------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Northeast Asia uncertain on Bush
Civilian testimony not key
Navy probe errs by failing to hear civilian testimony
Chinese Nuclear Power Industry Holds Expo
Chinese Nuclear Power Industry Offers Big Opportunities
The New Marshall Plan
Powell following moderate line
U.S. Navy Study Backs Sale of Arms to Taiwan
Military blueprint to set big changes
Cold War Chills in Ukraine
Uranium victims losing leaders
Entergy, FPL call off merger
Local study to compare chemical levels in kids, adults
The Armageddon Nominee
Despite advances, radiation accidents are human reality
A chilly wind in the Pacific
States
First Contracts in the Nuclear Waste Industry

MILITARY
In From The Cold War
Bush nearing decision on Taiwan arms
S. Korea may detain U.S. soldiers
Reith slams Labor's military plan
Colombia rebels, government talk
One man's damaged brain: what statistics don't show
Lack of regulation muddles meth lab cleanup
States
S. Korea puts soldier accord in effect
Pataki Assails Bombing Tests at Vieques
Serbs storm UN building in Bosnia
Ten Myths About The Defense Budget
Locke criticizes Bush on water rules
Foot & mouth cases climb in Britain
In a Humble World, Defense Deputy Stands Firm
New Mexico

OTHER
PM to dump Kyoto deal
North's mould menace
Poll backs gas emission reduction
Danes continue oil spill cleanup
Tyson, Ky. residents in odor trial
Oil spill threatens Danish beaches
Blair Faces Choice on Disease Shots
No Days Off at Foie Gras Farm
Cloned cows die at Chico State University
Blair postpones British elections
States
Diplomatic traffic
Baltic oil spill nearly cleaned up
Update on Mr. Schmeiser and Monsanto
Blame Canada
IMF chief wants European rate cut
'Sponsorship' Gives Corporations Ringside Seats
HIGH COURT LIMITS RIGHT TO LAWYER
Victim revered police
Suspended policeman is key to a death
For Black Officers, Diversity Has Its Limits
Arkansas
U.S., CHINA AT ODDS OVER NAVY SPY PLANE
Ad Hoc Reasoning?
U.S. military critical of China
China jet intercepts U.S. Navy plane
U.S. protests access to spy plane
Sailor Says U.S. Spy Crew Was Moved
Asia Awaits End of US-China Standoff
Bush Demands Return of Plane, Crew
Spy Plane Collision Enrages Chinese
China's Shadowing Had Annoyed U.S.
U.S. Plane in China After It Collides With Chinese Jet
Tensions mount over downed U.S. plane
Bush demands China return Navy plane, crew
U.S. spy plane lands in China after collision
The Changing Nature of CIA Analysis
Taliban rule out bin Laden handover
Taliban rules out handing over bin Laden

ACTIVISTS
Get involved in anti-FTAA organizing in DC!
Bush vs. Green: An Open Letter from Barbara Kingsolver
She sails the world for a heartfelt cause
Six College Students Occupy Sikorsky Corporation Conference
Anarchist base destroyed in dawn raid
Copter Stoppers Protests expose defense industry's role in Colombia
Of Mice and Mischief
Protesters demand look at FTAA draft
Protesters target Foreign Affairs headquarters today
The fine arts of political protest
Abbie Hoffman Memorabilia Auctioned
Demonstrators face Vatican radio
Greenpeace activists occupy oil rig
Zapatista rebels arrive in Chiapas
Bob Moses honored for activism
Vietnamese anti-war musician dies
Conneticut
Greenpeace Activists Leave Oil Rig
Activists occupy rig off Scotland
No amendment against offense
Review of book on bestiality earns Polly


-------- NUCLEAR

Northeast Asia uncertain on Bush

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582204

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Just over two months into the Bush administration, a perception that U.S. foreign policy is turning hard-line is perturbing a few allies and rattling former Cold War adversaries in Northeast Asia.

The new White House talks tougher than its predecessor. But views are divided over whether the tone signals fundamental policy shifts or reflects an assertive effort to carve out a new identity on the international stage.

