one of the life rafts that bobbed to the surface after the Ehime Maru sank. Mr. Hammerschmidt said some of the students reported that sailors from the submarine emerged from its top hatch and that they shouted back and forth but could understand nothing because of the language barrier.
There had been reports that the captain of the Ehime Maru was critical of the submarine crew for not taking any of the survivors on board or trying to help find others. Nine people from the Ehime Maru are still missing.
Mr. Hammerschmidt said that in the captain's interview with American officials today he volunteered that he now understood why the submarine had not been able to pick up survivors. Mr. Hammerschmidt said the captain did not explain.
There have been reports that the seas were too rough for the submarine to help, but the Navy has not officially confirmed this.
The survivors were eventually picked up by the Coast Guard. The Navy announced tonight that it was bringing in sophisticated underwater search equipment to Honolulu to search for the sunken vessel, which is believed to be lying on the bottom roughly 1,800 feet down.
At an appearance at a military base in Georgia, President Bush called for a moment of silence for the missing, while Bush administration officials, trying to address Japanese anger, said they had seen no indication that the incident involved any breakdown in safety procedures.
In Washington today, Navy officials said the submarine had been following standard procedures and did not use highly accurate active sonar devices that might have better detected that the vessel was near.
Instead, before performing the emergency drill the Greeneville relied on passive sonar, which is designed to pick up the sounds of approaching vessels, and on follow-up scans from a periscope.
The Navy officials defended the Greeneville's basic approach and said it should have been more than adequate to allow the submarine's crew to detect the trawler. They said they could not yet explain the sequence that led to the sinking, leaving nine Japanese missing after more than three days.
As investigators in Hawaii try to piece together what happened, some have focused on decisions about sonar use as a possible factor.
safety board officials on the scene in Hawaii said that for more than 10 years the Navy had rejected a recommendation by the board that submarines employ active sonar when operating in American coastal waters as a precaution against just such accidents. The exception would be in cases that threaten national security.
As a general rule, submarines avoid using active sonar, which can reveal their positions to enemy forces, and Navy officials in Washington defended that position, saying that passive sonar was in most cases the better tool.
"Commanders have the flexibility to use any and all systems to determine the conditions at the time," said Cmdr. Greg Smith, a Navy spokesman. "But we believe passive sonar provides the best method for determining whether ships are operating in the area."
The safety board's recommendation followed its investigation of an incident involving the Houston, a submarine similar to the Greeneville. The Houston snagged the towline of a tugboat on June 14, 1989, dragging it beneath the surface and killing one sailor 10 miles southeast of Long Beach, Calif.
At a news conference in Hawaii on Sunday night, Mr. Hammerschmidt emphasized that investigators were not drawing direct comparisons between the two incidents. But safety board officials said that in both cases the submarines were using the less- accurate passive sonar systems rather than active sonar, which sends a ping-like sound through the water and bounces off other vessels to provide a more accurate analysis of their locations.
Mr. Hammerschmidt said on Sunday that the incident involving the Greeneville was prompting the safety board to review the earlier incident.
The fact that four of the nine missing are 17-year-old Japanese fisheries students has compounded public outrage in Japan and led to protests from the Japanese government.
At the State Department today, a spokesman, Richard Boucher, said that strong ties with Japan would not be damaged by the accident. "One week has not changed a trend of history," Mr. Boucher said.
In Hawaii on Sunday, at the news conference that provided some of the first details about the sequence leading up to the incident, Mr. Hammerschmidt said that as part of its precautions before conducting the surfacing maneuver, the Greeneville had moved to a periscope depth of about 60 feet and conducted two scans of the surrounding water. The vessel then descended to 400 feet to begin the maneuver.
But Mr. Hammerschmidt and Navy officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said they did not know or were not ready to say how much time might have elapsed between that final visual scan and the surfacing. That factor is likely to be a crucial part of the investigation, because submarine commanders try to keep the duration as short as possible - within 10 to 15 minutes, often less - in order to reduce the prospect that previously unseen vessels might move into danger.
The Greeneville's skipper, Lt. Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was relieved of his post pending the results of the investigations.
Another factor that has not yet been fully explained has to do with the periscope search itself. Under normal circumstances, Navy officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said today, submarine crew members would conduct three 360- degree scans through each of two optical devices - the first, a high- intensity device with a narrow field of view, and the second, of lower- intensity but a wider field of view.
--------
Navy chief urged fleet safety check
2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=1722_3657099_108107_775_149539_0&YY=65985&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=6&box=Inbox
WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. Navy submarine's sinking of a Japanese fishing boat came five months after the Navy's top officer raised concerns about an increase in at-sea accidents. Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, ordered a one-day "safety standdown" on Sept. 15, requiring all vessels in the fleet - including submarines - to review navigation procedures. The standdown, the first since 1989, was in response to a spate of accidents, including an incident Sept. 12 in which the USS La Moure County, a Newport-class ship used to transport and land tanks, struck a reef in the waters off Chile while conducting a tank-landing operation. No one was injured.
The Navy said then that there had been six major ship collisions over the previous 12 months. The Navy chief was concerned about lapses in seamanship and navigation, officials said.
Navy officials at the Pentagon on Monday referred questions about the possible causes of last Friday's accident 20 miles southeast of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to officials at U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii.
The USS Greeneville, an attack submarine, struck an 180-foot Japanese fishing vessel while conducting a rapid-ascent drill. Twenty-six people from the fishing boat were rescued; nine are still missing.
The incident has plunged the Navy into another sensitive investigation, just weeks after it completed an accountability review of what happened aboard the USS Cole before it was attacked by terrorists while refueling in Aden, Yemen, last October. Seventeen sailors were killed in the attack. The Navy decided to take no disciplinary action against the Cole's commander.
In the case of the Greeneville, the commander has been reassigned pending the outcome of investigations.
---
Sunken Japanese boat still missing
2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=1722_3657099_108107_775_149539_0&YY=65985&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=6&box=Inbox
HONOLULU (AP) - The Navy will use a deep-sea robot to investigate the ocean floor where a Japanese fishing vessel sank after it was struck by a U.S. submarine, a Navy spokeswoman said Monday. Lt. Col. Christy Samuels, spokeswoman for the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, said no decision about a salvage operation had been made. She did not say when the remote-controlled submersible would be dropped.
The possibility of a salvage operation - which has been urged by the Japanese - was the subject of a meeting planned Monday between Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, and Yoshitaka Sakurada, Japan's parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs. The Ehime Maru went down in 1,800 feet of water nine miles from Honolulu on Friday after it was hit by the surfacing USS Greeneville.
Twenty-six people were rescued, but nine are missing and feared dead. The Navy and Coast Guard have searched more than 5,000 square miles with no signs of the missing, who include four Japanese students, two instructors and three crewman. The Ehime Maru is 180 feet long and 499 tons.
Bringing it nearly one-third of a mile to the surface would be costly and risky, experts said.
---
Sub collision survivors return home
2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=13fdp2p7p12nn
UWAJIMA, Japan (AP) - Appearing sad and tired, nine teen-agers who survived a fatal collision between their fishing vessel and a surfacing U.S. submarine off the coast of Hawaii returned home to Japan on Tuesday. The students from Uwajima Fisheries High School had been on a two-month training cruise when their 190-foot vessel was rammed by the nuclear-powered sub as it practiced a surfacing maneuver Friday.
Twenty-six people were rescued within an hour of the accident, which happened about 20 miles southeast of Pearl Harbor. After they were brought to safety, some survivors vomited diesel fuel they swallowed while adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
The students had an exhausting trip home, starting with a flight from Honolulu to Osaka, then a flight to Matsuyama - where they were met by their parents - then a two-hour bus ride to Uwajima.
In Honolulu, the chief U.S. investigator said Tuesday there is no indication whether or not the USS Greeneville's crew followed correct procedures in surfacing.
-------- japan
Coalition Partner Said Urging Japan PM to Resign
February 13, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-japan-d.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's grip on power was in question on Wednesday amid attacks by both ruling and opposition lawmakers for his response to the sinking of a Japanese ship carrying high school students by a U.S. submarine.
In a sign of the mounting pressure on the unpopular premier, a top official of the number two party in the ruling camp said Mori should resign, Kyodo news agency reported.
``I think it would be best if he resigned,'' Kyodo quoted an unidentified senior executive from the New Komeito party as saying.
Domestic media and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been bashing Mori relentlessly for carrying on with a golf game on Saturday after hearing that the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville had crashed into and sunk the training trawler for high school students off Hawaii. Nine people are still missing and believed entombed in the sunken ship.
Lawmakers in the three-way ruling camp are nervous about the threat of a thrashing in an election for parliament's Upper House set for July, and now analysts are betting that the latest burst of media criticism and TV footage of outraged citizens could well be the final straw for the unloved Mori.
The burly former rugby player's popularity was already at rock bottom due to his reputation for verbal gaffes and a string of scandals that have claimed the scalps of three cabinet ministers since he took office last April.
The yen got some support from the news that the coalition partner was calling for Mori to resign, and Tokyo share prices recouped early losses on chances he would soon be ousted.
IDES OF MARCH
One favorite scenario has Mori losing his job in March after the national budget for the fiscal year from April 1 is adopted by parliament's powerful Lower House.
``I think it will probably happen,'' said Steven Reed, a professor of modern government at Chuo University in Tokyo. ``In the past, the LDP (Mori's Liberal Democratic Party) could get away with a lot but the Komeito in particular can't put up with this.''
Mori, who is expected to face a grilling from opposition leaders in parliamentary ``Question Time'' later in the day -- has defended his decision to remain on the golf course.
``I decided at that point that in order to issue instructions, it was better for me to stay put,'' domestic media quoted Mori as telling reporters at his official residence on Tuesday.
