------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Thanks, Dr. YourNameHere
Admiral Apologizes to Japan Families
Senior Navy official tries to mend ties with Japan
Greenpeace protests at E.ON over Czech N-plant
Uranium fear threatens NATO unity
Uranium scare worries NATO
Iraq Calls Powell's Position 'Rubbish' And 'Stupid'
Powell Proposes Easing Sanctions on Iraqi Civilians
Powell to push easing of sanctions
Putin Swipes at Bush After Winning Seoul's Support
South Korean President Sides With Russia on Missile Defense
Blair comes calling
Defining 'anathema'
Russian Sub's Officer Wrote of Torpedo Blast
Alaska
GOP introduces plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska
Nuclear energy should be used, not feared
Illinois
New Mexico
Study to Take Stock of Reactor's Long-Term Health
Bush Speech Highlights

MILITARY
Bush and Colombian President Meet
Pastrana urges U.S. to meet with Colombian rebels
Surviving Drugs' Ravages to Build a Productive Life
Adjusting Drug Policy
U.S. agents discover tunnel for smuggling drugs
New York
Cocaine or polo shirts?
Who won that war?
Marine in Charge of Troubled Osprey Program Is Being Replaced

OTHER
It's Only Logical things that have happened can happen again
FACT OF THE WEEK
Court Rules Cost Should Not Affect Action on Clean Air
Fears about impact of foot-and-mouth disease grow
Court upholds federal air-quality standards
FARMERS PROTEST
Louisiana
Whitman disagrees
KERIK MAKES ANOTHER ARREST
U.S. Citizen Arrested in Russia
U.S. exchange student arrested in Russia
Varied Portraits of bin Laden Emerge in Embassy Bomb Case
Witness never heard defendant take terrorist oath

ACTIVISTS
Activists Released
New College of California Spring Field Course
students interested in anti-sweatshop internships
DC - Conference on Pinochet Precedent
NOW RALLY/PATRICIA IRELAND TO SPEAK
Fact:
China Lashes Back at Human Rights Critics
China Hones Old Tool:
China's rights record worsens

-
-------- NUCLEAR

Thanks, Dr. YourNameHere

Tuesday February 27
Yahoo News
By W. Blake Gray, From myprimetime.com
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/pt/20010227/co/thanks_dr_yournamehere_1.html

They often have English names, because University of Brentwick sounds more sophisticated to Americans than Diplomas-R-Us.

You find the advertisements in the back of The Economist magazine, offering you a chance to receive an advanced degree through your life experience. Or maybe you get an e-mail offering you the opportunity to pick up a "fully accredited" MBA in three weeks or less.

Diploma mills have been around for decades. However, the business of selling degrees has expanded, thanks to the great global reach of the Internet.

Moreover, the operators of fake schools are getting more sophisticated. When the University of Brentwick was exposed as a phony, the same people just changed the name to University of Devonshire and kept the $30 million-plus annual business rolling, said John Bear, an expert on distance learning who publishes guides to colleges both legitimate and not.

"They have an office in London, but their e-mail comes from Romania. Their printing press is in Israel. Their bank is in Cyprus. The owner lives in Beverly Hills. Who's going to do anything about it?" Bear said.

The British investigator assigned to the case called Bear hoping to learn that the FBI was on the case. But the FBI agent most interested in diploma mills - a Fox Mulder of the bogus sheepskin trade - recently retired, and Bear said nobody has stepped forward to replace him.

"Everyone is saying it's not our problem," he said.

And yet, diploma mills are everyone's problem. When the FBI was more interested, they exposed fake diploma-bearing high-school principals, ministers, corporate executives. Bear testified in a Florida case against a prison psychologist who had bought his doctorate, and he said his friend at the FBI found seven people with fake Ph.D.s at NASA. But it gets worse.

"One diploma mill that specialized in nuclear technology safety had given more than 500 degrees," Bear said.

Nowadays almost all diploma mills are accredited, because there are more than 100 false accrediting agencies, most of them started by the school operators themselves.

"Sometimes they have two buttons on the phone - one for the school, and the other for the agency that accredits the school."

Cash In On Employer Tuition Support
http://rd.yahoo.com/Dailynews/pt/inlinks/*http://www.myprimetime.com/work/jobs_hiring/content/tuition_support/index.shtml

But I Flunked Kindergarten Twice!
http://rd.yahoo.com/Dailynews/pt/inlinks/*http://www.myprimetime.com/work/jobs_hiring/content/overqual/index.shtml

---

Admiral Apologizes to Japan Families

February 27, 2001
New York Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Submarine-Collision.html

TOKYO (AP) -- Acting as a special envoy for President Bush, the Navy's No. 2 officer apologized Wednesday to the families of the nine people missing and presumed dead after a surfacing U.S. submarine hit and sank a Japanese high school's training ship.

The meeting was intended to calm anger in Japan over the Feb. 9 accident off the Hawaiian island of Oahu and silence critics who have said the United States failed to make appropriate apologies for the accident and was slow to disclose details on why it occurred.

``I'm here to request in the most humble and sincere manner that you accept the apology of the people of the United States and the U.S. Navy as a personal representative of President Bush,'' Adm. William J. Fallon told the family members at a gathering in the U.S. Ambassador's residence.

His message appeared to be well received.

``The apology from many sources including the U.S. president has been conveyed to us,'' said Ryosuke Terata, whose 17-year-old son is among the missing. ``We thank you for meeting with us.''

Immediately after his arrival Tuesday, Fallon delivered a letter of apology from Bush to Japan's prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, and conveyed the president's belief in the crucial role the U.S.-Japan security relationship plays in maintaining world peace.

Washington is particularly keen to ease tensions over the Feb. 9 submarine disaster as security ties were strained even before the accident by a series of sex crimes by U.S. servicemen on Okinawa.

Anger exploded just days before the USS Greeneville rammed into the Ehime Maru off Hawaii over an e-mail in which the top Marine on Okinawa reportedly called local leaders ``nuts'' and a ``bunch of wimps.''

He later apologized, but the uproar has yet to die down and several local assemblies have passed resolutions demanding the U.S. military presence on Okinawa be reduced or withdrawn altogether.

Roughly one-half of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan are in Okinawa.

In Tuesday's meeting, Mori asked that the United States do the utmost to salvage the sunken Japanese fishing vessel and give a full accounting of the collision. He also reportedly said Japan may try to retrieve the boat on its own if U.S. efforts fail.

Fallon gave few details of the contents of Bush's letter of apology, but Foreign Ministry official Toyohisa Kozuki told reporters the president said American authorities would do what they could to raise the ship.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the letter was ``a sign of the importance the United States places on its relations with Japan and the sorrow that we feel for the people in Japan who have lost their lives and for people who have lost their loved ones.''

Meanwhile, in Honolulu, five Japanese salvage experts and a representative from the Japanese Consulate visited the accident site Monday and got a firsthand look at the wreckage via cameras attached to an ocean surveyor. The Navy is taking videotape of the Ehime Maru to determine whether it can be salvaged.

Hiroshi Sato, chief of the oceanography office of Japan's Foreign Ministry, said the ship appeared to be mostly intact and had settled on the ocean floor in a stable position. However, he said he would have to talk with Japanese officials before determining how they might attempt to raise the vessel.

Nine people, including four students, are missing and presumed dead.

Though the sub's commander issued a statement Sunday expressing his ``most sincere regret'' for the accident, relatives of the missing said they won't accept an apology unless it is made in person.

The nine missing were among 35 people on board the Ehime Maru training vessel when it sank shortly after it was struck by the U.S. nuclear submarine.

The Ehime Maru was operated by a high school for aspiring sailors in Uwajima, a fishing village about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo.

---

Senior Navy official tries to mend ties with Japan

02/27/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-02-27-apology.htm

TOKYO (AP) - In Washington's latest move to soothe Japanese anger over the sinking of a fishing boat by a U.S. submarine, a Navy admiral on Tuesday delivered an apology from President Bush and prepared to meet with the families of the missing.

Adm. William J. Fallon's arrival in Japan demonstrated the Bush administration's determination not to let the furor over the accident damage security ties with its top Asian ally.

"By coming from Washington to be here in person, I seek not only to apologize, but to promote better understanding between the people of our two nations," Fallon said in a statement upon arrival.

Fallon held a 30-minute meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and - along with Bush's apologies - conveyed the president's belief in the crucial role the U.S.-Japan security relationship plays in maintaining world peace.

Fallon was scheduled to meet Wednesday at Ambassador Thomas Foley's residence with relatives of the nine Japanese lost at sea. The Navy's No. 2 officer was also to meet Defense Agency Chief Toshitsugu Saito and other Cabinet ministers.

Washington is particularly keen to ease tensions over the Feb. 9 submarine disaster as security ties were strained even before the accident by a series of sex crimes by U.S. servicemen on Okinawa.

Anger exploded just days before the USS Greeneville rammed into the Ehime Maru off Hawaii over an e-mail in which the top Marine on Okinawa reportedly called local leaders "nuts" and a "bunch of wimps."

He later apologized, but the uproar has yet to die down and several local assemblies have passed resolutions demanding the U.S. military presence on Okinawa be reduced or withdrawn altogether.

Roughly one-half of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan are in Okinawa.

In Tuesday's meeting, Mori asked that the United States do the utmost to salvage the sunken Japanese fishing vessel and give a full accounting of the collision. He also reportedly said Japan may try to retrieve the boat on its own if U.S. efforts fail.

Fallon gave few details of the contents of Bush's letter of apology, but Foreign Ministry official Toyohisa Kozuki told reporters the president said American authorities would do what they could to raise the ship.

Officials here also will be looking for an explanation over the causes of the accident, and why the United States had been slow to reveal that civilian guests were at the controls of the sub.

Nine people, including four students, are missing and presumed dead.

Though the sub's commander on Sunday issued a statement expressing his "most sincere regret" for the accident, relatives of the missing said they won't accept an apology unless it is made in person.

The nine missing were among 35 people on board the Ehime Maru training vessel when it sank shortly after it was struck by the U.S. nuclear submarine.

The Ehime Maru was operated by a high school for aspiring sailors in Uwajima, a fishing village about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo.

-------- czech republic

Greenpeace protests at E.ON over Czech N-plant

February 27, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9919&newsDate=27-Feb-2001

VIENNA - Greenpeace activists took over the Austrian office of German energy giant E.ON Energie on Monday to protest against future imports of power from controversial Czech nuclear plant Temelin.

Around 20 Greenpeace members took part in the action, which began at around 09.00 a.m local time (0800 GMT), with nine gaining access to the office itself.

The remainder held banners on the street reading "E.ON equals Temelin power" and set off a loud hand-held alarm.

"Nuclear power exports from Temelin to Austria through the back door are completely unacceptable," Greenpeace Austria's energy spokesman Erwin Mayer said in a statement.

"We demand that E.ON stops all electricity contracts with the operators of Temelin CEZ, so long as CEZ insists on continuing with the commissioning of Temelin."

Police broke up the demonstration at around 1500 GMT after the alarm had sounded for over an hour.

Temelin, which is fiercely opposed by its staunchly anti-nuclear neighbour Austria, restarted testing operations late on Friday after a month-long shutdown to deal with faults.

Austrian protestors have frequently blockaded the Czech border with Austria to protest at the $2.6 billion plant, built just over 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Austria.

Its operator, the government-controlled power company CEZ, insists it is a state-of-the-art project and safe.

E.ON said in a statement it imported 1.5 percent of its total power capacity from the Czech Republic and said Temelin, which is not yet connected to the network, had not and did not contribute at all to this figure.

Greenpeace has begun collecting signatures against Temelin and in particular from community heads, in both Austria and the southern German region of Bavaria, promising to boycott any power supplier found to be using Temelin-produced electricity.