Bush's actions in Northeast Asia have come under particular scrutiny as Japan and South Korea, which play host to tens of thousands of American military personnel, watch the evolution of U.S. policy toward China and North Korea.

In South Korea, there is concern that blunt U.S. demands for tangible acts of reconciliation from North Korea have worsened a slowdown in President Kim Dae-jung's peace negotiations with the repressive North.

The communist regime in Pyongyang is smarting over Bush's decision to suspend Clinton-era talks on curbing the North's missile program pending a review, and has threatened to pull out of nuclear and missile accords with Washington.

``Bush is telling the world that they have a new sheriff in town,'' said Kim Song-han of the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, the South's capital. He predicted that U.S. policy will ``start out tough and then tone itself down.''

Many world leaders currently assess Washington through the lens of Bush's enthusiastic support for a U.S. missile defense system, a controversial project that has contributed to his credentials abroad as a hard-liner.

Critics of the multibillion-dollar idea, whose future was far more cloudy under Clinton, fear it could trigger an arms race.

``There's more of an attitude (in Washington) of, 'This is what we're going to do and everybody has to adjust to it,''' said Victor Cha, a Korea expert at Georgetown University in Washington. But a ``definite direction'' in U.S. foreign policy has yet to emerge, he said.

Clinton's emphasis on trade with China at the expense of human rights and Taiwan's status made for relatively smooth ties between Washington and Beijing.

Now, though, there is potential for discord: A decision is expected in April on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which China strongly opposes as an impediment to its efforts to regain control of the island. And Washington is urging Beijing to release Gao Zhan, a U.S.-based scholar accused of spying.

On Sunday, a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea and made an emergency landing in China. The Chinese government said the fighter crashed and its pilot was missing, and each side blamed the other for the incident.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Washington and Beijing should ``seek areas where joint cooperation is possible.''

But he warned: ``The more weapons you sell (to Taiwan), the more we will prepare ourselves in terms of national defense. This is logical.''

Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest newspaper, predicted in an editorial that the focus of U.S. military strategy will shift to Asia because ``the new administration sees China as the greatest enemy.''

The U.S. military also remains deeply suspicious of North Korea despite the easing of political tension between the two Koreas.

The North ``continues to field far more conventional military force than any conceivable sense of self-defense would warrant,'' Gen. Thomas Schwartz, U.S. military commander in South Korea, said last week in testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

South Korean officials say privately that their views on North Korea do not diverge sharply from the U.S. approach, but that they cannot voice their skepticism publicly for fear of upsetting the North.

``Some worry South Korea has an excessive optimism toward the North's changes. But we have kept a prudent attitude,'' Yang Sung-chul, South Korea's ambassador in Washington, said last week. He was quoted by Seoul's Yonhap news agency.

Uncertainty over U.S. foreign policy lingers partly because less than a third of Bush's national security team is in place, said Larry Wortzel, head of Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington. The process is not likely to be completed until mid-May, he said.

---

Civilian testimony not key

USA Today
04/02/2001 - Updated 03:34 AM ET
By Stephen R. Pietropaoli
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-04-02-ncoppf.htm

The principal objective of the Navy court of inquiry was to discover the facts surrounding the collision between the USS Greeneville and the Japanese vessel, Ehime Maru. The court was also directed to examine the Pacific Submarine Force commander's implementation of the Distinguished Visitor Embarkation Program.

To that end, the court questioned the admiral in charge, his chief of staff, the submarine squadron commander, the force's public affairs officer and the commanding officer of the submarine itself. Naturally, all relevant instructions and regulations are readily available to the court members as well.

USA TODAY takes issue with the court's decision not to have the civilian guests testify during the hearings, and even suggests that something is vaguely sinister in this decision.

As for the concerns raised about the civilians in the control room when the accident occurred, the majority of the witnesses testified that the guests had little if any impact on the crew. The court's concerns were addressed directly to those best positioned and most responsible for answering them: the officers and crew of the USS Greeneville. And the court of inquiry will carefully analyze the information and include it in its recommendations.

It should also be noted that the Navy actively encourages members of the business community - along with teachers, civic leaders and journalists - to observe our sailors at sea, and the fact that a person or group seeks such access does not disqualify civilian guests for such embarkations.

