------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Navy to investigate sub collision
Apology sought in submarine crash
Repairs delay survey of sub wreckage
Western firms to modernise Bulgaria Kozloduy N-plant
Uranium shell tests resume
dangers from a dust particle of d.u.
Depleted uranium in weapons causing cancer
Greenpeace says Finnish nuclear waste plans hasty
Israel and U.S. Begin Patriot Missile Exercise
Japanese Pressed for Navy Inquiry
Russia/U.S.: Moscow Disagrees Over Missile Defense
China wants Ottawa's aid in stopping U.S. shield
NATO Talks To Be Difficult
Sub chief declines NTSB inquiry
EPA probes Shattuck over N-waste
Suit Accuses Federal Contractors of Mishandling Cleanup at Nuclear Lab
Suit says INEEL contractors broke laws
Health-risks office steps up commitment to Oak Ridge issues
Utah
Critics raise alarm over plutonium waste transfer

MILITARY
NATO's Expansion Tool
The School Of The American Empire
Myanmar chopper crash kills general
Trial to begin for Canada biker gangs
Iraq Media Threatens Punishment
SADDAM THREATENS RETALIATION AGAINST KUWAIT
Israel and U.S. Begin Patriot Missile Exercise
U.S., Israel in Missile Exercise
Peacekeeping Team Visits Lucane
Belgrade Urges NATO Action As Death Toll Rises
Space Shuttle Landing Postponed
Lasers could one day propel spacecraft
Sub Commander Refuses Questioning
U.S. Navy releases VIP list from sub
Marines Cut Osprey Tests
Iraq Seeks Anti - U.S. Arab Protests; NATO Split
Sub chief declines NTSB inquiry
Nebraska

OTHER
Arizona
Farmers tap wind, solar energy
Maryland
Global warming risks outlined
Microbes may live in Antarctic lake
Scientists call for ocean parks
Giant salamanders lurk in Japan
Scientists study sea lion decline
Report shows global warming risks
Glacier Loss Seen as Clear Sign of Human Role in Global Warming
U.N. study: Global warming is evident now
California
Railroad gene test baffles ethicists
IMF, World Bank Heads in Africa to Listen
Police Gain Control in Brazil's Biggest Jail Riots
Colorado
Thermal imaging search in court
2 Suspects detained in Cole bombing
Bush Dedicates Oklahoma Museum

ACTIVISTS
Get ready for the next International Day of Action!
Korean Police Break Up Worker Occupation of Daewoo Plant
Colombian troops call negotiations
Protesters defy Kashmir curfew
Cops break up protest in Malaysia
Daewoo workers clash with police
Hamas activist dies
Turkish police arrest 40 in protest
Refugees protest camp conditions
Police raid Daewoo plant in S. Korea
Sign petition to UNCSD:

-
-------- NUCLEAR

Navy to investigate sub collision

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

HONOLULU (AP) - Japanese family members examined videotape of the sunken ship Ehime Maru sitting upright on the ocean floor as a top U.S. Navy official announced a high-level investigation into why a U.S. submarine surfaced directly underneath it, leaving nine of their relatives missing. The videotape, taken by robot submersibles, shows the exterior of the fishing vessel seemingly in pristine condition, with no signs of the nine men and boys who have been missing since Feb. 9 when the USS Greeneville collided with the ship during an emergency surfacing drill. Damage to the bottom of the boat was not visible because of the downward angle of the video, taken 2,033 feet below the ocean surface, a Coast Guard spokesman Saturday.

Relatives have demanded answers as to why the 360-foot nuclear-powered submarine stationed two civilians at key controls during the emergency drill. As the 6,900-ton submarine surfaced, its rudder superstructure knifed through the hull of the 500-ton Ehime Maru, which sank within minutes.

Twenty-six survivors were plucked from the waters near Pearl Harbor. The remaining nine crew and passengers are missing and presumed dead.

----

Apology sought in submarine crash

UWAJIMA, Japan (AP) - Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi most likely will never again exchange a hug with his missing son. But the distraught father wants to see his 17-year-old son just one more time. So he wants recovery of the fishing boat his son was on when it was rammed by a U.S. Navy submarine in maneuvers over a week ago. "I believe my son is trapped inside," Mizuguchi said Sunday, his lips trembling as he tried to hold back tears.

The USS Greeneville, a U.S. Navy submarine practicing a quick surfacing maneuver, on Feb. 9 smashed into the Ehime Maru, a Japanese ship carrying high school students from Ehime prefecture on a fisheries training mission, sinking it. Twenty-six people on board were rescued. Nine are still missing, including Mizuguchi's son and three other high school students.

Late Saturday, Navy officials said that a remote-controlled deep-diving vehicle had located the wreckage of the 190-foot Japanese vessel, sitting nearly upright 2,033 feet underwater. It remained unclear whether victims' bodies were inside.

During a Honolulu news conference Saturday charged with tears and anger, family members of the missing demanded the United States recover the ship.

Anger in Japan over the accident has not waned, and newspapers were highly critical of the U.S. military's handling of the mishap.

-----

Repairs delay survey of sub wreckage

HONOLULU (AP) - The Navy's efforts to scan the wreckage of a Japanese ship sunk by a U.S. submarine were set back Sunday when a deep-sea robot was removed from the sea for repairs. The Navy is using the robot to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 190-foot Ehime Maru, which sank minutes after the USS Greeneville surfaced underneath it Feb. 9. Late Saturday, crew members using the robot noticed a tear in the tether used to raise and lower it. Navy officials said a separate sonar device, which was being towed through the ocean depths scanning for debris near the shipwreck, still was in use. They said the video-equipped robot could be ready to use Monday.

Families of nine men and teen-age boys missing since the sinking are pressing the Navy to recover any bodies that may be entombed in the Ehime Maru, even if that means conducting what experts say would be a monumental and unprecedented salvage of the entire ship. Videotape taken by the robot since Friday showed the exterior of the ship seemingly in pristine condition, but the Coast Guard said the full extent of damage had not been determined. The Navy said the deep-sea robots may be too big to enter the wreckage to retrieve any bodies from it.

The commercial fishing training vessel was headed toward fishing grounds 300 miles southeast of Oahu when the USS Greeneville collided with it during an emergency rapid-ascent drill.

Twenty-six people were rescued, but there have been no signs of the nine missing during a continuing Coast Guard search.

------- bulgaria

Western firms to modernise Bulgaria Kozloduy N-plant

February 19, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9840&newsDate=19-Feb-2001

SOFIA - A consortium of European firms signed a $235.5 million deal with Bulgaria's nuclear power plant at Kozloduy to modernise its two 1,000-megawatt reactors, a senior government official said on Friday.

Bulgaria's State Energy Agency chairman Ivan Shilyashki told Reuters there were two upgrading projects, one worth 199.5 million euro ($182.5 million) and another $53 million.

Both would be performed by Germany's Siemens AG, France's Framatome and Russia's Atomenergoexport.

On Wednesday another deal, worth $76 million, was signed with US Westinghouse Electric Company also to upgrade the two reactors.

Funds for the projects were granted last year when the European Commission signed a 212.5 million euro loan, Russia's Export-Import Bank Rosexim provided a $80 million loan and USCitibank extended $77 million.

The Kozloduy plant, which has also four 440-megawatt reactors, provides almost half of the country's electricity.

Bulgaria, which is in talks on joining the European Union, had agreed to close the two oldest 440-megawatt reactors by 2003, earlier than initially planned.

A final decision on the closure of the other two 440-megawatt units is due to be taken by the end of 2002 but Sofia hopes to upgrade them and run them to the end of their projected life.

-------- depleted uranium

Uranium shell tests resume
There are concerns over depleted uranium shells

Monday, 19 February, 2001
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_1177000/1177862.stm

New tests of depleted uranium weapons are scheduled to begin at the Dundrennan military range near Kirkcudbright this week.

It follows an earlier decision by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to press ahead with the tests, despite opposition.

Local people near the facility want the tests stopped amid growing fears about the health risks posed by the shells.

But the MoD insists that the environmental contamination caused by the shells is negligible and there is no known risk to public health.

Thousands of depleted uranium tipped shells have been test fired from the Dundrennan range into the Solway Firth in the past 20 years.

Public health risk

Public concern at the testing has grown in recent years following allegations about a possible link between exposure to depleted uranium and cases of cancer among British troops who served in the peacekeeping force in the Balkans.

Nato warplanes dropped 10,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995.

Soldiers from several countries, including Britain, Italy, Portugal and France, have fallen ill with what has been dubbed Balkan Syndrome.

The allegations have prompted villagers in Dundrennan, who have previously accepted the MoD's assurances, to call for an end to the testing.

They say the programme should be halted while question marks remain about the risks posed to public health.

-------

dangers from a dust particle of d.u.

Mon, 19 Feb 2001
Bruno Vitale
Reply-to: du-list@yahoogroups.com

a simple calculation on the decay of a dust "speck" of 1 mg (1/1000 g) of U[238], to show that even a "speck" can be very dangerous

(with a density of about 20 g/cm3, this "speck" has a volume of about 1/20 mm3, a very small dot that could infiltrate everywhere)

- 238 g of U[238] contain 6.1023 molecules (in this case, atoms) of U[238]; and so, 1 mg of U[238] contains ~ 3.1018 atoms

- the life-time of U[238] is t = 4.5 . 109 y ~ 1.4 . 1017 s

as dN(t) = -k N(t) dt, N(t) = N(0) e-kt, N(t) = 0.5 N(0), we get ln 0.5 = -k t, which leads to k ~ 5.10-18 therefore, the number of radioactive decays per second inside a "speck" of 1 mg of U[238] is of the order of DN ~ 1.5 . 10 decay/s = 15 decay/s

(caution: due to the low energy of the emitted radiation, a large part of this radiation could be reabsorbed inside the "speck" and have no external effects; much will depend on the geometry of the "speck": the most favourable case is when it is spherical, the worse when it is flattened to a dot)

this is only the beginning, of course, of the radioactive chain started by the U[238] and that goes to Th[234] and then to Pa [234] and then to U[234] (of very long lifetime) through the local emission of two electrons

it seems to me, therefore, that it is a bit silly to talk only of the average, background (low) radioactivity due to U[238]; the local, microscopic effects of a very tiny "speck" (for instance, inside a tissue or a cell) could be extremely aggressive

-------

Depleted uranium in weapons causing cancer
Iraqi doctors blame Desert Storm shells for deformed babies

Monday 19 February 2001
Edmonton Journal
Don Thomas
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/city/stories/010219/5083470.html

Canada should join Italy, Germany and other NATO partners in determining the health effects of depleted uranium used in munitions, says a prominent critic of defence issues.

There's strong evidence that airborne particles of the radioactive metal used in concrete and armour-piercing bullets and cannon shells has mutagenic and cancer-causing properties when inhaled, says Scott Taylor.

Taylor is editor and publisher of the Ottawa-based Esprit de Corps magazine. He was in Edmonton Saturday to publicize a new book on the Kosovo conflict, Inat: Images of Serbia and the Kosovo conflict.

National Defence officials have repeatedly insisted that depleted uranium has no health effects. It claims that testing of 107 soldiers who served in the Gulf war showed no evidence of medical problems.

Munitions containing depleted uranium were used extensively by U.S. and British forces in the Desert Storm war in Iraq a decade ago. And after initial denials, the British and Americans have also admitted to its use in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Depleted uranium is used in armour-piercing rounds because it is dense and able to penetrate tanks. When it enters the tank, it burns, incinerating the tank crew. It's also used in some tanks' armour plating.

Iraqi doctors blame the hundreds of deformed babies born in southern Iraq since Desert Storm on depleted uranium particles inhaled by civilians.

Taylor last year visited Basra in southern Iraq where such weapons were used most heavily. He toured a "rogues' gallery" of deformed babies whose parents had supposedly been exposed to vapours of exploded shells containing depleted uranium.

"There's hundreds and hundreds of photographs that absolutely turn your stomach. It's kids with two heads, babies born with no skin, organs on the outside. And almost every one of these kids died," he said.

Italy has blamed depleted uranium for the death of eight of its peacekeepers who served in the Balkans. It has joined Germany, Greece and Norway in calling for a moratorium in its use in munitions.

"The World Health Organization has been (in Iraq), did one quick test and said we need a massive international survey on this issue right now. The one blocking it is the U.S.," he said.

"If Canada and the Americans are going to be serious about this, the first place they should be testing is Basra, Iraq, where they've got leukemia that is at least 10 times what it was 10 years ago.

"This is the only urban centre that was exposed to a massive amounts of depleted uranium when the retreating Iraqis were hit by the coalition forces. If you're going to find any sort of link, it's going to be there."

As Germany and other European peacekeeper nations question the use of depleted uranium, "I think it's up to Canadians to push our government to either get on the bandwagon or lead the charge," Taylor said.

-------- finland

Greenpeace says Finnish nuclear waste plans hasty

February 19, 2001
Story by Laura Vinha
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9842&newsDate=19-Feb-2001

HELSINKI - Greenpeace urged Finland on Friday not to go ahead with a proposal to build Western Europe's first permanent deep underground nuclear waste dump until more information was available.

The international environmental watchdog said it was too early to know whether burial was the best way to dispose of nuclear waste, and the decision on what to do with it should be left for future generations to make when they had the necessary information.

"Future generations will have to decide what should be done when they have all the information," Helen Wallace, a Greenpeace nuclear expert told a news conference after briefing Finnish parliamentarians.

"We think it is better to pass on the responsibility to deal with nuclear waste than to pass on the problem of a leaking waste site," she said.

The government decided in December to support in principle plans by nuclear waste group Posiva Oy - a unit of Nuclear group Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) and Fortum power group - to build underground research facilities in Olkiluoto, on the west coast of Finland.

Parliament must still endorse the decision.

If Posiva gets the go-ahead it plans to begin research excavations and then to start building a final radioactive waste treatment plant in 2010. The final plant will require further approval from government.

The site would house waste from Finland's four existing nuclear reactors. TVO filed an application in November to build a fifth reactor, contrary to the general European shift towards non-nuclear power.

Wallace said parliamentarians risked making hasty, unsound choices.

The construction work required for the planned tests would disturb base rock, hurt chances of future above-ground testing, and meddle with underground water flows in ways which are still insufficiently understood, she said.

"More research is needed before any excavation takes place," she said. Existing rock laboratories should instead be used along with non-destructive research methods such as ultrasound mapping and computer models.

Wallace said that trying to find a final dumping site would hinder the search for other solutions, and the focus of research would shift to the technicalities of deep underground dumping.

Officials at Posiva were not immediately available for comment. The firm said on its website that while the long-term safety of disposed waste could not be verified by experiments, it could be proved by experimental research and simulations.

-------- israel

Israel and U.S. Begin Patriot Missile Exercise

February 19, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/world/19WIRE-MISS.html

JERUSALEM, Feb. 19 - Israeli and U.S. troops began a joint military exercise on Monday to test Patriot missiles, used to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles in the 1991 Gulf War, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

The wargames in the Israeli desert began three days after U.S. and British fighter planes attacked military installations near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sending jitters through Israel, which endured Iraqi missile attacks during the war a decade ago.

The Israeli army insisted the exercise was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the recent U.S.-British strikes.

"The exercise has been planned for over a year and is part of routine U.S.-Israel training designed to validate interoperability of air defence systems," the army said in a statement.

Israel has said it is taking seriously Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's threats to retaliate for the air strikes -- even though it considers there to be no immediate danger.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met security officials on Sunday to discuss developments in Iraq. His office said in a statement that Israel would keep a close eye on the situation, but "there is no need to take any sort of special measures."

Washington sent Patriot missiles to Israel during the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq, but they failed to halt most of the 39 Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel, most of which damaged neighbourhoods in and around Tel Aviv.

-------- japan

Japanese Pressed for Navy Inquiry

Monday, February 19, 2001
Washington Post
By Thomas E. Ricks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23486-2001Feb18?language=printer

The Navy's decision to hold a rare public inquiry into the actions of officers commanding the USS Greeneville was influenced by increasing Japanese pressure on U.S. officials to hold someone accountable after the submarine rammed a fishing trawler carrying high school students on a training voyage off the coast of Hawaii 10 days ago, military officials said yesterday.

The inquiry, to be held at the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, promises to be one of the most dramatic military legal proceedings in years and stands in sharp contrast to several other recent U.S. military examinations of commanders' actions.

Over the past week, the Navy has come under intensifying criticism for the Feb. 9 accident, for first not disclosing that civilians were at two of the submarine's three key controls when the accident occurred, and then for not disclosing the names of the civilians for several more days.

Two of those civilians issued a statement of regret yesterday. "We very deeply regret the loss of life resulting from the accident and extend our most sincere sympathy and heartfelt aloha to the survivors of the accident and to the families and friends who have missing loved ones," said Michael and Susan Nolan of Honolulu.

Another couple who had been aboard the Greeneville, Jay and Carol Brehmer of Overland Park, Kan., said, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those killed in this tragedy."

During a weekend conference call among officials from the Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Adm. Dennis Blair, the commander of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific, said that from now on, he -- not the Navy -- would set policy for handling the Greeneville incident, a military official said. Blair said that henceforth U.S. policy would be "transparent and open," the official added.

Underscoring that change in approach, the Navy yesterday showed relatives of the nine missing people from the trawler a 35-minute videotape of the wreck taken by a deep-diving robot.

Courts of inquiry usually are held only to examine the most serious incidents -- the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, the actions of top officers before the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the North Korean seizure of the USS Pueblo in 1968. The last such major Navy inquiry followed a 1992 accident in which the USS Saratoga mistakenly fired two deadly missiles into a nearby Turkish destroyer during an exercise in the Mediterranean Sea.

Military experts are deeply divided over the question of whether the U.S. armed services in recent years have abandoned the tradition of holding commanders rigidly accountable for errors that occur "on their watch." And among those that believe the rules of accountability have changed, there is further disagreement over whether that represents a laudable move toward fairness or a worrisome erosion of discipline.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, the Pacific Fleet commander, said Saturday that he decided on the court of inquiry in part because it offered "a forum for public disclosure." Unlike less formal proceedings, it will have subpoena power and will take sworn statements that can be scrutinized by outsiders.

The three admirals running the inquiry "will provide a full and open accounting to both the American and the Japanese people," Fargo said. The court of inquiry could decide on a range of fates for the sub's skipper, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, and members of his crew. Depending on the evidence presented about the actions of the captain and his crew, they could order courts-martial on criminal charges, or pursue lesser administrative punishments, or could find no reason for further action.

The inquiry is expected to proceed fairly swiftly, probably calling no more than about 20 witnesses, a Pentagon official said yesterday. "The Navy doesn't want this to dribble on with endless stories," said another official.

It probably first will hear testimony from Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths Jr., to review the basic conclusions of the initial Navy investigation he conducted over the last week. Then it is expected to call Waddle; his executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer; and the young officer who was "officer of the deck" at the time of the incident, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.

"The key question will be: Why didn't you know the boat was there?" the Pentagon official said. To determine the answer, the inquiry is likely to focus on the periscope surveys of the surface conducted before the Greeneville submerged to execute its rapid ascent drill, called an "emergency main ballast blow."

According to retired submariners, Waddle and other crew members are likely to be examined on the rigor of the periscope survey, and specifically on whether Waddle ordered the submarine to get sufficiently near the surface so that his periscope could peer over the wave tops. The officers' testimony on the thoroughness of the periscope survey can be checked against the deck log's record of what depth the sub was at when it was conducted, as well as how long it spent at that depth.

In addition, the court of inquiry is expected to look into why the sub's sonar operators failed to detect the presence of the Japanese boat and then ask for a follow-up periscope sweep, officials said. The qualifications and training of the operators will come under examination then, they said. In addition, the court of inquiry might ask whether the "climate of command" created by Waddle made sailors feel they could speak up if they believed they had information that might contradict him.