It says it has collected signatures from the heads of 217 Austrian communities and 60 Bavarian.

Greenpeace has singled out E.ON, saying the German company was the largest importer of electricity produced in the Czech Republic.


-------- depleted uranium

Uranium fear threatens NATO unity
Perceived health threat could weaken alliance

February 27, 2001
Ottawa Citizen
The National Post
Mike Blanchfield
http://www.nationalpost.com/

OTTAWA - NATO officials are concerned "a legacy of doubt" could weaken the alliance if it does not properly address the controversy over whether depleted uranium poses a cancer risk to its troops.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization fears some of its 19 member countries might opt out of military missions if depleted uranium is, or has been, used in proposed areas of operation.

"This could have profound impacts on future coalition operations and Alliance cohesion," warns a NATO briefing document recently tabled at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.

The document, intended primarily for the eyes of NATO member countries, summarizes the controversy that flared in Europe last month over depleted uranium, and whether it is responsible for a so-called Balkans Syndrome, a label that has been given to unexplained deaths and illness among some alliance troops.

The leukemia deaths of about 20 peacekeepers from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere raised concerns about whether the 40,000 anti-tank missiles used during the Kosovo and Bosnia bombing campaigns might be posing a health risk. The weapons were tipped with radioactive depleted uranium.

Since the flare-up of the controversy, NATO health officials have presented a calm and confident public response.

At two Brussels press briefings they restated the fact there is no proven scientific link between exposure to depleted uranium and increased cancer rates, but added that because of the concerns raised, the alliance favours further studies of the issue.

While NATO might have science on its side, the internal document expresses concern that political fallout in some countries over the depleted uranium scare could undermine the strength and solidarity of the alliance.

"Public opinion in many European nations is already skeptical about official advice on health issues following a history of confusion and U-turns on BSE or mad cow disease. No matter what the scientific evidence, it is possible that the current debate over depleted uranium munitions will leave a legacy of doubt and suspicion such that certain NATO allies might be unwilling to become involved in operations -- or the aftermath of operations -- where depleted uranium munitions are used."

The document concludes the level of radiation emitted by depleted uranium is too low to cause cancer and that it is "unlikely to be a source of a 'Balkans Syndrome.'"

It recommends a special NATO committee, recently formed to address the issue, ensure the results of further studies are rapidly disseminated.

"It might well be the case that the committee's mandate should be broadened if studies indicate the presence of a health hazard, but exonerate depleted uranium."

The committee includes representatives from 50 countries and five international organizations.

The report also says NATO should adopt a suggestion by the World Health Organization that calls for cleaning up or cordoning off of heavily bombed areas to minimize radiation exposure.

Since depleted uranium re-emerged as a political issue in Europe last month, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a ban on the substance.

The United Nations Environment Program is gathering data on the radiation levels at bomb sites in the Balkans and is to report its findings in a matter of weeks.

Canada has said voluntary testing of its peacekeepers has shown no elevated levels of cancer.

However, Portugal, Norway and Greece are planning to screen soldiers for the effects of depleted uranium, and Russia and Portugal are sending teams of experts to Kosovo.

UN observers have discovered the presence of radioactivity at eight sites in the Yugoslav province where depleted uranium warheads exploded.

And the U. S. warned its NATO allies 18 months ago that U.S. munitions littering Kosovo's countryside after the 1999 NATO air raids posed potential health concerns.

A document titled Hazard Awareness issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned soldiers and civilians against touching spent depleted uranium ammunition or other contaminated materials, according to news reports.

The reports said personnel handling the heads of anti-tank shells or entering wrecked vehicles should wear protective masks and cover exposed skin, and people involved in the more hazardous clearing tasks should undergo health assessments afterward.

Uranium is one of the heaviest metals, which makes it effective in piercing targets such as tanks or concrete. The depleted form is only mildly radioactive, but its dust is considered dangerous if ingested or inhaled.

John Manley, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is in Brussels today for informal meetings with his NATO counterparts. The ministers are to discuss a range of topics including the future prospects for peace in the Balkans and the U.S. plan to build a missile defence system.

Fears for the future of the NATO alliance have been caused by George W. Bush's ambitious plans for a National Missile Defence shield as well as the possibility of closer European integration.

The President's NMD shield has been opposed by some European powers as well as Russia and China. The Chrétien government has been tepid toward the idea.

Some Western allies, particularly France, say the project would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, seen by Russia as the bedrock of arms control, and could tip the security balance on the continent.

Plans for a 60,000-strong European rapid reaction force have been controversial because of concerns it could replace the need for NATO as a global police organization.

William Cohen, former U.S. defense secretary, has warned an independent EU military contingent could destroy NATO.

British General Sir Peter de la Billiere, a former commander in the Gulf War, predicted transAtlantic ties would weaken.

--------

Uranium scare worries NATO
Alliance's unity at risk, internal document warns

01/02/27
Ottawa Citizen
Mike Blanchfield The Ottawa Citizen
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010227/university-70

NATO officials are concerned that "a legacy of doubt" could weaken the alliance if it does not properly address the controversy over whether depleted uranium poses a cancer risk to its troops.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization fears some of its 19 member countries might opt out of military missions if depleted uranium is, or has been, used in proposed areas of operation.

"This could have profound impacts on future coalition operations and Alliance cohesion," warns a NATO briefing document recently tabled at the alliance's Brussels headquarters, a copy of which was obtained by the Citizen.

The document, intended primarily for the eyes of NATO member countries, summarizes the controversy that flared in Europe last month over depleted uranium, and whether it is responsible for "Balkans Syndrome," a label that has been given to unexplained deaths and illness among some alliance troops.

The leukemia deaths of about 20 peacekeepers from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere raised concerns about whether the 40,000 anti-tank missiles used during the Kosovo and Bosnia bombing campaigns might be posing a health risk. The weapons were tipped with radioactive depleted uranium.

Since the flare-up of the controversy, NATO health officials have presented a calm and confident public response. At two Brussels press briefings they restated the fact that there is no proven scientific link between exposure to depleted uranium and increased cancer rates, but added that because of the concerns raised, the alliance favours further studies of the issue.

While NATO might have science on its side, the internal document expresses concern that political fallout in some countries over the depleted uranium scare could undermine the strength and solidarity of the alliance.

"Public opinion in many European nations is already skeptical about official advice on health issues following a history of confusion and U-turns on BSE or 'mad cow disease,' " the document says.

"No matter what the scientific evidence, it is possible that the current debate over depleted uranium munitions will leave a legacy of doubt and suspicion such that certain NATO allies might be unwilling to become involved in operations -- or the aftermath of operations -- where depleted uranium munitions are used."

The document concludes that the level of radiation emitted by depleted uranium is too low to cause cancer and that it is "unlikely to be a source of a 'Balkans Syndrome.' "

It recommends that a special NATO committee, recently formed to address the issue, ensure that the results of further studies are rapidly disseminated.

"It might well be the case that the committee's mandate should be broadened if studies indicate the presence of a health hazard but exonerate depleted uranium."

The committee includes representatives from 50 countries and five international organizations.

The report also says NATO should adopt a suggestion by the World Health Organization that calls for cleaning up or cordoning off heavily bombed areas to minimize radiation exposure.

Since depleted uranium re-emerged as a political issue in Europe last month, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a ban on the substance.

The United Nations Environment Program is gathering data on the radiation levels at bomb sites in the Balkans and is to report its findings in a matter of weeks.

Canada has said that voluntary testing of its peacekeepers has shown no elevated levels of cancer.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley is in Brussels today for informal meetings with his NATO counterparts.

The ministers are to discuss a range of topics, including the future prospects for peace in the Balkans and the U.S. plan to build a national missile defence system.

-------- iraq

Iraq Calls Powell's Position 'Rubbish' And 'Stupid'

February 27, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iraq-un.html?searchpv=reuters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq Tuesday called Secretary of State Colin Powell's moves to ease sanctions against Baghdad ''rubbish'' and ``stupid,'' but ended two days of talks with the United Nations on a conciliatory note.

While castigating Powell and dismissing the chief U.N. arms inspector as ``a detail,'' Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said his team would come to New York for another round of talks within weeks. He gave no date, but envoys said it would be after an Arab summit that begins in Jordan on March 27.

``We will come back with feedback,'' al-Sahaf said, adding that the dialogue was not an end in itself but a channel to ''find a way out, to find a solution.''

Expectations were low that the talks, which began on Monday, would yield concrete results. But some U.N. Security Council diplomats have said they would deem them positive if Iraq considered the talks the beginning of a dialogue rather than a one-shot session.

The problem, according to U.N. officials, was that until key members of a divided Security Council reached a common position, Secretary-General Kofi Annan had little to offer in his talks with al-Sahaf. The United States is in the midst of reviewing its policies toward Iraq.

``There is a long way to go. This is just a start,'' one senior U.N. official said. A council diplomat said Iraq wanted to have its say before Washington's new policies were set.

Annan, who will brief the Security Council Wednesday, was hopeful his discussions, the first with a high-level Iraqi delegation in years, would be able ``to move forward.''

Al-Sahaf spent most of the time explaining Iraq's position during the decade-old sanctions, imposed after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. But he said solutions could be reached ``if there is a collective willingness.''

But he scoffed at Powell's proposals to allow more civilian goods to reach Baghdad's 23 million people but tighten control on military hardware, calling them ``rubbish from a propagandist, not from a foreign minister.''

``STUPID STATEMENTS'' DENOUNCED

He contended Iraq had met U.N. requirements to rid itself of forbidden arms but the ``sanctions are still there, still in place.'' Now, he said, ``we are hearing stupid statements from the foreign minister of the United States of America, talking about clever sanctions, as if all of what has been done since 1990 is stupid.''

The Iraqi minister also called Hans Blix, the chief U.N. arms inspector and a respected former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ``a detail,'' and refused to talk to him while he was in New York.

``Hans Blix is a detail. We are not dealing with a detail.'' he said.

A key condition for lifting the embargoes is allowing arms inspectors to check on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq has refused to let the weapons experts back into the country since December 1998. They left on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid intended to punish Baghdad for what Washington and London called its failure to cooperate with weapons searches.

Monday, al-Sahaf ruled out allowing U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq even if the sanctions are scrapped. If they did, he said, they had to visit all countries in the region and ''first Israel because they have atomic arsenals and all other arsenals.''

``There will be no return for any inspectors to Iraq -- even if the sanctions are totally lifted,'' al-Sahaf said.

Al-Sahaf also shrugged off a deal between Washington and Damascus to put Iraq oil exports to Syria under U.N control, saying that Iraq was not pumping oil there.

Industry sources say a pipeline between Iraq and Syria has been pumping about 100,000 barrels of Iraqi oil a day since November, bypassing the U.N. system and putting revenues straight into Baghdad's pocket.

With criticism mounting against sanctions in the Arab world and beyond, the Bush administration is attempting to make sanctions more focused and prevent Iraq from rebuilding its nuclear, ballistic missile, chemical and biological arsenal.

Powell said Washington aimed to form a consensus around a modified package of sanctions against Iraq in time for an Arab summit on March 27.

In Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday, Powell saw the French and British foreign ministers, Hubert Vedrine and Robin Cook, in an effort to get the three Western permanent council members on the same wavelength on Iraq. At the moment, France sides with Russia and China in wanting most sanctions suspended immediately.

Powell also called Annan Tuesday about his talks with the Iraqi delegation, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

---

Powell Proposes Easing Sanctions on Iraqi Civilians

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By JANE PERLEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/world/27POWE.html?pagewanted=all

BRUSSELS, Tuesday, Feb. 27 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on Monday that he had won agreement from Arab nations on a plan to modify sanctions on Iraq by letting in more civilian supplies but sharpening controls on strategic items sought by President Saddam Hussein.