``I feel I took leadership firmly.''
A spokesman for Mori said on Wednesday that the prime minister was sticking to his stance, and declined to comment on the reported call by the New Komeito official for Mori to resign.
``There is no way to confirm the comment, or in what context it was made, so I am not in a position to make any comment,'' spokesman Kazuhiko Koshikawa told Reuters.
Mori's defense, however, appears to have done little to soothe fears in the ruling camp that letting Mori lead into the Upper House election would be a recipe for disaster.
``Voters are saying, 'Would he have been so relaxed if it had been his own children whose lives were in danger','' conservative newspaper Sankei Shimbun quoted a member of the Conservative Party, the LDP's tiniest ruling partner, as saying.
On Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda joined the chorus of criticism, telling a regular news conference he personally thought Mori should not have been playing golf at all during an important session of parliament.
SUCCESSOR WOES
Finding a viable successor for Mori should the LDP decide to ditch him -- possibly around the time of a party convention set for March 13 -- remains a major headache for the ruling camp.
``Everybody wants Mori out but I can't quite see who would take his place,'' a European diplomat in Tokyo said. ``What they're looking for is somebody strong, but they don't have anybody.''
Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, once seen as a front-runner for the job, has had his image tainted by a scandal involving allegations that a senior diplomat embezzled millions of dollars in public money to fund a high-flying lifestyle.
And former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, another possibility, suffered a blow after Fukushiro Nukaga, a rising star in his LDP faction, had to resign as economics minister over links to a firm at the center of a bribery scandal.
That leaves Junichiro Koizumi, the eccentric head of Mori's own LDP faction in the multi-faction LDP and known as a proponent of economic reforms, as the most likely candidate for now.
-------- missile defense
Bush Vows to Work with NATO on Missile Defense
Tuesday February 13
Yahoo News
By Patricia Wilson
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010213/ts/bush_leadall_dc_264.html
NORFOLK NAVAL AIR STATION, Va. (Reuters) - After watching a display of simulated missiles stream toward the United States, President George W. Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday vowed to work with NATO (news - web sites) to confront the threat of nuclear weapons.
At the headquarters of the Allied Command Atlantic, Bush stood before three large video screens displaying high-tech war-games conducted jointly by the United States and its NATO allies directed from the command ship, the USS Mount Whitney, 50 miles off the Virginia coast.
Then, at an outdoor rotunda ringed by the flags of 19 NATO nations, he sent a strong signal that he was committed to working in unity with the allies on defense, whether against missiles or extremist attack, and on peacekeeping.
``I'm here today with a message for America's allies. We will cooperate in the work of peace, we will consult early and candidly with our NATO allies, and we'll expect them to return the same.
``NATO is the reason history records no World War Three, by preserving the stability of Europe and the transatlantic community. NATO has kept the peace and the work goes on,'' he told a gathering of Navy personnel and their families.
Diplomats from NATO states based in Washington also traveled to Norfolk to attend.
Bush's speech appeared designed partly to relieve allied uneasiness over his reluctance to use U.S. military forces for peacekeeping or ``nation-building'' and his determination to build a robust National Missile Defense (news - web sites) despite opposition from Russia and China as well as objections from Europe.
Different Challenges
``Our challenges have changed ...but the purpose of NATO remains permanent,'' he said. ``As we have seen in the Balkans, together, united, we can deter the designs of aggression and spare the continent from the effects of ethnic hatreds,''
Later, Bush said the United States needed to be ``very judicious'' about committing its troops.
``Redesigning the strategic vision of the military is going to take some time,'' he told reporters on board Air Force One. ''But we must do it. There are going to be some tough choices to make, but that's why you get elected.
In his address, Bush said NATO collaboration was essential to build a system to protect against missiles and to ward of attacks by ``terrorists''.
``With advanced technology, we must confront the threats that come on a missile,'' he said. ``With shared intelligence and enforcement, we must confront the threats that come in a shipping container or in a suitcase.''
``In diplomacy, in technology, in missile defense, in fighting wars and, above all, in preventing wars, we (in NATO) must work as one,'' the president said.
Stressing the need for the same unity with which the United States and its European allies faced the Cold War and which he saw on display in the simulated war game, Bush cautioned against ``pursuing separate plans with separate technologies.''
``The defenses we build must protect us all,'' he said. During the presidential campaign, Bush proposed sharing missile defense technology with NATO and other allies such as Israel.
He also appeared to be reflecting U.S. concerns over plans for a European Rapid Reaction force which Washington fears could develop separately from NATO and undermine the alliance.
``New Strategic Vision''
The United States currently has more than 7,000 nuclear warheads, but Bush has ordered a review that could lead to unilateral cuts perhaps to as few as 2,000.
Officials have said such cuts might make missile defense more palatable to Moscow, which has proposed mutual reductions to as low as 1,500 nuclear warheads on each side.
However, senior U.S. military officers have in the past strongly objected to massive cuts so long as Russia retains thousands of long-range and tactical nuclear missiles despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Bush vowed to develop ``a new strategic vision'' that would ''challenge the status quo.'' He also said he would redirect $2.6 billion from the $310 billion defense budget for next year to research and development ``to redefine war on our terms.''
``We are witnessing a revolution in the technology of war. Power is increasingly defined not by size, but by mobility and swiftness,'' he said.
Bush's visit to Norfolk Naval Air Station was the second of three trips to bases this week to promote his plans to revamp the military and redefine the U.S. defense posture.
Having accused former President Clinton (news - web sites) of neglecting the armed forces, Bush has ordered a ``top-to-bottom'' review of the military, including its strategy, missions, modernization priorities and nuclear weapons arsenal.
Bush, who plans modest increases in U.S. military spending until his review is complete, got a hero's welcome from troops at Fort Stewart on Monday when he proposed spending $5.7 billion on pay raises, improved housing and medical benefits.
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Germans Urge Dialogue on Missile Defense Between U.S. and Russia
February 13, 2001
New York Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/13WIRE-GERM.html
MOSCOW - Germany's foreign minister on Tuesday urged Russia and the United States to settle their differences over U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system.
Moscow has vehemently opposed the U.S. plan for the missile defense. The system would go against the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the Kremlin describes as a cornerstone of world stability.
But while German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has predicted that Russia will eventually reconcile itself to the missile defense system, he urged the United States not to antagonize Moscow by pushing ahead with the project without consultations.
``It is our substantial interest that two major nuclear powers discuss all the issues related to possible NMD implementation ... in a climate of cooperation, not confrontation,'' Fischer told Associated Press Television News
Washington has tried to assure Moscow that the missile shield would not be able to guard against Russia's huge nuclear arsenal, being designed only to protect against possible smaller-scale attacks by so-called rogue nations. Russia has rejected the argument.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to arrange a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to discuss Moscow's concerns, the State Department said Monday.
Fischer met Tuesday with Sergei Ivanov, the secretary of President Vladimir Putin's powerful security council. He was to be received by President Vladimir Putin later Tuesday.
Ivanov said he and Fischer had focused on questions of European security. Fischer tried to allay Russian concerns that NATO's eastward expansion could pose a threat to Moscow, while Ivanov encouraged development of alternative security institutions to NATO, which Moscow considers U.S.-dominated.
``There are three main forces on the continent now: NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union. If we find a true balance of interaction in this triangle, European security will be considerably strengthened,'' Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Russian-German relations have flourished over the past year, due in part to Putin's friendship with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and to Putin's fluent German, which he perfected during his years as a KGB agent in East Germany.
Schroeder will visit St. Petersburg for a meeting with Putin on April 11, Fischer said Tuesday.
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Germans Urge U.S., Russia Talks
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Germany.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- Germany's foreign minister on Tuesday urged Russia and the United States to settle their differences over U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system.
Moscow has vehemently opposed the U.S. plan for the missile defense. The system would go against the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the Kremlin describes as a cornerstone of world stability.
But while German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has predicted that Russia will eventually reconcile itself to the missile defense system, he urged the United States not to antagonize Moscow by pushing ahead with the project without consultations.
``It is our substantial interest that two major nuclear powers discuss all the issues related to possible NMD implementation ... in a climate of cooperation, not confrontation,'' Fischer told Associated Press Television News
Washington has tried to assure Moscow that the missile shield would not be able to guard against Russia's huge nuclear arsenal, being designed only to protect against possible smaller-scale attacks by so-called rogue nations. Russia has rejected the argument.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to arrange a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to discuss Moscow's concerns, the State Department said Monday.
Fischer met Tuesday with Sergei Ivanov, the secretary of President Vladimir Putin's powerful security council. He was to be received by President Vladimir Putin later Tuesday.
Ivanov said he and Fischer had focused on questions of European security. Fischer tried to allay Russian concerns that NATO's eastward expansion could pose a threat to Moscow, while Ivanov encouraged development of alternative security institutions to NATO, which Moscow considers U.S.-dominated.
``There are three main forces on the continent now: NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union. If we find a true balance of interaction in this triangle, European security will be considerably strengthened,'' Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Russian-German relations have flourished over the past year, due in part to Putin's friendship with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and to Putin's fluent German, which he perfected during his years as a KGB agent in East Germany.
Schroeder will visit St. Petersburg for a meeting with Putin on April 11, Fischer said Tuesday.
---
In Speech, Bush Charts New Course for Military
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/politics/14BUSH.html?printpage=yes
NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 13 - President Bush said today that he planned to break with Pentagon orthodoxy and create "a new architecture for the defense of America and our allies," investing in new technologies and weapons systems rather than making "marginal improvements" for systems in which America's arms industry has invested billions of dollars.