How the three admirals rule may go a long way toward shaping public views of military justice system.

"It does seem that there has been a departure in recent years from past standards of responsibility and accountability," said retired Adm. Henry H. Mauz Jr., a former commander of the Atlantic Fleet. "There does seem to be a pattern of excusing individuals in command from the hard reality of what happened on their watch."

Others interviewed pointed to case after case in which people were abused, injured or killed, and no one has been jailed or fired, and sometimes not punished at all. They cited an array of recent examples:

• After the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. troops and injured hundreds of others, no one was punished, and the Air Force got in a public squabble with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen when Cohen declined to approve the promotion of the brigadier general who had been in command.

• In February 1998, a Marine EA-6B jet sliced through the cables of a gondola ski lift in the Italian mountains, killing 20 people. The pilot was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of a lesser charge of obstruction of justice.

• A battalion of the 82nd Airborne was found in an internal Army investigation to have beaten, threatened and abused civilians in Kosovo while on duty there from September 1999 through March 2000. One sergeant in the unit was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl. Some junior members of the unit were reprimanded, yet the Army says the battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Michael D. Ellerbe, remains on track for a plum assignment at the Army War College.

• The Pentagon decided last month that blame for security lapses that preceded last October's bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, in which 17 sailors died, would be shared collectively and that no individuals would be punished.

"I am troubled by the apparent lack of accountability in our government leadership in recent years, both civilian and military," said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper. "There always seems to be a rationale for why someone isn't called to task."

The U.S. military seems especially reluctant to punish personnel who accidentally kill foreigners, said Bruce Vandervort, the editor of the Journal of Military History. He worried that this "stems from the kind of arrogance that seems to be inseparable from 'superpower' status, whether you are talking about Britain in the 19th century or the USA in the 20th or 21st century."

The "erosion of command responsibility" is worrisome but not all bad, concluded retired Marine Brig. Gen. Edwin H. Simmons: "It was once harsh and arbitrary, now it has softened."

To be sure, not everyone thinks that military accountability has slackened. Several officers pointed out that the "zero defects" mentality, in which any mistake can end a career, is a persistent problem in the military. "Micromanagement is an issue in all the services now," said retired Army Lt. Gen. Terry Scott, now the director of national security programs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Others noted that the old system of finding someone to blame, whether or not he was guilty, lacked fairness. Nowadays, "We try not to scapegoat," said one senior military lawyer. "When someone is to blame, the military tends to hold them accountable. But we are in a dangerous business and accidents do happen."

Most of all, officers argued that the civilian world doesn't understand just how devastating it can be to have a promising military career ended prematurely. Several current and former Navy officers said they believe that even if Waddle is cleared of negligence, he will never command another Navy submarine.

"Civilians do not see removal from command, denial of further advancement, or anything short of criminal punishment as acceptable, yet for the professional to see a promising career ended, that's devastating in its own way," argued retired Army Col. Leonard Fullenkamp, an expert in military history.

-------- missile defense

Russia/U.S.: Moscow Disagrees Over Missile Defense -- Part 2

01/02/19
Radio Free Europe
By Jeremy Bransten
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/02/19022001115337.asp

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan first proposed developing a space-based nuclear shield in the 1980s. The shield -- consisting of high-tech radars and lasers -- was to have been purely defensive in nature. The system would intercept and destroy long-range missiles fired at the United States and its allies before those missiles had a chance to reach their target. The "Star Wars" plan, as it was dubbed, got a cold reception in Moscow. Soviet officials argued the United States could launch a first-strike nuclear attack and subsequently use the shield to protect itself from nuclear retaliation, undercutting the deterrent of "mutually assured destruction." The issue is again at the forefront of the U.S.-Russia relationship.

In the second part of his four-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Jeremy Bransten examines the issue.

Prague, 19 February 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Much has changed since Ronald Reagan first floated his "Star Wars" plan. The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 robbed Moscow of its superpower status, leaving Washington without a major adversary. But the idea of a missile defense shield has found a champion in U.S. President George W. Bush, who has vowed to push for its deployment.

The Bush administration argues the ranks of nuclear nations may soon swell to include "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iraq. In its new incarnation, Washington's proposed national missile defense system would be aimed at intercepting long-range ballistic missiles launched by those states.

Once again, the United States argues, the shield would be purely defensive and add to global security. As Secretary of State Colin Powell argued in Washington this month:

"We think it is, at the end of the day, stabilizing. It is part of an overall deterrent system and it will strengthen deterrence."

Moscow remains opposed to the project. At a recent European security conference in Munich, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, argued that deployment of the U.S. missile defense system would mean an end to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, known as ABM, between Washington and Moscow -- leading to a new arms race. Russia considers the ABM treaty, which places limits on both countries on developing anti-missile systems, as the cornerstone of arms-control agreements.

Ivanov says:

"These plans, first of all, undermine the fundamentals of global strategic stability. Deployment of the Anti-Missile Defense [system], by definition, would make the ABM treaty senseless. And destruction of the ABM Treaty -- and we are quite positive about it -- will result in annihilation of the whole structure of strategic stability and create prerequisites for a new arms race, including the one in outer space."

The Bush administration says the ABM treaty needs to be amended, but it has launched a major public relations effort to convince Russia it has nothing to fear from national missile defense. Washington's European allies will also need convincing.

How serious are the divisions and to what degree will Washington's determination to pursue this project alter its relations with its European allies and, above all, Russia?

Stephen Blank, an expert on arms, says that in one sense, Russia is reaping the fruits of its missile proliferation:

"The Russians have no one to blame but themselves. They're the ones running around selling nuclear technology and know-how to all these states. They've sold it to Iran, they've sold it to Iraq. They probably gave it to North Korea. They've given it to China. They've given assistance to India. What did they think would happen?"

Blank acknowledges that much of Europe is against any form of U.S. national missile defense. France opposes it. Sweden, which is not a NATO member but currently presides over the EU, has called on Washington to halt the program. Germany was initially lukewarm to the idea but now appears to be more supportive, regarding it as purely an American decision.

Blank says opposition from America's allies should be expected and will gradually be overcome.

"The fact is the Europeans are going to criticize the United States a lot of times, no matter what it does. And that's in a sense part of the price of being the leader of the alliance. Now the facts are, however, that if such a system can work -- and we're talking now either theater missile defense or national missile defense -- it will be available to Europe."

The term "national" missile defense initially rankled European sensibilities, prompting the question of whether America would leave its allies to fight rogue states on their own, while the U.S. remained safe behind its missile shield. Over the past two weeks, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has taken pains to stress that Europe would be included in any working system.

But how Washington will mollify Russia remains to be seen.

Andrei Piontkowsky, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Studies, says that despite the Kremlin's increasingly shrill language, Russia has little to fear from national missile defense and Russian officials privately acknowledge that.

"Russia's response capability today amounts to 1,000 warheads, which Moscow can unleash in response to a hit on the territory of the United States. The maximum which the proposed national missile defense system could counteract -- at least over the n ext 15 to 20 years -- would be 20 to 50 warheads. So the only change is that Russia's response capability will go down to 950 warheads from 1,000. That's no significant difference whatsoever."

Piontkowsky says Europe's vocal opposition to the U.S. plan -- which began last year after a series of missile tests conducted under the Clinton administration -- has encouraged Moscow in recent weeks to strengthen its attacks, in an attempt to split the NATO alliance over the issue:

"Last summer, Moscow was inclined to compromise. But at the time, Europe began to raise protests regarding national missile defense -- especially Germany -- and this played into the hands of the opponents of compromise. Moscow once again got the illusion of being able to exploit trans-Atlantic differences in NATO."

But according to Piontkowsky, this strategy cannot work over the long term. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer emphasized that point during a visit to Moscow last week, when he stressed that although Germany may have its differences with the United States, it remains a loyal NATO member and will not act as an intermediary between Moscow and Washington. Piontkowsky says Russia will have to negotiate a compromise with the United States, but this may take some time.

"Our diplomats have painted themselves into a corner. People are beginning to understand that modifying the ABM treaty would be more advantageous for Russia than renouncing all agreements. But they have repeated this threat so often that a reasonable compromise would look like a loss of face."

Beyond the politics of missile defense is the practical issue of whether such a system can actually work. Professor Blank explains:

"The tests that were carried out under the Clinton administration failed. What is clear is that you can do missile defense and that it works at the theater level. The Israelis have proved it. If you look at the "Arrow," which is the Israeli system -- built with our help as well -- it works as a theater missile defense. There's no doubt that it works and it's already operational."

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently suggested some form of regional security arrangement for Europe as a counter-proposal to missile defense.

Last week, a senior Russian general said Moscow would soon be ready with details of a plan for what it called a compact and inexpensive missile shield for Europe.

Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, the head of the Defense Ministry's international cooperation department, said Moscow's proposal would easily beat Washington's plan, which he says would drain Europe financially. Ivashov provided few details, but he described it as mobile, non-strategic anti-missile force.

Retired U.S. diplomat James Goodby, who served as Bill Clinton's chief negotiator for nuclear security and dismantlement, tells RFE/RL that any Russian counter-proposal may provide an opportunity for the U.S. to strike a deal on a more limited form of theater missile defense.

"Putin's talked about [a Russian shield]. Nothing's very clear in what he's said about what he's thinking, but I think it's an opening that ought to be exploited. [I] think that may indeed be the way you phase in any kind of system anyway, with something Russia is fully participating in and has some advantages for all parties."

Otherwise, Goodby says, a new arms race -- despite the fact that it would be ruinous for Russia and totally unnecessary from a military standpoint -- might indeed restart.

Russia's loss of superpower status means it holds few cards in the missile defense debate. Much will depend on its ability to compromise and Washington's willingness to accommodate.

-------

China wants Ottawa's aid in stopping U.S. shield
Proposed missile defence plan reveals 'Cold-War psyche,' Chinese official says

Monday, February 19, 2001
JEFF SALLOT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER -- China is joining a growing list of countries looking for Canadian support to sideline the U.S. national missile defence plan.

Sha Zukang, China's chief nuclear disarmament negotiator, is in Ottawa today for meetings with federal officials, hoping to persuade Canada to speak out against President George W. Bush's high-tech plans for a system of interceptor rockets to shoot incoming ballistic missiles out of the sky, a scheme China and many others fear could set off a new nuclear arms race.

"I hate national missile defence," Mr. Sha told an international gathering of arms control experts in Vancouver. "It comes from some kind of Cold-War psyche in America. People are searching for some kind of enemy, and maybe it can be China."

Officials from Russia, France and other European countries are also looking to Canada to use its special political and military relationship with the United States to convince the Bush administration that national missile defence (NMD) is an unrealistic dream that could become a global nightmare, unravelling decades of arms control agreements.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who would face strong domestic political opposition if he were to allow the United States to build NMD radar sites in the U.K., as Washington proposes, also will be in Ottawa this week to discuss missile defence.

Mr. Blair meets with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, then heads to Washington to meet with Mr. Bush.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed concern about NMD and, on a recent visit to Canada, got Mr. Chrétien to agree that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which outlaws the kind of antimissile system Mr. Bush vows to deploy, is a "cornerstone of strategic stability."

The U.S. government has launched a diplomatic charm offensive of its own. It hopes that Ottawa will at least mute any opposition, if not actually give the NMD a maple leaf seal of approval.

U.S. government sources say the No. 1 priority of the U.S. embassy in Ottawa in coming months will be to try to get Canada on board with NMD.

Unlike the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, which said no thanks to a similar "Star Wars" plan when it was proposed by the United States in the mid-1980s, Mr. Chrétien is sending out mixed signals about what Canada thinks about NMD.

He seemed to back the necessity of maintaining the ABM treaty after meeting with Mr. Putin but appeared less convinced of the pact's value after visiting Mr. Bush earlier this month. It has even looked at times as if he's waiting and listening.

China's position is not ambiguous. Mr. Sha said NMD is a thinly disguised plot to acquire overwhelming military superiority so that Washington can intimidate others.

Canada's importance in the international debate was evident Friday at the private consultations convened in Vancouver by Lloyd Axworthy, the former foreign affairs minister and an opponent of NMD and the earlier "Star Wars."

Mr. Axworthy, now head of the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, assembled arms control experts from the Chinese government and think tanks in Russia, the United States, Canada, India and Denmark for a one-day brainstorming session. The British and French governments sent diplomatic observers. Mr. Sha was the most animated in his opposition to NMD.

But most of the other experts seemed to agree that NMD wouldn't really work. A determined foe, terrorist group or so-called rogue state, could find other means to attack the United States, including flying low-level cruise missiles under the missile shield, or sailing a cargo ship into a major U.S. port with a bomb aboard.

Even some of the proponents of NMD acknowledge it would not be able to guarantee shooting down all incoming missiles in an all-out attack by a foe with a large arsenal.

So if NMD can't really eliminate the threats from terrorists or rogue states such as North Korea, Iraq or Iran -- the supposed rationale for the system -- the Chinese have to ask what is it the Americans are really up to, Mr. Sha said. Chinese leaders believe the uneasy answer is that hard-liners in Washington want to make China the new Cold War enemy.

"We don't like the idea, to put it mildly," Mr. Sha said, his face turning red. China has, at most, 24 nuclear warheads. The United States has thousands. China would have to respond by improving its nuclear arsenal.

A Chinese buildup could result in a "cascade of consequences" in Asia, Gloria Duffy, who was a senior official in the U.S. Department of Defence in former president Bill Clinton's administration, told the Vancouver group. China's foe, India, would feel the need to increase its tiny nuclear arsenal, with India's rival, Pakistan, another of the new nuclear powers, responding in kind, she said.

Ms. Duffy and William Perry, the former U.S. defence secretary, will present a briefing paper later this month for Bush national security officials on NMD urging caution.

Ms. Duffy and Mr. Perry say that even if the enormous technical problems of building an NMD system can be solved, deployment might have unintended consequences for the United Stats -- such as setting off an Asian arms race and stimulating the type of proliferation of weapons technology that was the primary concern of NMD proponents.

Mr. Axworthy said he is sensitive to U.S. concerns about terrorist threats and proliferation of weapons. He said the way to deal with the U.S. drive to deploy a destabilizing NMD system is to take the underlying concerns about U.S. vulnerability to homeland attack seriously and work from there.

The way to counter the pro-NMD lobby is to deal directly with the North Korean, Iranian and other regimes to make them less threatening, he said. This was one of the reasons he was so keen last year to open a high-level dialogue with North Korea, which led to full diplomatic relations.

"If you force proponents [of NMD] to say there is no longer a rogue state problem it will be clear that they are going after China, and I don't think Canadians would buy that as a rationale at all," Mr. Axworthy said.

The debate over NMD is intense, involves life-and-death issues, but is being conducted out of sight, behind closed doors in defence and foreign ministries, Mr. Axworthy said.

Unlike Mr. Axworthy's successful international campaign to get a treaty banning land mines, the peace and disarmament groups "don't have a poster child with a missile in the forehead." The issues are complicated and abstract, and take strange twists.

There are risks that the Americans might retaliate in some way if Canada were to lead a high-profile charge against NMD, Mr. Axworthy said. But the Bush administration would come to realize retaliation is self-defeating because Canada and the United States must co-operate in so many fields.

-------- russia

NATO Talks To Be Difficult

February 19, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-NATO.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- By playing host to NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson this week, Moscow is signaling its desire to ease a tug-of-war with the alliance.

But talks are sure to be difficult: Russia saw NATO's 1999 decision to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the alliance as a direct threat to its security, and has warned that granting membership to three former Soviet republics in the Baltic region -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- would be going too far.

Robertson's packed two-day visit, which began late Monday, is timed for the reopening of NATO's information office in Moscow, which Russia shut down in spring 1999 in protest of the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia.

He also has a broad agenda for talks with Russian officials, including peacekeeping efforts, Russia's military doctrine, the alliance's strategic concept and arms control.

But his toughest task will be to calm Russia's alarm over NATO's eastward expansion.

On arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Robertson said he had ``a packet of proposals of the North Atlantic alliance on matters of strategic stability and, in particular, on ABM,'' the Interfax news agency reported.

The United States' proposal to build a national missile-defense system, which goes against the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, is one of the most serious points of tension between Washington and Moscow.

Russia and NATO ``are building very firm relations which will allow us to avoid the crisis situations springing up in the world today,'' Robertson said, according to Interfax.

``The fact that a few new countries may join the NATO alliance would in no way upset existing balances or threaten any good relationship that exists between NATO and Russia,'' Robertson said before heading to Moscow, according to ITAR-Tass news agency.

The Baltics have lobbied hard to join the Western alliance ever since they regained independence following the Soviet collapse in 1991. While individual members such as the United States have supported their ambition, the alliance as a whole has not yet made any firm commitment.

Russian military officials have pointed out that the alliance's thrust into the Baltics would bring its forces within 100 miles of St. Petersburg, allowing NATO jets to reach vital sites in western Russia within minutes. Moscow has threatened to retaliate with a military buildup, although it has avoided specifics.

NATO's plans have stoked anti-Western feelings among the Russian elite and the broad public, and analysts have warned that further expansion could feed authoritarian trends in Russia's home policy and push it toward global isolation.

``The worst outcome of that would be the rise of secret services that would seek to turn Russia into a fortress besieged by the enemy,'' said Sergei Markov, the head of the Institute of Political Studies. ``NATO is not going to listen to Russian complaints, but it wants to show respect and avoid excessive humiliation of Moscow.''

President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia might itself bid for NATO membership in the future -- and his proposal met a cool response in NATO headquarters in Brussels. NATO's refusal to even entertain the possibility was evidence, Putin claimed, of the alliance's anti-Russian tilt.

Putin has also suggested that Russia and NATO countries deploy a joint anti-missile system that could be an alternative to the U.S. national missile defense plans, which Moscow sharply opposes. The proposal has been largely viewed as a Russian attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and European NATO members.

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

Sub chief declines NTSB inquiry

02/19/2001
USA Today
By Martin Kasindorf
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-02-19-subchief.htm

HONOLULU - The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that Cmdr. Scott Waddle, the USS Greeneville's commander, has declined to be interviewed for its investigation into the submarine's collision with a Japanese fishing vessel .

NTSB investigators met with Cmdr. Scott Waddle over the weekend when he told them his lawyer recommended he only respond to written questions from the NTSB for the time being and only about search and rescue efforts, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewiscz said.

Waddle's information could be crucial to the NTSB effort to determine how the USS Greeneville failed to detect the 190-foot Ehime Maru before it conducted an emergency rapid-ascent drill nine miles south of Diamond Head on Feb. 9.

The Ehime Maru, a commercial fishing training vessel, was headed toward fishing grounds 300 miles southeast of Oahu when the Greeneville crashed into it. The submarine tore through the hull of the ship, sinking it within minutes. The vessel was found by underwater probes Friday night in 2,000 feet of water.

The ship was on a two-month training trip with students from a Japanese high school. Twenty-six people were rescued but nine have not been found - three crewmen, two teachers and four students.

The Navy announced Saturday it would conduct a court of inquiry - its highest-level administrative investigation - to focus on the actions of the Greeneville's three top officers: Waddle; its executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, and the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.

Three admirals will oversee the hearing, which could lead to courts-martial, said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. The board is scheduled to convene Thursday.

The hearing is expected to examine the presence of 16 civilian guests on the submarine, two of whom, supervised by crew members, were at key controls when the Greeneville made its rapid ascent. One pulled the levers that initiated the drill.

On Monday, the Navy and Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing.

"At this point, it's going to go on indefinitely," said Coast Guard spokesman Eric Hedaa. "We have no plans to discontinue the search."

A deep-sea robot was also combing the ocean floor to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 500-ton Ehime Maru. Japanese officials and families of the missing are pressing the United States to salvage the ship if that is the only way to recover bodies that may be entombed in its hull.