Some American allies in the Middle East and Europe have been calling for a change of the sanctions, but now that his tour of the Middle East is over, General Powell faces a fierce debate in the Bush administration on Iraq policy. He acknowledged that there would be many questions about his plan from hard-liners in Washington.

General Powell said none of the Arab leaders he met with in the last three days, including President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whom he saw on Monday, disagreed with his strategy. "Everyone I spoke to said you've got to go down this track; it's the right thing to do," General Powell said.

"The message I've consistently heard is that overdoing it with the sanctions gives him a tool that he is using against us - and really is not weakening him," General Powell said of President Hussein.

But he said his outline of a plan would be criticized in Washington. "The charges will come that it is weakening," he said. "There will be a lot of people who will want to hear more."

Some hard-liners in Congress and the administration want tougher action, including the arming of Iraqi opposition groups, in an attempt to overthrow Mr. Hussein.

General Powell, speaking to reporters as he flew from Damascus to Brussels late on Monday, seemed to be setting up a test of strength in the administration's foreign policy apparatus, which includes Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney are believed to be more favorably disposed to arming the opposition groups. Mr. Rumsfeld's newly nominated deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz, has publicly advocated that policy.

There are others in the administration who agree, believing that the unfinished business of the Persian Gulf war 10 years ago should be completed by the ouster of Mr. Hussein. At ceremonies in Kuwait City today, former President George Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Powell and other leaders of the war commemorated the coalition victory against the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

General Powell spent his three days in the Middle East soliciting support for his sanctions plan, which he said would tighten restrictions on Iraq so that Mr. Hussein would not be able to arm his nation with weapons of mass destruction.

As part of his new strategy, Mr. Powell said he had won agreement from Syria to place into a United Nations escrow account revenues that Mr. Hussein was receiving from oil flowing through Syrian pipelines. In the last few months, those revenues have been going into Mr. Hussein's pockets, illustrating the fraying of the sanctions.

The commitment from the Syrian was so firm - Mr. Assad stated it three times during the meeting, General Powell said - that the secretary said he had telephoned President Bush to tell him.

In another development in Syria, General Powell said Mr. Assad had agreed to an American suggestion that peace talks between Syria and Israel could proceed on a parallel track with Palestinian-Israeli talks, if the occasion arose. Talks between Israel and Syria broke down last year during the Clinton administration, which held to the idea that it was possible to conduct only one track of peace talks at a time.

In outlining his plan, General Powell said a lot still needed to be worked out before an Arab League summit meeting in late March in Amman, Jordan, where he said he would like to see a formal consensus. He said he also wanted to take the plan to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and the five permanent members of the Security Council. Two of them, Russia and France, have acted in the past to soften the sanctions.

Among the details that need to be sorted out, General Powell said, was how to better seal the borders into Iraq in order to control the smuggling of items that could help the Iraqi leader make powerful weapons. He also said he wanted to review items like refrigerated trucks, water pumps and other items with dual uses that have been blocked by the United States and other nations in the United Nations sanctions committee.

As General Powell took his argument to five Arab countries - Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria - his mission was helped by his personal stature as the top commander in the gulf war, and his ability to renew friendships in the region, senior Arab diplomats said. General Powell is close to King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and is well known to the Kuwaitis.

He was received as a "secretary of state plus," a diplomat said. Another said he was greeted as an "old friend."

Those two diplomats said they believed that General Powell's trip as the first representative of the new Bush administration to visit the Middle East would strengthen his hand in the coming debate among Bush foreign policy officials.

"He is the only one who can say, `I have been out there,' " said one of the diplomats, alluding to General Powell's skepticism about arming Iraqi opposition movements. Other administration officials have said they favor that course of action, which would be very unpopular in the region.

In his confirmation hearings last month, General Powell expressed strong skepticism about arming opposition groups, saying it would be very difficult for the United States to do so with any degree of success. In contrast, Dr. Wolfowitz wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine in the spring of 1999 that "the United States, should be prepared to commit ground forces to protect a sanctuary in southern Iraq where the opposition could safely mobilize."

Enthusiasm for the General Powell's ideas varied by country.

The reception was the coolest in Egypt, an important American ally where President Hosni Mubarak has upgraded diplomatic relations with Iraq and is considering a trade policy with Mr. Hussein. After General Powell's meeting there, a senior State Department official said, the Egyptians offered no ideas.

In Jordan, General Powell said King Abdullah, who rules over the most pro-Iraqi population in the region, wanted to help. But Jordan would need financial assistance in securing its border with Iraq and does not want to be discriminated against as the only bordering state to have to tighten up, the secretary said.

As he moved form capital to capital, General Powell brought military precision to usually phlegmatic diplomatic schedules. Some meetings with leaders lasted only an hour, and his aircraft often took off ahead of schedule.

Unlike his predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright, General Powell talked frequently on the record to reporters traveling with him as he aggressively pushed his sanctions plan.

---

Powell to push easing of sanctions

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
By Ben Barber
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001227221818.htm

DAMASCUS, Syria - Secretary of State Colin Powell will recommend that sanctions on Iraq be eased on a wide range of civilian goods and focused more closely on military equipment and said yesterday he had found "pretty solid support" from regional leaders for the ideas.

The changes are intended to address opposition from Arab allies who complain the sanctions are hurting only Iraqi civilians. But any chance they would pave the way for a return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Baghdad appeared slim after an Iraqi delegation at the United Nations insisted they would not be allowed back under any conditions.

A senior administration official said U.S. objections could be lifted on as many as 1,600 contracts for the sale of consumer and civilian goods to Iraq. The easing could even extend to some "dual-use" items such as refrigerated trucks and water pumps, which are considered to have possible military applications.

Mr. Powell will present his recommendations to President Bush following his return to Washington tomorrow, said the official, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. Asked later how Arab leaders had responded to the proposals during talks in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Syria, Mr. Powell told reporters on board his plane he had "found pretty solid support" for the idea. "Nobody threw me out," he said.

Mr. Powell said the biggest problem would be to tighten sanctions on the small amounts of materials such as fissile material needed to produce weapons of mass destruction. He proposed putting the onus on "getting nations with fissile materials to control it."

"We have to keep the box as strongly closed as it has been without having on our shoulders" the suffering of the Iraqi people, he said.

Asked about the easing of restrictions on dual-use materials, he said the United States "has been very, very strict on dual use," adding that U.S. standards are five to 10 times higher than those of other countries.

Even eggs could be considered a dual-use product because they could be used to manufacture biotoxins and vaccines, Mr. Powell said.

Officials provided details of the plan as Mr. Powell completed a three-day swing through the region that climaxed with a stirring ceremony in Kuwait City to mark the 10th anniversary of the liberation of the Persian Gulf nation by a U.S.-led coalition.

The Gulf war "was a moral fight, a moral battle," said former President George Bush at a solemn ceremony to honor the 148 American troops who were battle-related casualties of the Gulf war.

"I said the United States will never let Kuwait down," Mr. Bush said. "We fought too hard. Too many died to make it happen. I say to these Kuwaiti soldiers: 'You're not alone. Never will be.'"

Kuwaiti officials expressed their appreciation for U.S. backing and pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who continues to threaten his smaller neighbor. U.S. officials said a 10-year defense agreement providing for the stationing of American forces in Kuwait would likely be renewed in September.

Other Arab leaders, however, have grown increasingly impatient with the 10-year-old sanctions program, which is seen in the region as punishing the Iraqi people without achieving its goal of forcing Saddam to step down.

The senior U.S. official said many of those leaders had responded well to the American plan for adjusting the sanctions. "We found high receptivity. . . . We are quite pleased with the reaction," he said.

The administration is also believed to hope a revamping of the sanctions might lead to an agreement for the return of U.N. weapons inspectors who were barred from Iraq after air strikes in December 1998.

Preliminary negotiations to that end opened yesterday in New York between U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a delegation led by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf. But Mr. Sahaf said during a break in the talks that Iraq was not interested in any trade for lighter sanctions.

"There will be no return for any inspectors in Iraq," at least until they have visited other countries in the region and certified that Israel no longer has weapons of mass destruction, he said. Israel is widely believed to have as many as 200 nuclear warheads.

The remark appeared to signal a hardening of Iraq's position. For the past two years, it has said it would again cooperate with the inspections once the sanctions were lifted.

The official on Mr. Powell's plane stressed that the administration hoped to consult with the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and talk again to Arab leaders before making a final decision on the sanctions. He said they hoped to reach a decision before an Arab summit scheduled to take place in Jordan late next month.

Mr. Powell, speaking to reporters during a flight to Brussels for a NATO ministers' meeting today, said he had won a commitment from Syrian President Bashar Assad to regularize the sale of Iraqi oil through a pipeline to Syria.

He said Mr. Assad had agreed to funnel revenues from the oil sales through the closely monitored U.N. oil-for-food program. It was the most explicit admission by Syria that it was receiving oil through the pipeline, which is reported to be carrying 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

"The president said to me he wants to put the pipeline under U.N. sanctions," Mr. Powell said.

Earlier, many of the 5,000 U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait attended the Liberation Day ceremony in their light-tan desert fatigue uniforms. The troops service and operate U.S. planes enforcing no-fly zones over southern Iraq.

"Obviously, we can't do everything in this world," said Sgt. Donald Tongue from Annapolis, an airman with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group. "We focus on some of them. We can't spread our forces too thin. I just feel this is one of our priorities."

Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the 541,000 U.S. troops who defeated Saddam's army in 1991, said he came to the ceremony so "the fallen heroes can see that they did not die in vain -that Kuwait remains free."

"In this cynical world, there are still things worth fighting for and one of those things is freedom," he said.

-------- missile defense

Putin Swipes at Bush After Winning Seoul's Support

February 27, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-korea-r.html?searchpv=reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) - Fresh from winning Seoul's support for his stance on missile defense, Russian President Vladimir Putin took swipes at the United States on Wednesday in a speech to the South Korean parliament.

Putin, on a state visit to Seoul, delivered his strongest appeal in support of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty since George W. Bush came to office. Bush has vowed to scrap the landmark pact if necessary to build a missile defense shield.

The support of South Korea's Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Kim Dae-jung, spelled out in a joint declaration on Tuesday, was a diplomatic victory for Moscow, adding another key U.S. ally to a growing list of those opposed to the Bush plan.

Kim, due to meet Bush in Washington next week, took criticism from right-wingers at home for adopting a stand opposed to the United States, which defends his country with 37,000 troops.

In his speech to the South Korean national assembly, Putin called the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty ``an essential element of the entire system of global security.''

``I am certain that any attempt to withdraw from it would cause a complete collapse of the entire construction of strategic stability,'' he said.

The Cold War-era ABM treaty prohibits Moscow and Washington from developing missile defenses on the grounds that such defenses would encourage both sides to build ever larger arsenals to pierce an enemy shield.

Putin also veered from the prepared text of his remarks to criticize the United States for failing to fully ratify the START-2 arms reduction treaty, which he pushed through his country's parliament last year.

``The Russian Federation has ratified the START-2 treaty, in keeping with its national interests and the interests of the international community,'' he said, looking up from the podium.

``We are waiting for our partners to take steps to meet us.''

KIM BACKS RUSSIA

Although President Kim did not comment publicly on the ABM, his support was made explicit in the joint declaration.

``The Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea agreed that the 1972 ABM treaty is the cornerstone of strategic stability and an important foundation of international efforts on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,'' it said.

It also contained language, apparently aimed at Washington, calling for the soonest possible implementation of START-2.