Finally, while the civilian guests may have provided some interesting insights into their experiences that day, it is unlikely they could have shed much light on the issue the court was charged to explore.

The members of the court had full access to the officers responsible for the conduct of such visits and will make recommendations to the commander of the Pacific Fleet when they complete their work.

It is important to note that the court of inquiry has not yet concluded. USA TODAY should reserve judgment until after the investigation is completed and give the process an opportunity to establish the facts.

Rear Adm. Stephen R. Pietropaoli is the U.S. Navy's chief of information.

---

Navy probe errs by failing to hear civilian testimony

USA Today
04/02/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-04-02-nceditf.htm

After 12 days of public hearings probing the deadly Feb. 9 crash of the USS Greeneville into a Japanese fishing boat, Navy investigators have retired from public view to decide the fate of submarine Cmdr. Scott Waddle and several crewmen, a decision expected this month. But they are debating that decision without key evidence: first-person accounts from any of the 16 civilians for whom the sub ride was conducted.

Absent that testimony, the Navy lacks a complete accounting of civilians' actions on that fateful day when nine Japanese passengers drowned. Nor can the military effectively address the broader problem highlighted by the trawler's sinking: namely, the degree to which the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines allow civilian outings designed to promote the military to override official duties and undermine the services' reputations.

The inquiry did shed valuable light on what went wrong that day among the sub's crew. Notable for its open quizzing of 32 military witnesses, the inquiry provided convincing evidence of botched procedures and cut corners on the day of the Greeneville accident: Waddle's periscope sweep was not as long as it should have been, and he failed to spot the fishing boat. Crewmen did not give Waddle information about the proximity of the Japanese boat, either. As a result, the Greeneville struck it when conducting a rapid ascent by filling its ballast tanks with air.

Questions about civilians remain

Far murkier, though, is the inquiry's picture of a sub control room crowded with civilian visitors. By failing to subpoena any of Greeneville's civilian guests, Navy investigators missed a crucial opportunity to probe questions that have surfaced about how civilians came to be guests of the Greeneville and how their presence may have played into the accident. Among the troubling information made public since Feb. 9:

• The Greeneville trip violated military guidelines. It was a pleasure ride held solely because the civilians wanted to come on board, according to the testimony of Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths, the lead investigator. Navy guidelines say civilian visits should be accommodated within training.

• Civilians crowded members of the sub crew. One crewmember was distracted and stopped plotting the sub's location relative to other ships, he initially told investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and a Navy preliminary investigation in February. But when testifying before the court of inquiry in mid-March, he backtracked from implicating the civilians.

• The civilians' sub visit violated Navy guidelines that describe the ideal guests as influential community members whom the Navy selects. Instead, most of the Greeneville's visitors were businesspeople who had lobbied for a ride. Trip organizer John Hall testified to the NTSB that after learning about such trips while organizing a charity fundraiser for a battleship museum, he and other guests "kept on lobbying that we'd like to be able to do this."

• The privileged access of the guests violates the spirit of the Navy's visitor program, which spokesmen describe as a reflection of the USA's open and democratic nature. Instead, the better connected the visitor, the more Greeneville privileges he got. Trip organizer Hall was asked to pull the levers for the sub's ascent, he told the NTSB. He and his wife also had a long, private lunch with the sub captain and another couple, according to NTSB testimony from guest Michael Nolan.

Need for civilian testimony disputed

Navy investigators defend their failure to subpoena any of the civilian guests, saying that because sub crewmen testified that the civilians weren't a distraction, the civilians' testimony wasn't needed. In addition, says inquiry spokesman Capt. Kevin Wensing, NTSB testimony from three civilian guests was entered into the record of the inquiry.

Such explanations are inadequate given that troubling questions about the Greeneville's civilian guests figured prominently into the Navy's decision to conduct a rarely used "court of inquiry" to probe the sub crash. It is the only military investigative forum in which civilian witnesses can be compelled to testify. What's more, a key goal of the court of inquiry was to probe not just the role civilians played in the accident, but also the Pacific Fleet's policies and practices that allowed visitors on the sub.