The Navy, meanwhile, isn't promising to raise the Ehime Maru. "The U.S. Navy has never raised a vessel of this size, so it is an immense task ," said Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a Navy spokeswoman.

The Navy continued preparations for the public trial scheduled at the Trial Services Building on the Pearl Harbor naval base. TV networks from the United States and Japan are "clamoring" for televised proceedings, but that probably will not be allowed, said Lt. Philip Rosi, a Pacific Fleet spokesman. Military guidelines say cameras are not allowed in courtrooms.

Still, to soothe Japanese sensibilities, the Navy had P-3C Orion planes fly over the waters off Oahu and the Coast Guard cutter Kittiwake continued its search for nine people aboard the ship who have been missing since the collision Feb. 9.

Japanese officials in Hawaii said that some family members have asked the Japanese consulate to get them seats at the court of inquiry, and the Navy has said it will try to accommodate them.

Also, they want an apology, preferably from Waddle. Other Navy officers have visited the family members at a hotel here and have apologized, but the families still want to hear from Waddle, a spokesman for the families said.

Contributing: Wire reports.

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

-------- colorado

EPA probes Shattuck over N-waste

Feb. 19, 2001
Denver Post
By Mike Soraghan
mailto:msoraghan@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0219.htm

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency's national ombudsman is delving into the Shattuck Chemical Co.'s handling of materials it received from the nation's nuclear weapons plants.

And that inquiry might play into a ripening debate over where the waste stored at the Denver site will be sent, since rules for handling waste from weapons sites are more stringent than those for cleaning up the mine tailings more commonly associated with the site.

Shattuck is the Superfund site in south Denver where the EPA originally decided to leave radioactive waste on-site. Dirt contaminated with radium, uranium and heavy metals was mixed with coal ash and concrete and entombed as a giant mound, alarming those living in the surrounding neighborhood of Overland Park.

After an investigation by EPA ombudsman Robert Martin, the EPA reversed its decision and has agreed to move the waste offsite.

The EPA is currently drafting plans for how to move the Shattuck waste. The design is to be done in May, and the removal is to begin this summer.

But there is an ongoing debate over whether it should be taken to Envirocare, a facility in Utah licensed to handle radioactive waste, or a former mine on Colorado's Western Slope run by Umetco, a Union Carbide subsidiary. Umetco is able to accept "naturally occurring radioactive materials" such as mine tailings.

It is well known that Shattuck was contaminated with mine tailings. But the material from nuclear weapons plants is a lesserknown part of the Shattuck saga. In documents on the Shattuck cleanup, EPA officials have said they did not know what kind of materials were being processed at Shattuck during the 1960s.

But during that time, the owners of the site had a Radioactive Materials License from the Atomic Energy Commission to process natural and depleted uranium at the site.

The owners of the plant got the license in 1955, and the processing continued until the plant closed in 1986. By then, the AEC had become the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The plant got depleted uranium from Department of Energy nuclear weapons plants in Paducah, Ky., and Oakridge, Tenn., according to testimony in ombudsman hearings in Denver in 1999.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of enriched uranium and has had the isotope used to make weapons removed. It is often used in armorpiercing bullets and has been discussed as a possible cause of "Gulf War syndrome," but scientists have not discovered any conclusive link to the ailments of veterans.

Shattuck lawyer John Faught stressed that the uranium Shattuck received, "has nothing to do with nuclear armaments; it has to do with specialty products."

During the 1999 hearings, two different accounts emerged as to how carefully Shattuck handled the uranium.

John Taylor, who worked at the Shattuck plant in 1972 and 1973 as operator of the uranium site, said there was evidence that uranium had been burned in a device with an open chimney. He also said uranium was disposed of in pits that allowed it to dissipate into the ground and blow around the surrounding neighborhood.

Former Shattuck vice president Tom Millensifer testified that waste from processing the depleted uranium from the plants was not hazardous or radioactive. He said the company briefly tried to process the uranium bullet shavings but quit after finding the process created too much smoke.

Martin is questioning whether the original Shattuck cleanup followed Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules for cleaning up sites with licenses to handle radioactive materials.

The EPA and Shattuck say the site was cleaned up according to NRC rules. In a letter to the EPA, Shattuck official Robert H. Oliver said buildings where uranium processing occurred were decontaminated under NRC guidelines in 1987, with the radioactive materials and residues sent to Nuclear Engineering Co., a licensed disposal facility in Beatty, Nev. Later, as part of the Superfund cleanup under the EPA, the buildings were demolished and the radiation-tainted building materials shipped to Nevada.

"We think we followed the rules," said Barry Levene, director of the Superfund program for the EPA region including Colorado. "We don't understand what it is that he's interested in." But Hugh Kaufman, who investigated the Shattuck cleanup for Martin, said that leaves out what happened to the uranium that was left in pits on the site.

"So the information we have is that it's still in the ground under that mound, so it hasn't been tested," Kaufman said. "We cannot decide what were going to do with the Shattuck waste until we get to the bottom of exactly what's there, and that work still has not been done." Kaufman said that if the site wasn't properly "decommissioned" under NRC rules, it could force the upcoming removal of waste from the Shattuck site to be much more detailed and expensive. Each batch would have to be "fingerprinted" and taken to a licensed facility.

-------- idaho

Suit Accuses Federal Contractors of Mishandling Cleanup at Nuclear Lab

February 19, 2001
New York Times
By JO THOMAS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/national/19IDAH.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:POLITICS22C/1:POLITICS22C0219101.html

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Buried in underground tanks and dumped into trenches at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory northwest of here is a witches' brew of deadly chemicals and radioactive waste left over from the cold war. It includes enough plutonium debris from the Rocky Flats weapons plant in Colorado to build hundreds of nuclear bombs.

This laboratory, more than half the size of Rhode Island, has built and tested civilian and military nuclear reactors for 52 years. Because of its residues and stored wastes, it was designated a Superfund site in 1989, and the government started trying to clean it up. Now two men who audited that effort say in a federal lawsuit that government contractors who were paid hundreds of millions of dollars made the contamination worse. When the auditors complained, they said, they were harassed until they resigned.

The auditors said the contractors deliberately bypassed safety measures, turned off monitors and alarms, falsified documents, did not report spills, dumped hazardous wastes on the ground and illegally sent waste from a pit contaminated with plutonium to a public landfill.

Those contentions shed a different light on what state and federal officials told the public about the contractors' problems at the site. And in internal documents, federal officials shared some of the auditors' concerns.

Officials at the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality announced in May 1999 that the United States Energy Department, as the site owner, would pay $504,000 in fines and costs for mishandling dangerous waste. The division, and Energy Department officials, said at the time that the violations resulted from oversights or from problems created before the contractors took over.

"Things happen," Mike Gregory, the hazardous waste enforcement coordinator for the state, said in an interview. "Someone gets lazy. Or they think they're doing right."

But in 1998, an internal Energy Department review said the contractor that oversaw the lab and ran the cleanup at that time, Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies, had not established "an underlying culture of rigor, discipline and sustaining leadership" on environmental, safety and health issues.

That review, signed by John M. Wilcynski, manager of the Energy Department's Idaho Operations Office, said that three major accidents, including the deaths of two workers, had occurred. He recommended that the contract be put out for bid.

Jim Fetig, a spokesman for the Lockheed Martin Corporation, based in Bethesda, Md., said that there might have been environmental missteps in Idaho, but that none were intentional.

"I don't think for a second that there was an ethos of nonconcern about environmental issues," Mr. Fetig said.

Waste was stored improperly in some cases, he said, but it was hard to find out what old storage tanks contained. "They are still trying to get a handle on what's in those tanks and what to do with it," Mr. Fetig said. "There was a lot of bad stuff out there and only so much money. A contractor can only do what the Department of Energy approves."

Lockheed Martin did not seek to renew its contract in Idaho, but still manages two research facilities for the Energy Department, the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y.

Besides Lockheed Martin, which ran the site from October 1994 through September 1999, the lawsuit names EG&G Idaho Inc., the contractor that ran the site from 1976 to 1994, and the Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Company, which ran the Idaho Chemical Processing plant from 1989 to 1994. The plant stored and reprocessed nuclear waste from reactors around the world.

Mark J. Meagher, a Denver lawyer representing Westinghouse, said the company denied all the charges. Edward W. Pike, an Idaho Falls lawyer representing EG&G, declined to comment on the case.

Also named is Coleman Research, a Lockheed Martin subcontractor that employed the auditors, Neil Mock and Scott Lebow. William Goodrich, a lawyer for Coleman, said the company did not retaliate against the men for their complaints.

The lawsuit is being brought under a federal law that allows individuals who contend that contractors committed fraud to sue on the government's behalf and recover 25 percent to 30 percent of any judgment. The suit was filed in 1996 in United States District Court in Pocatello, Idaho, but was kept under seal until the government decided three years ago not to join it.

The Energy Department considers the Idaho laboratory, now managed by BWXT Idaho, a consortium led by Bechtel Inc., essential to the future of nuclear power, both civilian and military. The laboratory has also been named to lead development of new cleanup technologies.

The auditors arrived at the laboratory in the early 1990's. Mr. Lebow was a senior environmental, safety and quality regulatory compliance specialist. Mr. Mock was a senior scientist.

They said that they were told that employees of Westinghouse and Lockheed Martin had turned off spill alarms on 300,000-gallon tanks containing liquid high-level radioactive waste, and that no one responded to two spills they saw in 1995.

They said Lockheed Martin tried to flush out four other storage tanks EG&G had described as empty. When the tanks were found to contain corrosives contaminated by mercury at a rate nine times the reportable level, Lockheed Martin continued flushing the contaminated water - 2.4 million pounds in all - into a pond for absorption into the soil and for evaporation.

Brad Bugger, a spokesman for the Department of Energy in Idaho, said that the mercury spill was an example of bad management but that it posed no additional risk to the environment because "only a couple of ounces of mercury" were involved.

Mr. Mock and Mr. Lebow charge that from 1995 to 1998 Lockheed Martin employees occasionally disabled or disconnected the monitoring devices on smokestacks at a plant where high-level radioactive waste was processed, to conceal excess emissions of iodine-131, a radioactive isotope that is readily absorbed by the human body. They say this happened at the laboratory's Nuclear Technology and Environmental Complex, formerly known as the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant.

In 1995, they said, monitors were also disabled at the laboratory's Waste Experimental Reduction Facility, which burned radioactive paper, clothing, plastic and garbage. That incinerator was closed last October after citizens threatened to sue Idaho officials, who denied it a hazardous waste permit.

When Lockheed Martin managers were told in writing about the disabling of the air pollution monitors, the auditors say, the company told staff members not to report these acts to the authorities. Lockheed Martin denies this.

Boxes of soil contaminated with hazardous waste, improperly labeled as low-level waste, were sent illegally to a disposal site in Utah in 1996, Mr. Mock and Mr. Lebow say, and a Lockheed Martin subcontractor, Lockheed Martin Advanced Environmental Systems, illegally disposed of waste from Pit 9, which contains plutonium and other radioactive substances, in the Bonneville County landfill.

This month, Gary Johnson, the assistant inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency, said he would look into questions about the laboratory raised by local environmental organizations concerned about airborne emissions. Another local organization has warned of dangers to the Snake River Aquifer, which is the water supply for 20 percent of Idaho's population.

-------

Suit says INEEL contractors broke laws
Recently released documents allege crimes, coverups

01/02/19
Idaho Statesman
Associated Press
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010219/LocalNews/82514.shtml

IDAHO FALLS -- In the early 1990s, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory contractors hired Neil Mock and Scott Lebow to uncover environmental problems that could get the companies in trouble.

There were plenty to find, like thousands of unidentified and possibly radioactive lab samples hidden across the site. Electrical parts contaminated with toxic chemicals were stashed in refrigerators.

Workers told auditors about pulling up underground storage tanks with bottoms like Swiss cheese. Sometimes they backfilled dirt over the hazardous oils that spilled onto the desert and did not report the problem.

They also found evidence that someone at the site's in-town research lab had illegally dumped a highly flammable chemical into the Idaho Falls sewer system. They found no evidence that anyone was told.

In a lawsuit first filed in federal District Court in 1996 and fully unsealed last month, the two whistleblowers paint a picture of widespread and sometimes criminal violations of laws. They allege contractors at the INEEL ignored or covered up the problems to save money.

The Post Register in Idaho Falls reports that the Department of Energy has long acknowledged mistakes were made in the early decades of its Cold War operations, when tritium was injected into the aquifer and contaminated garbage was dumped in the desert.

But the 400-page complaint claims INEEL workers continued to illegally dump hazardous materials, turn off air quality monitors and forge records well into the years when safety and environmental laws were in force.

Some claims have been investigated and resulted in fines, but the suit alleges site contractors ignored problems for years.

In some cases, the suit says, the companies tried to hide violations from the Department of Energy and state regulators, telling employees not to answer investigators' questions.

The suit names two Lockheed Martin managers in charge of environmental compliance who reportedly told employees in 1996 not to disclose air pollution violations at the site's radioactive waste incinerator or to create a paper trail.

The complaint also cites at least two occasions in which managers told employees the company could not afford to comply with all environmental laws.

The court documents describe a lunchroom conversation Mock had with Robert Bradley, performance oversight manager for Lockheed Martin, in the mid-1990s.

They say Bradley said he "did not give a (expletive deleted) about the (expletive deleted) regulations" because the contractors "would never take a hit" and complying "did not make good business sense."

The suit against Lockheed Martin, EG&G, Westinghouse and Coleman Research Corp. -- all site contractors or subcontractors during the 1990s -- argues the companies defrauded the government by falsely claiming they complied with environmental laws.

It demands they return money received from the government over a 10-year period, since environmental compliance was a condition of their contracts. The claims could total hundreds of millions of dollars.

The 5-year-old suit was under court seal while the Department of Justice decided whether to join the plaintiffs. The federal law enforcement agency in 1998 opted not to pursue the case, but Mock and Lebow are continuing the fight. They will get a percentage of any money returned to the government.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill has dismissed some charges and allegations. He found that in certain cases the contractors had not claimed they were fully meeting environmental laws and therefore had not made false statements.

Lockheed Martin spokesman James Fetig declined Friday to discuss specific allegations but said he expected remaining claims to be dismissed.

"The decision by the Department of Justice not to join the lawsuit after a comprehensive review by the Departments of Energy and Justice demonstrates the baseless nature of the allegations," he said.

Fetig also said the company worked with the Department of Energy and state regulators throughout its tenure to bring environmental problems to light.

Ron King, Department of Energy-Idaho communications director, said Friday he would not comment on whether the contractors fully and promptly disclosed violations, since that is at the heart of the dispute.

Debbie Hill, the plaintiffs' attorney, said it was clear they did not.

"The people who had the on-the-ground knowledge and the basic responsibility for telling both DOE and DEQ were the contractors, and we don't believe that's been done," she said.

-------- tennessee

Health-risks office steps up commitment to Oak Ridge issues

Monday, February 19, 2001
The Oak Ridger
by Paul Parson
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/021901/new_0219010005.html

A federal public health agency involved in hazardous-waste issues has opened up an Oak Ridge field office, and officials hope it will serve as a resource center to community members.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry opened the office earlier this month in downtown Oak Ridge. The organization, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and recently helped to form the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee.

"This office was a response to subcommittee member requests," said Bill Murray, an environmental health scientist who is singlehandedly manning the Oak Ridge facility.

Murray worked for several years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said he is familiar with the Oak Ridge Reservation.

"ATSDR opened the office to better serve the community surrounding the Oak Ridge Reservation," Murray said. He said the office will eventually serve as a "library" housing documents from the agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other things.

With its Oak Ridge office open, the agency is gearing up for more work with the Health Effects Subcommittee.

The subcommittee consists of citizens primarily from the Oak Ridge area, including Knoxville and Roane County, who are working with community members and advocacy groups to offer advice and recommendations to several federal agencies regarding health concerns in Oak Ridge. Those concerns include exposure to contaminants from the Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge.

"They're off to a great start," said Jack Hanley, an Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry official involved in Oak Ridge activities. "It's a really good committee, with people who are willing to work hard to address and identify issues."

In the coming months, the agency and the subcommittee will be involved in two assessments relating to the health of Oak Ridge residents. They will be receiving assistance from some other organizations including George Washington University.

Hanley said a community-needs assessment will provide a basis for developing and implementing community health education programs that relate to Oak Ridge. He said a public health assessment will entail reviewing information on local hazardous substances and determining whether exposure to them would cause public harm.

"I do think it's necessary," Hanley said of the impending assessments. "Many of the other studies were focused on specific issues. We're going to use the other studies Š to provide an overview of the outstanding exposures. We're not starting a new study."

The Health Effects Subcommittee is scheduled to meet again on March 19 and 20. More information on those meetings is expected to be announced at a later date.

Office hours for the local Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry office are noon to 7 p.m. on Monday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. The office is located at 197 S. Tulane Ave.

For more information, call Murray at 220-0295 or the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at 1-888-422-8737. The agency's Web site is located at www.atsdr.cdc.gov

-------- utah

Utah

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Moab - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has withdrawn support of a plan to temporarily cap radioactive Atlas uranium mill tailings along the Colorado River. Congress approved legislation last year to remove the tailings and transfer control to the Department of Energy. Fish and Wildlife's withdrawal prevents anything from being done at the site before DOE takes it over, said Mike Fliegel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

-------- us nuc waste

Critics raise alarm over plutonium waste transfer

MONDAY • February 19, 2001
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/monday/news_a3192622f44a60ac00f9.html

Augusta --- Savannah River Site plans to ship its first load of plutonium waste to a New Mexico nuclear repository as early as next month, with eight to 12 shipments by January.

The nuclear weapons site, which straddles the Georgia-South Carolina line, has more than 55,000 barrels of the radioactive metal. The waste will be sent to the Energy Department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico, and buried in a mine about 2,100 feet below the desert.

Supporters of the effort call it a milestone in nuclear cleanup, a chance to concentrate some of the nation's radioactive waste where it won't threaten the public. Federal officials also note that none of the 141 waste shipments already sent to the New Mexico site has leaked from trucks.

"Provided it's transported safely and the way that it ought to be, we certainly are glad to get it out of the Savannah River Site and away from the border of our state," said Jim Setser, head of the radiation protection branch of Georgia's Environmental Protection Division. "It certainly doesn't have anywhere near the concern that other types of high-level waste can have."

But critics say the plutonium transfer is risky and useless, needlessly endangering thousands of people who live along I-20 in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

''The wastes that are being sent to WIPP are relatively safely stored where they are,'' said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Maryland and a long-time critic of the shipments.

Over the next 34 years, energy officials hope to send up to 4,300 such shipments to the site from four sites east of the Mississippi River now used for storage.

The waste is hazardous leftovers from nearly four decades of Cold War bomb production --- radioactive tools, rags, clothing and debris exposed to plutonium.

To prepare for the shipments, Westinghouse Waste Isolation Division, which runs the WIPP, has been training emergency workers along the route since 1991.

-------- MILITARY

NATO's Expansion Tool

Monday, February 19, 2001
Washington Post
By Jackson Diehl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23668-2001Feb18?language=printer

If West European governments are worried by the opening moves of the Bush administration -- and they are -- then imagine the view across the Atlantic these days from the less stable, less secure, less firmly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

French and German leaders have been worried by Bush's aggressive commitment to deploying a missile defense, even if it means abandoning the anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia. But for Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors, for whom the most plausible threat comes not from Pyongyang but from Moscow, America's military priorities can appear positively scary, in the sense that they may raise the level of tension between Russia and the West while focusing defensive resources elsewhere.