South Korea has depended on Washington for its security for five decades, and Kim's decision to side with Moscow on a contentious diplomatic issue alarmed Seoul's conservative press.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said it was ``diplomatically premature that South Korea opposes the revision of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty alongside Russia, against the United States trying to build its National Missile Defense.''

``Peace on the Korean Peninsula is not realized only with Korean-Russian cooperation,'' it said.

KOREAN THAW

South Korea's stand is noteworthy because one of Washington's main reasons for building the treaty-busting shield is the missile program in North Korea, which U.S. officials say would be able to strike U.S. territory by the middle of this decade.

Pyongyang stunned the West in 1998 by test-firing a ballistic missile over Japan. Washington says an updated version could hit U.S. territory by the middle of this decade, and Pyongyang could also sell its technology to other ``rogues'' such as Iran or Iraq.

But Russia has repeatedly said a thaw on the Korean peninsula had reduced the threat, while if Washington went ahead with missile defense, that threat would only grow.

In his speech, Putin said Russia was committed to halting the spread of weapons technology in the Koreas.

``The lowering of tensions is impossible without freeing the peninsula from weapons of mass destruction and maintaining its nuclear-free status,'' Putin said.

---

South Korean President Sides With Russia on Missile Defense

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/world/27CND-KOREA.html?pagewanted=all

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 27 - Less than a week before he meets President Bush in Washington, the president of South Korea today publicly took Russia's side in the debate over Washington's plan for a national missile defense.

A joint communiqué issued by President Kim Dae Jung with the visiting president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, declared that the 1972 ABM treaty limiting anti-missile defenses - which would be threatened by Washington's project - is a "cornerstone of strategic stability" and that it should not only be preserved, but also "strengthened."

The statement by Mr. Kim - whose country is protected with the help of 37,000 American troops - was one of the strongest declarations to date by one of America's Asian allies, and it linked South Korea to European powers who have expressed concern that the United States was pressing forward with missile defenses in a manner that could inspire a new round of nuclear competition by Russia, China and South Asia.

President Bush has asserted that he would withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty if necessary in order to build national missile defenses capable of protecting the United States against the threat of a limited ballistic missile attack from countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

It was not immediately clear why Mr. Kim decided to identify with Moscow's view of the issue.

But as the Bush administration shows signs of doubting North Korea's sincerity in dismantling its weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Putin has played an energetic role to push rapprochement forward on the Korean peninsula, flying to Pyongyang last July to meet the reclusive North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, and now preparing to bring him to Moscow for more talks on how to reduce tensions.

It is also possible that the South Korean president's criticism reflects the general concern in Asia that the Bush administration's missile defense plans will isolate China by rendering its nuclear arsenal ineffective.

For South Korea, China has also played a constructive role in working for Korean rapprochement, treating Kim Jong-il to a tour of booming Shanghai this winter and doing similar missionary work with North Korea's hard-line military leaders. Li Peng, the second ranking member of the ruling Politburo in Beijing, is due in Seoul next month for a state visit.

Today's statement cataloged the arms control treaties or agreements that remain unfulfilled as a result of objections to their ratification in the United States. The principle outstanding accords are Start II, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that would cut cold war nuclear arsenals in half, and another that would to ban nuclear testing. Russia has ratified both, and Mr. Kim, in a summit meeting that was largely devoted to business and trade issues, welcomed Russia's act.

Though neither president mentioned the United States by name and, during a brief news conference on Mr. Putin's first day of meetings here, steered questions to economic matters, the object of the communiqué's criticism was unmistakable.

"The Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea agreed that the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty is the cornerstone of strategic stability and an important foundation of international efforts on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation," the joint statement said. "Both sides expressed their hope that the Start II Treaty will enter into force as soon as possible and that as soon as possible after that, the Start III treaty will be signed and that the ABM Treaty will be preserved and strengthened."

In a reference to the test ban treaty, the statement by the Russian and South Korean leaders said they "appealed to other countries to ratify the treaty without any delays and they also appealed to those countries whose ratification is needed for it to come into effect."

Since he won election a year ago, Mr. Putin has undertaken a diplomatic campaign to persuade the United States to forgo its large-scale missile defense plans and instead develop regional and mobile missile defenses that could be brought to bear against missile threats from rogue states. Russia presented its concept for such a plan to NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, in Moscow last week.

Russia has also sought to show that more intensive diplomacy, such as Mr. Kim's opening to North Korea, might go a long way in reducing the threat from rogue states. To that end, Mr. Putin also has been courting North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, in an effort, thus far unsuccessful, to persuade him to abandon his ballistic missile program.

After a day in which Mr. Putin and the South Korean leader discussed the progress between north and south, along with trade, investment and new plans to link both Koreas with Russian and Europe via the trans-Siberian railway, Mr. Putin tonight said Russia was looking for a constructive role for Moscow in linking the economies of North and South Korea through rail and energy projects.

"There is nobody who can lose in this process," he said.

In a toast tonight at a banquet in the ornate presidential palace with sweeping blue-tiled rooflines, Mr. Putin predicted that the north-south dialogue that Mr. Kim engineered last year would "lead to reunification of the Korean nation."

In between the banquets and toasts, however, Mr. Putin's visit here has been a hard slog of negotiations over how to resolve Russia's $1.8 billion debt to Seoul, how to overcome formidable obstacles to building new railway links that still exist on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone, where more than 1.7 million North and South Korean troops still face each other in a high state of readiness for war.

Work on one rail line connecting Seoul, Pyongyang and Sinuiji on North Korea's border with China already has begun, but Mr. Putin is lobbying for the $1 billion rehabilitation of a second line northeast to Vladivostok that would connect South Korea's ports and industrial centers with Russia's impoverished Far East.

Mr. Putin said linking both Koreas with the trans-Siberian railway would cut freight deliveries from the Pacific to Europe from 25 to 12 days, while also providing assistance to North Korea, which would reap more than $100 million a year in revenues.

At a lunch with businessmen today, Mr. Putin made it clear that Russia also has high technology products to offer. "Russia can offer state-of-the-art technology," he said. "For example, we can help other countries launch space devices such as satellites."

Mr. Putin was not as successful in selling Russian arms to South Korea, though some military equipment, including tanker aircraft, helicopters and hovercraft, are part of a proposal to sell weapons and raw materials in exchange for reducing Russia's debt.

As the Soviet Union was collapsing, Seoul offered $1.45 billion in credits to Moscow to establish diplomatic relations, thus undercutting one of North Korea's chief patrons. As Russia has failed to repay the credits, interest charges have increased it to $1.8 billion.

---

Blair comes calling

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
Arnold Beichman
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200122720131.htm

Remarkable yet unexamined is the significance of President Bush's (a) travel schedule and (b) White House visitors from abroad. This schedule is informing European leaders that a new American foreign policy is in the making, one which the statist bureaucrats of the European Union (EU) may have every reason to distrust.

Here's how the presidential schedule has shaped up:

The first Bush trip outside the United States was to meet Mexico's new head of state, President Vicente Fox Feb. 16.

The first foreign leader to have visited the White House was Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

The first European leader to have visited the White House was British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Feb. 23. Unlike Germany, France and Russia, Britain is offering cautious support for U.S. missile defense even as French and German official opinion is against it.

No leaders from Germany, France or other West or East European countries are scheduled at this writing nor is any presidential overseas trip imminent. The charter members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - the United States, Canada and Mexico - get the first White House go-around.

That was President Reagan's concern - make sure of your friends on the North American continent. Then Britain and the "special relationship," the long-standing Anglo-American partnership which, for example, finds American and British fighter planes in a joint operation over Iraq while continental Europe - France and Russia - look on disapprovingly. And it was noted that in his press conference Feb. 22 that Mr. Bush said that "Britain and the United States have got a special relationship."

Today, some are asking, why not make it the "North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement," to include Great Britain, whose biggest export market is the United States, its closest ally? The question is quite relevant since British public opinion is divided both on continued membership in the existing EU and on whether to give up the pound sterling in favor of a new single currency, the euro, scheduled to start circulating next January within 12 of the 15 EU countries. One in three Britons wants withdrawal from the 15-member-state EU and there is even more division on the pound versus the euro. The influential Euroskeptic London Daily Telegraph has been pushing a reorganized NAFTA to include Britain.

Conservatives are sharply divided about EU membership. Former Prime Minister Lady Thatcher was prepared to deliver a speech earlier this month calling upon Britain to get out of the EU, which she has called the "Brussels superstate." William Hague, the Conservative leader, prevailed upon her not to make the speech. But she'll make it sometime. This lady's not for squelching.

At stake in this triangular relationship - the United States, Britain and the EU - is the future of NATO which during the Cold War was a guarantor of Western European security against the Soviet Union. Now the EU is planning a 60,000-strong European rapid reaction force by 2003 prepared to go anywhere in EU or non-EU countries to keep the peace or to keep local quarrels local. National missile defense has been a target in continental Europe led by the EU. That opposition by the EU has openly concerned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who, at a European meeting in Munich a few weeks ago, managed in his address not to mention the EU's existence.

It's too early to tell what the Bush administration's attitude will be toward the EU. There is certainly a difference between the political culture of the Eurocrats, almost all of whom are social democrats, and the Bush administration, particularly on such issues as trade unionism, labor costs and social benefits, arms control, free market economics. There is a latent anti-Americanism among the EU leaders headquartered in Brussels because of its successful capitalist economy.

The real crisis in the EU will come when the 15 state delegations sit down sometime next year to write the "loi fondementale," the constitution for European Union. Such a document when ratified by the member states would consummate their integration as the "United States of Europe." That was the phrase of Aristide Briand, a French foreign minister, whose idea it was three-quarters of a century ago.

Arnold Beichman, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, is a Washington Times columnist.

---

Defining 'anathema'

February 28, 2001
Washington Times
Inside Politics Greg Pierce News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inpolitics.htm

Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening apparently sees himself as a spokesman for black people everywhere.

"I think if I see one more picture of [President Bush] reaching down and patting little black kids on the head I'm going to go absolutely crazy, because the policies he is proposing are anathema to African-Americans," USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham quotes the Democratic governor as saying "over a bowl of gumbo at B. Smith's, a trendy Washington restaurant."

Among policies that the columnist suggested are "anathema" to blacks and white liberals such as Mr. Glendening: Tax cuts, Social Security and Medicare reform, and a missile-defense shield.

-------- russia

Russian Sub's Officer Wrote of Torpedo Blast, Izvestia Says

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By MICHAEL WINES
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/world/27KURS.html

MOSCOW, Feb. 26 - A newspaper here reported today that a note scrawled by an officer aboard the submarine Kursk and found by divers last summer said the vessel sank because of an explosion caused by a torpedo that apparently misfired.

The report, in Izvestia, said the note confirmed "the most unpleasant and unwanted version" of the accident in August. Military officials have repeatedly suggested that the sinking was caused by a collision with a mine or a foreign submarine.

A government commission investigating the accident reported this month that an exploding torpedo followed by detonations in the torpedo compartment caused the Kursk to rupture, sending it and the 118 crew members to the floor of the Barents Sea.

But the military, up to and including Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev, has maintained that it is highly likely that the torpedo was set off by a collision. As recently as November, the head of the investigative panel said divers had found "serious visual evidence" of such a collision, including deep grooves along the submarine's bow. The United States and Britain, among others, have flatly denied that their subs collided with the Kursk.

The officer's note is one of two found by divers who retrieved bodies from the sub in October and early November. The commander of the turbine room, Lt. Capt. Dimitri Kolesnikov, wrote the first note. The Navy has not provided more than a general description of the second note. But Izvestia quoted anonymous military officers who said they had read the message. They said it was written by Lt. Cmdr. Rashid Aryapov, who held a senior position in the sixth compartment, the site of the nuclear reactor.