In the second of his speeches on national security this week, Mr. Bush appeared to take sides in a long- brewing debate in the defense establishment over whether to invest in entirely new technologies and weapons systems, even if that means neglecting older and outdated systems for years until the next generation of arms is available. His strategy is also bound to set off a scramble within American industry - especially among a new group of software companies and others who have not traditionally served as defense contractors - for tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in new Pentagon contracts.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Bush can execute the kind of sweeping changes he suggested today; many presidents, including Mr. Bush's father, ran up against the Pentagon bureaucracy, entrenched members of Congress and local interests that make it all but impossible to kill a weapons system that is already in production. (When he served as defense secretary, Vice President Dick Cheney tried and failed to kill the accident-prone V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey.)
"We do not know yet the exact shape of our future military," Mr. Bush said, "but we know the direction we must begin to travel. On land, our heavy forces will be lighter. Our light forces will be more lethal. All will be easier to deploy and to sustain. In the air, we'll be able to strike across the world with pinpoint accuracy, using both aircraft and unmanned systems."
Over the course of his administration, today's speech is likely to become the measure of Mr. Bush's success in altering not only the Pentagon, but its strategy and its structure.
But the president also stressed today that he was unwilling to spend much on his new plans until Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who sat beside him during his speech to Navy personnel here, completes a comprehensive review of American strategy and the structure of military forces.
Mr. Bush offered no specifics today, apart from saying he had given Mr. Rumsfeld "a broad mandate to challenge the status quo." The president said he would provide only $2.6 billion in next year's budget in additional funds for research and development. That represents an increase of only about 6 percent over existing levels - an increase that Republicans in Congress have said is far too low.
Mr. Bush himself acknowledged that his proposal was hardly the kind of money needed to rethink an entire arsenal, but said, "Before we make our full investment, we must know our exact priorities."
"We will modernize some existing weapons and equipment, a task we have neglected for too long," Mr. Bush said here at the headquarters of NATO's Atlantic command. "But we will do this judiciously and selectively. Our goal is to move beyond marginal improvements to harness new technologies that will support a new strategy."
Though Mr. Bush never used the phrase today, the movement he endorsed is known within the defense establishment as the "revolution in military affairs." It takes many forms, but focuses on the development of new weapons, often designed to attack not only enemy states, but small groups of terrorists who, like Osama bin Laden, can pose a major threat to the United States and its allies.
Most of the new weapons involve the use of sensing satellites that are linked to long-range, pilotless missiles or drones, and highly sophisticated reconnaissance systems. While the proposals and technologies vary, the aim is to obliterate targets from afar, and with little risk to American military personnel.
Reacting to intense criticism from Europe about his plans to deploy a national missile defense system, Mr. Bush also offered reassurances today without backtracking from his determination to build the system.
"We will cooperate in the work of peace," he said. "We will consult early and candidly with our NATO allies. We will expect them to return the same. In diplomacy, in technology, in missile defense, in fighting wars and, above all, in preventing wars, we must work as one."
At the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Bush added, "God bless NATO."
But Mr. Bush's speech today is not likely to calm the fears of allies. In Europe, Mr. Bush is an unknown entity: he has visited only once as an adult (Italy, where his daughter was studying), knows none of the NATO leaders personally (though Prime Minister Tony Blair comes for a visit later this month), and his campaign declarations about pulling American troops out of the Balkans set off a diplomatic uproar, forcing Mr. Bush to say he would do nothing precipitate.
Many of the ambassadors of NATO nations came here today to hear Mr. Bush's speech, but what they heard did not venture far from the markers Mr. Bush laid out in his campaign.
Indeed, some of his words were drawn directly from a campaign speech he gave at The Citadel, the military academy in South Carolina. The difference is that today the ideas moved from campaign positions to the official stamp of policy directives from the commander in chief.
At moments in today's speech, Mr. Bush echoed a theme that President Bill Clinton often returned to in talking about new threats to the United States: the fear of a biological or nuclear attack, perhaps delivered in a small container to an American city, by terrorists rather than a hostile state.
"With advanced technology, we must confront the threats that come on a missile," he said. "With shared intelligence and enforcement, we must confront the threats that come in a shipping container or in a suitcase."
Yet, nothing in the national missile defense plan that Mr. Bush made a centerpiece of his campaign addresses weapons that might enter American territory that way. Nor did Mr. Bush suggest new approaches to those threats today, other than working closely with allies.
"We did not prevail together in the cold war only to go our separate ways, pursuing separate plans with separate technologies," he said.
The burden of translating Mr. Bush's lofty goal of technological revolution will fall to Mr. Rumsfeld, who also served as defense secretary a quarter century ago - when the microprocessor was new technology and when the Pentagon was considered a developer of new technology, rather than a consumer of advanced technology that originated in commercial products.
In the next few days, Mr. Rumsfeld is expected to receive three directives from the White House to carry out the vision described by Mr. Bush today, ordering thorough reviews of troop deployments, American military strategy 11 years after the end of the cold war, and the time frame in which new technologies can be converted into new weapons.
Indeed, the challenge to the Bush administration, many of whose top national security officials were veterans of the cold war, is to demonstrate that they are able and eager to embrace a very different defense structure to deal with a very different age.
But there are technological and political hurdles to Mr. Bush's plans, as well as opposition from many within the armed services that, for example, are heavily vested in piloted fighters and heavy bombers and resist calls to move to drone vehicles. And much of the new weaponry Mr. Bush envisions remains experimental; in some cases, it has yet to be designed.
"There are very few technologies ready to be mass-produced and deployed that could transform the force today," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on the Pentagon's budget.
Moreover, to make it all affordable, something must give - and there Mr. Rumsfeld will run into an entrenched bureaucracy, well-paid lobbyists, corporate behemoths that are terrified about losing lucrative contracts, and members of Congress who can imagine no worse form of torture than voting to kill a weapons system made in their district or state.
Some defense analysts have argued that many of the new weapons programs now being developed - from the Army's new mobile artillery system to the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, from the Navy's DD-21 destroyer to the Joint Strike Fighter - represent relatively marginal advances from previous generations of weapons. But each has a corporate and political constituency, and each will be difficult to stop.
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China Attacks U.S. Missile Plans
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-US-Missile-Defense.html
BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese state newspaper on Tuesday fired a new attack against U.S. plans to build a missile defense system, warning that it would set off an arms race in space.
The China Daily suggested attempts to build such a system are linked to what it said was a computer simulation Jan. 22 by the American military of a battle between satellites in which China was the presumed enemy.
``The consequence will be a dangerous arms race in space,'' the newspaper quoted Yao Yunzhu, an analyst at the Chinese army's Academy of Military Science, as saying.
The comments echoed previous Chinese protests that plans outlined by the new Bush administration for a system to knock out incoming ballistic missiles would upset arms-control efforts.
President Bush has said the system would be aimed at stemming the threat of nuclear attack by such ``rogue nations'' as North Korea. Critics note that it isn't clear whether such a system could be built, because Washington still faces numerous technical obstacles despite having spent billions of dollars on research.
China fears U.S. anti-missile technology could undermine the effectiveness of its nuclear arsenal. Some in the United States have proposed extending its protection to Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province and has threatened to capture by force.
Other countries would be forced to compete, leading to the ``militarization of space,'' the newspaper said.
The criticism coincides with efforts by Washington to placate Russia, which has joined China in condemning the project as a threat to arms control.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that he expected Russia to relent and eventually accept the system. That would leave China diplomatically isolated on the issue.
---
Bush Highlights Need to Modernize Military
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush.html
NORFOLK, Va. -- President Bush marveled Tuesday at a high-tech simulation of NATO's military might as he asked America's allies to "work as one" with him on the development of a missile defense system and "new architecture" for U.S. defenses.
"To succeed, America knows we must work with our allies. We did not prevail together in the Cold War only to go our separate ways pursuing separate plans with separate technologies," Bush told an outdoor assembly of Navy and Defense Department personnel.
"In diplomacy and technology, in missile defense, in fighting wars and above all, in preventing wars, we must work as one."
The president, on the second of three tours of military units this week, visited the Joint Forces Command. There, by three-dimensional video link, he watched as Vice Adm. Michael Mullen, who was some 50 miles offshore on the USS Mount Whitney, coordinated an allied U.S.-NATO response to a simulated missile attack.
"Pretty exciting technology, and it's only going to get better," Bush commented.
Moments earlier, he and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met briefly and privately with representatives from 19 NATO countries, most of them deeply wary that any U.S. missile defense could touch off an arms race.
Russia and China view the proposed system -- a sort of anti-missile "umbrella," which proponents say could shield the nation from a limited missile attack -- as a serious threat to their own security.
Bush said Tuesday that the old Cold War threats have "devolved into many separate threats -- some of them hard to see and harder to answer." He cited in particular chemical and biological weapons that terrorists might use against civilians.
"With advanced technology, we must confront the threats that come on a missile. With shared intelligence and enforcement, we must confront the threats that come in a shipping container or in a suitcase," the president said.
He envisioned a "new architecture for the defense of America and our allies."
"On land, our heavy forces will be lighter. Our light forces will be more lethal. All will be easier to deploy and to sustain. In the air, we'll be able to strike across the world with pinpoint accuracy using both aircraft and unmanned systems. On the oceans, we'll connect information and weapons in new ways ... . In space, we'll protect our network of satellites."
All of this, Bush said, will require new spending. He has proposed a $14 billion increase over current defense spending -- the same increase that the Clinton administration had projected for the coming fiscal year.
Accompanying Bush to Norfolk were 10 members of Congress, including Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Joint Forces Command is responsible for training 1.2 million American service personnel in all military branches.
The Norfolk trip -- a 35-minute flight aboard Air Force One -- was the second of Bush's three consecutive daily visits to military installations, preceding his trip Friday to Mexico. After devoting his first three weeks in office to domestic concerns such as education, Medicare and taxes, the president is stepping into his role as a world leader. As he does so, the jockeying over the military budget is growing more intense.