In the eight weeks since the accident, Navy officials have aggressively defended their guest program, stressing that it's a vital way of informing the public about the military. They deny that privileged Americans can muscle their way onto ships.

It's not surprising that the Navy wants to protect its visitor program; it has a clear interest in doing so. The program is used to generate popular support for sailors, weapons and vessels, thereby helping boost funding. But if the Navy's visitor program has such integrity, the service should not be reticent in investigating where it may have gone wrong in the case of the Greeneville.

It's not too late for the Navy to probe the matter. The court of inquiry can still call witnesses. Alternatively, the U.S. Department of Defense's inspector general can probe whether the guest program is out of hand.

If Waddle's decisions are found to have caused the sub accident, the Navy should hold him accountable. But that won't let the Navy off the hook for a guest program that smells of impropriety and needs reform.

-------- china

Chinese Nuclear Power Industry Holds Expo From March 30

Yahoo News
Monday 2 April
http://au.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/20010402/apbusiness/986149026-1543544883.html

SHANGHAI, April 2 Asia Pulse - China's expanding nuclear power industry is offering big opportunities for nuclear designers, manufactures and services worldwide, according to industrial sources at a nuclear exhibition opened on March 30.

The Fourth International Exhibition of Nuclear Power Industry has attracted dozens of nuclear businesses worldwide.

Westinghouse, which has recently merged its nuclear department with the British nuclear fuel company BNFL and the nuclear power department of ABB, staged a strong presence at the event, together with its partners in Japan, the Republic of Korea and Spain.

James W. Veirs, deputy head of Westinghouse's Department of Nuclear System, said his company is keenly watching China's rapidly growing economy and its nuclear power plan, and is trying its best to take part in China's nuclear power projects.

Over the past five years, China embarked on the construction of four nuclear power plants in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong, with a total installed capacity of 6.6 million kilowatts.

The figure is three times over the combined capacity of the first phase of the Qinshan plant in Zhejiang and the Dayawan plant in Guangdong that had already gone into operation.

Yet nuclear power currently accounts for only 1 per cent of the county's power supply, compared to 21.9 per cent for the United States, 33.4 per cent for Japan and 77.4 per cent for France.

China's coastal areas, which witnessed rapid economic growth over the last two decades, are showing great enthusiasm towards nuclear power.

Li Guangjun, an official from Taizhou city in Zhejiang, said the city is very likely to embark on a nuclear power plant in the next few years, because it is facing a serious power shortage and has a good site for a nuclear power plant.

Authoritative sources said China has basically acquired the technologies of pressurized water reactors and reported rapid progress in raising the local contents of nuclear power equipment.

In the future, the sources said, China will raise higher demands on foreign partners in the advancement of technologies and technology transfer.

Veirs said the key to getting nuclear power contracts in China is safety, reliability and economical competitiveness. He said Westinghouse is ready to transfer the latest nuclear reactor technologies and operation management method to China, and will form into a closer partnership with Chinese research institutions and manufacturers.

-------

Chinese Nuclear Power Industry Offers Big Opportunities

Monday, April 02, 2001
China People's Daily
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200103/31/eng20010331_66460.html

China's expanding nuclear power industry is offering big opportunities for nuclear designers, manufactures and services worldwide, according to industrial sources at a nuclear exhibition opened Friday.

The Fourth International Exhibition of Nuclear Power Industry has attracted dozens of nuclear businesses worldwide.

Westinghouse, which has recently merged its nuclear department with the British nuclear fuel company (BNFL) and the nuclear power department of ABB, staged a strong presence at the event, together with its partners in Japan, the Republic of Korea and Spain.

James W. Veirs, deputy head of Westinghouse's Department of Nuclear System, said his company is keenly watching China's rapidly growing economy and its nuclear power plan, and is trying its best to take part in China's nuclear power projects.

Over the past five years, China embarked on the construction of four nuclear power plants in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong, with a total installed capacity of 6.6 million kilowatts.

The figure is three times over the combined capacity of the first phase of the Qinshan plant in Zhejiang and the Dayawan plant in Guangdong that had already gone into operation.