Commander Aryapov, whose remains were recovered and buried in Ulyanovsk, was one of at least 23 crew members who weathered the initial blasts and survived for at least an additional nine hours in the aft compartment. He would have been one of the officers responsible for assessing damage after the accident.

The newspapers reported that his note, written on a page torn from a detective novel, had been found wrapped in plastic and stuffed in his clothes. As described in Izvestia, Commander Aryapov's note attributes the disaster to "faults in the torpedo compartment, namely, the explosion of a torpedo on which the Kursk had to carry out tests."

Russian investigators and American intelligence experts have said the initial blast was followed a few minutes later by a second explosion, up to 250 times larger, that apparently consumed four or five torpedoes and blew a hole in the hull.

The note is said to state that the blasts caused the sub to tumble violently, sending equipment flying through compartments, setting off small fires and seriously injuring many crew members.

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

Alaska

01/02/27
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Anchorage - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it plans to go to Amchitka Island in the western Aleutians this summer to look for bombs, grenades and mortar shells left over from years of military work on the island. In addition, old military buildings will be demolished and pits of drilling muds left over from atomic testing in the late 1960s and early 1970s will be capped.

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

GOP introduces plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
By Patrice Hill
http://www.washtimes.com/business/default-2001227222726.htm

Senate Republican leaders introduced legislation yesterday to promote U.S. energy development, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, and pledged to pass the plan by summer.

The long-term measures in the bill will not do much to relieve today's sky-high natural gas prices and electricity shortages, they said, but they could prevent a repeat of the past year's energy crisis in future years.

The bill includes increased funding to help the poorest Americans cope with high home heating and cooling costs. Crafted by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Frank H. Murkowski, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and others, it would permit drilling for oil and gas in vast areas of the outer continental shelf as well as Alaska. It also features tax and regulatory incentives for conservation and development of oil, gas, coal, nuclear and renewable fuels.

"The biggest threat to our prosperity is the energy situation," said Mr. Lott, Mississippi Republican, chronicling how the energy crunch started with a record spike in gasoline prices last summer that turned into a home heating crisis this fall and the California electricity debacle this winter.

"It's time to do something about it," he said, adding that the shortages of gas and oil that caused last year's problems have been building for 25 years as Americans put off energy development in favor of environmental preservation. "If we don't do this, we will have far worse problems in the future."

Senate Budget Committee chairman Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Republican, said high energy prices already have shaved 0.4 percent off U.S. economic growth in the last year and are a major culprit in the sharp economic slowdown that threatens to turn into recession this year.

"We have an energy crisis," he said, predicting that the rolling blackouts experienced in California this winter could "ripple across America" unless the country moves swiftly to expand its energy infrastructure. "We need the facilities to transport our energy. We will balance these needs with the needs of the environment."

Mr. Murkowski, Alaska Republican, said his bill is designed to reduce dependence on imported oil from about 55 percent today to 50 percent by 2011 - a goal that cannot be met without tapping the Arctic reserves, which are estimated to hold between 3.2 billion and 16 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil.

The higher estimate would yield enough oil to replace imports from Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer - for 30 years, Mr. Murkowski said.

Joining the Republicans in sponsoring the legislation was Sen. John B. Breaux, a leading centrist Democrat from Louisiana, though he did not appear to speak for the bill yesterday. Democrats and some liberal Republicans who oppose opening the Arctic reserve did not speak out yesterday.

But environmental groups came out in full force against the bill's strong emphasis on developing new energy sources. They urged greater fuel conservation through regulatory measures such as higher corporate average fuel economy standards for cars and sport utility vehicles.

The heated rhetoric from environmentalists ensures a pitched battle over the bill in Congress this year. Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, already has pledged to filibuster any legislation that would open up the Arctic reserve to drilling.

"America needs an energy strategy, not a drilling frenzy in the Arctic," said Mark Van Putten, president of the National Wildlife Federation. He said the bill would jeopardize more than 100 species of birds, caribou and other wildlife that rely on the refuge's coastal plain for feeding and giving birth.

"America cannot drill its way to energy security," he said, noting that the nation has only 3 percent of the world's known oil reserves and will always depend on imports from the Middle East. He added that the Republican bill gives only "lip service" to alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Mr. Murkowski said his bill, which contains hundreds of provisions addressing nearly every facet of energy production, delivery and consumption, is only a starting place. It will be amended by legislation the Bush administration is drafting and will present to Congress in the next six weeks, he said.

Mr. Murkowski already has dropped provisions contained in a draft version of the bill that were favorable to big oil companies like Exxon Mobil, which he said are enjoying handsome profits and don't need federal aid.

The bill retains tax credits for small domestic operators of low-volume oil and natural gas wells, to help to keep the wells operating when energy prices fall like they did in 1998. Oil companies also would get a break when prices are depressed on the federal royalties they pay for offshore drilling.

Environmentalists decried the bill's proposed easing of environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants that convert to "clean-coal" technologies.

"It's a polluters dream, but a nightmare for public health and the environment," said Becky Stanfield of the Public Interest Research Group.

--------

Nuclear energy should be used, not feared

February 27, 2001
Excite News
The Daily Universe
Brigham Young U.
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010227/university-70

(U-WIRE) PROVO, Utah -- From nuclear energy to atomic bombs, Americans have distaste for the atomic tool that captured the attention of the world when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

From that day through the end of the Cold War, the United States and the USSR battled for supremacy in atomic science.

Along with atomic bombs, the harnessing of nuclear energy resulted from the competition. Americans need to rethink their disdain for nuclear energy. When fact is separated from myth, its benefits far outweigh its costs.

Legend has it that when Arco, Idaho became the first city to be powered entirely by nuclear energy many residents covered their power outlets with aluminum foil hoping to avoid radiation.

That ignorance still thrives. Two main fears are associated with nuclear power: its radioactive byproducts and the risk of plant malfunctions.

In reality, no person in the United States has ever died from the radioactive part of a nuclear reactor. The modern nuclear reactor is as safe as any coal-burning power plant or hydroelectric facility.

Even the infamous Three Mile Island incident resulted in no identifiable injuries, although the plant was destroyed.

But spent nuclear fuel still must be considered. It is true that nuclear power plants produce radioactive waste that won't decompose for thousands of years.

The U.S. government could severely decrease the time of decomposition by lifting the prohibition on the recycling of spent fuel it instituted in 1977.

When spent fuel is recycled, plutonium is created, along with the substance used in nuclear reactors. Although plutonium cannot be used for nuclear energy, it is useful in making atomic weapons.

Fear of increased plutonium supplies coming into the hands of terrorists prompted the recycling prohibition.

Plutonium decays much faster than unrecycled nuclear fuels. Since 1977 the plutonium supply in the world has increased steadily. The technology required to produce a nuclear weapon prevents any terrorist group from developing one.

If a group had that technology, the U.S. prohibition would not prevent the group from gaining plutonium.

Still, even with the shorter lasting byproducts, nuclear energy still produces a significant amount of dangerous waste.

Coal, the most popular source of energy, also produces waste in the form of polluting smoke. Hydroelectric plants are the least polluting of the three top energy sources in the United States, but their effect on the environment has great consequences.

Some costs must be paid for the energy we use, but nuclear power has an advantage over the others. Nuclear waste is measurable and regulate-able. Coal-powered power plant owners do not have any responsibility for paying for their pollution.

How could they? They may be penalized for polluting over a certain point, but generally they bear no cost for the pollution they produce.

The full cost of their product, therefore, is not reflected in the cost of the product. Nuclear energy's byproducts, on the other hand, have to be handled very carefully.

The government already regulates the handling and storage of nuclear by products. Companies spend billions every year for waste handling. Their storage facilities are designed, quite effectively, for keeping the dangerous substances from mixing with groundwater and other important natural resources.

Ultimately, the price of nuclear power includes all of the cost society bears in producing. Unlike coal production, nuclear waste management is factored in the price. The result is a source of power that will keep waste to a minimum because more waste equals less profit.

People either pay higher prices or reduce energy consumption. The United States currently faces an energy crisis.

False conceptions and a bad law keep Americans from embracing a safe, clean energy source.

-------- illinois

Illinois

01/02/27
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Clinton - Officials at the Clinton nuclear plant did not notify area news media and DeWitt County emergency officials when the nuclear reactors shut down twice since December. Industry critics say the two emergency shutdowns should be publicized. Plant owner Exelon Nuclear said the shutdowns posed no threat to public safety and it isn't required to report them.

-------- new mexico

New Mexico

01/02/27
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Los Alamos - Los Alamos National Laboratory has burned 1,000 tons of wood in an open area on the lab's southern boundary. Firefighters and emergency crews monitored the fire, which began Sunday. A lab spokesman said conditions were favorable, since the ground was still wet from snow. A fire intended to clear underbrush last May burned out of control and left 400 families homeless.

-------- new york

Study to Take Stock of Reactor's Long-Term Health

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/nyregion/27NUKE.html?pagewanted=all

For the last two months, the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant has been generating almost as much angst as electricity. A series of leaks, shutdowns and errors has alarmed elected officials and delayed Consolidated Edison's efforts to get the plant back into full operation.

Experts and even some critics agree that these incidents have been mostly routine, and would not have drawn so much attention had they not followed the accident that released a puff of radioactive steam a year ago.

But that accident is about to produce some more serious fallout: a report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to be made public on Friday, is expected to examine underlying problems of the kind that made the steam leak possible.

The report could be far more revealing than the recent technical problems at the plant, 35 miles north of Manhattan in Buchanan.

"It's looking at longer-term issues, like emergency preparedness at the plant, the program for identifying and fixing problems, and reactor safety repair programs," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the commission. "It goes to more to long- term health of the plant than to immediate issues."

Those issues would be important for any reactor, but are critical for the survival of Indian Point, which Con Edison plans to sell in June to Entergy Nuclear for $602 million. Entergy has made it clear that it does not plan to have the kinds of errors and resulting long shutdowns the plant has had under Con Ed.

Both companies will be paying close attention to the report, the result of a monthlong inspection by 13 experts drawn by the N.R.C. from its offices around the country. The inspection was completed earlier this year. The companies were careful not to disclose what they know about the findings, but hinted that the report would spot some problems.

Michael R. Kansler, senior vice president of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said the inspectors had "identified some issues that need to get added into the pile of things they need to work on."

The genesis of the inspection was the accident on Feb. 16, 2000, when a tube in a steam generator cracked, allowing about 5,000 gallons of radioactive water to leave the containment building. No one was injured, and officials said the leak posed no threat to public safety.

The N.R.C. later decided to conduct the in-depth inspection of Indian Point 2 after learning that the last inspection of the generator, in 1997, had been done wrong. Better interpretation of inspection data would have shown that the generator was likely to leak, the commission said.

That was only one of a series of misjudgments by Con Ed, which built the plant 27 years ago. In hindsight, it is clear that the utility's response to the generator leak was poor. It moved ahead with plans to plug the faulty tube and resume operation, but the N.R.C. rejected that idea, saying the steam generators needed more analysis.

Con Ed decided to replace the generators, but not until mid-August, when it was far too late to restart the plant for the summer, the period of peak electricity demand. The company had plodded down the wrong path for months, paying about $600,000 a day for replacement power while it tried to restart the plant using the old steam generators.

Last month, when the new generators were at last installed and operators tried to reopen the plant, they mismatched heat production with the flow of cooling water - an unremarkable mistake, except that an internal study by the company later concluded that workers might have moved faster than they should have, feeling pressure from supervisors to restart the reactor.