Bush has proposed a $310 billion Pentagon budget for 2002. On Monday he said he would set aside $5.7 billion for pay increases, improved health benefits and upgraded housing.
Rumsfeld believes significant increases in military spending are necessary, but is overseeing a review of the Pentagon before Bush makes a decision.
That pause has surprised some Republicans.
At the same time, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., argued Bush's proposed tax cut would make it impossible to meet the nation's defense needs.
Lieberman, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Bush in a letter to "reconsider a tax cut that may result in a military less capable of overcoming the new and dangerous threats they may face in the coming years."
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Bush, in Break With Pentagon, Urges New Weapons Systems
February 13, 2001
New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/politics/13CND-BUSH.html
NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 13 - President Bush said today that he planned to break with Pentagon orthodoxy and create "a new architecture for defense of our people," investing in new technologies and weapons systems, rather than make what he called "marginal improvements" in systems in which America's arms industry has already invested billions of dollars.
In his second speech on national security this week, Mr. Bush appeared to take sides in a long-brewing debate in the military establishment over whether to take the risk of investing in entirely new technologies and weapons systems, even if that meant neglecting older and outdated systems for years until the next generation of arms is available.
His strategy is also bound to set off a scramble within American industry - especially among a new group of software companies and others that have not usually served as military contractors - for tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in new Pentagon contracts.
But Mr. Bush emphasized today that he was unwilling to spend much on his new plans until Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who sat beside him during his speech to Navy personnel here, completes a comprehensive review of American strategy and force structures.
Mr. Bush offered no specifics today, apart from saying he had given Mr. Rumsfeld "a broad mandate to challenge the status quo," and he said he would provide just $2.6 billion in additional money for research and development in next year's budget. That represents an increase of only about 6 percent over existing levels. He acknowledged that was hardly the kind of money needed to rethink an entire arsenal, but said "before we make our full investment, we must know our exact priorities."
"We will modernize some existing weapons and equipment, a task we have neglected for too long," Mr. Bush said here at the headquarters of NATO's Atlantic command. "But we will do this judiciously and selectively. Our goal is to move beyond marginal improvements to harness new technologies that will support a new strategy."
Reacting to intense criticism from Europe about his plans to deploy a national missile defense system, Mr. Bush also offered reassurances today without backtracking from his determination to build the system.
"We will cooperate in the work of peace," he said. "We will consult early and candidly with our NATO allies. We will expect them to return the same. In diplomacy, in technology, in missile defense, in fighting wars and above all in preventing wars, we must work as one."
At the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Bush added: "God bless NATO," words rarely if ever before heard from the leader of a party whose right wing has often been deeply suspicious of any overseas commitments.
But Mr. Bush's speech today is not likely to calm their fears. In Europe, Mr. Bush is an unknown entity. He has visited only once (to Italy, where his daughter was studying) and knows none of the NATO leaders (although Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain is scheduled to visit Mr. Bush later this month). Moreover, Mr. Bush's campaign declarations about pulling American troops out of the Balkans set off a diplomatic uproar.
Many of the ambassadors of NATO nations came here today to hear Mr. Bush's speech, part of a week of daily events focusing on national security and foreign policy. But Mr. Bush has not ventured far from the script he laid out in his campaign. Indeed, some of his words today were drawn directly out of a presidential campaign speech he gave at the Citadel, the state military college in South Carolina, but today they assumed the official stamp of policy directives from the commander in chief.
"We do not know yet the exact share of our future military," Mr. Bush said, "but we know the direction we must begin to travel. On land, our heavy forces will be lighter, our light forces will be more lethal. All will be easier to deploy and to sustain. In the air, we will be able to strike across the world with pinpoint accuracy, using both aircraft and unmanned systems."
At moments in today's speech, Mr. Bush echoed a theme that Bill Clinton often returned to as president: the fear of a biological or nuclear attack that is slipped into an American city, perhaps by terrorists rather than a hostile state.
"With advance technology, we must confront the threats that come on a missile," Mr. Bush said. "With shared intelligence and enforcement, we must confront the threats the come in a shipping container or in a suitcase."
Yet nothing in the national missile defense plan that Mr. Bush made a centerpiece of his campaign addresses weapons that might enter American territory that way. Nor did Mr. Bush suggest new approaches to those threats today, other than working with allies.
"We did not prevail together in the Cold War only to go our separate ways, pursuing separate plans with separate technologies," he said.
---
MEETING WITH POWELL
February 13, 2001
New York Times
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/world/13BRIE.html?pagewanted=all
RUSSIA: Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Secretary of State Colin M. Powell plan to hold their first face-to-face meeting during Mr. Powell's visit to the Mideast and Belgium late this month, the Kremlin confirmed. No agenda has been released, but the talks may center on the Bush administration's planned national missile defense system, which Russia opposes. General Powell's Feb. 23-27 trip includes stops in Kuwait, to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of the Persian Gulf war, and in Brussels for meetings with European Union officials. Michael Wines (NYT)
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Missile-Defense Flaw
February 13, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/opinion/L13MIS.html
To the Editor:
Re "Bush in First Step to Shrink Arsenal of U.S. Warheads" (front page, Feb. 9):
President Bush's plans for a national missile defense system will prevent him from making real improvements to our security.
The most serious missile threat to the United States is an unauthorized, accidental or mistaken launching of Russian nuclear weapons. Like the United States, Russia keeps its nuclear forces on hair-trigger alert so it can launch them on warning of an incoming first strike. A false warning from Russia's deteriorating early warning system or a breakdown in its unsteady command and control system could result in a devastating attack on the United States - one much too large for a national missile defense system to cope with.
Our security depends on Russia's removal of its forces from high alert, but Russia will keep its vulnerable land-based missiles on high alert in the face of a missile defense system.
LISBETH GRONLUND Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 9, 2001 The writer is senior staff scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists.
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Space Rangers
February 13, 2001
New York Times
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/opinion/13FRIE.html
It's only a month into the Bush administration and I'm already tired of listening to its foreign policy. Because it seems to be focused on only one idea, which, so far, doesn't work - building a "Star Wars" missile shield - against an enemy that, so far, doesn't exist.
While a day doesn't go by without the Bush team's reiterating its plan to build this sci-fi missile shield, the C.I.A. director, George Tenet, has been highlighting some of the more immediate threats to America - to which we have no policy responses.
Mr. Tenet laid out his views most succinctly in Senate testimony last week, entitled "Worldwide Threats to National Security," and they could be summarized as follows. We are increasingly threatened today by a combustible combination of two new forces: the failure of many nations to master modernity - particularly in the Middle East - which is producing a lot of unemployed and angry young people in those countries, combined with the spread of new information technologies, which are super-empowering these angry people in ways that not only threaten the stability of the states they live in but also enable them, as individuals, to threaten America. they don't need a missile to hit us; they can fire a nuclear mortar from a rowboat off Manhattan.
"As I reflect on the threats to American national security," the C.I.A. director told the Senate, "what strikes me most forcefully is the accelerating pace of change in so many arenas that affect our national security . . . new communications technology that enables the efforts of terrorists and narco-traffickers as surely as it aids law enforcement and intelligence, rapid global population growth that will create new strains in parts of the world least able to cope, the weakening internal bonds in a number of states whose cohesion can no longer be taken for granted, [and] the accelerating growth in missile capabilities in so many parts of the world."
Maybe the best way to understand this new threat environment is to first go see the movie "Thirteen Days," about the Cuban missile crisis, and then reflect on last year's "Love Bug" computer virus, which, after it was unleashed on the world by two Filipino techies, melted down roughly 10 million computers and $10 billion in data on 7 continents in 24 hours. The Cuban missile crisis was to the cold- war system what the "Love Bug" virus is to today's globalization system - it was the event that illustrated our most dangerous vulnerability. The Cuban missile crisis illustrated the dangers of a world divided between two nuclear-armed superpowers - both of which were in charge. And the Love Bug virus illustrated the dangers of a world connected - in which no one is in charge. The cold- war era was a two-player game with rational actors. The Love Bug era is a multi-player game with many angry, non-rational actors.
A missile shield, if it can work, may be necessary to protect us in this new world, but it's hardly sufficient. The only way to even begin to manage this new world is by focusing on precisely the area of foreign policy that the Bush team has the most contempt for: nation-building - helping others restructure their economies and put in place decent, non-corrupt government.
Listen to Mr. Tenet on the Arab world: While everyone is focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, "Population pressures, growing public access to information and the limited prospects for economic development will have a profound impact on the future of the Middle East. In many places in the Arab world, average citizens are becoming increasingly restive and getting louder. Through access to the Internet and other communication, a restive public is increasingly capable of taking action without any identifiable leadership or organizational structure."
Our ability to promote nation- building is limited and should be approached with great humility. But that doesn't mean we have nothing to offer or can't galvanize others. We will be affected by failed states with super-empowered angry people a lot sooner than we're going to face a rogue missile from North Korea. Mr. Bush is speaking about foreign policy this week. This is a good time for him to demonstrate that while he has his father's foreign policy advisers, he doesn't have his father's foreign policy, because he certainly doesn't have his father's world.
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Bush wants more mobile, higher-tech military
02/13/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-02-13-military.htm
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - President Bush pledged Tuesday to modernize the military to face "the dangers of a new era," even if it means scaling back some older systems beloved by the Pentagon and members of Congress.
He called for a new generation of lighter, more mobile and more sophisticated military devices that would harness new technologies.
"Our goal is to move beyond marginal improvements" in older weaponry, Bush said after visiting a joint U.S.-NATO command post on the nation's Eastern Seaboard and viewing an electronic naval battle simulation.
To those who might criticize his plans, Bush suggested they wait until Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld finishes a top-to-bottom review of the military.
He did not suggest which weapons systems he might delay or seek to cancel to make room for new technology.