Yet nuclear power currently accounts for only 1 percent of the county's power supply, compared to 21.9 percent for the United States, 33.4 percent for Japan and 77.4 percent for France.

China's coastal areas, which witnessed rapid economic growth over the last two decades, are showing great enthusiasm towards nuclear power.

Li Guangjun, an official from Taizhou city in Zhejiang, said the city is very likely to embark on a nuclear power plant in the next few years, because it is facing a serious power shortage and has a good site for a nuclear power plant.

Authoritative sources said China has basically acquired the technologies of pressurized water reactors and reported rapid progress in raising the local contents of nuclear power equipment.

In the future, the sources said, China will raise higher demands on foreign partners in the advancement of technologies and technology transfer.

Veirs said the key to getting nuclear power contracts in China is safety, reliability and economical competitiveness.

He said Westinghouse is ready to transfer the latest nuclear reactor technologies and operation management method to China, and will form into a closer partnership with Chinese research institutions and manufacturers.

-------- missile defense

The New Marshall Plan
The Pentagons oldest cold warrior has a dubious vision of national defense

In These Times
April 2, 2001
Jason Vest
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/vest2509.html

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will soon receive a far-reaching report likely to serve as the working blueprint for the Pentagon's future. Given that the author of that report is a futurist fascinated with the most advanced technologies, the document is expected to be chock full of recommendations emphasizing an expansive embrace of "information age" weaponry and a shift away from more conventional procurements.

Indeed, reading the February 9 Washington Post, one might be inclined to think that Andrew Marshall, head of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA), is an exceptional island of ingenuity and integrity floating amidst the vast archipelago of corrupt and conniving Defense Department bureaucrats. According to Post reporter Thomas Ricks, Marshall is "one of the Pentagon's most unconventional thinkers," a man who is "controversial" due to his prescient, visionary views that are "hardly conservative." Because Marshall has scrapped with the military brass over a handful of doctrinal and procurement issues, he's a "radical reformer." Not that the average person would know any of this, of course, as Marshall is "all but unknown outside national security circles" and is legendary for being "publicity-shy."

For a guy who has been ensconced at the Pentagon since 1973--and began work as an analyst for the RAND Corporation back in 1949--the 79-year-old Marshall has done a remarkable job of flying below the radar. But defense contracting executives and their advocates on the Hill, like Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, adore Marshall for his dire prognostications about an inevitably bellicose and hegemonic China and his advocacy of "Revolution in Military Affairs," a doctrine critics charge is an intellectual cover for spending largess on "precision," Buck Rogers-type weaponry.

But it's his subtle role as a National Missile Defense booster that has many concerned about his leading the Pentagon's latest top-to-bottom review. "Putting Andy Marshall in charge of this is a ploy to make sure National Missile Defense gets funded," says Mel Goodman, a veteran CIA analyst now at the National Defense University. "If he can justify making cuts in conventional procurement, they can then justify taking $60 billion to throw at NMD. This is the first secretary of defense to turn over a key problem to his net assessment adviser, which is a strange way to do business. If they were serious about this, they would not be looking for answers in several weeks."

According to those who have worked with Marshall, or kept an eye on him, his vision of defense revolves around the notion that in the future wars will not be fought up close with aircraft carrier sorties and armor and infantry deployments, but from a distance with long-range arsenal ships and planes, networked sensor arrays and precision weapons. As such, Marshall has been particularly critical of the Air Force's F-22 fighter program--the plane, he says, has too short a range to be useful to the American military of the future.

Marshall's opposition to the F-22 is often touted as an example of his "iconoclastic" thinking. But according to investigative journalist Ken Silverstein--who profiled Marshall in his book Private Warriors--opposition to the F-22 doesn't make Marshall a maverick visionary. "So he has been a critic of the F-22, fine and dandy," Silverstein says. "But you can find case after case where he has come out in support of other systems that are just as worthy of skewering. Saying he's a tough critic is like saying Jack Valenti is a tough critic of the movie industry."