And there were worrisome problems in operations even before last February's accident. In August 1999, a malfunction made the reactor shut down suddenly, an event that was once common but which the industry now says should happen no more than once every couple of years at a plant. Emergency diesel generators that were supposed to start automatically did not do so; the operators, busy with a number of complications, failed to take adequate notice that some control room instruments were being powered by emergency batteries, until the batteries died.

Incidents like that have led to long shutdowns at other plants. And the February accident resulted in an almost yearlong shutdown that ended Jan. 28, when Indian Point 2 returned to full power.

Regulated utilities like Con Edison have historically endured such long shutdowns, but independent power generation companies like Entergy say they have not and cannot.

Entergy plans to own Indian Point through a corporate subsidiary that has limited assets, and is thus less able than traditional utilities to weather a protracted shutdown. Mr. Kansler said in an interview that Entergy was going to run the plant better than Con Ed has, and did not anticipate the kind of long shutdowns that Indian Point 2 and its near-twin next door, Indian Point 3, have endured under previous ownership.

Entergy promises to consider the N.R.C. report carefully. "This is a very opportune time for that type of inspection, because it's hopefully going to give the public assurance that the people running the plant are going to run it well," Mr. Kansler said. If problems are found, he said, "we're going to go after those just like it happened on our watch."

That may take time to achieve, given the spate of smaller problems. The plant was taken to half power last week to allow repair of a pinhole leak in a water pipe; full power was restored over the weekend.

But several elected officials, including Senator Charles E. Schumer and the Westchester County executive, Andrew J. Spano, have withdrawn their calls that the plant be closed, saying that the N.R.C. has reassured them of its safety.

And even some critics say the recent troubles have been exaggerated because of last February's accident.

"Because of the notoriety that Indian Point 2 has, everything's getting escalated one or two levels at least," said David Lochbaum, the reactor expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit safety group.

He said it was possible the plant could do better under new management. "You make a few changes at the top and send people the right messages, and the plant workers want to do the right thing," he said. "You point them in the right direction, and they'll get the job done."

-------- us nuc politics

Bush Speech Highlights

February 27, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Speech-Highlights.html?searchpv=aponline

Highlights from President Bush's budget speech on Tuesday night at the Capitol:

EDUCATION -- Called education his top priority and said reading is ``the foundation of all learning.'' Bush said his budget calls for spending on reading programs to be tripled over the next five years to $5 billion. Bush also called for character education in school, saying that values are important. He also said that when shoools fail, parents and students parents and students should have different options.

TAX CUT -- Vigorously defended his $1.6 trillion in tax cuts, calling the tax rate of 15 percent too high for those who earn low wages. He said the cut would be retroactive, but did not say how far back it would extend. He proposed a rate of 10 percent and said no one should pay more than a third of the money they earn in federal income taxes. He said he would reduce taxes for married couples and double the child tax credit to $1,000 per child. He also said the the death tax should be repealed.

DEBT REDUCTION -- Asked for $2 trillion in debt reduction.

MILITARY -- Requested $5.7 billion in increased military pay and benefits, health care and housing. Bush said that his budget will ``transform our military,'' and ``discard Cold War relics, and reduce our own nuclear forces to reflect today's needs.'' He said the nation must pursue a missle defense program to ensure the nation's security.

ENVIRONMENT -- Proposed providing $4.9 billion in resources over five years for the upkeep of the nation's national parks.

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES -- Adressing concerns about the seperation of church and state, he said the ``government cannot be replaced by charities or volunteers.'' But he quickly added that the nation should support the ``good works of these good people who are helping neighbors in need.'' He proposed allowing all taxpayers to deduct their charitable contributions. He said estimates show this could encourage as much as $14 billion a year in new charitable giving. He announced that his budget provides more than $700 million over the next 10 years for a Federal Compassion Capital Fund, which will ``provide a mentor to the more than one million children with a parent in prison, and to support other local efforts to fight illiteracy, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, and other difficult problems.''

SOCIAL PROGRAMS -- Said he wants to increase spending next year for Social Security and Medicare and other entitlement programs by $81 billion. To save the program, Bush says his budget creates a program that allows people to invest part of the money traditional put into Social Security.

HEALTH CARE -- Dedicated $238 billion to Medicare next year alone, which he said is enough to fund all current programs and to begin a new prescription drug benefit for low-income seniors. He alluded to a patient's bill of rights, suggesting that people who want to get the medical care should ``not be forced to go to court because they did not get it.''

FUTURE FUNDS -- Set aside almost a trillion dollars over 10 years for additional needs.

ENERGY CRISIS -- Called for a national energy policy, saying that he has already asked federal agencies to work with California officials to help speed construction of new energy sources.

-------- MILITARY

-------- colombia

Bush and Colombian President Meet

February 27, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Colombia.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Tuesday rejected Colombian President Andres Pastrana's bid for U.S. involvement in discussions with Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group.

During their 45-minute meeting Tuesday, Bush rejected Pastrana's suggestion that the United States resume contacts with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Pastrana's government has been engaged in slow-moving peace talks with the FARC in hopes of ending Colombia's 37 years of war.

Pastrana said Monday he hoped the United States would take part in a meeting scheduled next month.

``We will not be,'' Bush told reporters. ``This is an issue that the Colombian people and the Colombian president can deal with. We'll be glad to help Colombia in any way to make the peace. We'll be glad to help the Colombian economy through trade. But I won't be present for the discussions.''

A senior administration official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States generally supports ``efforts at peace in Colombia,'' but was adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward the FARC because of its involvement in the slayings of three U.S. missionaries in 1999.

The two leaders discussed issues ranging from trade and drug eradication to human rights and Colombia's overall efforts to shake off its recession, the official said. They also talked about the Summit of the Americas conference to be held in Canada in April.

Declaring himself a friend of free trade and foe of narco-trafficking, Bush pledged to bolster anti-drug efforts in Colombia and said -- with a sprinkling of Spanish -- that he would have his trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, take up the issue of lowering trade barriers through renewing the Andean Trade Preference Act.

``Por supuesto,'' Bush said. ``Absolutely. It's a very important treaty. Yes, ma'am, I'll be pushing it. I'm a free-trader.''

The 10-year-old act is to expire in December. Two senators have said they will propose renewing it for five years and expanding it much like a trade pact passed for Caribbean basin countries.

Pastrana said he wants the Andean act expanded ``so that we could get some economic and commercial benefits'' to better enable Colombia to fight off drug traffickers.

``That's a way, also, of going forward in the fight against drugs,'' Pastrana said. ``He was very committed, you know, in this process of engaging the U.S. government in helping the Andean region.''

Bush said the United States would work with Colombia to counter narcotics trafficking.

``We're fully aware of the narcotics that are manufactured in his country,'' Bush said. ``I also told him that many of them wouldn't be manufactured if our nation didn't use them. And we've got to work together to not only help Colombia, but help our own country.''

The meeting concluded Pastrana's four-day visit. Before it took place, the State Department issued a report condemning the human rights record of Pastrana's government as ``poor.''

Those realities include soldiers and police committing murders, security forces working with right-wing paramilitaries and high-ranking officials rarely being held accountable for crimes, the department said in its annual report examining human rights worldwide.

Despite concerns of abuses, the United States has been tightening its relationship with the armed forces in Colombia, the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Colombia is receiving combat helicopters and troop training under a $1.3 billion anti-drug aid package approved last year.

---

Pastrana urges U.S. to meet with Colombian rebels

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
By Tom Carter
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001227222424.htm

Colombian President Andres Pastrana, in Washington to meet with President Bush today, said the United States should sit down to discuss peace with Colombia's Marxist, drug-trafficking guerrillas.

Mr. Pastrana, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, widely known by its acronym FARC, last week invited several European Union and Latin American nations to Colombia to discuss peace. On Friday, the United States and Cuba were invited to attend.

"I think it is positive if the United States is at the table," said Mr. Pastrana, just after meeting with Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the International Relations Committee.

The United States in the past has met with members of the FARC, who have been engaged in a 37-year insurgency against the government of Colombia. But Washington broke off discussions after three U.S.-Indian rights activist missionaries were kidnapped and executed by the FARC in 1999.

The United States has refused to meet with the FARC until those responsible for the murders are turned over for trial.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Pastrana said Colombia would be responsible for ensuring justice if the men were turned over to authorities. He said the March 8 meeting should be used to move the peace process forward.

Mr. Pastrana is in Washington for a four-day visit that culminates with his meeting today with Mr. Bush.

The main purpose of this visit is to lobby for trade preferences that would allow Colombian textiles into the United States duty-free. He also is pushing for more money for social programs and for more open U.S. support in the peace process.

In yesterday's meeting with Mr. Hyde, Mr. Pastrana sought to calm the growing concern on Capitol Hill that his Plan Colombia, which seeks to bring peace to Colombia and end its drug trade, is not going as planned.

During the past week, two helicopters - a Huey II and a Black Hawk - which were given to Colombia by the United States, came under hostile fire from FARC rebels.

The Huey II, a police helicopter that was involved in crop fumigation, was shot down in an area that - according to Plan Colombia -should have been cleared by the Colombian military. According to Mr. Pastrana, the Colombian military arrived after the fact.

"Mr. Hyde asked Pastrana, where was the military [in the attack], and Mr. Hyde pressed Pastrana hard on the sincerity of the guerillas, in light of their continuing attacks," said a senior Republican aide. "Mr. Pastrana promised there would be penalties" if the FARC did not stop the attacks.

Washington analysts said that Mr. Pastrana understands that he cannot bring peace to Colombia without outside international pressure on the FARC.

"He wants the United States to play a much more active role in the peace process," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue. Mr. Shifter said that outside pressure from the United States or even the United Nations is needed to negotiate peace in Colombia.

The United States pledged $1.3 billion to back Pastrana's Plan Colombia, a $7 billion strategy to eradicate drugs, reform the judicial system, end human rights abuses and persuade peasants to plant alternate crops. About 80 percent of the total is for military aid.

-------- drug war

Surviving Drugs' Ravages to Build a Productive Life

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By AARON DONOVAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/nyregion/27NEED.html

Ray Ptomey speaks so quietly and is so modest in his manner that it is hard to imagine that he was once on anyone's hit list. But more than a decade ago he was shot five times by men who wanted him dead.

He was a cocaine dealer and had knowingly stepped onto another dealer's turf. "I was in the street," said Mr. Ptomey, now 47, "doing what I wasn't supposed to be doing."

Mr. Ptomey's competitors shot him five times in the abdomen, neck and shoulder and left him for dead on an East New York sidewalk.

"They were trying to send a message," he said, adding that he had been in that particular line of work only a week.

The shooting was the worst moment of his life, but also, perhaps, the luckiest.

He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he stayed for a month and a half. Now the only physical reminder of that cold night is the opening in his lower abdomen created by the colostomy he had to have.

After leaving the hospital in 1988, Mr. Ptomey began using heroin to ease his pain. He stayed on heroin for six years, during which time he survived on welfare. His first step out of drug dependency came in 1994, when he enrolled in the city's methadone program, which provided him with a means to overcome his heroin habit.

But it wasn't until he started baby- sitting for his 7-month-old grandson, Tharay, in 1998 that Mr. Ptomey realized he needed to find a job and stop using drugs completely. "I couldn't look at him and still be doing funny things," he said. "I wanted to be a good sight for my grandson."

He told his methadone counselor that he wanted to find a job, and she referred him to a job counselor, who sent him to take an aptitude test at Kings County Hospital Center. After the test, workers at the hospital recommended that he enroll in a state program, Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, that helps find employment for disabled people and training if they need it. His counselor from the program, James Samuels, referred him to a job training program at the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, one of the seven local charities supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

At the agency, Mr. Ptomey began working with Mfon Ukpe, who evaluated his job skills. The agency offers training in several fields, including custodial and maintenance services, food services and messenger work.