But later, aboard Air Force One, Bush told reporters, "We must do it. We've got some tough choices to make, but that's why you get elected."
Bush also promoted his proposal for a multibillion-dollar national missile defense shield that would protect not only the United States but allies from limited ballistic missile attack.
"The defenses we build must protect us all," he told an audience that included emissaries from 18 NATO partners.
European allies have been skeptical about such a system, which is strongly opposed by Russia and China.
"We must prepare our nations against the dangers of a new era," Bush said.
The visit was the second installment on Bush's three-day tour of U.S. military installations.
The president expressed anguish over the loss of life, both in an Army helicopter mishap Monday night on the Hawaiian island Oahu and of Japanese passengers on a fishing boat that was struck by a U.S. submarine just south of the island.
Bush led a silent prayer for the six killed and 11 injured in the crash of two Army Black Hawk helicopters. "Just this morning, we were reminded of the risks of your duty and the sacrifices that you make," Bush said.
Later, he said, "The soldiers are my direct responsibility as commander in chief. I take the responsibility incredibly seriously."
"We need to be very judicious and careful about committing our troops," Bush said in his Air Force One remarks.
Through his campaign, and now as president, Bush has talked about committing defense dollars to fast-forwarding research and skipping to a new generation of weaponry and defensive systems.
"On land, our heavy forces will be lighter. Our light forces will be more lethal," he said. "All will be easier to deploy and to sustain. In the air, we'll be able to strike across the world with pinpoint accuracy using both aircraft and unmanned systems. On the oceans, we'll connect information and weapons in new ways. ... In space, we'll protect our network of satellites."
Some in Congress and in defense industries have seen such remarks as a signal that Bush wants to cut back on large weapons systems designed to meet Cold War challenges, such as the Joint Strike Fighter, the Air Force F-22 fighter or the Army Crusader artillery system.
While saying he did not know which changes he will support, Bush told his Norfolk audience, "You can count on me to lead these changes in the spirit of respect and gratitude for the military and its traditions."
"The best way to keep the peace is to redefine war on our terms," Bush added.
Accompanying Bush were Rumsfeld; Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff; and 10 members of Congress on committees dealing with the military.
Bush has proposed a $14 billion increase over current defense spending, the same increase the Clinton administration had projected for the coming fiscal year.
On Tuesday, he pledged an increase of at least $2.6 billion for research and development.
The president visited Norfolk's Joint Forces Command, where he spoke by a video link with Vice Adm. Michael Mullen, stationed about 50 miles offshore on the USS Mount Whitney.
He watched Mullen coordinate a simulated U.S.-NATO response to an enemy missile attack.
"Pretty exciting technology, and it's only going to get better," Bush said.
---
German says Moscow amenable to missile defense
February 13, 2001
Washington Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Anna Dolgov
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-200121322210.htm
MOSCOW - Despite Moscow's sharp rhetoric, Russia will eventually reconcile itself to U.S. intentions to build a national missile defense system, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer predicted yesterday.
Russia has steadfastly maintained that the U.S. project is a threat to international stability because it violates the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which prohibits anti-missile systems that defend an entire nation. Germany also opposes the U.S. proposal.
"In the end, the Russians are going to accept it," Mr. Fischer, in Moscow for a two-day visit, told reporters. He added that Washington would have a harder time with China, which could decide to build up its arsenal in response to missile defense plans.
Washington has long tried to assure Moscow that the missile shield could not guard against Russia's huge nuclear arsenal but was designed only to protect against possible smaller-scale attacks by so-called rogue nations. Russia has rejected the argument.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said yesterday the United States should hold talks with Russia on widening the ABM treaty before going forward with a national missile defense system.
Germany also has shown support to Russia on another sensitive defense issue - NATO's eastward expansion. Moscow is worried that the Western alliance is getting too close to Russia's borders, and Berlin has cautioned against expanding NATO too quickly.
Yet Mr. Fischer noted a "very positive development" in Russian-NATO relations in recent weeks, adding that Moscow may be more amenable than it sounds.
"The [Russian] comments are sometimes a bit harsh, but it all depends on the climate," Mr. Fischer said. "The climate is good; there's a difference between statements and climate."
Mr. Fischer also said he did not see Germany as a mediator between Russia and the United States on security issues, and said the countries were capable of negotiating directly. "Germany does not have the role of go-between for Washington and Moscow," he said.
Mr. Fischer met yesterday afternoon with Gennady Seleznyov, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, and with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
He was expected to express concern over Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran. Last week in Berlin, he issued a warning to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi against any attempt to use Russian technology to build nuclear weapons.
Russia has signed a deal to build a nuclear reactor at Iran's Bushehr power plant, drawing strong U.S. objections over fears that the technology could be used to develop nuclear arms. Moscow and Tehran maintain the plant can be used only for civilian purposes.
Mr. Fischer did not comment on the Iran deal after the meeting with Mr. Ivanov.
Today, Mr. Fischer was scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin, who perfected his German serving as a KGB agent in East Germany. Mr. Putin's friendship with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has given a boost to Russian-German ties over the past year.
------
Is This Shield Necessary?
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Washington Post
By Samuel R. Berger
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61869-2001Feb12?language=printer
In the first weeks of the Bush administration, national missile defense has risen to the top of the national security agenda. Having wrestled with this issue over the last years of the Clinton administration, I believe it would be a mistake to proceed pell-mell with missile defense deployment as though all legitimate questions about the system had been answered. They have not.
While the United States maintains strength unmatched in the world, the vulnerability of the American people to attack here at home by weapons of mass destruction is greater than ever. Dealing with our vulnerability to chemical, biological and nuclear weapons requires an ambitious, robust, comprehensive strategy.
But 20 years and tens of billions of dollars later, national missile defense is still a question-ridden response to the least likely of the threats posed by these weapons: a long-range ballistic missile launched by an outlaw nation.
President Clinton last year decided to continue research and development of national missile defense, but deferred a decision on deployment. In part, this was based on a judgment that we do not yet know whether it will work reliably. The Bush administration should reject arbitrary deadlines and, as part of Secretary Rumsfeld's laudable defense review, take a fresh look at the overall threat we face.
Without question we need to broaden America's defenses against weapons of mass destruction. But plunging ahead with missile defense deployment before critical questions are answered is looking through the telescope from the wrong end: from the perspective of bureaucratically driven technology rather than that of the greatest vulnerabilities of the American people.
President Reagan's global shield (SDI) has evolved into a more limited system aimed at defeating long-range missiles launched not by a major nuclear rival but by an irrational leader of a hostile nation, particularly North Korea, Iraq or Iran. Its premise is that an aggressive tyrant such as Saddam Hussein is less likely to be deterred than were the leaders of the Soviet Union by the prospect that an attack on us or our friends would provoke devastating retaliation.
It is further suggested that lack of a defense could intimidate U.S. leadership: We might have hesitated to liberate Kuwait if we knew Saddam could have delivered a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon to the United States with a long-range ballistic missile.
But why do we believe Saddam or his malevolent counterparts would be less susceptible to deterrence than Stalin or his successors? Indeed, dictators such as Saddam tend to stay in power so long because of their obsession with self-protection. And is it likely we would not use every means at our disposal to respond to a vital threat to our economic lifeline, even if it meant preemptively taking out any long-range missiles the other side might have?
The fact is that a far greater threat to the American people is the delivery of weapons of mass destruction by means far less sophisticated than an ICBM: a ship, plane or suitcase. The tragedies of the USS Cole and sarin gas in the Tokyo subway show that lethal power does not need to ride on a long-range missile.
We know that we increasingly are the target of a widespread network of anti-American terrorists. We know they are seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction. If deterrence arguably doesn't work against hostile nations, it is even less so for fanatical terrorists with no clear home address.
The real issue is what is the most cost-effective way to spend an additional 100 billion or more defense dollars to protect this country from the greatest WMD threats. In that broader context, is national missile defense our first priority?
Is it wiser to continue research and development and explore alternative technologies while we invest in substantially intensifying the broad-scale, long-term effort against terrorist enemies? (Such an effort would include increased intelligence resources, heightened border security, even training of local police and public health officials to recognize a deadly biological agent.)
The ultimate question is whether Americans will be more secure with or without a national missile defense. The answer is not self-evident. We can't build the system that is farthest along in development -- a land-based one -- without cooperation from our allies.
Their misgivings derive in significant part from the prospect of abrogating the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia; that could unravel the global arms control and nonproliferation system.
It has been suggested that we could address Europeans' concerns by including them in our missile defense system or helping them build their own. But such an amalgamation would be more capable against Russia and thus more likely to stiffen its resistance to change in the ABM; it could also increase the chance Russia would respond in ways that would reduce strategic stability -- for example by retaining multiple-warhead ICBMs it has agreed to eliminate.
Of course no other country can ever have a veto over decisions we must take to protect our national security. But in making that judgment, we must understand that the basic logic of the ABM has not been repealed -- that if either side has a defensive system the other believes can neutralize its offensive capabilities, mutual deterrence is undermined and the world is a less safe place.
Then there is China. It is suggested that we can work this out with China by at least implicitly giving it a "green light" to build up its ICBM arsenal to levels that would not be threatened by our national missile defense.
This strategy fails to take into account the dynamic it could unleash in Asia: Would China's missile buildup stimulate advocates of nuclear weapons in Japan? How would India view this "separate peace" between the United States and China? What effect would that have on Pakistan and the Koreas?
Will we be more secure as Americans with a missile defense system or less secure? It is not a question that answers itself. But it is a question that requires answers.
The writer was President Clinton's national security adviser.
-------- russia
Russians to study Kursk's torpedoes
02/13/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-02-13-kursk.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Submarine.html
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian researchers are studying the type of torpedoes carried by the Kursk nuclear submarine to determine what caused the blast that killed 118 sailors and sank the ship last year, a top government official said Tuesday.