Silverstein is perhaps the only author who has written critically of Marshall. While Marshall gave rare interviews to Ricks for a fawning 1994 Wall Street Journal piece and to right-wing historian Jay Winik for an admiring April 1999 article in Washingtonian magazine, Marshall declined to answer any of Silverstein's queries. Noting that only a handful of sycophantic articles were responsible for Marshall's public image, Silverstein expressed great skepticism in his book about some of Marshall's claims, including one that the ONA had been the first to sound the national security alarm about AIDS in the '80s, going so far as to alert the Centers for Disease Control to take the problem seriously. (CDC did not respond to queries from In These Times about any contact between ONA and CDC, but according to interviews with Pentagon sources who remember early '80s briefings on AIDS, no one can recall any involvement--or advocacy role--from Marshall's office.)

Another claim Silverstein found a bit difficult to swallow was a riff from Ricks' Journal piece, in which he asserted: "Well ahead of most Sovietologists, Mr. Marshall noticed the weakness of Soviet society." In fact, Silverstein wrote, Marshall's "associates have no recollection of Marshall ever having expressed such views." He quoted a former staffer as saying, "Until the very end he was a major promoter of the line that 'The Russians are coming and they're ten feet tall.' "

Indeed, Marshall had long hyped the Soviet threat. In 1977, he was one of the quietly forceful hands behind the infamous "Team B" episode, in which members of the far-right Committee on the Present Danger were given access to CIA data and allowed to histrionically rewrite the National Intelligence Estimate on Soviet Military Intentions. Though Winik wrote in Washingtonian that Marshall later rebuked the intelligence community for overestimating Soviet strengths in the '80s, Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official now at the Council on Foreign Relations, recalls that Marshall actually considered the Soviets a greater danger than ever before as the '80s and early '90s unfolded (see "Ten Myths About the Defense Budget," page 10). "Andy's idea was that as they were collapsing, they'd lash out and were more dangerous," Korb says. "That was one that was wide off the mark."

In the early '80s, it was Marshall's view that to ensure the Soviet Union's speediest demise, it was imperative to arm the Afghan muhjahadeen with Stinger missiles, a move opposed by even the CIA--which rightfully feared that the weapon would inevitably end up on the black market and in Soviet hands. But two close Marshall associates at the Pentagon, Fred Ikle and Michael Pillsbury, pushed hard to see that Marshall's argument won the day. Later they would argue that this proposal won the war in Afghanistan. But as former Times of London defense correspondent James Adams wrote in his 1990 book Engines of War: "In the self-congratulation that followed the Soviet withdrawal, three key legacies of the war were generally overlooked: the impact on Soviet society and its armed forces, the arms market created by the war and the heroin and marijuana market that has grown in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a result of the war."

According to several former intelligence analysts, Marshall's supposedly long-range, forward-thinking shop was simply oblivious to this reality, blinded by what Adams characterized as the "holy crusade" against the Soviets that the Afghanistan cause had become. Even though the Stinger shipments did result in more destroyed Russian helicopters, they were not decisive in forcing the Soviet withdrawal. In fact, they may have made the war more brutal. "The Soviet policy of scorched earth and the depopulation of rural areas destroyed much of the country's traditional economic infrastructure," Adams wrote. "The people who remained in the country were forced to turn to agriculture that did not depend on complex irrigation systems." As a result, poppy cultivation and the export of heroin shot through the roof.

To a number of former intelligence analysts, Marshall's role in getting Stinger missiles sent to the Afghan muhjahadeen highlights a certain myopia of the ONA-style of thinking. "I don't recall where he was out in front of the whole Soviet issue--if anything, he may have said it was time to throw more money into taking out the Soviets at a time when we were spending too much already," says Goodman, formerly one of the CIA's top Sovietologists.

This type of thinking is what has critics most worried about NMD. Though Silverstein holds that Marshall "has been an enthusiastic supporter of Star Wars schemes," current and former colleagues contend that Marshall--who, despite being enamored of futuristic weapons concepts, writes in longhand, does not use a computer and doesn't have call waiting, according to Winik--is much more subtle and circumspect in his support of NMD. Few of his associates, from the past or present, in fact, are willing to ascribe any particular view to him, and not just because of his legendary taciturn bent. ("He's as Delphic as they come--days may go by before he utters a word," says a former ONA staffer, adding that this proclivity for reticence has earned him the nickname "Yoda.")