European Union planners have been irked by opening statements from Washington that disparaged the proposed European defense force and suggested U.S. troop reductions in the Balkans. But for NATO members Poland and Hungary, the transatlantic discussion over structure and resources invokes the disastrous but not far-fetched scenario of American troops pulling out of nearby Bosnia and Kosovo to make way for a European Union command that excludes them.

Politicians in Washington and Paris may see the centrifugal forces tugging at the transatlantic relationship as endurable, and maybe inevitable. But for Europe's former Soviet bloc side, they could soon become the elements of a geopolitical crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin is working aggressively to re-establish Moscow's political dominion over countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, and its ability to sway decisions in capitals as far away as Vienna. Meanwhile, the transatlantic tensions that the Bush administration has inherited, and at least initially heightened, suggest an alliance too focused on debates over weapons in space to consider the corners of Europe; or even worse, split into American and European Union camps that exclude the Central and East Europeans.

Will half of Europe be left to choose between an uncertain partnership with the West and a slide back toward Moscow? That may well depend on how the Bush administration handles the third major issue on its security agenda with Europe, the one it hasn't been talking much about: NATO expansion. Nine Central and Eastern European countries, including three former Soviet republics, three former Warsaw Pact states and three Balkan countries, are hoping for invitations to join NATO at a summit next year in Prague.

Letting the NATO candidates in would decisively expand the Western alliance -- and the U.S. leadership that comes with it -- across Europe, while consolidating the free politics and free markets under construction in countries from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in the north to Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria in the center and south, and Macedonia, Slovenia and Albania in the Balkans. Keeping them out would effectively invite a resurgence of Russian influence in the region, along with the authoritarian politics and anti-American foreign policy currently ascendant in Moscow.

Putin's Russia will surely resist another NATO expansion more aggressively than Boris Yeltsin opposed the 1997 admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But unlike missile defense, which Putin is also trying to block, NATO expansion has one big advantage: The Bush administration and Europe broadly seem to agree about it. "This is one of the few major constructive things on the Atlantic alliance agenda" that is likely to be unifying and not divisive, says former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, a leading advocate of expansion.

Though they may be uneasy about U.S. domination of NATO, European governments like NATO expansion because it is a way of growing the continent's democratic zone of stability without expanding the European Union, a far more cumbersome process that requires much greater sacrifices from both existing and new members. The disagreements boil down to the choice and sequencing of new members: Most governments agree about Slovenia and Slovakia, for example, but some have questions about the Baltic states because their status as former Soviet republics may inspire greater ire in Moscow.

Then there are the Pentagon's problems, articulated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a recent defense conference in Munich: The generals don't want political considerations to drive the admission of countries whose armies are not actually capable of joining NATO's operations. There are also the neo-isolationists in Congress, who will demand to know why U.S. soldiers may, in theory at least, be committed to the defense of capitals such as Ljubljana and Bratislava.

Perhaps it is those domestic considerations that have caused the Bush team to soft-pedal NATO expansion so far. Still, the administration has repeatedly said that strengthening the Atlantic alliance is one of its top priorities -- and the other policies it is pushing, even if successful in the long run, are unlikely to do that soon. "The fact is that President Bush will have to present a positive agenda for NATO sometime in the first half of this year," says Polish Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski, whose government is pushing hard for new members. "There are not too many tools available for strengthening the alliance." Expansion is certainly one of them.

The writer is a deputy editor of the editorial page.

-------

The School Of The American Empire

Monday, 19 February 2001
By Mumia Abu-Jamal,
M A. #495 Column Written 2/10/2001
http://www.MumiaBook.com

It is virtually impossible for anyone to consider the horrific violence that has taken place in Central and Latin America, without accounting for the hideous roots of that violence, that grow and thrive in America.

For decades, the bloody flood from murders, massacres, rapes, torture and carnage, created a trail that could be traced to the doorsteps of a U.S. military training institution known as the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia. Human rights activists have held increasingly swelling demonstrations at the SOA, and have dubbed it the "School of Assassins."

For years the Pentagon dismissed such criticism, and defended the SOA as an elite international training academy for "counter-insurgency," or, more obliquely, for "teaching democracy."

The graduates of SOA, however, constituted a kind of rogue's gallery of military despots and dictators, like Bolivia's Gen. Hugo Banzer Suárez, who brutally suppressed progressive church workers and striking tin miners; like Guatemalan dictator Gen. Romeo Lucas García (1978-82), whose rule saw over 5,000 political killings and about 25,000 civilians murdered by the Guatemalan army; and Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo, of El Salvador, former air force chief, who, according to a U.N. report of 1993, both planned and then covered up the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter, for starters.

If you mention a massacre, the chances are great that the men who either ordered or committed the deed were SOA grads. The El Mozote, El Junquillo, Las Hojas, and San Sebastian Massacres were all the work of SOA-trained "death squads." When four U.S. churchwomen were raped and murdered, when Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated, when union members were killed, it was SOA grads who led in the carnage. U.S.-trained and armed SOA people have been involved in so many military coups that in Latin America the school is known as the escuela de golpes-coup school.

Recently, the Defense Deptartment, stung by decades of negative publicity, officially "closed" SOA, only to immediately reopen it under the name Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation (WHISC). Although not as catchy as SOA, WHISC promises to play the same game, by another name. Shortly after the Jesuit murders, U.S.-trained Salvadoran troops surrounded the office of the Catholic archdiocese, and shouted, "Ignacio Ellacuría and Ignacio Martin-Baró have already fallen and we will continue murdering communists! Ellacuría and Martin-Baró were two Jesuit priests involved in Christian base communities, where the poor learned literacy, history and how to organize for human rights in the midst of monstrous repression.

Martin-Baró was a brilliant liberation theologist and psychologist, who, like the revolutionary Frantz Fanon, chose the side of the oppressed rather than the rich and powerful oppressors.

For this he was targeted by the U.S.-trained terrorists of the SOA, and it is for men and women like him, who seek an end to economic and social oppression, that imperial training camps, like SOA/WHISC exist.

Its name has changed, but the game remains the same.

-------- burma/myanmar

Myanmar chopper crash kills general

2/19/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - One of the most powerful generals in Myanmar's military junta was killed Monday in a helicopter crash that left 14 others missing, the government said. A Cabinet minister and seven junta officials appeared to be among the missing. The military helicopter carrying 22 officials and seven crew members crashed into the Salween river in southeastern Myanmar. Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, 67, and the rest of his party were going to Pa-an, about 100 miles southeast of the capital of Yangon, to inspect a bridge.

Myanmar Television, quoting a government statement, said the Russian-made MI-17 helicopter went down after going through "a sudden patch of bad weather." The broadcast statement said that, in addition to Tin Oo, an unidentified military officer was also killed, and that 13 others survived. It gave no other details.

A veteran of campaigns against ethnic and communist insurgents, Tin Oo had often threatened in public to "annihilate" opponents of the regime. Tin Oo's death is not likely to affect the junta's relations with the opposition, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been campaigning for democracy in this Southeast Asian nation since 1988.

-------- drug war

Trial to begin for Canada biker gangs

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

QUEBEC (AP) - Thirteen men accused of turning their Hells Angels motorcycle gang into a mafia-like network that dealt drugs throughout Quebec province go on trial this week in Canada's biggest crackdown on organized crime. Jury selection begins Monday. The defendants face charges of drug-trafficking, kidnapping and assault. Conviction for involvement in organized crime carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.

Police say drug trade turf wars between the Hells Angels and a rival group, the Rock Machine, are blamed for at least 158 murders, 169 attempted murders and the disappearances of 16 others. The case already has cost $6,700 in security.

At a hearing last month, the defendants were led into court with their hands cuffed and seated at a prisoner's dock surrounded by Plexiglas. The dock faced away from the witness stand to keep the defendants from intimidating those who will be testifying against them.

On Thursday, a judge hearing a separate case convicted four members of the Rock Machine biker gang and acquitted four others of similar charges under the federal anti-gang laws.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Jean-Claude Beaulieu already has rejected a defense challenge to the constitutionality of the anti-gang laws, adopted in 1997.

The police believe Hells Angels has about 80 members in six Quebec chapters and the Bandidos some 30 members in two chapters.

-------- iraq

Iraq Media Threatens Punishment

February 19, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=1vmuabp6c1qvg

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi media on Monday threatened to punish Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, saying they helped U.S. and British airstrikes against sites around Baghdad last week.

Some 11,000 Iraqis marched Monday in the capital, some burning American, British and Israeli flags and carrying banners declaring ``aggression will not scare us and sanctions will not harm us'' -- the latest in daily rallies since Friday's attack.

In Kuwait, the foreign minister brushed off the suggestions of retaliation in Iraq's state-run newspapers. ``They have the right to ... say what they want,'' Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah told reporters in the Persian Gulf emirate. ``But Kuwait is protected by its people, its friends, its Arab brothers and its allies.''

The indirect threat came in Monday's edition of Al-Thawra, the newspaper of Iraq's ruling Baath Party.

``Must Iraq forgive Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for participating in the aggression?'' the paper asked. ``Does Iraq have the right to take military measures to retaliate for the aggression and those who facilitate it ... if they continued the aggression and repeated it?''

The answer, it said, was left to ``Arabs, especially those in the Gulf states.''

The Iraqi government is basking in widespread international support against the U.S.-British raids -- which were the largest and closest to Baghdad in several years. Arab allies of the United States have criticized the attacks, as have France, Russia and China. Now the uproar threatens to overshadow U.N-Iraqi talks next week.

The United States and Britain say their planes hit long-range radar and associated facilities that Iraq has increasingly used to coordinate its defenses against allied planes patrolling no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq. The United States and Britain say Iraq cannot fly its planes over those areas of its own territory; Iraqi says the no-fly zones are illegitimate.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia allow allied planes to fly from their air bases to enforce the no-fly zones. U.S. officials said the planes in Friday's attacks flew from land bases and carriers in the Gulf, without specifying.

France stepped up its condemnations Monday, with Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine calling the missile attack ``a demonstration of force'' with ``no basis in international law.''

Vedrine told France's LCI television said that France was waiting for President Bush to provide a ``redefinition of the policy on Iraq.''

In Gaza City, about 1,000 Palestinians staged a rally in support of Iraq on Monday, chanting, ``Saddam, we wait for your rockets to hit Tel Aviv.'' Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has mixed anti-U.S. rhetoric with strong denunciations of Israel, gaining support from Arabs frustrated by the stalled peace process.

Russian legislator Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an ultranationalist and longtime supporter of Saddam, arrived in Baghdad on Monday to show support for Iraq.

``We condemn the latest bombing,'' Zhirinovsky told reporters, ``not only myself, but all members of the Duma (Russian parliament).''

Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, is due to hold talks Feb. 26-27 with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The meeting aims to restart the dialogue over sanctions and the long-halted U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq -- but now Baghdad may now be less inclined to compromise on inspections and more insistent sanctions be lifted.

Crippling U.N. economic sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The United Nations says Iraq must first let back in inspectors who have been barred since 1998.

Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz ridiculed the United States and Britain for portraying Friday's attacks as an attempt to protect their pilots.

``America defends itself in Baghdad? It enters the country ... bombs it, then says it was defending itself?'' Aziz said on Iraqi television Sunday night.

-------

SADDAM THREATENS RETALIATION AGAINST KUWAIT,

Monday, Feb. 19, 2001
Morrock News
David Morrock
http://morrock.com

SAUDI ARABIA As thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad in protest of Friday's U.S.-Britain bombing of five Iraqi radar sites, Saddam Hussein issued a threat: he said his country will punish Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for allowing the attacks to go forward.

Western patrols of the no-fly zones over Iraq continued, and the Israeli army began a joint exercise with the U.S. to test Patriot missiles -- the airborne defenses used against Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War 10 years ago. The exercises had been planned long before Friday's air strikes, Israeli officials said.

Press reports in Iraq describe U.S. President Bush as "the new dwarf" or "son of the snake," and say he means to destroy the country.

-------- israel

Israel and U.S. Begin Patriot Missile Exercise

February 19, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/19WIRE-MISS.html

JERUSALEM, Feb. 19 - Israeli and U.S. troops began a joint military exercise on Monday to test Patriot missiles, used to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles in the 1991 Gulf War, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

The wargames in the Israeli desert began three days after U.S. and British fighter planes attacked military installations near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sending jitters through Israel, which endured Iraqi missile attacks during the war a decade ago.

The Israeli army insisted the exercise was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the recent U.S.-British strikes.

"The exercise has been planned for over a year and is part of routine U.S.-Israel training designed to validate interoperability of air defence systems," the army said in a statement.

Israel has said it is taking seriously Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's threats to retaliate for the air strikes -- even though it considers there to be no immediate danger.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met security officials on Sunday to discuss developments in Iraq. His office said in a statement that Israel would keep a close eye on the situation, but "there is no need to take any sort of special measures."

Washington sent Patriot missiles to Israel during the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq, but they failed to halt most of the 39 Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel, most of which damaged neighbourhoods in and around Tel Aviv.

--------

U.S., Israel in Missile Exercise

February 19, 2001
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-US-Missiles.html

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Patriot anti-missile missiles will be launched in the course of a five-day joint Israeli and American military exercise that began in a stretch of desert in southern Israel on Monday.

The same type of missile was used against Iraqi Scuds fired at Israel during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The Israeli army said the exercise was planned more than a year ago and was not related to the U.S. and British airstrikes Friday on Iraq.

According to U.S. Maj. Martin Downie, the live missiles will be fired close to drones serving as artificial targets. The missiles will not aim at the drones, but an area nearby. The teams will then measure for accuracy.

During the Gulf War, the Patriot missiles deployed in Israel proved ineffectual against 39 Iraqi Scuds fired at Israel.

The communications and training phase of the U.S.-Israeli exercise, called Juniper Cobra, began Feb. 6. At the time, the cruiser U.S.S. Porter was stationed off Israel. The ship carries radar capable of detecting missiles.

``It (the exercise) has been extremely successful,'' Downie said. ``In general we understand each other's procedures a lot better now.''

-------- kosovo

Peacekeeping Team Visits Lucane

February 19, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Yugoslavia-Kosovo.html

LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A peacekeeping team with two American officers on Monday ventured into a village on the front lines of fighting between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian militants outside Kosovo, investigating the upsurge in violence that has raised tensions in the region.

The Americans and a Slovenian officer, who entered Lucane hours after heavy mortar and machinegun fire in the region, poked their heads into a bloodstained and bullet-shattered truck that rebels said was hit in a Serb attack the day before, killing a rebel commander.

Lucane lies on the edge of a buffer zone set up along the border between NATO-controlled Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. Ethnic Albanian rebels hold positions on the west side of the Binacka Morava River, which runs through the village, and Serb police hold the east side, less than 50 yards away.

The peacekeepers, part of a liaison team between NATO and the Yugoslav army, was asked by the rebels to view the damage. The team has entered the buffer zone in the past, but its visit now underlined NATO's concern that recent fighting could destabilize Kosovo.

Joined by rebel commander Shefket Musliu, the peacekeepers perused the bullet-scarred red Nissan in which Commander Bala -- who did not use a first name -- was killed in apparent reprisal for a land mine blast Sunday that killed three Serb policemen outside Lucane.

Without comment, the peacekeepers followed Musliu to other areas which rebels say were hit in the village. The peacekeepers inspected bullet holes and craters the militants claim were caused by Yugoslav forces in exchanges of fire Sunday and Monday.

``Tell them that if they want to shoot, they can shoot at us, not at our civilians,'' Musliu told the delegation as he pointed at softball-sized hole in the wall of a house hit in Sunday's clashes.

Yugoslavia has demanded NATO peacekeepers -- who are not allowed to patrol in the buffer zone since it lies outside Kosovo -- prevent ethnic Albanian militants in the province from entering the zone. Only lightly armed Serbian police are allowed into the zone, and the militants have been able to take control of most of the strip since November.

The militants want to join the zone -- which, like Kosovo, has an ethnic Albanian majority -- to the province, which came under control of NATO-led peacekeepers in 1999.

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson issued a statement Monday deploring the escalation of violence, and urging the leadership of both sides to ``to exercise maximum restraint.''

``The problems in the region cannot be solved by violence -- they can only be settled through direct negotiations between the parties,'' the statement said.

Since November, the militants have attacked Serbian police inside the zone and have sometimes launched attacks across the line into the rest of Serbia. The land mine blast Sunday took place about 200 yards outside the zone.

The new fighting further fueled tensions in the region. On Monday, U.N. officials raised the death toll in a bus bombing Friday inside Kosovo to 10 Serb civilians. Two protests of the bombing by Serbs in Gracanica and Kosovska Mitrovica ended Monday without incident.

A senior rebel commander, Sami Azemi, denied any connection with either the mine blast or the bus attack and condemned both.

With violence mounting, top Yugoslav and Serb leaders met late Sunday, and President Vojislav Kostunica's office released a statement promising ``measures against terrorism'' in the area.

``That means that we'll no longer allow that our troops and citizens be moving targets for Albanian terrorists,'' Zoran Zivkovic, Serbia's Interior Minister, told The Associated Press. ``We had maximum patience, but this is not the fight for democracy (by the Albanian extremists), but plain terrorism.''

--------

Belgrade Urges NATO Action As Death Toll Rises

February 19, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-yugosla.html

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Yugoslavia called on NATO Monday to clamp down on ethnic Albanian extremists as the known death toll from last week's bomb attack against a bus carrying Serbs rose to 10, including a 2-year-old.

A surge of violence in and around U.N.-administered Kosovo in the past few days has killed 14 people or more, including three Serb policemen blown up by anti-tank mines Sunday in the nearby Presevo Valley region of southern Serbia.

Friday's bus bombing was one of the deadliest attacks since Kosovo came under U.N. control in 1999, dealing a blow to Western hopes for a new era of Balkan stability following the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.

The Yugoslav government says it believes that attack and the police killings are part of an organized terror campaign.

Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic accused Kosovo peacekeepers of being too soft on the ``terrorists.''

He said the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force and U.N. Mission in Kosovo could take a far tougher line with armed Albanians but were shying away from a direct confrontation.

``They're afraid that the Albanian terrorists will perceive them as their adversaries,'' Zivkovic told a news conference.

His views were echoed in Moscow, Yugoslavia's traditional ally, by Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, head of the Russian military's foreign relations department.

``Albanian extremists are in essence throwing down the gauntlet not only to Serbia and Yugoslavia but to the international presence regulating the situation in Kosovo,'' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ivashov as saying.

NATO DEFENDS PEACEKEEPERS

NATO has defended its peacekeeping in Kosovo, saying it has made major efforts to improve boundary security and protect minorities. Its commanders say they can only do so much and only local leaders and citizens can put an end to the violence.

NATO sources said the alliance did not yet know if there was any link between the bus bomb and the land mines. But the thinking in KFOR is that there is indeed now a coordinated campaign of violence within Kosovo against Serbs, they said.

``It's too broad, too steady, too consistent to be thought of as coincidental. There's a definite perception that there has been a substantial increase in attacks on Kosovo Serbs in response to the new government in Belgrade,'' one source said.

``The Presevo and Kosovo extremists have overlapping agendas but not necessarily the same,'' the source added.

The Presevo Valley guerrillas say they fight Serbian police repression in the area, which has a large ethnic Albanian population. The group said Sunday one of their number had been killed in a firefight with Serb forces the same day.

NATO and the U.N. took over the running of Kosovo almost two years ago after NATO's bombing campaign ended Milosevic's repression of ethnic Albanians by driving out Serb forces.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for Friday's bus attack, but Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica blamed ``Albanian extremists,'' saying they threatened stability in the Balkans.

A U.N. spokeswoman said the number of victims from the bus bombing might rise.

``We can confirm now there are 10 dead...it doesn't mean there aren't more dead,'' said spokeswoman Susan Manuel. Officials initially gave the death toll as at least seven.