The announcement suggested that the government is seriously investigating whether the Aug. 12 accident was caused by an internal torpedo malfunction. The government has previously focused on the theory that the Kursk was hit by a foreign ship, and played down statements by international experts that the most likely cause was a torpedo breakdown.
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that scientists are conducting experiments with Kursk-type torpedoes and studying fragments of Kursk torpedoes retrieved after the explosion.
"For us it is absolutely clear that a torpedo took part in the catastrophe from the very beginning. Either an outside influence on a torpedo led to the catastrophe, or some kind of processes developed inside a torpedo," Klebanov said. "A torpedo directly or indirectly became the cause of the catastrophe."
Russian officials have offered no evidence of a collision.
Two blasts rocked the Kursk, the second much larger than the first. U.S.-based researchers published a report last month saying analysis of seismic waves suggested that two onboard explosions had destroyed the Kursk. The first was consistent with a misfiring torpedo, and the second was likely caused by fire from the first blast setting off other torpedoes or propellant fuel, they said.
Klebanov also said that the government was finalizing plans for its ambitious venture to raise the Kursk, which is expected to start in April and cost $70 million. He said the Dutch company Mamut had joined the coalition planning the salvage effort, which includes Dallas-based Halliburton, Russian submarine builder CDB and the Dutch company Heerema Marine Contractors.
-------- taiwan
Deal reached on nuclear plant deal in Taiwan
02/13/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-02-13-nuclear.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Taiwan-Nuclear.html
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - The government struck a deal with the powerful opposition Tuesday to restart construction on Taiwan's fourth nuclear plant, ending a three-month feud that took a severe toll on the stock market and public confidence.
The agreement came after new President Chen Shui-bian caved in to lawmakers' demands and retreated from his campaign promise to spike the partially built nuclear project, approved by the previous government.
Announcing that the opposition would accept the government's proposal with minor changes, the Legislature's president, Wang Jin-pyng, said, "We have demonstrated our utmost goodwill. We did this so that the economy can quickly recover, and people can feel at ease."
The protracted dispute has been more about the limits of power than the merits of nuclear energy. When the government canceled the $5.4-billion project last October, the opposition-controlled legislature was furious that lawmakers were not asked to endorse the move.
Legislators said they approved the plant's budget and should have had a say about its future. But the government argued it had the power to cancel a plant that would be unsafe on earthquake-prone Taiwan.
The political squabbling was a major factor in the stock market's 44% plunge last year, and a steep drop in approval ratings for the president and opposition.
The island's highest court eventually ordered the two sides to negotiate a settlement.
In the latest round of negotiations, the government repeated its willingness to restart construction on the nuclear plant. The government also backed away from a key demand that lawmakers elected later this year be able to vote on future budgets for the nuclear project. This would have given lawmakers the power to cancel the plant.
Chen's Democratic Progressive Party has long been opposed to the fourth nuclear plant. The DPP has accused the former Nationalist Party government of railroading the project through the legislature.
Several party leaders said Tuesday that the DPP will continue to oppose the plant.
---
Asia Assets Rangebound Ahead of Greenspan
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-markets-asia.html
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian asset prices were broadly rangebound on Tuesday as investors awaited U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's prognosis on the world's biggest economy in testimony to the Senate later in the day.
Regional currencies perked up in late trade on hopes Greenspan's appearance -- due at 1500 GMT -- would reassure markets that while the U.S. economy has slowed it has not stalled and the Fed would take necessary steps to keep it moving.
Tokyo stocks fell as optimism sparked by last week's interest rate cut in Japan faded and traders returned their focus to a looming supply glut ahead of the fiscal year-end in March.
The dollar failed to take advantage of the fall on the Nikkei 225 and was quoted at 117.26/36, in late trade, having hit a low of 117.08 yen earlier in the day.
CHINA MARKETS MIXED ON CRACKDOWN
China stocks closed mixed with most investors sidelined after days of selling sparked by an official probe on price rigging.
The Shanghai B share index edged up 0.34 percent on thin turnover of $11.91 million versus Monday's $14.54 million.
Domestic A shares, off-limits to foreign investors, closed a shade higher in slow trade on selective retail buying, but brokers said cautious sentiment still prevailed.
China's stocks tumbled about seven percent in four straight sessions last week as the government widened its probe into price manipulation. The markets are Asia's worst performing so far this year -- the only equities indices in negative territory.
But investors and analysts say the short term volatility caused by the corruption probe is needed to underpin China's broad economic reform plans and long term viability of the country's financial markets.
``Clearly a crackdown on corruption, providing it's sustained, will be very helpful and quite clearly the creation of efficient markets in which people in China -- as well as foreign investors -- have confidence is an important and fundamental part of (economic) reform,'' Paul Coughlin, a managing director at ratings agency Standard & Poor's in Hong Kong, told Reuters Television.
``From a ratings perspective it's just another installment of the same process that's been in train for several years. Obviously there's a broad need in China for institutions to become more transparent, for them to become more efficient and less corrupt. That applies in the equity markets as much as generally in the management of the state enterprise sector,'' Coughlin said.
Standard & Poor's last week affirmed its BBB long-term and A3 short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on China. It said the outlook on both ratings was stable.
NUCLEAR PLANT POWERS TAIWAN STOCKS Taiwan stocks closed more than three percent higher in active trade on Tuesday, driven by hopes for an end to a three-month political stand-off over the fate of a partly completed nuclear power plant, analysts said.
Taiwan's anti-nuclear government bowed to key opposition demands late on Monday, raising hopes for an end to the bitter impasse over the $5.5 billion nuclear power plant.
Despite gains on Tuesday, fund managers warned selling pressure would be heavy if the index rose to 6,100 points as short-term investors would cash in on recent gains.
On the technical charts, Taiwan's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) was off overbought territory, standing at 68.083.
The benchmark TAIEX is Asia's best performing market, up a thumping 27.2 percent so far this year after losing 43.9 percent of its value in 2000.
ASIA BONDS STEADY PRE-GREENSPAN
Asian dollar bond spreads held steady ahead of Greenspan, with investment grade paper enjoying the best of the bidding.
Greenspan is widely expected to use his testimony to lay the groundwork for lower rates at the Fed's next policy-setting meeting on March 20.
Interest rate cuts by the Fed this year have had a dramatic effect on Asian bond spreads and opened the taps to more supply.
Meanwhile on the new issue front the market is on watch for pricing of the new Hutchison Whampoa $1.5 billion senior unsecured note deal.
This deal is expected to be all 10-year maturities at around 190 basis points over U.S. Treasuries.
-------- ukraine
Top EU Officials Head for Scandal - Riven Ukraine
February 13, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-europe-.html
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Senior European Union officials head for scandal-riven Ukraine on Tuesday to discuss political and economic ties between the 15-nation bloc and its large but impoverished ex-Soviet neighbor.
The EU is anxious to help stabilize Ukraine, which has a population of 50 million and will share a long border with the Union after the accession of Poland and other former communist states from eastern Europe over the next few years.
The EU team, whose visit to Kiev comes hard on the heels of a trip by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will urge Ukraine to protect democratic freedoms and independent media amid a growing scandal over the mysterious disappearance of a journalist.
``We will stress the need for continued political and economic reforms and will express concern over democratic principles,'' said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Accompanying Solana to Kiev are European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten and the foreign ministers of Sweden and Belgium. Sweden holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, which Belgium assumes in July.
HEADLESS CORPSE
The Kiev trip coincides with demonstrations calling for President Leonid Kuchma's resignation or impeachment over tapes recorded secretly last year. They purport to show Kuchma ordering officials to ``deal with'' journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
A headless corpse thought to be that of Gongadze was found outside Kiev in November. Kuchma denies all involvement and has accused outsiders of trying to destabilize his country.
``The EU will be pressing for a transparent investigation of the Gongadze case,'' Gallach told Reuters.
The case has alarmed foreign governments and investors, and several major multinationals are reported to have put investment and recruitment plans on hold due to the political uncertainty.
Gallach said the EU-Ukraine talks would also cover energy cooperation, fighting organized crime and illegal immigration and the EU's efforts to forge a common security and defense policy -- an initiative in which Kiev has expressed interest.
The European Commission has provided loans to Ukraine to build two nuclear reactors designed to replace the Chernobyl complex -- site of the world's worst civil nuclear accident -- which finally shut down last December.
The EU and Russia are currently discussing a new energy partnership which includes a gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine.
MOLDOVA, MOSCOW, KALININGRAD
After Ukraine, Solana and the other officials move on to tiny Moldova, another impoverished ex-Soviet state whose hopes of EU membership remain a very distant prospect.
Gallach said the EU would express strong backing for efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to mediate a settlement between Moldova and ethnic Russian separatists in its eastern Dnestr region.
Officials said the EU wants Russian troops stationed in Dnestr to leave the area in 2002, in line with an agreement reached at an OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999.
On Thursday, after talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and security chief Sergei Ivanov, the EU officials travel to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Kaliningrad, a Baltic port plagued by organized crime, AIDS and environmental problems, will become surrounded by EU territory once Poland and Lithuania join the bloc.
--------
Russia Offers a Motherly Embrace for Ukraine Industry
February 13, 2001
New York Times
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/world/13UKRA.html?pagewanted=all
KIEV, Ukraine, Feb. 12 - The presidents of Russia and Ukraine signed agreements today to expand their cooperation in civilian space research and aviation, in a meeting that reaffirmed the political and industrial ties between the two former Soviet republics.
Though the talks were long planned, the moment was meaningful for both men, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Leonid D. Kuchma of Ukraine.