Mr. Ptomey was most interested in working as a custodian. After training in basic job skills, including how to dress for work and for a job interview, how to conduct himself during an interview and how to show respect toward supervisors, Mr. Ptomey was temporarily placed as a custodian and maintenance man at a branch of Independence Community Bank in downtown Brooklyn.

After several months as a temporary worker supervised by the Brooklyn Bureau, Mr. Ptomey was hired as a full-time employee.

When he was hired, Mr. Ptomey did not have enough money for the steel-tipped shoes and the blue uniform needed for the job, so the Brooklyn Bureau used $160 from the Neediest Cases Fund to buy them for him.

"We thought it was our duty," Mr. Ukpe said. "We make sure we give people what they need to get back on their feet."

Mr. Ptomey credits officials of the Brooklyn Bureau with helping him to succeed.

"They really helped me stay focused," he said. "They allowed me a chance to work, which kept my mind occupied and kept me on the straight and narrow."

---

Adjusting Drug Policy

February 27, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/opinion/27TUE1.html

It is rare for a Hollywood movie to stimulate meaningful debate about social policy, but that has been the case with "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's gritty depiction of the drug wars that has been nominated for an Academy Award as best picture. With its disturbing images of middle-class teenage addiction, outgunned American counter-narcotics agents and corrupt Mexican drug officials, the movie has touched a nerve at a time of flux in the nation's decades-long campaign against illicit drugs. With new leadership both in Washington and in Mexico, this is a good time to think anew about the most effective ways to deal with a social problem that has fueled widespread violence and corruption and destroyed countless lives.

The White House has yet to declare its intentions on drug policy, and has not nominated a replacement for Barry McCaffrey as the director of national drug control policy. But President Bush and members of his cabinet have made comments lately that suggest they may be willing to shift the emphasis of American policy from eradicating the supply of drugs to reducing the demand for them. Mr. Bush, on his recent visit to Mexico, acknowledged that American consumption was "the main reason why drugs are shipped through Mexico to the United States."

"Traffic's" depiction of bribes and torture in Mexico, including the collusion of Mexico's top drug official with one of that country's most notorious drug syndicates, is based on well-documented events of the late 1990's. Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, has pledged to eradicate corruption. But the limits of such a campaign were underscored in January when one of Mexico's most infamous drug barons, Joaquin Guzman, escaped from prison, apparently after bribing guards.

In talks planned for today with President Andrés Pastrana of Colombia, Mr. Bush has an opportunity to review the $1.3 billion aid package known as Plan Colombia, which he inherited from the Clinton administration. The plan is skewed toward using military force to shut down the drug trade in Colombia, an approach that could entangle American troops in that nation's protracted civil war while doing little to stem the flow of narcotics north.

There is a place in American policy for efforts to interdict drug shipments overseas, and to prevent the cultivation of crops that are used to make drugs. Law enforcement programs in the United States must also play a role. But these programs cannot succeed without a more robust effort to curtail the demand for drugs at home. The bulk of the federal government's $19.2 billion annual drug-fighting budget is still spent on interdiction and enforcement. Yet the number of hard-core users of cocaine has remained steady over the last decade at around 3.5 million. The number of hard-core heroin users, meanwhile, has risen from 600,000 in the early 1990's to 980,000 today.

Studies have consistently shown that treatment programs for addicts are far more cost-effective than enforcement and interdiction in reducing drug use. During the campaign last year Mr. Bush pledged to provide an additional $1 billion over five years for treatment to help close the gap between the 5 million Americans addicted to illegal drugs and the 2.1 million who currently receive treatment. That by itself would be a laudable achievement.

Mr. Bush has acknowledged his own problems with alcohol earlier in life. Shortly before taking office, he told CNN that drug treatment programs needed to be strengthened. "Addiction to alcohol or addiction to drugs is an illness," he said. "And we haven't done a very good job, thus far, of curing people of that illness." As a Republican with a conservative base, Mr. Bush may be better placed than Bill Clinton was to bring a reluctant Congress around to that view. He should use the powers of his office to do so.

---

U.S. agents discover tunnel for smuggling drugs

02/27/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-02-27-drug-tunnel.htm

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Federal agents discovered a 25-foot dirt tunnel that was apparently being used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican border, and seized 840 pounds of cocaine from the Arizona house at one end of the passage.

The crude, hand-dug tunnel - fitted with a string of bare electric bulbs - runs from the Nogales house to the sewer system, which leads in turn to a dry streambed along the Mexican border called the Nogales Wash.

"The drugs probably were smuggled from Mexico through the wash, into the sewer pipe, then into the tunnel and into the house," U.S. Customs spokesman Roger Maier said.

The tunnel, discovered Monday, was connected to the sewer by a hinged metal hatch.

No immediate arrests were made.

"At this point, we have no idea how long it was there, but it appears from the evidence that it had been utilized for some time," Maier said.

The discovery came as agents were investigating possible smuggling at the home, which is about three-quarters of a mile north of the Mexican border. Agents found no one at home but noticed dirt between a window blind and window.

Customs agents searched the home and discovered 198 cocaine bricks valued at $6.5 million wholesale.

The tunnel had lights but no ventilation, Maier said.

The tunnel was the sixth discovered in Nogales. The first was found in 1995, running from a point near the wash to an abandoned Methodist church. Three more tunnels were discovered in 1999 and one last year, all coming off sewer pipes branching off from the Nogales Wash.

The Nogales Wash is frequently is used by drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

---

New York

01/02/27
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Buffalo - Two men and a woman were found fatally shot in an apartment where drug-packaging material was stored. Autopsies showed each victim had been shot at least once in the head. One victim had an extensive criminal history, police said. The bodies were discovered Sunday evening by a tenant in the apartment below who noticed water dripping from the ceiling.

---

Cocaine or polo shirts?

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
Embassy Row James Morrison News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-2001227215213.htm

The war against drugs in South America can be reduced to a choice between cocaine or polo shirts, according to a leading Peruvian trade advocate.

Diego Calmet, on a visit to Washington last week, urged the United States to lift import tariffs on Peruvian textiles so as to remove the temptation for cotton farmers to take up the illegal production of coca, the plant from which cocaine is made.

Mr. Calmet also fears that the war on drugs in neighboring Colombia might push the problem into Peru, our correspondent Tom Carter reports.

"Cotton is a basic substitution crop for coca. If the tariffs were lifted, we think we could generate half a million new jobs in agriculture and keep the farmers from going back to growing coca," said Mr. Calmet, who braved the snowstorm last week to lobby members of Congress for the extension and expansion of the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA).

He said Peruvian clothing exports, including high-end cotton golf shirts designed and sold under the Ralph Lauren and Polo labels, make up less than half of 1 percent of U.S. clothing imports, but lifting the tariff could boost Peru's exports by as much as 40 percent.

Mr. Calmet, who represents Peruvian clothing makers, said that clothing manufactured in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America is sold in the United States without protective tariffs, while Peruvian clothing is hit with a duty of 21 percent.

Peruvian textiles account for a small percent of U.S. imports, but that is a major market for Peru, he said.

"We are not asking for money, and the product we produce does not hurt American producers. The purpose is to create legal employment. This is the way to fight drugs."

The lifting of these tariffs "is a matter of prime importance for the government of Peru," added Roberto Rodriguez, an economics officer for the Peruvian Embassy and Mr. Calmet's host in Washington.

Mr. Calmet said that Peru, which is in the midst of political upheaval and is experiencing 70 percent unemployment, is afraid that the United States is only concerned about drugs coming from Colombia. He praised Plan Colombia, which is being funded in part with $1.3 billion in U.S. tax money, but he said pressure in Colombia could be a disaster for Peru. Peru will receive about $42 million in the plan.

"The price of coca is going up, and there is the balloon effect," he said, noting that when drug traffickers are "squeezed" in one part of Latin America, they shift their operations to other countries.

"Peru has been very effective in its fight against drugs, but we are at a critical moment now," said Mr. Calmet.

-------- iraq

Who won that war?
Best not to look

February 27, 2001
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

Those girlish noises on the eastern horizon are the sound of Saddam Hussein giggling.

Well, why not?

The government in Kuwait, retrieved from clammy Iraqi embrace by the Persian Gulf War a decade ago, invited some of the principals back for a celebration yesterday, or at least a commemoration, and from the popping of the champagne corks (or whatever pops at a Muslim gala) you might have imagined the Kuwaitis and their American rescuers won that war.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, dropping in from his first tour of the Middle East, made the ritual pledge that "freedom will live and prosper in this part of the world" despite everything Saddam Hussein can do. That's expecting a lot from something as fragile as freedom, particularly in a grim part of the world where freedom is a foreigner, grudgingly tolerated.

"Aggression," he said, echoing the earlier President Bush on that long past day 10 years ago, "will not stand." Then he joined Mr. Bush and Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander in the Persian Gulf War, to lay a wreath at the American Embassy in remembrance of the 148 Americans killed in the desert.

Alas, Saddam's aggression does stand, and in Iraq, it is standing fully upright.

The rest of the world laughed when Saddam portrayed abject military defeat as his personal triumph. No one laughs at him now. He is the most important Muslim politician anywhere, the unrepentant enemy of the United States, archfoe of the civilized, the intimidator of the brave peace processors at the United Nations. The Muslims whom those 148 Americans (Christians, mostly) died to protect demand now that the United States relieve Saddam's pain.

Americans sometimes learn lessons slowly and only with difficulty. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East. If a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience, as Dr. Johnson famously observed, ingratitude is the bastard child of sacrifice. You could ask anyone within spitting distance of Suez.

Colin Powell heard a chorus of complaint, bluster and whimper at every stop on his Middle Eastern tour, and was told over and over that the new American president owes it to the Arabs in general and the Iraqis in particular to ease the sanctions imposed by the United Nations in an attempt to make Saddam keep evil at a minimum.

The sobs and bluster seem to be working. In Damascus, the nexus of much of the trouble-making in the Middle East, the general indicated - diplomats never "say" if they can "indicate" -that he will recommend that President Bush ease the curbs on civilian goods to Iraq, even civilian goods that can be easily converted to military use.

The general comes home tonight after meeting with Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, and Farouk al-Sharaa, the foreign minister, to discuss the sanctions and - no hooting, please -Middle East "peace" efforts. Since the general has banned the use of that thigh-slapper of a term, "peace process," recognizing the home truth that processed peace is to peace as Velveeta is to cheese, he probably had to work at it to keep a straight face in his discussions with the Syrians.

The United States will consult with France, which is always on the lookout for opportunities to subvert and obstruct; with Russia, which sees continued trouble in the region as its path back to pretense if not power; with China, which has helped build the air bases from which Saddam's planes threaten American and British aviators, and with various Arab governments, who cry buckets of tears over the plight of Iraqi civilians but are nevertheless willing to risk nuclear disaster at Saddam's hands if that's what it takes to kill the Jews. Some process. Some peace. A decade hence somebody else can lay a wreath in remembrance of a fresh crop of American corpses.

"We want the world to know our quarrel is not with the people of Iraq," Gen. Powell said in Kuwait, "but with the regime in Baghdad." True enough. It's Saddam who has the quarrel with the people of Iraq, and it is Saddam who will manipulate concessions so that whatever mercy the good-hearted Americans deliver will be so strained that the Iraqi people will never see it.

Saddam can't expect to roll George W. Bush in the way he rolled Bill Clinton, but he won't have to. He kicked out the United Nations arms inspectors, to perfect his germ-warfare weapons and his nuclear experiments without being disturbed. The West, softheaded as usual, contented itself with mere military victory in 1991, and now there's a new threat. This is what cannot be left to stand.