-------- space

Space Shuttle Landing Postponed

FEBRUARY 19
AP Aerospace Writer
By MARCIA DUNN
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=SCIENCE&PACKAGEID=SPACEstations&STORYID=APIS7A8Q0QG0&SLUG=SPACE%2dSHUTTLE

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - For the second day in a row, gusts of nearly 25 mph forced space shuttle Atlantis and its astronauts to keep circling Earth on Monday instead of coming home.

The weather was no better at the backup landing site in Southern California, so Mission Control ordered the crew to spend a 13th day in orbit and aim for a Tuesday afternoon touchdown.

``Bottom line is we're waving off,'' Mission Control told commander Kenneth Cockrell. ``We do have three sites for tomorrow, all of them have a 'go' forecast at this time.''

Atlantis and its crew of five undocked from the international space station on Friday, after delivering and installing the $1.4 billion Destiny laboratory, and should have returned to Earth on Sunday.

But the crosswind at the landing strip was well above the 17-mph safety limit, a situation that recurred on Monday. Not only that, thick clouds began moving in on Monday and NASA worried they might bring rain.

The last time Cockrell flew in space, the mission dragged on for almost 18 days because of landing delays and turned out to be the longest shuttle flight ever. Atlantis astronaut Thomas Jones was also on that 1996 mission.

``The rest of the crew wanted me to pass on that I already have the endurance record,'' Cockrell joked to Mission Control as the weather deteriorated. ``So there's no need to try for that this time.''

Mission Control replied: ``We'll do our best to get you back as well before you exceed that 18-day record you've already set.''

Meteorologists expected good weather, finally, at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. The other two options were Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands, N.M., as a last resort. A space shuttle has landed only once at White Sands, way back in 1982.

Flight director Leroy Cain said he would not consider White Sands ``unless it was the only place that we were able to land in the end game.''

Atlantis and its astronauts has enough fuel, water, air purifiers and other supplies to remain aloft until Wednesday, Cain said.

``The weather is a very tricky thing to deal with, it's not an exact science,'' Cain said. But he promised: ``We'll find a landing site (Tuesday) where we're confident that we can perform a safe landing.''

Until all the landing delays, the mission had gone off without a hitch to the pleasant surprise of both the astronauts and ground controllers. The spectacular sunset launch on Feb. 7 was followed by a flawless linkup with the space station two days later and the eventual installation of the Destiny laboratory.

It took three spacewalks and the assistance of the both the shuttle and station crews to install the lab module.

After the previous week's hectic pace, the astronauts had little to do Monday except use up their last few rolls of film, exercise on a stationary cycle and wait to come home.

--------

Lasers could one day propel spacecraft

02/16/2001
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/stuffworks/2001-02-16-light-propel.htm

More than 20 years ago, the United States began to develop a missile defense system that was given the nickname "Star Wars." This system was designed to track and use lasers to shoot down missiles launched by foreign countries. While this system was designed for war, researchers have found many other uses for these high-powered lasers. In fact, lasers could one day be used to propel spacecraft into orbit and to other planets.

To reach space, we currently use the space shuttle, which has to carry tons of fuel and have two massive rocket boosters strapped to it to lift off the ground. Lasers would allow engineers to develop lighter spacecraft that wouldn't need an onboard energy source. The lightcraft vehicle itself would act as the engine, and light - one of the universe's most abundant power sources - would be the fuel.

The basic idea behind light propulsion is the use of ground-based lasers to heat air to the point that it explodes, propelling the spacecraft forward. If it works, light propulsion will be thousands of times lighter and more efficient than chemical rocket engines, and will produce zero pollution. In this edition of How Stuff WILL Work, we'll take a look at two versions of this advanced propulsion system -- one may take us from the Earth to the moon in just five and a half hours, and the other could take us on a tour of the solar system on "highways of light."

Laser-propelled Lightcraft

Light-propelled rockets sound like something out of science fiction -- spacecraft that ride on a laser beam into space, require little or no onboard propellant and create no pollution. Sounds pretty far-fetched, considering we haven't been able to develop anything close to that for conventional ground- or air-travel on Earth. But while it may still be 15 to 30 years away, the principles behind the lightcraft have already been successfully tested several times. A company called Lightcraft Technologies continues to refine the research that began at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

The basic idea for the lightcraft is simple -- the acorn-shaped craft uses mirrors to receive and focus the incoming laser beam to heat air, which explodes to propel the craft. Here's a look at the basic components of this revolutionary propulsion system:

Carbon-dioxide laser - Lightcraft Technologies uses a Pulsed Laser Vulnerability Test System (PLVTS), an offspring of the Star Wars defense program. The 10 kw pulsed laser being used for the experimental lightcraft is among the most powerful in the world. Parabolic mirror - The bottom of the spacecraft is a mirror that focuses the laser beam into the engine air or onboard propellant. A secondary, ground-based transmitter, telescope-like mirror is used to direct the laser beam onto the lightcraft. Absorption chamber - The inlet air is directed into this chamber where it is heated by the beam, expands and propels the lightcraft. Onboard hydrogen - A small amount of hydrogen propellant is needed for rocket thrust when the atmosphere is too thin to provide enough air.

Prior to liftoff, a jet of compressed air is used to spin the lightcraft to about 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPMs). The spin is needed to stabilize the craft gyroscopically. Think about football: a quarterback applies spin when passing a football to throw a more accurate pass. When spin is applied to this extremely lightweight craft, it allows the craft to cut through the air with more stability.

Once the lightcraft is spinning at an optimal speed, the laser is turned on, blasting the lightcraft into the air. The 10-kilowatt laser pulses at a rate of 25-28 times per second. By pulsing, the laser continues to push the craft upward. The light beam is focused by the parabolic mirror on the bottom of the lightcraft, which heats the air to between 18,000 and 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (9,982 and 29,982 degrees Celsius) -- that's several times hotter than the surface of the sun. When you heat air to these high temperatures, it is converted to a plasma state -- this plasma then explodes to propel the craft upward.

Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., with FINDS sponsorship - earlier flights were funded by NASA and the U.S. Air Force - has tested a small prototype lightcraft several times at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. In October 2000, the miniature lightcraft, which has a diameter of 4.8 inches (12.2 cm) and weighs only 1.76 ounces (50 grams), achieved an altitude of 233 feet (71 meters). Sometime in 2001, Lightcraft Technologies hopes to send the lightcraft prototype up to an altitude of about 500 feet. A 1-megawatt laser will be needed to put a one-kilogram satellite in low earth orbit. Although the model is made of aircraft-grade aluminum, the final, full-size lightcraft will probably be built out of silicon carbide.

This laser lightcraft could also use mirrors, located in the craft, to project some of the beamed energy ahead of the ship. The heat from the laser beam would create an air spike that would divert some of the air past the ship, thus decreasing drag and reducing the amount of heat absorbed by the lightcraft.

Microwave-propelled Lightcraft

Another propulsion system being considered for a different class of lightcraft involves the use of microwaves. Microwave energy is cheaper than laser energy, and easier to scale to higher powers, but it would require a ship that has a larger diameter. Lightcraft being designed for this propulsion would look more like flying saucers (now we're really heading into the realm of science fiction). This technology will take more years to develop than the laser-propelled lightcraft, but it could take us to the outer planets. Developers also envision thousands of these lightcraft, powered by a fleet of orbiting power stations, that will replace conventional airline travel.

A microwave-powered lightcraft will also utilize a power source that is not integrated into the ship. With the laser-powered propulsion system, the power source is ground-based. The microwave propulsion system will flip that around. The microwave-propelled spacecraft will rely on power beamed down from orbiting, solar power stations. Instead of being propelled away from its energy source, the energy source will draw the lightcraft in.

Before this microwave lightcraft can fly, scientists will have to put into orbit a solar power station with a diameter of 1 kilometer (0.62 miles). Leik Myrabo, who leads the lightcraft research, believes that such a power station could generate up to 20 gigawatts of power. Orbiting 310 miles (500 km) above Earth, this power station would beam down microwave energy to a 66-foot (20-meter), disk-shaped lightcraft that would be capable of carrying 12 people. Millions of tiny antennae covering the top of the craft would convert the microwaves into electricity. In just two orbits, the power station would be able to collect 1,800 gigajoules of energy and beam down 4.3 gigawatts of power to the lightcraft for the ride to orbit.

The microwave lightcraft would be equipped with two powerful magnets and three types of propulsion engines. Solar cells, covering the top of the ship, would be used by the lightcraft at launch to produce electricity. The electricity would then ionize the air and propel the craft for picking up passengers. Once it's launched, the microwave lightcraft used its internal reflector to heat the air around it and push through the sound barrier.

Once in a high altitude, it would tilt sideways for hypersonic speeds. Half of the microwave power could then be reflected in front of the ship to heat the air and create an air spike, allowing the ship to cut through the air at up to 25 times the speed of sound and fly into orbit. The craft's top speed peaks at around 50 times the speed of sound. The other half of the microwave power is converted into electricity by the craft's receiving antennae, and used to energize its two electromagnetic engines. These engines then accelerate the slip stream, or the air flowing around the craft. By accelerating the slip stream the craft is able to cancel out any sonic boom, which makes the lightcraft completely silent at supersonic speeds.

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

Sub Commander Refuses Questioning

FEBRUARY 19
Associated Press
By JAYMES SONG
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7A8QVB80

HONOLULU (AP) - The commander of the U.S. submarine that sank a Japanese fishing vessel has refused to discuss the accident with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board until the Navy completes its investigation, officials said on Monday.

NTSB investigators met with Cmdr. Scott Waddle over the weekend when he told them his lawyer recommended he only respond to written questions from the NTSB for the time being and only about search and rescue efforts, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewiscz said.

Waddle's information could be crucial to the NTSB effort to determine how the USS Greeneville failed to detect the 190-foot Ehime Maru before it conducted an emergency rapid-ascent drill nine miles south of Diamond Head on Feb. 9.

The Ehime Maru, a commercial fishing training vessel, was headed toward fishing grounds 300 miles southeast of Oahu when the Greeneville crashed into it. The submarine tore through the hull of the ship, sinking it within minutes. The vessel was found by underwater probes Friday night in 2,000 feet of water.

The ship was on a two-month training trip with students from a Japanese high school. Twenty-six people were rescued but nine have not been found - three crewmen, two teachers and four students.

The Navy announced Saturday it would conduct a court of inquiry - its highest-level administrative investigation - to focus on the actions of the Greeneville's three top officers: Waddle; its executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, and the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.

Three admirals will oversee the hearing, which could lead to courts-martial, said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. The board is scheduled to convene Thursday.

The hearing is expected to examine the presence of 16 civilian guests on the submarine, two of whom, supervised by crew members, were at key controls when the Greeneville made its rapid ascent. One pulled the levers that initiated the drill.

On Monday, the Navy and Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing.

``At this point, it's going to go on indefinitely,'' said Coast Guard spokesman Eric Hedaa. ``We have no plans to discontinue the search.''

A deep-sea robot was also combing the ocean floor to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 500-ton Ehime Maru. Japanese officials and families of the missing are pressing the United States to salvage the ship if that is the only way to recover bodies that may be entombed in its hull.

---

U.S. Navy releases VIP list from sub

February 19, 2001
WASHINGTON TIMES
By Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200121923634.htm

The Navy has released the names of the 16 civilians on board the submarine USS Greeneville on Feb. 9 when it rammed and sank a Japanese fishing trawler, saying the group was part of a long-standing program to promote the Navy to the public.

The VIP list includes only the guests' names and hometowns. Most of the civilians on the Greeneville were associated with the USS Missouri Memorial Association, a private group raising $25 million to restore the mothballed battleship and open it to the public in Honolulu.

As the Navy for one week declined to release the visitors' names until late Saturday night, rumors swirled in Washington that some had been financial contributors to the campaign of President Bush. His spokesman vehemently denied it was selling seats on the Greeneville in the way the Clinton administration allowed wealthy donors to stay in the White House Lincoln bedroom.

A check by The Washington Times yesterday of federal campaign records showed none of the 16 listed as federal campaign contributors to Mr. Bush..

Their common link appears to be as boosters of the Missouri project. Most guests were brought to the Navy's attention by retired Adm. Richard Macke, who lives in Honolulu and once commanded all the U.S. forces in the Pacific. Adm. Macke, a volunteer for the association, submitted a list of names to the Pacific Fleet for a one-day trip on a U.S. submarine. Most of the 16 civilians were selected from that list, Navy officials say.

"There is nothing fishy here," said Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, Pacific Fleet spokesman. "If influential people - business leaders -spread the word about the Navy, that's the kind of target audience you are looking for in our business. The news media is one of the top people we take because they reach the right people."

The list of 16 VIP guests included seven married couples. The Navy describes them all as business leaders from Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Hawaii and Massachusetts. Phone messages left for the people matching the listed names and hometowns were not returned yesterday.

The Navy said it had withheld the names pending the completion of a confidential preliminary inquiry. Now that that investigation is complete and the Navy has opted to conduct a public court of inquiry into the accident, the Pacific Fleet said the names were allowed to be released.

The inquiry, which will be presided over by three admirals, could result in court-martial proceedings against the Greeneville's captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle; its executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer; and the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen. Some of the civilians likely will be called as witnesses, Navy officials said.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on ABC's "This Week" yesterday that a congressional investigation should follow the military inquiry, which he praised.

"The seriousness of this accident and the tragedy involved requires that there be this kind of a very thorough, very high-level and -perhaps most important - very open hearing," Mr. Levin said. "I think this hopefully will give the Japanese some confidence as to just how seriously we take this tragedy."

The civilians' presence on the Greeneville received heightened scrutiny after the Navy belatedly acknowledged last week that two guests, although supervised, were at control stations when the submarine rammed the trawler Ehime Maru. Nine passengers, including students and crewmen, are missing and presumed dead. The Navy located the wreckage Friday night more than 2,000 feet below the surface off the Hawaii coast.

One VIP, supervised by a control room "watch man," sat at the helmsman's station, which controls the sub's direction. The other, guided by another crew member, activated the ship's main ballast switches which sent the Greeneville rushing to the surface from 400 feet in a drill called an "emergency blow."

In a statement issued yesterday, two of the civilians aboard the Greeneville, Michael and Susan Nolan of Honolulu, expressed their sorrow over the incident and said they did not believe it was caused by neglect or carelessness.

"We very deeply regret the loss of life resulting from the accident and extend our most sincere sympathy and heartfelt aloha to the survivors of the accident and to the families and friends who have missing loved ones," the statement said.

The Nolans also defended the Greeneville crew against criticism that crew members did not take survivors aboard.

The Nolans said, "They were frantic in their efforts to lend help immediately upon the collision and were prepared to lend all available assistance to help the people from the Ehime Maru. These are compassionate people, from the captain and his officers throughout the entire crew . . ."

The Navy has suspended the practice of having civilians on board during emergency surfacing drills or letting them sit at control stations at any time. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week no evidence has surfaced that the visitors' presence contributed to the accident.

Investigators are focusing on why the attack submarine's crew failed to detect the nearby fishing vessel. The Greeneville is equipped with passive sonar to detect ship noise. An eyewitness said Cmdr. Waddle and another crew member conducted two periscope sweeps at a 60-foot depth minutes before the sub submerged to 400 feet and then executed the blow.

Ex-submariners, based on reports the Ehime Maru was traveling at about 12 knots and that the Greeneville submerged for only four minutes, said the trawler could have been within a mile of the sub during the periscope scan. A periscope can see as far as 10 miles, they say.

This has led them to believe that perhaps the scope was not extended high enough, and the ship was lost in haze or waves.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleet commander, announced the court of inquiry on Saturday at a press conference at Pearl Harbor, saying the proceeding could begin as early as Thursday. He said the blow was more for the benefit of the VIPs on board than for reasons of training or to check out equipment.

"I believe it was a demonstration," he said.

The admiral added, "The seriousness in which I view this tragic accident is reflected in the level of the investigation and the seniority of the court members. They will provide a full and open accounting to both the American and the Japanese people."

The court of inquiry is headed by Vice Adm. John B. Natham, commander of all Navy Pacific air forces. The other members are Rear Adm. Paul F. Sullivan, a career submariner, and Rear Adm. David M. Stone, commander of a surface ship group.

In other developments, the Navy's efforts to scan the wreckage of the Japanese trawler were set back yesterday when a deep-sea robot was removed from the sea for repairs. The Navy is using the robot to evaluate the feasibility of raising the Ehime Maru.

--------

Marines Cut Osprey Tests

February 19, 2001
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Osprey-Report.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Marine Corps cut tests of the V-22 Osprey aircraft that could have provided additional data on rapid descents that contributed to a crash that killed 19 Marines in April, says a new report by the General Accounting Office.

The GAO account, reported in The Washington Post Monday, said the tests were omitted to save time and money.

The report, which has not been publicly released, also says the Marines were warned about problems with the aircraft's hydraulics system. Military investigators now believe a frayed hydraulics line was a key factor in a second Osprey crash in December in which four more Marines died.

The GAO review raised questions about both the safety and reliability of the Osprey and on the thoroughness of Marine Corps testing of the aircraft. The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but can fly like an airplane if its rotors are tilted forward, is described by the Marine Corps as the best replacement for its Vietnam-era helicopters.

The Marines claim the Osprey will fly much faster and farther and carry more troops and equipment than the aging choppers.

The GAO review challenges many of the assertions. Not enough was known about the Osprey's design and performance before production started, the review contends, and test restrictions and waivers reduced the chance to gain a realistic view of the Osprey's mettle for combat, rescue missions or aid flights.

The report said the Osprey's cabin might be too small to carry 24 Marines equipped for combat. It said that 15 to 18 combat Marines ``may be the limit.'' If that criticism is true, it would tend to undercut one reason the Marines cite for favoring the Osprey over helicopters such as the UH-60 Black Hawk, which is designed to carry 11 combat-loaded troops.

The GAO prepared its review for a panel convened by the Pentagon to assess the Osprey program after the two most recent crashes: one in April in Marana, Ariz., that killed 19 Marines and a December crash near New River, N.C., that killed four and grounded all Ospreys.

In addition to the panel's continuing inquiry, there is a nearly completed investigation into the causes of the December crash.

A separate investigation is being conducted into allegations a senior officer in a North Carolina squadron ordered crews to falsify maintenance records to improve the aircraft's performance rating.

The Marines have bought 10 production-level V-22s, manufactured as the Corps and its industry partners -- Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth and Boeing Helicopters of Ridley Township, Pa. -- sought approval from the Pentagon for a full acquisition.

The Marines planned to buy 360 Ospreys at an estimated cost of $57 million apiece. A decision on whether to move to full-scale production was set for December but was delayed after the North Carolina crash and now awaits results of the Pentagon panel's review.

----------

Iraq Seeks Anti - U.S. Arab Protests; NATO Split

February 19, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iraq-le.html?pagewanted=all

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi's parliament appealed on Monday to Arab people to demonstrate their outrage at U.S. and British air raids near Baghdad when Secretary of State Colin Powell starts his first Middle East tour.

``Let February 24 be a day to protest a visit by Colin Powell to a number of Arab capitals...and express, by all means, anger at the crimes committed against the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples,'' Iraqi National Assembly speaker Saadoun Hammadi said in letters to Arab parliaments.

Powell will have a chance to gauge dwindling Arab support for U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq when he visits Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

A split among NATO members over last Friday's bombing of air defense installations on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital deepened Monday. France condemned the action as illegal while Germany withheld public support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement outlining a telephone conversation with French President Jacques Chirac, said the air strikes were counter-productive to efforts to resolve Baghdad's standoff with the West on weapons' inspections.

``During an exchange of views on the Iraq situation, the closeness of Russia's and France's positions was confirmed in assessing the recent air strikes...as counter-productive for the process of a political settlement,'' the statement said.

As Israel and the United States began a Patriot missile exercise in a stark reminder of the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi media vowed revenge against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for abetting the latest attacks, launched from their air bases.