Mr. Kuchma faces a rising domestic political revolt over the disappearance of a muckraking journalist and the release of recordings suggesting that the president may have been involved in ordering his abduction.
And Mr. Putin has been pursuing strategies to rebuild Russia's military-industrial sector by connecting it with traditional Soviet markets in India, China and the Middle East, while also rebuilding and strengthening the industrial network that was disrupted by the Soviet Union's collapse a decade ago.
In Ukraine, Mr. Putin's strategy carries additional significance. Moscow hopes that by strengthening economic and political cooperation, a new commonality of purpose in the technology of space and aviation might slow the pace of Ukraine's strategic alignment with the United States and NATO, where it has joined a kind of apprenticeship, the Partnership for Peace.
Meeting in Dnipropetrovsk, in the southeast, where Mr. Kuchma once ran the Soviet Union's largest factory for nuclear missiles, the two men also agreed to reconnect their electric power grids, further integrating the nations' energy markets.
The two leaders also pledged commercial development of the Antonov- 70 airliner as "the most promising, top-priority program in cooperation between Ukraine and Russia in the field of aircraft construction."
The United States has taken a keen interest in Mr. Putin's recent overtures to step up cooperation between heavy industries, many of which were dedicated to weapons manufacture in the past.
The American ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos E. Pascual, said recently that he had asked members of Mr. Kuchma's government about rumors that Russia and Ukraine were going to jointly make intercontinental ballistic missiles.
He said Oleksandr Marchuk, secretary of the national security council, told him "it is absolutely not so," because such cooperation would violate "Ukraine's international obligations."
In an interview this month with a Ukrainian newspaper, Mr. Pascual also suggested that Ukraine should not allow Russian investors to dominate the bidding for heavy industries that are being privatized. "Ukraine should think about how to maximize international participation on a competitive basis," he said. "If you don't want to do it on a competitive basis, the conclusions are obvious."
On Sunday, up to 5,000 demonstrators occupied the central square in Kiev chanting "Kuchma Out!" and calling for early presidential elections over the missing-journalist scandal, which has turned much of Parliament against the president, alarmed Ukraine's Western supporters and threatened a prolonged political stalemate.
Mr. Putin emphasized that his visit was not timed to profit from Mr. Kuchma's domestic troubles. "Our meeting today was a planned one and we fulfilled promises we gave to our industrialists and business people in December," he said.
But in Moscow, Vladimir Lukin, a former Russian ambassador to the United States, expressed some skepticism about whether today's agreements would yield long-term results. Mr. Kuchma, he said, has a history of seeking improved relations with Russia "as his position inside the country deteriorates."
Touring his old missile factory with Mr. Putin at his side, a smiling Mr. Kuchma said today, "We didn't talk about politics, honestly," after a signing ceremony in front of a huge civilian booster rocket at the Yushmash plant.
He characterized the agreement on connecting the power grids as "a colossal step" that would help overcome the frequent disputes between Moscow and Kiev over Ukraine's acknowledged history of siphoning natural gas illegally from Russian pipelines to Europe that cross Ukraine.
Mr. Putin said the talks were "positive and fruitful," and added that cooperation to link production lines that build boosters for commercial satellite launches would yield $6 billion in revenues for Russia and Ukraine.
The two leaders also signed agreements that would allow Russian companies to take a role in the destruction of booster rockets that were once tipped with Soviet nuclear warheads.
At the time of the Soviet collapse and Kiev's declaration of independence in August 1991, Ukraine was home to the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal, including 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Though all of Ukraine's nuclear weapons were subsequently moved to Russia, the booster rockets remained. Ukraine has received more than $2 billion in American aid over the last decade, most of it dedicated to disarmament.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Navy sending search vessel to site of sub-boat collision
February 13, 2001
Washington Times
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001213224821.htm
The Pentagon is sending a Navy deep-sea drone to Hawaii to survey a sunken Japanese fishing vessel as part of efforts to determine the fate of nine persons missing since a collision with a U.S. submarine, defense officials said yesterday.
The undersea search vehicle will be used to "locate and inspect" the fishing trawler Ehime Maru on the ocean floor, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"The information from this inspection will help us respond to the Japanese government request to salvage the vessel," said one Pentagon official.
The drone, the Super Scorpio remote-operated vehicle, will be sent from San Diego to Hawaii within the next day. It can operate at a depth of 5,000 feet.
Another official said the Pentagon is "making an assessment" for a recovery and salvage operation that might be conducted by a commercial salvage company, rather than the U.S. Navy.
Defense officials said a preliminary assessment of the incident is that the steel-reinforced tail rudder of the USS Greeneville sliced through the hull of the Japanese research fishing trawler during the submarine's rapid ascent.
A senior defense official said the collision was an unusual mishap in open ocean waters. "It would be hard to do this if you intended to," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Damage to the Greeneville includes scrapes on the port side hull behind the sail, or conning tower, and to the rudder - a 5-foot high steel fin that is part of the submarine's propulsion and steering mechanism. The rudder is made to be able to break through ice, defense officials said.
The incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Navy, headed by Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths Jr. The submarine commander has been relieved of duty during the probe.
White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that nothing yet indicates the submarine's crew was at fault because proper procedures appear to have been followed.
In practicing an emergency surfacing, procedures call for submarines to rise close to the surface first and scan the area by periscope for other ships before submerging further and bringing up the submarine steeply at a 15- to 20-degree angle. The standard practice calls for a periscope scan of the surface in every direction using both high- and low-power viewing.
Asked if the U.S. government would raise the Japanese vessel, Miss Rice said on NBC's "Today" show: "Well, we'll certainly want to talk to the Japanese about what they have in mind. I think nothing is off the table, but we'll have to talk to them. . . . There is much discussion about what to do about this terribly tragic accident."
NTSB investigator John Hammerschmidt told reporters the submarine used "passive" sonar, which is less accurate than its active sonar system.
A State Department official confirmed that Japan has requested that the United States consider "raising this trawler."
"We're looking into it, but no decisions have been made yet," the senior defense official said.
Nine persons, including crew members and four teens on a fishing trip, are missing and presumed dead from the Friday accident nine miles off the Hawaiian coast.
President Bush offered a silent prayer for the victims during a visit yesterday to Fort Stewart, Ga. "I would ask for your prayers for those still missing," he said.
Former Navy submariners told The Washington Times there are several possible scenarios.
One theory has the submarine's commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Scott Waddle, following procedures, but not noticing the ship.
The submarine's passive sonar detected no sound from a surface ship. When the Greeneville went to periscope depth of 45 feet, the ship failed to appear, perhaps hidden in 6- to 8-foot waves.
The ship then submerged to a depth of 400 feet and prepared for a practice emergency surfacing, or "blow," - a procedure required twice a year for submarine crews. But the Greeneville, perhaps, loitered too long, giving the Japanese ship time to cross the sub's path.
Submarine experts unanimously said it is highly unlikely Cmdr. Waddle failed to follow the sonar and periscope requirements, especially given the fact that a more senior leader, Capt. Robert Brandhuber, was escorting a group of 15 civilian observers.
"I'm personally flabbergasted at the report that the sub was conducting an emergency main ballast blow exercise," said one ex-Navy submariner. "I can't imagine any submarine skipper doing that as an exercise in a known traffic area and without full knowledge of the surface picture above."
This source thought it unlikely that an experienced Navy crew would loiter before surfacing.
---
Bush takes troop pledge to front line
February 13, 2001
Washington Times
By Joseph Curl and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001213225921.htm
President Bush took to the field yesterday at a sprawling Army base in Georgia to make good on a campaign promise to "reward courage and idealism" in the armed forces, drawing a boisterous "Hooah" from soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division.
Meanwhile, a White House budget official in Washington disputed recent press reports that said the president would not propose military increases beyond President Clinton's plan. In fact, the official said, Mr. Bush's 2002 Pentagon budget will be $14 billion higher.
The new commander in chief, making his first appearance before his troops, announced $5.7 billion in spending initiatives to cover pay raises and retention incentives, increased health benefits and housing improvements.
"The freedom and security you make possible improve our quality of life every day," Mr. Bush told hundreds of camouflage-clad, cheering soldiers in an 11-minute address at Fort Stewart, Ga. "Our nation can never fully repay our debt to you. But we can give you our full support, and my administration will."
Mr. Bush pledged to fix the problems plaguing the military, from low pay and poor housing to drooping morale and flagging recruitment.
"While you're serving us well, America is not serving you well enough. . . . This is not the way a great nation should reward courage and idealism. It's ungrateful, it's unwise and it is unacceptable."
Nearly 10,000 soldiers and family members braved bitter cold to attend the ceremony. The crowd erupted when the president's Marine One helicopter broke through the overcast sky.
"You're among the first in the Army to hear me extend 'Hooah,' " he told members of the division, who call themselves "dog-faced soldiers." The crowd returned the greeting, some barking loudly.
Meanwhile yesterday, the White House budget office asserted that, contrary to press reports over the past week, Mr. Bush in fact is proposing increases - about $14 billion - in the 2002 Pentagon budget beyond Mr. Clinton's plan.
"It was not comparing apples to apples," said Chris Ullman, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. He said reporters were taking this year's top line of $296 billion, which does not include Energy Department nuclear weapons accounts, and comparing it with Mr. Clinton's 2002 budget, which does include Energy.
Mr. Ullman said Mr. Bush will propose $310 billion in non-Energy defense spending, roughly a 5 percent increase over the $296 billion sum.
The $14 billion includes $1 billion for a 4.6 percent pay raise effective in January, $400 million to complete a pay raise enacted last year, $400 million for housing and $3.9 billion for health care. Other money will cover inflation and weapons research and development, Mr. Ullman said.
Mr. Bush has been criticized by pro-defense lawmakers for refusing to immediately submit to Congress the Joint Chiefs of Staff's request for $7 billion in emergency funds in the 2001 budget.