Saddam Hussein isn't entitled to much, but so far he's earned the giggle.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.

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

Marine in Charge of Troubled Osprey Program Is Being Replaced

February 27, 2001
New York Times
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/national/27OSPR.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 - The Marine Corps colonel who has managed the troubled V-22 Osprey program since 1997, a period when two Osprey crashes killed 23 marines, has been denied a promotion to brigadier general and will retire in June, service officials said today.

But the Marine Corps officials said the colonel, Nolan Schmidt, was not bypassed for promotion because of the V-22 program's many problems, which have included production delays, cost overruns and fatal crashes.

They also asserted that Colonel Schmidt was not pressured to leave, saying he had decided months ago to retire this year, his 28th in the Marine Corps.

"All colonels are considered for brigadier general," said Lt. David Nevers, a Marine Corps spokesman. "Only a fraction rise to the flag level rank. And very few in the acquisition field rise to that level. Very, very few. So it's not at all unusual that a program manager would find themselves retiring at the rank of colonel."

But Colonel Schmidt's retirement is viewed by some critics of the Osprey as part of a broader effort by the Marine Corps to restore faith in the $40 billion program, which is the focus of at least two separate investigations and is widely considered a prime target for budget cuts by Congress and the Bush administration.

One of those investigations, by the Department of Defense inspector general, is looking into accusations of falsified maintenance records at the Osprey base at New River, N.C. Colonel Schmidt, who is based at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, has not been implicated in that probe.

But a second investigation, by a four-member panel of military officials and aviation experts, is looking at several decisions by Colonel Schmidt as part of a broader review of the Osprey's safety record, effectiveness and cost. That panel is expected to issue a report to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld in April.

Colonel Schmidt could not be reached for comment tonight. But in a letter to the editor published last month in The Morning Star in Wilmington, N.C., Colonel Schmidt defended the Osprey, saying, "After six years of extensive testing and more than 4,000 hours of flight, we believe the MV-22 to be safer and far more capable than the Vietnam-era helicopter it will replace."

The Marine Corps wants to spend more than $30 billion to buy 360 of the tilt-rotor Ospreys, which can cruise like an airplane and hover like a helicopter, to replace its CH-46 and CH-53D helicopters. The Navy and Air Force are scheduled to buy an additional 98 Ospreys by 2015. The aircraft is manufactured by the Boeing Company's helicopter division and Bell Helicopter Textron.

Among the many things under review by the four-member panel are the program office's decision to postpone or cancel a series of tests intended to check the Osprey's maneuverability in potentially dangerous aerodynamic conditions. Under Colonel Schmidt's direction, the office conducted only 33 out of 103 scheduled tests to try to cut costs and keep the program from falling further behind schedule, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps last year.

Congressional and Pentagon investigators say some of those canceled tests were intended to shed light on a rare but deadly phenomenon, known as vortex ring state, which can cause a rotor aircraft to lose lift and fall out of the sky.

Vortex ring state is thought to have caused the crash of an Osprey in Arizona last April that killed all 19 marines on board.

The four-member panel is also reviewing a crash in December in North Carolina that killed four marines. The accident has been linked to a leaky hydraulics line and a computer software failure that prevented a backup hydraulics system from working.

Some investigators contend that Colonel Schmidt should have ordered tests on the computer system that could have revealed the software problems. But Marine Corps officials say they do not know whether Colonel Schmidt was responsible for those decisions.

The Osprey's problems long predate Colonel Schmidt's tenure as program manager. Virtually since its inception in the early 1980's, the program has been plagued by maintenance problems, cost overruns and design shortcomings.

In 1989, Dick Cheney, who was then secretary of defense, tried to kill the Osprey, saying it was too expensive, but he was overruled by Congress. In 1991, a V-22 crashed on its first flight, injuring two people. And in 1992, a second V-22 prototype plunged into the Potomac River after an oil fire ignited on board, killing all seven of its passengers.

But it has been in the last year, a time when the Marines were pushing hard to get the aircraft into final production, that the V-22 has had its most spectacular and deadly mishaps.

Col. Dan Schultz, who works in the Pentagon for the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for air programs, is scheduled to replace Colonel Schmidt as the V-22 program manager in June.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

It's Only Logical things that have happened can happen again

rvi.net
http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/logical.htm

"There are established principles of inductive logic which are associated historically with William of Ockham and Sir Isaac Newton. They are used in the empirical sciences for the discovery or identification of causes in nature. Given a strong trend or association observed in nature, take the simplest and most fitting explanation as the cause, unless and until the contrary be shown. Likewise, attribute like causes to like effects, unless and until the contrary be shown. Finally, where cause and effect in certain circumstances are fairly ascertained by proper experiment, such cause and effect may be generalized throughout the universe, unless and until the contrary is shown."

John Remington Graham and Pierre-Jean Morin, Highlights In North American Litigation During The Twentieth Century On Artificial Fluoridation Of Public Water Supplies, Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law, Vol 142, 1999.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/Vol142/graham1.htm

--

fluorosis

Fluorosis is a word meaning chronic fluoride poisoning. There are two classifications: dental and skeletal.

Dental fluorosis occurs while the teeth are developing - prior to birth as well as during childhood. The very mildest cases consist of a barely perceptible loss of translucency and increased porosity in dental enamel, and are usually described as beautiful white teeth. In moderate and severe cases there may be brown and black stains and pits which are clearly visible.

Skeletal fluorosis may occur at any age from early childhood to advanced old age, depending on daily dosage, length of exposure, and individual differences in tolerance. However, fluoride affects the entire individual in ways not necessarily associated with bones or teeth.

fluoridation

Fluoridation is the addition of any fluoride compound to a public drinking water supply in order to bring the concentration up to the so-called "optimal" level for maximum dental benefits with minimal harm to developing teeth. In most cases, this concentration is believed to be about one part per million - one milligram per liter of water.

Generally speaking, fluoride added to drinking water is the recovered liquid waste from smokestack scrubbers in the artificial fertilizer industry.

retention of ingested fluoride

For healthy, young, or middle-aged adults, approximately 50 percent of absorbed fluoride is retained by uptake in calcified tissues, and 50 percent is excreted in the urine. For young children, as much as 80 percent can be retained owing to increased uptake by the developing skeleton and teeth.

Nat'l Academy Press, Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride (1999)

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309063507/html/index.html

--

risk factors

"The risk of fluorosis is increased by factors such as high protein diets, residence at high altitude, and certain metabolic and respiratory disorders that decrease pH. Factors that increase urinary pH and decrease the balance of fluoride include vegetarian diets, certain drugs and some other medical conditions."

Determinants and mechanisms of enamel fluorosis. Whitford GM, Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-1129, USA. Ciba Found Symp 1997;205:226-41; discussion 241-5

Why are fluorides added to drinking water?

The answer is simple: follow the money. It is much too expensive to dispose of toxic fluoride wastes in any other manner.

Fluorides are one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. Mining and manufacturing release huge quantities of fluoride into the environment, as does the burning of coal. Automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke contain fluoride. All foods and beverages - other than fluoride-free water - contain some quantity of fluoride.

"Fluoride is being dumped into the air and water in ever­increasing quantities, and is one of the most toxic of the major pollutants."

The Many Faces of Science. Sciquest, May/June (1979) volume 52, no 5, p. 30­31, Edward Groth III, Senior Staff Officer, National Research Council

"Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than any other air pollutant."

Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of Domestic Animals, Agricultural Handbook No. 380, Robert J. Lillie, 1970, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare.

symptom recognition

"The hazards to human health are not fully appreciated and are under-reported."

Endemic fluorosis. McGill PE, Stobhill Hospital NHS Trust, Glasgow, UK. Baillieres Clin Rheumatol 1995 Feb;9(1):75-81

In fact, chronic fluoride poisoning is not even a reportable disease in the United States. Physicians are not trained to recognize the signs, and have been told there were hundreds of safety studies which ruled out the possibility.

Nonetheless, "chronic effects of fluoride on the skeletal system have been described in India, Ceylon, China, South Africa, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Canada, and Europe."

Biologic Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants FLUORIDES, Committee on Biologic Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants, Division of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1971

"Many (cases) have undoubtedly passed unnoticed, since a high proportion of them have been erroneously diagnosed as benign and malignant bone tumors, chronic osteomyelitis, chronic polyarthritis, rheumatoid disease, and tabetic arthropathy or Paget's osteitis deformans."

Radiological Aspects of A New Type of Bone Fluorosis, Periostitis Deformans, Radiology 87:1089-1094, 1968

total daily fluoride intake

With fluoride, as with anything else, dose is the poison.

During the early 1940s the typical U.S. diet provided only about 0.2 to 0.3 milligrams of fluoride daily. Water fluoridated at one part per million provided one milligram of fluoride per liter. All in all, this provided children in fluoridated areas with an average of 0.04 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight per day (0.04 mg/kg/day). Adults, whose nutritional requirements are lower per pound of body weight, ingested about 0.02 mg/kg/day. Generally speaking, the total daily intake for both children and adults would not have exceeded 1.5 to 2.0 mg/day.

McClure, Frank J., Ingestion of fluoride and dental caries --quantitative relations based on food and water requirements of children 1 to 12 years old, American Journal Diseases of Children (Vol 66, page 362, 1943)

safety studies

In 1945 McClure wrote, "Epidemiological studies of the non-dental effects of fluorine, as ingested in fluoride domestic waters, are extremely few in number and very limited in scope."

Non Dental Physiological Effects of Trace Quantities of Fluorine, Journal American College of Dentists - 12:50, (1945)

Typically, those with chronic illness and diseases known to affect bone structure were excluded. Methods were generally confined to X-Rays incapable of detecting the earlier pre-crippling phases of skeletal fluorosis.

Pathologic Studies in Man After Prolonged Ingestion of Fluoride in Drinking Water, Public Health Reports 73:721-723, 1958. [safety study]

inadequate methods

The simple fact is this: There have been no safety studies in which the researchers used methods capable of detecting cases of chronic fluoride poisoning - but failed to find them - in any naturally or artificially fluoridated area in the United States or elsewhere. On the contrary, in spite of an appalling lack of knowledge on the part of physicians and the general public, many cases have been documented and published in the peer-review scientific journals. Crippling skeletal fluorosis has occurred at daily doses widely believed to be entirely safe. Simple logic dictates it can happen again.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, "Without statements about the power of the tests, the implication of finding no-effect is construed to be that no effect exists ... further study is indicated. ... Three reports confirm the belief that renal patients have a lower margin of safety than the average person. ... One case of symptomatic skeletal fluorosis (radiculomyelopathy) has been reported from an area in Texas with natural fluoride at 2.3 -3.5 ppm in the water. (1965). There have been two cases of suspected skeletal fluorosis (based on X-ray evidence in the United States with fluoride at 2-3 ppm in the drinking water (1972). The combination of renal impairment and very high water intake was thought to account for these findings."

Drinking Water and Health, Safe Drinking Water Committee, National Academy of Sciences, NAS/NRC, 1977.

"Fluorine is known to bind calcium in the body, causing ionic calcium to decrease; this, in turn, causes secondary hyperparathyroidism ... Renal stones, reported to be common in endemic fluorosis areas, are capable of accumulating considerable amounts of fluorine. ... Although the exact genesis of renal stones in fluorine toxicity is not known, it is conjectured that insoluble calcium fluoride is deposited in the urinary tract as a nucleus around which other salts are deposited."

Trace Elements in Human and Animal Nutrition (Fifth Edition) Edited by Walter Mertz, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland, 1987 p371 (Krishnamachari)

increasing risks

By 1991 the U.S. Public Health Ser