ISRAELIS LINE UP FOR GAS MASKS

Fear of the threatening tone from Baghdad prompted several hundred Israelis to line up for new gas masks Monday.

``There is double or triple the number of people, but...I don't think it is hysteria -- They are people using the proper intuition. They hear the news and come to the distribution centers,'' said Colonel Golan Gilad, head of the Protective Gear Administration of the Israeli army's Home Front.

About 20,000 Iraqis staged a second day of protest marches in Baghdad organized by the ruling Baath party against the first air raids around the Iraqi capital since 1998.

Demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags and waved portraits of President Saddam Hussein and Palestinian flags.

The United States and Britain said the raids were a limited action against five sites which had threatened pilots enforcing Western-declared no-fly zones to protect a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq and Shi'ite Muslim civilians in southern Iraq.

``The threat is real. Saddam is trying to kill our aircrew,'' British junior defense minister Baroness Symons told parliament. ``We are confident that the mission degraded the Iraqi air defense system and reduced the threat to coalition pilots.''

The Russian parliament is to debate a non-binding motion on Wednesday urging Putin to lift sanctions against Iraq unilaterally amid rising anti-Western sentiment in Moscow exacerbated by Friday's bombing.

But Russia said it had no immediate plans to protest against U.S. and British air raids against Iraq at the U.N. Security Council, noting they could veto any such move.

Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky arrived in Baghdad Monday to show solidarity with Iraq. ``We will do our best to influence the Russian government not only to denounce the aggression, but also to lift the sanctions,'' he told reporters through an interpreter.

OIL PRICES RISE SHARPLY

Heightened Middle East tensions pushed up oil prices sharply Monday, traders said. London Brent crude futures leapt 70 cents in early trade but fell back to $27.18. Industry sources said Iraqi oil exports were continuing as normal.

Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine of NATO-member France said on television there was ``no legal basis for this type of bombardment.''

``This action, as far as I am aware, is approved by hardly anyone. Only Canada and Poland, but I don't know why,'' he said. ''All other countries have expressed their disapproval, criticism, doubt and disquiet, as we have done, because we do not see the point of this action.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder declined to either back or condemn the bombing but said his foreign minister would discuss during talks this week in Washington how to prevent ''solidarisation of the Arab masses'' with Saddam.

Iraqi newspapers said Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were partly to blame for the bombing.

``We are not hiding that we are determined to retaliate against the rulers of tyranny, distress and treachery in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,'' the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya said.

``They know what we can do at the moment that God chooses as the right time,'' the paper said in a front-page editorial.

Iraq said two civilians were killed and 20 wounded in the strike. U.S. and British planes resumed patrols over southern Iraq Saturday and Sunday, and over northern Iraq Monday.

In what they insisted was a pure coincidence, Israeli and U.S. troops began a joint exercise Monday to test Patriot air defense missiles, used to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles fired at the Jewish state during the 1991 Gulf War.

The Israeli army said the war games in the southern Israeli desert had nothing to do with the U.S.-British strikes, nor with next week's 10th anniversary of the end of the war, fought to drive Iraqi invasion forces from Kuwait.

The U.S. and British bombing drew sharp condemnation from the Arab League, including former Gulf War allies Egypt and Syria, as well as U.N. Security Council powers Russia and China.

--------

Sub chief declines NTSB inquiry

02/19/2001
USA TODAY
By Martin Kasindorf
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-02-19-subchief.htm

HONOLULU - The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that Cmdr. Scott Waddle, the USS Greeneville's commander, has declined to be interviewed for its investigation into the submarine's collision with a Japanese fishing vessel .

NTSB investigators met with Cmdr. Scott Waddle over the weekend when he told them his lawyer recommended he only respond to written questions from the NTSB for the time being and only about search and rescue efforts, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewiscz said.

Waddle's information could be crucial to the NTSB effort to determine how the USS Greeneville failed to detect the 190-foot Ehime Maru before it conducted an emergency rapid-ascent drill nine miles south of Diamond Head on Feb. 9.

The Ehime Maru, a commercial fishing training vessel, was headed toward fishing grounds 300 miles southeast of Oahu when the Greeneville crashed into it. The submarine tore through the hull of the ship, sinking it within minutes. The vessel was found by underwater probes Friday night in 2,000 feet of water.

The ship was on a two-month training trip with students from a Japanese high school. Twenty-six people were rescued but nine have not been found - three crewmen, two teachers and four students.

The Navy announced Saturday it would conduct a court of inquiry - its highest-level administrative investigation - to focus on the actions of the Greeneville's three top officers: Waddle; its executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, and the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.

Three admirals will oversee the hearing, which could lead to courts-martial, said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. The board is scheduled to convene Thursday.

The hearing is expected to examine the presence of 16 civilian guests on the submarine, two of whom, supervised by crew members, were at key controls when the Greeneville made its rapid ascent. One pulled the levers that initiated the drill.

On Monday, the Navy and Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing.

"At this point, it's going to go on indefinitely," said Coast Guard spokesman Eric Hedaa. "We have no plans to discontinue the search."

A deep-sea robot was also combing the ocean floor to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 500-ton Ehime Maru. Japanese officials and families of the missing are pressing the United States to salvage the ship if that is the only way to recover bodies that may be entombed in its hull.

The Navy, meanwhile, isn't promising to raise the Ehime Maru. "The U.S. Navy has never raised a vessel of this size, so it is an immense task ," said Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a Navy spokeswoman.

The Navy continued preparations for the public trial scheduled at the Trial Services Building on the Pearl Harbor naval base. TV networks from the United States and Japan are "clamoring" for televised proceedings, but that probably will not be allowed, said Lt. Philip Rosi, a Pacific Fleet spokesman. Military guidelines say cameras are not allowed in courtrooms.

Still, to soothe Japanese sensibilities, the Navy had P-3C Orion planes fly over the waters off Oahu and the Coast Guard cutter Kittiwake continued its search for nine people aboard the ship who have been missing since the collision Feb. 9.

Japanese officials in Hawaii said that some family members have asked the Japanese consulate to get them seats at the court of inquiry, and the Navy has said it will try to accommodate them.

Also, they want an apology, preferably from Waddle. Other Navy officers have visited the family members at a hotel here and have apologized, but the families still want to hear from Waddle, a spokesman for the families said.

---

Nebraska

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Offutt Air Force Base - The base will take bids this month on 1,459 jobs now held by military and government workers. The goal is to see if private contractors can do the same work for less money. Boeing Services Co. is among the businesses expected to make bids against the government's own bid on a contract that could run into hundreds of millions of dollars, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Arizona

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Mesa - Four lawmakers are among the 5,000 people qualifying for state rebates on alternative-fuel vehicles. The subsidy program, which offered financial benefits to buyers of alternative-fuel vehicles, stood to cost Arizona $680 million before lawmakers reined it in last year. The state hopes those changes will cut the costs to about $200 million. Most people canceled their vehicle orders after the Legislature changed the rules.

Minnesota

St. Paul - Lawmakers are considering several options to solve an expected energy shortfall five years from now. They are keeping an eye on Texas, whose ongoing plan to deregulate its electricity market has led to the building of new power plants. Another option is a plan to encourage conservation and the use of renewable energy.

---

Farmers tap wind, solar energy

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

DENVER (AP) - The windmills scattered throughout the rolling hills and grassy expanses of the Great Plains are proof that farmers and ranchers were some of the original users of renewable energy. That changed when government-backed rural electric associations began extending utility lines to outlying areas in the 1930s. Wind-driven turbines that powered water pumps and farmhouse appliances were phased out. Many of the old windmills still stand, however, and farmers and ranchers are looking to the past to combat the growing cost of natural gas and stringing power lines to rural areas. The new turbines are sleek, high-tech structures that look like giant, stripped-down pinwheels.

The high cost of electrifying rural areas is boosting interest in renewable energy among farmers and ranchers, experts say. The cattle-auction arena was filled as Thornton and co-workers Byron Stafford and Trudy Forsyth discussed wind turbines, photovoltaic systems and kilowatts. About 500 people attended the three stock show forums, for which the three employees volunteered their time.

-------- biological weapons

Maryland

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Frederick - A $4.9 million cleanup is planned at Fort Detrick, home of the U.S. military's leading laboratory for biological warfare. The effort comes nine years after potentially carcinogenic chemicals were found in wells providing water to nearby homes and businesses. Army officials believe buried containers there are a major source of groundwater contamination.

-------- environment

Global warming risks outlined

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

GENEVA (AP) - Poor countries and above all small island states, will be hardest hit by global warming, while melting ice caps and other changes in polar regions likely will continue for centuries, a new U.N. report says. Even though the United States as a whole is less vulnerable, areas such as Florida are at great risk from rising sea levels, according to an initial draft of the report.

Government experts on Sunday finalized the report with results of extensive investigation into how global warming will affect different countries and regions of the world. The report, summarizing more than 1,000 pages of research conducted by some 700 scientists, was to be published Monday. Given the political sensitivities of the climate debate, the report was subject to line-by-line scrutiny by government representatives during weeklong discussions prior to release. The Geneva report, "Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," is one of a series of three. A report released last month in Shanghai, China, predicted that global temperatures could rise by as much as 10.5 degrees over the next century. It said the increase was much higher than expected and there was clear evidence that industrial pollution was to blame. The third volume, on solutions, will be released in March.

For years now, scientists have been warning that global warming is likely to lead to an increase in freak weather conditions, with more floods, cyclones and droughts. They have predicted an upsurge in mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria and extinction of plant and animal species because of habitat destruction.

What is significant about the new reports, however, is the degree of certainty about the extent of global warming and its impact.

---

Microbes may live in Antarctic lake

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Buried under thousands of feet of ice in the Antarctic are a series of fresh water lakes unexposed to the open air for millions of years but possibly holding a thriving community of microbes, scientists say. Researchers probing beneath the permanent ice shield around the South Pole have located at least 76 lakes, including one that is about 5,400 square miles, comparable to Lake Ontario. Lake Vostok, the largest of the polar lakes, lies beneath more than two miles of ice and is thought to have a liquid pool with a depth of about 3,000 feet. Researchers said a thick blanket of ice has sealed the lake's waters from the open air for perhaps 20 million years. Water remains liquid in Lake Vostok because the thick ice blanket on its surface insulates against the 60-degree below zero air temperature of the polar region and traps heat that flows up from the Earth. The heat is enough to keep the lake waters from freezing.

Researchers said the lake's waters are thought to contain an exotic community of microbes that reached the lake through a 500,000-year process that slowly carries ice from the surface to the waters below.

Ice samples extracted from drill holes punched more than two miles through the frozen shield atop the lake contain microbes that are able to survive in a dormant, frozen state for thousands of years. The same type of one-cell animals are thought to live in the lake.

---

Scientists call for ocean parks

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A worldwide network of no-fishing zones may be the last, best hope of replenishing the Earth's depleted stocks of fish and other marine species, an international team of scientists reports. Fish, lobster and other species recover in only a few years given sanctuaries free of the hooks and nets of commercial and sports fishermen, the researchers say. In a report released Saturday, they urged creation of the network of marine parks where all sea animals and plants would be protected. Just as national parks provide safe haven for threatened animals on land, marine parks could be the salvation for vanishing ocean life, the study said.

Overfishing, pushed by a hungry world's demand for seafood, has moved species of fish toward extinction, the scientists said, and permanent marine parks may be the only answer to save them. In heavily exploited waters, the fish simply cannot repopulate fast enough to keep up with the harvest. Marine parks would give them a chance, the scientists said.

Today, less than 1% of the world's waters are protected in marine reserves. But the study showed that even these limited areas have had a dramatic effect on the recovery of sea life recovery.

---

Giant salamanders lurk in Japan

SASAYAMA, Japan (AP) - It's big and slimy, with bulbous fingertips and a fat, flipper-like tail. It hides under rocks during the day and comes out to feed at night, sucking anything that passes into its wide, wart-studded mouth. Lurking in the shallows of its river habitat, the giant salamander looks like something that slithered out of a science fiction movie. But this beast is a survivor from an ancient era, one of the world's largest amphibians at up to 5 feet long and a sovereign predator in the Asian waterways where it spends its entire life.

For scientists, this primitive salamander found only in Japan and China, with a close but smaller relative in North America, is a key to understanding the roots of the Earth's biodiversity.

But even though it is protected from hunting and capture by Japanese law, the giant salamander's days may be numbered - experts say the damming of many Japanese rivers has destroyed the rocky caverns and burrows where this salamander lays its strings of translucent eggs.

And many fishermen would prefer to see them go. Fishermen in one of the salamander's last remaining habitats recently made headlines with complaints that the animal's unfettered breeding is cutting into the local population of sweetfish, a small fish prized by both people and salamander.

---

Scientists study sea lion decline

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - Kate Wynne peers through an illuminated magnifying glass at the bits of digested salmon bones, gills, teeth and shrimp shells extracted from a pile of Steller sea lion dung. The sample provides a snapshot of what one sea lion chose to eat on one particular winter day from what was available in the waters around Kodiak. "There's a pretty big difference, both regionally and seasonally, in what they're eating," said Wynne, a marine mammal biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In the lab at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, Wynne is studying the diet of the endangered animals in hopes of finding clues to their dwindling numbers. One day each month, armed with a trowel and plastic bags, she visits rocky sea lion haulouts around Kodiak Island, carefully collecting the dung after shooing the big animals into the water. By collecting and carefully analyzing hundreds of samples, Wynne hopes to develop a better understanding of the sea lion's relationship to other species in the ecosystem. Wynne's dietary study is one of dozens of projects probing the mystery of the sea lion's decline.

Over the last three decades, the Steller sea lion population in the Bering Sea and western Gulf of Alaska has declined by about 80 percent. The animals now number about 33,600.

Steller sea lion studies, including Wynne's, are getting a huge boost with $43 million in federal research funds contained in the fiscal 2001 budget. That's 10 times the amount allocated only a year before.

---

Report shows global warming risks

2/19/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

GENEVA (AP) - Melting ice caps in polar regions could unleash climate changes that would continue for centuries, according to a U.N. report released Monday. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said poor countries would bear the brunt of devastating changes as a result of global warming. But it warned that the rich wouldn't be immune, with Florida and parts of the American Atlantic coast likely to be lashed by storms and rising sea levels.

Scientists meeting separately at a conference in San Francisco on Sunday said the melting of equatorial glaciers in Africa and Peru are another powerful indication of global warming.

Monday's Geneva report was a summary of 1,000 pages of research into "Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," conducted by some 700 scientists. Given the political sensitivities of the climate debate, the 19-page summary was subject to line-by-line scrutiny by government representatives during weeklong discussions prior to release.

---

Glacier Loss Seen as Clear Sign of Human Role in Global Warming

February 19, 2001
New York Times
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/science/19MELT.html?pagewanted=all

The icecap atop Mount Kilimanjaro, which for thousands of years has floated like a cool beacon over the shimmering plain of Tanzania, is retreating at such a pace that it will disappear in less than 15 years, according to new studies.

The vanishing of the seemingly perpetual snows of Kilimanjaro that inspired Ernest Hemingway, echoed by similar trends on ice-capped peaks from Peru to Tibet, is one of the clearest signs that a global warming trend in the last 50 years may have exceeded typical climate shifts and is at least partly caused by gases released by human activities, a variety of scientists say.

Measurements taken over the last year on Kilimanjaro show that its glaciers are not only retreating but also rapidly thinning, with one spot having lost a yard of thickness since last February, said Dr. Lonnie G. Thompson, a senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State University.

Altogether, he said, the mountain has lost 82 percent of the icecap it had when it was first carefully surveyed, in 1912.

Given that the retreat started a century ago, Dr. Thompson said, it is likely that some natural changes were affecting the glacier before it felt any effect from the large, recent rise in carbon dioxide and other heat- trapping greenhouse gases from smokestacks and tailpipes. And, he noted, glaciers have grown and retreated in pulses for tens of thousands of years.

But the pace of change measured now goes beyond anything in recent centuries.

"There may be a natural part of it, but there's something else being superimposed on top of it," Dr. Thompson said. "And it matches so many other lines of evidence of warming. Whether you're talking about bore- hole temperatures, shrinking Arctic sea ice, or glaciers, they're telling the same story."

Dr. Thompson presented the fresh data yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Other recent reports of changes under way in the natural world, like gaps in sea ice at the North Pole or shifts in animal populations, can still be ascribed to other factors, many scientists say, but many add that having such a rapid erosion of glaciers in so many places is harder to explain except by global warming.

The retreat of mountain glaciers has been seen from Montana to Mount Everest to the Swiss Alps. In the Alps, scientists have estimated that by 2025 glaciers will have lost 90 percent of the volume of ice that was there a century ago. (Only Scandinavia seems to be bucking the trend, apparently because shifting storm tracks in Europe are dumping more snow there.)

But the melting is generally quickest in and near the tropics, Dr. Thompson said, with some ancient glaciers in the Andes - and the ice on Kilimanjaro - melting fastest of all.

Separate studies of air temperature in the tropics, made using high- flying balloons, have shown a steady rise of about 15 feet a year in the altitude at which air routinely stays below the freezing point. Dr. Thompson said that other changes could also be contributing to the glacial shrinkage, but the rising warm zone is probably the biggest influence.

Trying to stay ahead of the widespread melting, Dr. Thompson and a team of scientists have been hurriedly traveling around the tropics to extract cores of ice from a variety of glaciers containing a record of thousands of years of climate shifts. The data may help predict future trends.

The four-inch-thick ice cylinders are being stored in a deep-frozen archive at Ohio State, he said, so that as new technologies are developed for reading chemical clues in bubbles and water in ancient ice, there will still be something to examine.

The sad fact, he said, is that in a matter of years, anyone wanting to study the glaciers of Africa or Peru will probably have to travel to Columbus, Ohio, to do so.

Dr. Richard B. Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, said the melting trend and the link - at least partly - to human influence is "depressing," not only because of the loss of data but also because of the remarkable changes under way to such familiar landscapes.

"What is a snowcap worth to us?" he said. "I don't know about you, but I like the snows of Kilimanjaro."

The accelerating loss of mountain glaciers is also described in a scientific report on the impact of global warming, which is being released today in Geneva by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an influential network of scientists advising world governments under the auspices of the United Nations. The melting is likely to threaten water supplies in places like Peru and Nepal, the report says, and could also lead to devastating flash floods.

Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa, may provide the most vivid image of the change in glaciers, but, Dr. Thompson said, the rate of retreat is far faster along the spine of the Andes, and the consequences more significant. For 25 years, he has been tracking a particular Peruvian glacier, Qori Kalis, where the pace of shrinkage has accelerated enormously just in the last three years.

From 1998 to 2000, the glacier pulled back 508 feet a year, he said. "That's 33 times faster than the rate in the first measurement period," he said, referring to a study from 1963 to 1978.

In the short run, this means the hydroelectric dams and reservoirs downstream will be flush with water, he said, but in the long run the source will run dry.

"The whole country right now, for its hydropower, is cashing in on a bank account that was built up over thousands of years but isn't being replenished," he said.

Once that is gone, he added, chances are that the communities will have to turn to oil or coal for power, adding even more greenhouse gases to the air.

The changes in the character of Kilimanjaro are registering beyond the ranks of climate scientists. People in the tourism business around the mountain and surrounding national park are worried that visitors will no longer be drawn to the peak once it has lost its glimmering cap.

Dr. Douglas R. Hardy, a geologist at the University of Massachusetts, returned from Kilimanjaro last Thursday with the first yearlong record of weather data collected by a probe placed near the summit.

Just before he left, he had a long conversation with the chief ranger of Kilimanjaro National Park, who expressed deep concern about the trend. "That mountain is the most mystical, magical draw to people's imagination," Dr. Hardy said. "Once the ice disappears, it's going to be a very different place."