Despite the criticism, the president, who campaigned on a theme of "help is on the way" to the armed forces, has not backed off his resistance to funding emergency items such as spare parts, fuel and ammunition. He says any substantial boost to future defense budgets must await his ordered "top to bottom" review of force structure to meet shifting post-Cold War threats.
Sen. John W. Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Mr. Bush in a letter last week to seek an emergency spending bill. Yesterday, he put in a pitch again.
"I commend President Bush for proposing to dedicate $5.7 billion for increases in pay and improvements in housing and health care," the Virginia Republican said. "This is an excellent first step in the effort to keep faith with the men and women in uniform and their families. I support strongly the president's initiative to pursue strategic assessments. I continue to believe, however, that there is a necessity to have a supplemental appropriations bill before July 4 to address immediate personnel and readiness needs."
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, defended the state of the military during the campaign against Mr. Bush's charges that the armed forces were in bad shape.
But yesterday, the former vice-presidential candidate seemed to agree with that charge and questioned whether the president was going back on a campaign promise by not submitting an emergency spending request to Congress.
"Now that he is in the White House, President Bush seems content to tell our fighting forces not that help is on the way, but that the check is in the mail," Mr. Lieberman said. "I am today sending a letter to the president urging him to reconsider his decision regarding defense spending."
Some soldiers said help cannot come soon enough.
"When I first came here, we had three soldiers living together in buildings for single soldiers," said Sgt. Matthew D. Moran, who enlisted four years ago. "Now, we have five."
Maj. Mike Birmingham said the Army spends most of its money on training while neglecting its infrastructure.
"If you don't recapitalize housing, training ranges or barracks and you put all your money into trying to stay ready, you start losing the quality of life," he said.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who accompanied Mr. Bush yesterday, is conducting a comprehensive study of the military, including its strategy, missions, modernization priorities and nuclear weapons arsenal before he decides on overall defense spending.
In Georgia, local schools canceled classes for the day and hundreds of children joined their parents for the ceremony. Soldiers stood atop howitzers - which later blasted out a 21-gun salute - tanks and personnel carriers to catch a glimpse of the 43rd president.
Mr. Bush reviewed the troops, standing ramrod straight as he walked the line as officers barked: "Ten-hut. Eyes right." Several times, he snapped off smart salutes in return.
Fort commander Maj. Gen. Walter J. Sharp lauded Mr. Bush as "a leader who understands that the foundation of peace is a strong and capable military."
"Sir, thank you for recognizing that the defense of our nation is our No. 1 priority," the general said.
Mr. Bush's warm reception was in stark contrast to Mr. Clinton's shaky ties to the military. Mr. Clinton was disliked by many soldiers because of his highly publicized efforts to avoid the Vietnam War and his early push to allow homosexuals in the military.
• Joseph Curl reported from Fort Stewart, Ga.; Rowan Scarborough from Washington.
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Ugo Fano
February 13, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Deaths.html?pagewanted=all
CHICAGO (AP) -- University of Chicago physicist Ugo Fano, whose research helped in the development of the laser and the use of radiation in medical diagnosis and therapy, died Tuesday from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 88.
Fano's work was instrumental to a better understanding of the structure of atoms and molecules and their interaction with light.
A number of phenomena bear his name, including the ``Fano Effect'' and the ``Fano-Factor.''
Fano began his career as a graduate student in Italy working from 1934 to 1936 with Enrico Fermi, a 1938 Nobel laureate in physics, and a key member of the Manhattan Project which created the atom bomb.
Fano immigrated to the United States in 1939 and worked at the Washington Biophysical Institute, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory until 1945. He then worked for 20 years at the National Bureau of Standards before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1966. He was made a professor emeritus in 1982.
In 1996 he was honored for lifetime achievement in the field of nuclear energy when he and biochemist Martin D. Kamen shared the Enrico Fermi Award.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- ohio
Privatized company reaps what it sows
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
EDITORIAL CAVEAT EMPTOR
The privatization of the United States Enrichment Corp. three years ago was a cause for consternation among many politicians, nuclear-policy experts and members of the media, including The Dispatch.
Troubling questions arose on issues that included national security and whether taxpayers would get a fair return on their investment in the company, which was created to handle the United States' purchase of uranium from Russia and conversion of it into fuel for nuclear-power reactors.
But financial pressures for privatization won out. Wall Street stood to make tens of millions of dollars by helping to change the corporation into a private company. Problems soon followed. Sixteen months after privatization, the company threatened to walk away from an agreement regarding how much uranium the United States would buy from Russia and at what price. USEC was demanding that the U.S. government pay to offset losses the company suffered when prices for uranium dropped.
Next, USEC backed off of its pledge to keep the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, open until 2005 by announcing in July plans to close the 2,000-employee plant this year. A proposed $630 million plan to keep the plant on standby was approved by the Clinton administration in the fall but is being reviewed by the Bush administration.
So USEC hasn't done much to endear itself to the public. Now, in a move that adds insult to injury to taxpayers, the company had the nerve to ask that the federal government replace up to $200 million worth of the uranium stockpile it took over, which, it says, might be contaminated and therefore useless on the commercial market.
Almost 25 million pounds of natural uranium given to USEC by the government out of a total of almost 75 million pounds might be tainted with a radioactive material called technetium.
Ironically, when the plant was privatized, critics assailed the fact that a valuable stockpile of government-owned natural uranium simply was handed over to the company.
Although the U.S. Energy Department says that to begin exploring possible technical and policy remedies for USEC would be premature, one has to hope that the corporation is given no more than the simple and timeless advice of "Buyer, beware.''
USEC has struggled financially since the privatization, but that's not the fault of taxpayers. There were plenty of critics of the deal who labeled it a boondoggle before it even took place and urged its postponement.
In retrospect, the company's officials probably wish they had slowed down and heeded such advice. But taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for such haste and arrogance.
-------- us nuc politics
Bush seeks to modernize military
Afternoon Edition - 2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=13fdp2p7p12nn
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - President Bush marveled Tuesday at a high-tech simulation of NATO's military might as he asked America's allies to "work as one" with him on the development of a missile defense system and "new architecture" for U.S. defenses. "To succeed, America knows we must work with our allies. We did not prevail together in the Cold War only to go our separate ways pursuing separate plans with separate technologies," Bush told an outdoor assembly of Navy and Defense Department personnel.
The president, on the second of three tours of military units this week, visited the Joint Forces Command. There, by three-dimensional video link, he watched as Vice Adm. Michael Mullen, who was some 50 miles offshore on the USS Mount Whitney, coordinated an allied U.S.-NATO response to a simulated missile attack. Moments earlier, he and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met briefly and privately with representatives from 19 NATO countries, most of them deeply wary that any U.S. missile defense could touch off an arms race.
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Ivanov, Powell to meet this month
Afternoon Edition - 2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=13fdp2p7p12nn
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Tuesday that he and new Secretary of State Colin Powell will hold their first meeting on Feb. 24 in Cairo, Egypt. The announcement came after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. The meeting will take place during Powell's trip to the Middle East, the Gulf region and Europe.
Ivanov said that at the meeting with Powell he "intended to begin a direct dialogue on a whole array of problems" including the increasingly tense dispute between the Kremlin and Washington over arms control issues, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Earlier Tuesday, Fischer urged Russia and the United States to settle their differences over U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system. Moscow has vehemently opposed the U.S. plan. The system would go against the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the Kremlin describes as a cornerstone of world stability.
Washington has tried to assure Moscow that the missile shield would not be able to guard against Russia's huge nuclear arsenal, being designed to protect only against possible smaller-scale attacks by so-called rogue nations. Russia has rejected the argument.
-------- MILITARY
-------- burma/myanmar
Thai-Myanmar border closes
2/13/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=13fdp2p7p12nn
MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) - Thailand sent troops to reinforce its northern border on Tuesday, saying it needed to ensure the "sovereignty of the nation" after a ferocious artillery assault to drive out Myanmar troops. "The situation has become more tense," said Col. Wanthip Wongwai of Thailand's border task force.
On Monday, bloodstained Myanmar military uniforms and spent rocket-propelled grenades littered the site of fighting at Pang Noon, about a mile inside Thailand.
The fighting, the worst between the two countries in several years, presents the first diplomatic crisis to new Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who said Monday he would visit Myanmar as soon as possible in a bid to improve relations.
The Thai army said hundreds of troops were deployed along a mountainous stretch of the frontier. The checkpoint, one of three crossing points along more than 1,250 miles of the Thai-Myanmar frontier, was closed Sunday when the fighting started. It reopened Monday when Thai and Myanmar forces agreed on a cease-fire, but was closed again early Tuesday.
-------- colombia
Colombia, U.S. Look at Andean Drug Plan
Tuesday February 13
Yahoo News
By Anthony Boadle
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010213/wl/colombia_usa_dc_2.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Colombia held talks on Tuesday on their anti-drugs offensive in rebel-controlled southern Colombia, discussing the fears of neighboring countries about the impact on them.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) met Colombian Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto and told him the Bush administration was committed to backing Plan Colombia, which uses U.S.-equipped troops in a drive against drug crops.
``It was a very positive, somewhat detailed, discussion of how Plan Colombia is working, how Plan Colombia is achieving some success and how we can go forward in the future,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Boucher said Powell was particularly interested in ``looking at what we do with neighboring countries, how we make it an Andean sort of strategy.''
Washington decided in 2000 to spend $1.3 billion over two years to back Plan Colombia, which calls for a military push against drug plantations protected by Marxist guerrillas.
Colombia is the world's main cocaine producer and a source of much of the heroine sold on the streets of U.S. cities.
Plan Colombia includes peace talks with the well-financed and heavily armed rebels,