And the melting continues. When Dr. Hardy climbed the mountain to retrieve the data, he discovered that the weather instruments, erected on a tall pole, had fallen over because the ice around the base was gone.

---

U.N. study: Global warming is evident now

02/19/2001
USA TODAY
By Traci Watson
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2001-02-19-unreport.htm

Global warming is already having clear effects on animals, birds, glaciers and other features of the natural world, says a report out today from a U.N.-sponsored panel of scientists and other technical experts.

The evidence shows "there is high confidence" that the recent rise in the Earth's temperature has had "discernable impacts on many physical and biological systems," the scientists wrote. "High confidence" means there's a 67% to 95% chance the statement is true.

The report is the second of three being made this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The first, "Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis" was released on Jan. 22. The latest report is entitled, "Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability." The third report, "Mitigation of Climate Change," is due later this year. Full texts of the two reports issued thus far are available via the link above to "IPCC full reports on climate change."

Changes in the latest report noted in the USA:

Tree swallows are building nests earlier in the year. A western species of butterfly is moving farther up the West Coast and higher up mountainsides. Flowers in Wisconsin are budding earlier in the spring.

As the planet warms even more, the report says, humans, too, are likely to feel the heat. Countries in southern Africa are likely to have even less fresh water. Farming in the Midwestern USA will probably suffer. Higher sea levels and more intense cyclones are likely to displace millions of people in Asia.

A report released in January by the same panel said the average surface temperature of the Earth rose 1 degree during the 20th century and could rise 2.6 to 10.4 degrees from 1990 to 2100.

The January report said it's likely that "most" of the warming since the 1950s is "due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations."

Greenhouse gases, which have built up to unnaturally high levels in the Earth's atmosphere, trap heat. They include carbon dioxide, which is emitted when fossil fuels are burned, and other gases produced by human activity.

The sponsor of both reports, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, carries enormous weight with governments around the world. Previous editions of the report, which is produced every five years, have often been cited at the international negotiations over a treaty to control global warming.

More than 160 nations agreed to such a treaty, called the Kyoto Protocol, in 1997. However, talks over the treaty collapsed in December.

Those talks are to resume this summer, but President Bush said on the campaign trail that he opposes the Kyoto Protocol. His administration has yet to fill positions key to directing global-warming policy.

Environmentalists hope the new findings will coax the White House into taking a strong stance on global warming. "I hope they really study this report," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Wildlife Fund.

Some scientists argue the planet may be warming naturally. The new report doesn't touch on that argument, nor does it explicitly tie the changes in natural patterns to warming caused by humans.

However, several scientists said it's not hard to connect the dots.

Others criticized the newer report for relying on what they say are simplistic estimates of how much the Earth will warm.

"No one says we can predict the weather next year," says Roger Pielke Sr., an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. "So why do we think we have better skills for 50 years in the future?"

---

California

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Santa Rosa - California researchers are on a bug hunt sparked by a threat to the state's $33 billion wine industry. Entomologists told Sonoma County growers that they'll travel to Louisiana, Florida and Mexico in search of a tiny wasp that preys on the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Sharpshooters carry a bacteria that kills grapevines. They have infested 13 counties.

Delaware

Lewes - A plan under consideration by state fishing regulators could lead to Delaware's first commercial oyster harvest since 1995. The harvest would be a restricted one, with only about 100 people qualifying for permits. Oysters were once plentiful around Delaware and neighboring states, but their numbers have been decimated by disease and overfishing.

Idaho

Sandpoint - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has suggested measures to lessen the impact of a proposed silver and copper mine on the population of protected grizzly bears in the Cabinet Mountains. Conservationists oppose the mine, fearful that waste from the project will flow into Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest freshwater lake.

Illinois

Carlinville - Plans to build the USA's first producer-owned hog processing and packaging plant have been postponed. A spokesman for the American Premium Foods cooperative says an investigation of the proposed plant site showed an open mine and two closed mines were too close. The cooperative has asked four central Illinois communities to consider hosting the plant.

Nevada

Gardnerville - A federal fish hatchery is having better luck after losing nearly 500,000 Lahontan cutthroat trout to a bacterial infection last year. Most fish had to be destroyed after the outbreak. About 275,000 fish at the Lahontan National Fish Hatchery have received a clean bill of health.

North Dakota

Fort Yates - Standing Rock Indian Reservation is hoping to benefit from a provision in the federal Dakota Water Resources Act, which dedicates $200 million to water projects on North Dakota's reservations. Tim Yellow, a hospital administrator in Fort Yates, says reports of diarrhea and vomiting are not uncommon on the reservation. "This is one of the last areas to have treated water," he says.

Vermont

Burlington - Some Canadian maple syrup producers might be using an illegal chemical to prolong their tapping seasons, state agriculture officials charge. The use of paraformaldehyde in maple sugaring was banned in the USA in 1982 and in Canada in the early 1990s. The chemical can help producers get 20% to 25% more sap from each tree. Vermont officials say they have obtained pellets containing the chemical from sugarers in Quebec.

-------- genetics

Railroad gene test baffles ethicists

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

DALLAS (AP) - A railroad's agreement to stop genetic testing on some of its injured workers has raised questions from medical ethicists and legal authorities, who are mystified why the company even considered the practice to begin with. Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. agreed last week to stop its program after the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit contending it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was the first time that the EEOC had challenged genetic testing. The testing involved employees who filed claims for carpal tunnel syndrome, a wrist condition believed to be caused by repetitive hand motions. Along with related injuries, it is the leading workplace hazard, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Burlington Northern spokesman Dick Russack stopped short of acknowledging that adoption of the program last March was a mistake. "I don't know, maybe it was. Some people think that it was," he said.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Kahn, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, said news of the Burlington Northern program was "sort of a wake-up call" for the public about genetic testing.

The railway, which has about 40,000 employees, said about 125 workers filed claims for carpal tunnel syndrome since March. About 20 were tested. The tests looked for a genetic trait called chromosome 17 deletion. Some studies have suggested a person with that trait is more likely to develop some forms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The EEOC charged that a worker who refused to provide a blood sample after filing an injury claim was threatened with termination. Allegations of secrecy raised the most concern from medical ethicists. "If you're going to collect blood for research purposes, you should tell people what you're doing," Kahn said.

-------- imf / world bank

IMF, World Bank Heads in Africa to Listen

February 19, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-africa-.html

BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) - The heads of the World Bank and IMF Monday began an unprecedented joint visit to Africa, which could shake off perceptions in the world's poorest continent that they just dictate programs from on high.

Officials from the two bodies said the visit, which began in Mali's capital, Bamako, gave World Bank President James Wolfensohn and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Horst Koehler a chance to find out what Africa wants.

But as meetings got under way Monday afternoon behind closed doors a small group of hecklers demonstrated outside, one of them denouncing IMF policies as ``economic circumcision.''

Some NGO representatives who were not invited to Monday's meeting said many of those who got to meet Wolfensohn and Koehler were workers on World Bank-sponsored projects.

Africans have long accused the World Bank and IMF of dictating programs from on high.

``The annual meetings are perhaps not very satisfactory for the clients. The African countries are always happier when you come to come see them and see the problems on the ground,'' said one World Bank official in West Africa.

``In Bamako it won't be the set-piece ceremonies of the annual meetings but real face-to-face discussions.''

The Bank in particular has made a big effort in recent years to work with non-governmental organizations and listen to all sections of the population before launching projects.

``It's good to listen to your clients and not be seen to be imposing things from above,'' said Temitope Oshikoya, research division chief at the African Development Bank in Abidjan.

``Even if this is for PR purposes, it's good,'' Oshikoya said. ``But I think it will go beyond that. You have to know what are the priorities of these countries. Your programs won't be effective if you don't take into account their own priorities.''

GLOBALISATION

The IMF and Bank heads will discuss ways of harnessing Africa to globalization to try to avoid a temptation to simply rubbish the process, as some self-proclaimed defenders of Third World interests have done in the West.

Hopes of an ``African Renaissance'' which flourished in the mid-1990s have been dashed by a renewed onslaught of war, corruption, disease and any number of other woes.

Richard Uku, a World Bank spokesman in Mali, said central issues to be discussed included the fight against poverty, good governance, the conflicts raging on the continent and AIDS.

``AIDS is not only a public health problem, it's a development problem. Over 20 million Africans are living with AIDS, 14 million have already died, leaving behind 10 or 11 million orphans,'' Uku said.

The World Bank recently launched a $500-million-a-year, three-year program to combat AIDS.

One focus of the Malian leg of the tour, which will also take in Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya, will be a discussion of what has been described as an ``African Marshall Plan'' drawn up by the leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria.

The long-term development program was flagged by South African President Thabo Mbeki at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month. South African officials said he would be in Bamako Tuesday to discuss it with Wolfensohn and Koehler.

Olesegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and the leaders of Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone were present for Monday's meetings. A similar number of leaders are expected at the other regional summit, for East Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, beginning Thursday.

-------- police

Police Gain Control in Brazil's Biggest Jail Riots

February 19, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-brazil-.html

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian security forces on Monday quelled coordinated riots in which at least 16 people were killed in 29 prisons in the most widespread revolt yet in Brazil's overcrowded jails.

Armed troops in body armor swept through Latin America's biggest prison, Carandiru, in what appeared to be a negotiated end to the bloody 25-hour wave of riots across Sao Paulo state, Brazil's wealthiest and most populous.

They started a cell-by-cell search but pulled out of the compound before nightfall, saying they would complete the search on Tuesday. Independent observers and riot police will stay overnight to prevent further bloodshed.

``The rebellion is over, but we won't know with any certainty in what conditions or how many deaths until we finish the search,'' said Renato Simoes, the president of the human rights commission in the state assembly.

The uprisings broke out at midday on Sunday when some 20,000 rioting inmates took relatives, friends and prison guards hostage during visiting hours. By Monday afternoon, 29 prisons had joined the rebellion.

At least 16 inmates were killed, including one prisoner who was found with stab wounds and strangulation marks in a rubbish bin inside Carandiru on Monday.

Television showed three unarmed inmates shot by riot police who had climbed a wall overlooking the prison. Another two men were found hanged inside the compound.

The riot was organized by a powerful prison gang called the First Commando of the Capital (PCC), to protest the transfer of its leaders from Carandiru to other Sao Paulo prisons. The transfers were ordered after five inmates were murdered last week, allegedly on the orders of the PCC.

Human rights activists say severe overcrowding and torture fueled the riots and helped the gang rally supporters. Brazil's 230,000 inmates stage frequent riots.

``This shows how tenuous the control authorities have over prison conditions is,'' said James Cavallaro of Justica Global human rights group. ``This can repeat itself at any time.''

WIVES SEEK TO PROTECT INMATES

Authorities regained control of 28 prisons by Monday afternoon. They finally moved on Carandiru, the last jail holding out, after inmates freed hostages and relatives who had stayed willingly to protect the prisoners from possible police violence.

Many wives and mothers did not want to leave, fearing that riot troops would retaliate once they were gone, but finally agreed to file out five at a time after searches. Carandiru was the scene of a notorious police massacre of 111 prisoners after an uprising in 1992.

Hundreds of the women and children who were released formed human barriers trying to prevent police from entering and shouted ``Assassins!'' at them.

``There were no hostages, we stayed because we didn't want the shock troops to invade to kill our husbands,'' said Joselina Ignacio Oliveira, 37, who kneeled in prayer before the police after spending the night in Carandiru.

Her husband, who was sentenced to two years for illegal possession of firearms, shares a cell that has eight beds for 17 prisoners.

Helicopter footage showed naked prisoners in one of the cellblocks squatting on the cement floor of an open patio, with heavily armed troops keeping guard.

The riots started in Carandiru, but PCC leaders used cellular phones to organize the statewide uprising.

``This synchronized explosion is an event without precedent in Brazil,'' said Justice Minister Jose Gregori. ``Authorities are reacting sensibly, resolving the situation without resorting to violence.''

In the initial search of Carandiru on Monday police found 12 cellular phones and 260 weapons but no guns.

Sao Paulo state had hoped to close the crumbling Carandiru prison which was built in the 1920s and transfer its inmates to new, less-crowded facilities in the rural interior.

But a rise in crimes and convictions pushed the prison population up in recent years and stopped authorities from deactivating the sprawling concrete maze near the center of the city of 10 million.

---

Colorado

01/02/19
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Denver - The head of the city's police union says the group didn't really need the $384,000 it raised over four years using telemarketers. Only $63,558 of the total made it to the union; the rest went to telemarketers. Union president Kirk Miller says the 1,400-member union won't be making any more telephone solicitations.

-------- spying

Thermal imaging search in court

2/19/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

FLORENCE, Ore. (AP) - Nine years ago, members of a narcotics task force stopped in the early morning darkness in front of Danny Lee Kyllo's house and scanned it with a thermal imaging device. When they trained the thermal scanner on Kyllo's home, it showed indications of excessive heat. Based on that scan, electricity records and an informant, investigators got a search warrant to enter Kyllo's home, where they found more than 100 marijuana plants growing under high-intensity lights.

Kyllo contends that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the officers did not obtain a search warrant to scan his house with the thermal imager. He pleaded guilty to a federal charge, but reserved the right to appeal the search. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on his appeal.

Though Kyllo faces only a month in jail if the high court rules against him, experts say the case is likely to bring out an important new definition of the legal limits on police searches of the most sacred of all private places - the home. In its brief, the government compared the thermal scan to a police officer watching a house from the outside, which does not require a warrant.

-------- terrorism

2 Suspects detained in Cole bombing

2/19/2001
Infobeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

SAN`A, Yemen (AP) - President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Sunday that two Yemenis were arrested in connection with the USS Cole bombing in the past two days upon their return from Afghanistan. Saleh also reiterated in an interview with the Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Corporation that there still is no evidence linking Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to the Oct. 12 suicide bombing that killed 17 U.S. sailors. "We cannot charge him (bin Laden) because we have no evidence against him. ... We don't have confessions that the suspects received instructions from bin Laden," he said. Saleh said the two Yemenis, Mohammed Ahmed al-Ahdal and Ahmed Mohammed Amin, are being interrogated. He did not give any other details on the arrests.

It was not clear whether al-Ahdal and Amin are among at least three suspects that the government says are still at large and are thought to be in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Yemen is preparing to put at least six people on trial for the blast. No trial date has been set yet. But the prosecution phase, expected to last 10 to 15 days, will begin soon.

There has been no responsibility claim considered credible in the strike on the Cole.

American officials have said bin Laden - America's No. 1 terror suspect who has pledged to drive the U.S. military out of the Middle East - is a focus of the bombing investigation. The Saudi millionaire, who lives in Afghanistan, is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

---

Bush Dedicates Oklahoma Museum

FEBRUARY 19
Associated Press
AP White House Correspondent
By RON FOURNIER
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=WORLD&PACKAGEID=terrorism&STORYID=APIS7A8PBJO0&SLUG=BUSH

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - President Bush opened a museum commemorating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing Monday, imploring Americans to ``confront evil, wherever and whenever'' it exists in a nation vulnerable to senseless violence and terrorism.

``The presence of evil always reminds us of the need for vigilance,'' Bush said in a solemn address.

The emotional ceremony began with 168 seconds of silence - one second for each life lost in the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Only the whistling, wintry wind and the rippling of an American flag could be heard outside the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center, where nearly 1,500 people gathered less than 100 yards from the site of the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

A grim-faced Bush toured the museum, stopping to hear a recording of the explosion from a nearby building and the yelps of panic that followed. ``Very touching,'' he said of the tour.

He signed his name to a registry, with the words: ``God Bless.'' First lady Laura Bush wrote, ``With love,'' and signed her name, too.

Jeannine Gist, mother of one of the victims, took Bush into a room covered with photos of those who died, each picture accompanied by a memento from their lives. ``This is my daughter here,'' Gist told the Bushes, pointing to a picture of Karen Karr, who worked at a fitness center in the federal building.

A business card was placed next to Karr's photo. ``That was a really hard job - picking out something that represents somebody's life,'' she said. The Bushes shook their heads sympathetically.

The president started to walk away, but did a double take at the wedding photo of Cindy Brown. She had been married five weeks to a fellow Secret Service agent when the explosion killed her and three other Secret Service agents.

``We knew some of the agents here,'' Bush said to no one in particular while gazing at faces of the dead. His voice was hoarse, choked with emotion.

Brown's husband is on Bush's protective detail. Another agent killed in the blast, Alan G. Whicher, protected Bush's father.

The tragedy can never be forgotten, the president said at the ceremony.

``The time for mourning may have passed, but the time for remembering never does,'' he said.

Bush praised rescue workers and civic leaders who helped the state and the nation recover from the bombing. ``Together you endured,'' he said. ``You chose to live out the words of St. Paul: Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.''

``Here we remember one act of malice,'' the president said. ``Yet we also remember many acts of kindness and love.''

Several men and women dabbed at their cheeks. A children's choir sang ``God Bless America'' and ``America the Beautiful,'' drawing a hush over the crowd when ``Let there be peace on earth'' rang out in their high-pitched voices.

Bush did not mention Timothy McVeigh or Terry Nichols, the two men convicted in the bombing. McVeigh is scheduled to die in May.

``The presence of evil always reminds us of the need for vigilance,'' Bush said. He said Americans must ``confront evil, wherever it manifests itself,'' reject bigotry and hatred that can inspire violence and teach children right from wrong.

Saying most violent acts are preceded by a threat from the perpetrator, Bush said, ``We all have a duty to watch for and report troubling signs.''

In poetic terms, Bush urged the crowd never to lose faith, even in their grief. ``We are never closer to God than when we grieve,'' he said. He told them to ``look beyond our lives to the hour when God will wipe away every tear and death will be swallowed up in victory.''

``On this earth, tragedy may come even on a warm spring day, but tragedy can never touch eternity. This is where (the victims) were last; but beyond the gates of time lie a life eternal and a love everlasting,'' Bush said.

-------- activists

Get ready for the next International Day of Action!

Sat, 17 Feb 2001
a20: Quebec, April 20 2001 - http://www.a20.org

April 18-22 The global corporate elite are headed to Quebec to discuss the FTAA, the Free Trade Area of the Americas: "think NAFTA on steroids." This trade pact extends the impact of NAFTA to the rest of Central and South America, in a hemispheric "race to the bottom."

Working families, students, farmers, environmentalists, people of faith, animal rights activists and many others are mobilizing around the world to fight this encroachment of corporate control.

http://www.a20.org

Info on the FTAA:

Ten Reasons to Oppose the FTAA - http://www.globalexchange.org/ftaa/topten.html
The FTAA and AIDS - http://www.a20.org/feature.cfm?ID=45
FTAA Factsheet - http://www.tradewatch.org/FTAA/factsheet.htm

http://www.quebec2001.net/
http://www.stopftaa.org/
http://www.alternatives-action.org/salami/
http://www.oqp2001.org/
http://www.freespeech.org/yabasta/
http://www.bostonglobalaction.org/ftaa.html

Citing the case of US-based waste disposal company Metalclad, which used NAFTA to sue a small Mexican town for prohibiting construction of a toxic waste processing plant, the city of Vancouver has nanimously passed a resolution requesting the Canadian government not sign the FTAA. http://www.canadianliberty.bc.ca

The northern border:

The Vermont Mobilization for Global Justice plans to coordinate crucial support on the Vermont side of the US-Canadian border for the FTAA mobilization. The coalition includes the Native Forest Network (NFN), Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America (ACERCA), the Vermont Action Network (VAN), UVM Student Political Awareness and Responsibility Coalition (SPARC), American Friends Service Committee - Vermont (AFSC), and others.

Info: mavmedia@aol.com

Community activists in Kingston ON are inviting all FTAA opponents to take part in a border action caravan to "fight against international capital every inch of the way." Contact Smash FTAA http://www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa.html, ON/NY regional listserve: send an email with "Smash FTAA' in the subject line to msilburn@kingston.net

The southern border:

The Mexico-US Mass Mobilization to Liberate the Border is planning an April 21 multinational day of protest in the San Diego/Tijuana region in support of worker's rights, immigrant rights, indigenous rights and the environment. 626-403-2530 borderactions@aol.com List Serve: send e-mail to border01- subscribe@yahoogroups.com http://www.actionla.org/border.htm

How to get involved?

Schedule a roadshow stop in your town! (see below)
Have a benefit show http://www.davidrovics.com, http://www.roberthoyt.com
Show a Seattle Video http://www.thisisdemocracy.org
Blockade a Citibank http://www.ran.org/
See http://www.a20.org and http://www.stopftaa.org for local organizing contacts

On the road:

In February and March 2001 the Turning Point Road Show will be touring the American southeast (FL, GA, SC, NC, VI, KT, AL, MS, TN). Focusing on corporate globalization as well as the secret negotiations currently to construct the FTAA. Info, or to schedule a stop in your town: solilawrence@yahoo.com

From February 12 to March 3, starting from the New England states and continuing south to the Washington DC area, CASA and CLAC are organzing teach-ins and events in an Anti-FTAA Tour and Caravan to the Northeast U$A. Host a stop in your area: clac@tao.ca or 514-526-8946.

Call To Action (CtA) Spring 2001 tour - Skills and issues workshops focusing on the FTAA and its poster-child: Citigroup. If your group is interested in tackling the prison industrial complex, third world debt, forest destruction and predatory lending as well as expanding your organizing skills, then bring us to your town. Contact: campaigns@calltoaction.org 503-804-9378 http://www.calltoaction.org

Through March and April, ending in Quebec City April 15-21, Rights Action will be traveling with community human rights and development activists from Honduras, Guatemala and Chiapas through the US and Canada, speaking in public educational forums. Info, or to schedule a stop: Rights Action, formerly Guatemala Partners, Grahame Russell 416-654-2074 info@rightsaction.org http://www.rightsaction.org

News you may have missed

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

In a moving victory, the Charas Community Center in New York City won its court battle against eviction as the steady gentrification pressures continue. The jury decided unanimously that the developer did not plan to comply with the community use restriction. Supporters packed the courtroom throughout the high profile trial.

Ecuadoran indigenous, labor and other organizations have launched a massive campaign to reject the IMF-imposed adjustment program in that country, encountering repression and mass arrests. Two people have died in confrontations with the police. About 4,000 Indians occupied the university in Quito for more than a week. The coalition has won many of their demands, including lower fuel prices and cheaper public transport fares, after threatening a national strike for February 7. Info: Soren Ambrose 202-544-9355 soren@igc.org http://www.indymedia.org/

On Thanksgiving day, Washington DC housing activists with a homeless family occupied a house in Northeast Washington DC to fix it up and make it permanent housing for the family. Two months later, the family has been provided housing, the activists are "invited guests" of the house owner, and they're looking for more run-down buildings to rescue. http://www.homesnotjails.org Realaudio interview: http://dc.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=4348 http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5475

Northern California/Situation Critical - In an inconceivable mission to defend 3,000 acres of magnificent old-growth douglas fir, Mattole Forest Defenders have conducted numerous lock downs and constructed blockades on logging roads. Since November 28 Maxxam/Pacific Lumber (PL) has been clearcutting what is the second largest intact stand of lowland old-growth Douglas Fir in California http://sf.indymedia.org/#mattole

------

Korean Police Break Up Worker Occupation of Daewoo Plant

February 19, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/world/19CND-DAEWOO.html

SEOUL, Feb. 19 - Riot police stormed the main Daewoo Motor Company plant today, breaking up a protest by several hundred union workers who took over the complex after the company sent dismissal notices to 1,750 workers on Friday.

In a showdown broadcast on Korean television networks, the police officers, wearing masks and shields, clashed with workers at the fence surrounding the plant before knocking down the main gate with four excavators turned into battering rams.

About 4,000 officers swarmed through the gates, swinging their clubs as they confronted workers armed with steel pipes. Columns of police officers fanned out through the plant, which occupies one square kilometer in the Pupyong section of Inchon, an industrial port city about 20 miles west of here.

A dozen workers were injured while many others disappeared over the walls. Before fleeing, they set fire to the flimsy structures they had built to sleep in for what they had hoped would be a prolonged occupation of the plant. About 100 wives and children of workers, who had stayed inside as a gesture of solidarity with the union filed out of the compound, escorted by police, soon after the raid began.

Armed with warrants for the arrests of 32 union leaders, the police arrested 60 workers but were frustrated in efforts at finding some of the union leaders held responsible for leading the takeover of the plant.

Workers and their family members shouted denunciations of President Kim Dae Jung, whom they blamed for authorizing the crackdown on the protest. They said that he promoted a restructuring policy that jeopardized their livelihoods for the sake of big business interests.

Slogans pasted and painted on the walls of buildings inside the plant denounced Mr. Kim along with Kim Woo Choong, the Daewoo group founder, whom prosecutors want to question about accusations that he and his aides deliberately misled Daewoo's creditors about the group's debts.

Eight people, including two former presidents of Daewoo Motor Company, are charged with misleading creditors, giving the impression the group had $32 billion more than was actually in its coffers, in order to obtain loans. The eight were among 34 people, including accountants and administrators, who were indicted today on fraud charges.

The clash with the union provided a test of President Kim's resolve to follow through on a program that calls for scaling down or jettisoning enterprises that have been unable to survive on their own in a period of prolonged economic crisis.

At the same time, the response of the workers demonstrated the view among many Koreans that workers were being asked to make sacrifices while owners and their senior executives survived on rolled-over loans and bond issues for their companies.

As the police were massing for the raid, union leaders vowed to keep up their struggle, but officials said they hoped the plant would be able to return to normal operations.

Several hundred white-collar workers, not members of the union, entered the plant earlier today with orders to "protect" vital computers, research and development facilities as well as the paint shop from the threat of vandalism.

Union officials did not try to block them.

As an uneasy calm settled over the plant, officials said they hoped to resume negotiations with General Motors, the only potential bidder interested in buying the plant since Ford Motor Co. withdrew its bid last September.

Officials warned that the workers had to behave or face far more devastating threats to their livelihoods.

"The proposed foreign sale would be possible only after Daewoo Motor breaks even and can operate without fresh loans," warned the finance minister, Jin Nym, summarizing the government's position.

"We would like to sell to GM very quickly," said Lee Seung Keun, director in charge of the Daewoo Motor problem at the government-owned Korea Development Bank, the lead creditor for the banks that have owned the bankrupt company since its collapse in 1999.

With the work force finally reduced, Mr. Lee said that Daewoo Motor would not need further transfusions of money after June. "We are watching their restructuring procedure very carefully," he said.

Daewoo's problems were blamed largely on the overspending of Kim Woo Choong, now in hiding in Europe.

---

Colombian troops call negotiations

LIZAMA, Colombia (AP) - The leaders of massive protests blocking major highways in northern Colombia offered Sunday to lift the blockades if President Andres Pastrana agreed to meet with them and promised not to arrest them. The offer came after Pastrana threatened to jail leaders of the blockades, the latest crisis in a nation tangled by a 37-year war involving leftist rebels, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries. There was no immediate response from the government, which had warned it might move to disperse the demonstrators by force.

The protesters oppose Pastrana's plans to cede territory in the area to a leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in an effort to get peace talks going. In a statement listing their demands, the protest leaders also requested the presence of a U.N. human rights envoy, an end to aerial fumigation of drug crops in the area, and security guarantees for thousands of protesters.

During a brief visit to the tense northeastern region Sunday, Pastrana said the protesters were being intransigent and threatened to start issuing arrest orders. "They have resorted to de facto measures, but with de facto measures they are not going to get anything," the president said in comments to local RCN television.

On Saturday, Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle warned the protesters would be removed by force if they did not abandon the blockades. But police and army commanders insisted on a negotiated solution to the standoff on the highways, which has strangled commerce between Caribbean port cities and the capital, Bogota, since Thursday.

--

Protesters defy Kashmir curfew

SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Police fired tear gas at angry protesters who defied a curfew in Kashmir on Sunday, and several Kashmiri political leaders were put under house arrest amid rallies over the death of an activist in police custody. At least a dozen protesters were injured when they threw stones at police in several areas of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, said a police official, speaking on customary condition ofanonymity.

Police have fired on demonstrators several times this week, wounding scores, in protests after the death of Jaleel Ahmed, a separatist activist, while in police custody in Haigam, a town near Srinigar.

Police said they had placed Abdul Ghani Bhat and Moulvi Ahmed Farooq, two leaders of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, under house arrest for the day Sunday. The two had been planning to address supporters in Haigam, where nearly a thousand people gathered for ceremonies honoring Ahmed, a member of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.

Yaseen Mallik, leader of the JKLF, was taken into custody by police at Srinagar airport when he arrived from New Delhi on Sunday. He was likely to be released later in the day, a JKLF spokesman said.

The JKLF - a former rebel group that is now a political party working for peace in Kashmir - is part of the Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization of Kashmiri militant groups. Some of the groups want Kashmir to be an independent country while others favor joining Pakistan, India's western neighbor, which claims predominantly Muslim Kashmir as its own.

--

Cops break up protest in Malaysia

KULIM, Malaysia (AP) - Police hurled tear gas canisters and sprayed chemical-laced water Sunday on more than 250 anti-government demonstrators outside a Malaysian court where opposition leaders were facing charges. At least eight protesters were arrested during scuffles, and organizers from the National Justice Party said at least 12 were injured by police who hit or kicked them. The protesters gathered at the gates of the courthouse in Kulim, 217 miles north of Kuala Lumpur, waving banners denouncing Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has led the country for 19 years. They ignored police orders to disperse and shouted "Mahathir step down, Mahathir step down!" as riot officers moved in with batons and rattan canes.

Nine National Justice Party leaders were in court for a preliminary hearing on charges of interfering with a by-election last year. They are accused of illegally detaining busloads of pro-government supporters to prevent them from voting in the Nov. 29 by-election in Mahathir's home state of Kedah. Mahathir's United Malays National Organization lost the by-election.

Hearing of the clashes outside, the defendants disrupted the hearing by walking out of the courtroom. The nine led protesters in Muslim prayers before the crowd dispersed. Sunday's protest was the third opposition rally to be broken up by police this week.

--

Daewoo workers clash with police

BUPYONG, South Korea (AP) - Laid-off workers and their families staged a sit-in protest inside Daewoo Motor Co.'s main plant for a fourth day Monday as riot police kept a tight cordon around the facility. Outside the sprawling plant in Bupyong, about 20 miles west of Seoul, 200 workers confronted 2,000 riot police, blocking them from joining another 150 protesters inside.

After weeks of negotiations with the union failed, Daewoo laid off 1,751 workers Friday to complete the first stage of its restructuring plan - a step it deemed necessary to make it more attractive to General Motors Corp. GM began negotiations to take over Daewoo in September, but is reportedly reluctant to continue without layoffs.

Last week's dismissals reduced Daewoo's total work force by 44% to 10,655. Most of the layoffs came from the company's main plant, which was inefficient because of its outdated facilities.

About 300 laid-off workers and their families began a sit-down protest Friday night inside the Bupyong plant. Early Saturday, they were joined by 50 workers who slipped past police lines. An estimated 2,500 riot police, armed with helmets, batons and plastic shields, blocked all gates into the plant. In scattered clashes over the weekend, at least two workers and three riot police were slightly injured, police said.

Daewoo officials said they did not think the protest would spread out of control because 5,000 workers at the company's two other plants in Kunsan and Changwon were not expected to join. Those plants are operating normally.

Daewoo Motor, South Korea's third largest carmaker, collapsed in the midst of the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. It has survived under court receivership since it filed for bankruptcy in November under an estimated bank debt of $10 billion.

---

Hamas activist dies

2/19/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=5vo780if5hptp

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) - A leading activist in the Islamic militant group Hamas was killed Monday by shots witnesses said were fired from nearby Israeli army positions. The Israeli army had no comment.

Mahmoud Madani, 25, was walking from a mosque in the Balata refugee camp to his nearby grocery when he was gunned down, witnesses said. Doctors said Madani was shot four times in the upper body. He died several hours later in a Nablus hospital.

Bystander Hilal Shaker said he passed Madani in the street just moments before the shooting. Witnesses said shots were fired from the direction of an Israeli military outpost on a hill overlooking the camp and from a nearby road under Israeli control.

Madani was an important Hamas figure in the area and had served four years in an Israeli prison.

In five months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, more than a dozen Palestinian activists have been killed in what Palestinians have described as Israeli assassinations. Israel has acknowledged involvement in several deaths, saying it was targeting those who attacked Israelis.

--

Turkish police arrest 40 in protest

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Police on Monday detained 40 anti-globalization protesters who hurled coins and eggs at a hotel hosting a meeting of finance officials from the world's richest nations and major emerging economies. The protesters, who gathered outside the downtown Hyatt Hotel, shouted "No to globalized capitalism and the IMF," before being detained, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Finance officials from the so-called Group of 20-19 countries including the United States, along with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - are meeting to prepare the agenda of a finance ministers meeting later this year. The meeting was apparently not disrupted by the protest.

Anti-globalization protesters believe that international financial institutions are saddling developing countries with debt payments and encouraging environmental destruction.

Under strict IMF guidelines, Turkey is carrying out an ambitious anti-inflation program.

--

Refugees protest camp conditions

FREJUS, France (AP) - Iraqi Kurd refugees who were placed in a temporary shelter after entering southern France aboard a rusty freighter held a sit-in Monday to protest poor conditions in their camp, including the quality of food. About 100 women and children sat for 20 minutes in front of the military camp in Frejus, about 20 miles west of Cannes, where they and about 800 other refugees had spent the night Sunday. The sit-in ended calmly after the group was asked to disperse by French gendarmes.

French Red Cross officials agreed that conditions were not the best, but said they certainly were better than those endured by the refugees during their weeklong journey at sea in an aging cargo ship.

France was caught off guard when the freighter, carrying 910 Kurds, was deliberately run aground near Saint Raphael on the French Riviera early Saturday. It was the nation's first experience with such a mass wave of illegal immigrants. Soon after, politicians began squabbling over what to do.

--

Police raid Daewoo plant in S. Korea

BUPYONG, South Korea (AP) - Thousands of riot police raided Daewoo Motor Co.'s main plant Monday, using forklifts to break down the front gate and end a four-day sit-in protest by 600 laid-off workers. Workers fought back, hurling rocks and firebombs before dispersing and hiding inside the sprawling plant in Bupyong, 18 miles west of Seoul. At least one worker was taken to the hospital. As helicopters clattered overhead, police searched assembly lines and support buildings for workers and union leaders. Within an hour, most workers had left. About 60 protesters were detained by police.

The government of President Kim Dae-jung considers layoffs a necessary step toward streamlining the nation's bloated big businesses and regaining investor confidence.

Daewoo Motor, South Korea's third-largest carmaker, collapsed in the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. It has been surviving under court receivership since it filed for bankruptcy in November under an estimated bank debt of $10 billion.

---

Sign petition to UNCSD:
Nuclear not sustainable!

Mon, 19 Feb 2001

Please Sign the petition below & spread this to other lists, NGOs, & individuals. See http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/globalwarming2.html for reasons as to why Nuclear Power Plants [NPPs] are NOT the solution to global warming. Thanks. Bill Smirnow

Appeal to NGOs to sign petition:

Nukes sustainable? No way!

From 16 -27 April the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) convenes in New York. One of the issues on the agenda for its ninth session (hence CSD 9) will be energy and sustainability. The CSD was established to monitor the implementation of the outcome of the Rio Earth Summit (1992). Countries report to the Commission on the progress made, and the Commission advises the UN and its Member States on how to achieve sustainable development in the 21st century.

A sustainable future obviously does not include nuclear power. Nuclear as a source of electricity still comes with huge radioactive waste problems, safety risks and the risk of further proliferation of nuclear weapons. However, the CSD apparently needs a robust reminder of this. During their previous session, nukes where discussed as an inevitable part of the energy-mix of various countries. CSD admitted that there's still a few little PR problems to be resolved, but otherwise did not seem to consider nuclear a controversial issue at all. This month, the CSD Energy Expert group convenes to prepare CSD9. The energy experts have issued a draft report taking a rather pro-nuclear stance.

Now if an authoratitive institute such as the CSD continues to refuse to label nuclear as NOT sustainable, this would be a trump card in the hands of the nuclear lobby. The latter recently keeps trying to present nuclear power as sustainable, and even as a tool to combat climate change.

WISE Amsterdam in collaboration with Helio International, Earthday Network and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) have therefore launched a petition, urging CSD not to consider nuclear as a sustainable source of energy, and in stead work in the spirit of the Rio Declaration towards a sustainable future.

The text of the petition is pasted below. The petition can be signed online at www.antenna.nl/wise/csd More information about the Commission is also available through this website. This petition is only open for endorsement by organisations.

Individuals who support the aim of the petition are encouraged to visit the Earthday website to find out what they can do: www.earthday.net

Thank you for making your organisation sign on to the petition and for further distributing the petition among your networks. Petition Against the Support of Nuclear Technologies

TO THE CHAIR AND MEMBER STATES OF THE U.N. COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Dear Sirs and Madams,

We, the undersigned NGOs, active in environment, development, disarmament and human rights issues, express our deepest regret and extreme concern that nuclear energy has been included in the draft agenda of the ninth session of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, and that this dangerous and unsustainable technology might, in effect, be given a fresh start by the actions of the CSD.

We consider any focus which seems to validate nuclear energy to be against both the spirit of Agenda 21 and the mandate of the CSD. Moreover, it is contrary to the interests of developing countries which require sustainable, mostly decentralized, low-cost energy systems, adapted both to their needs and the availability of their capital, labor, and natural resources. Nuclear power will not fulfill those requirements.

Nuclear power is not a clean, safe or sustainable energy source. Worldwide, nuclear power has been plagued by high cost, erratic performance, endemic technical problems, the risk of catastrophic accidents, and environmental problems such as routine radiation releases, radioactive waste management and the high cost of decommissioning.

However, financially-pressed nuclear vendors are eyeing the developing world as a 'last gasp' market for their products, and are stepping up their lobbying efforts at U.N. conferences, including the Climate Change negotiations and the CSD. Over the past decade in most countries the overwhelming momentum of energy policy has moved towards phasing out, or not developing nuclear energy in the first place. Virtually all countries agreed in November at The Hague, during the discussions on the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), not to include nuclear energy in projects of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that will be established under the Kyoto Protocol.

At their last meeting, the governments of the G8 stated their commitment to "encourage and facilitate investment in the development and use of sustainable energy, underpinned by enabling domestic environments, (which) will assist in mitigating the problems of climate change and air pollution. To this end, the increased use of renewable energy sources in particular will improve the quality of life, especially in developing countries."

Non-G8 countries are taking similar positions. Turkey cancelled plans for a nuclear plant at Akkuyu, with its Prime Minister stating that, "the world is abandoning nuclear power." The countries of AOSIS (the Alliance of Small Island States) have "reaffirmed (their) position that nuclear energy should not be included in the CDM". (Apia, August 2000). And, a group of twelve Latin American nations made clear, in discussions on the Convention, that they "do not accept the use of nuclear power as an energy source alternative in project-based activities." (FCCC/SB/2000/4, 1 August, 2000)

Therefore, we urge you to preserve the integrity of the CSD process by ensuring that any indications of support for non-sustainable energy technologies, particularly nuclear energy, are excluded from CSD 9 debates, exhibitions and other activities. The CSD should focus on promoting clean, secure and sustainable forms of energy for the welfare of present and future generations, as per the aim of Agenda 21.

------- Onelist (submissions from subscribers)