"He is not very interested in the here and now, but is primarily interested in hypothesizing futures that cut against the grain, and you can argue that we really do need someone like that," says Jonathan Pollack, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and one of the leading analysts of the Chinese military. "His interest is to take events as they are understood and find a way to turn them on their head, to conflate understanding, and look for patterns or possibilities that could be studied. And he often comes up with quirky results."

But according to a longtime analyst, the product from Marshall's office often seems to be "thinking outside of the box for the sake of thinking outside the box," fused with a touch of the paranoid. "His views are very much animated by the belief that most of those at the Pentagon are asleep at the switch, too wedded to the status quo and weapons systems he believes will be vulnerable in the future," says the analyst.

Whether serious policy judgments and spending decisions should be based on this approach is another question. "The reality is a lot of the things he's postulating aren't provable," the analyst adds. "His escape clause is that what he's talking about is not reality today, but is using the equation of 'based on this variable, let's extrapolate and postulate that x could happen, which could lead to y, which could lead to z--and how do we prepare for that?' "

Or, to put it more succinctly, Pollack affectionately calls Marshall "a worrywart." To Silverstein, a better description of Marshall is "one of the most effective pork-seeking missiles ever deployed by the military brass." But unlike the actual brass, which loves to spend money on planes, tanks and ships (some of which are archaic and ripe for cutting) Marshall swoons over high-technology networked sensor systems and "smart" weapons--expensive procurements that are notorious for, well, not working.

Still, the expectation of many Washington observers is that Marshall's recommendations will give the latest incarnation of Star Wars a boost. As a key witness before Rumsfeld's Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, Marshall played no small role in convincing the commission--whose findings have been cogently criticized by numerous analysts--that a real threat is imminent. "Though Rumsfeld's commission made no recommendation whatsoever on national missile defense, it dealt with the issue very artfully," Pollack says. "In fact, if that commission had a methodology, it was a very Marshallian methodology--you can posit these circumstances, and if you posit the following it's feasible this next thing could happen."

And that means a lot of money-making opportunities for defense contractors. As Pollack says, "This is going to be a gravy train."

---

Powell following moderate line

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581648

WASHINGTON (AP) - As President Bush pulls U.S. foreign policy to the right, Secretary of State Colin Powell is following a moderate line, projecting continuity and stability to a watchful world.

The administration is into only its third month, a little early to make judgments about what may not be serious divisions. In fact, some foreign policy analysts say it is premature to look for rifts as the administration settles in and some key posts are unfilled.

The ``starkness of contrast within the administration may endure,'' said Richard W. Murphy, who was ambassador to the Philippines and three Arab countries in a 34-year foreign service career.

Still, he said, ``You are in a period when a basic re-examination of our foreign policy is still going on.''

In some key areas, Powell clearly is the administration's point man. On Yugoslavia, for example, it is up to him to decide whether Belgrade is doing enough to bring Slobodan Milosevic to judgment, thus ensuring continued U.S. aid to the country.

On most fronts, meanwhile, Powell apparently is in accord with Bush's national security agenda.

He is an enthusiastic booster of Bush's dream of a futuristic shield against missiles to protect the United States from attack. Critics consider it a costly fantasy and a threat to existing curbs on nuclear weapons.

But he is also on record as favoring a treaty to ban nuclear weapons tests, which most Republican politicians _ including Bush _ do not.

Powell shares his foreign policy views privately with the president, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser.

On at least one occasion Powell, the career soldier, was publicly out of step.

The Clinton administration worked hard to improve relations with communist North Korea, with the aim of curbing its dangerous missile development and export programs. A deal trading food and other goods for some curbs on missiles seemed within reach.

Powell said three weeks ago that the administration would pick up with the policy of seeking better relations with Pyongyang. But two days later, Bush said the time was not right to talk to the North Korean government and that he had ordered a review.

Other administrations have been marked by differences among presidential advisers. Under former President Carter, national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski was inclined to a harder line abroad than Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance.

The emergence of the security adviser job as a powerful one under Henry A. Kissinger during the Nixon administration added another possibly discordant note of advice to the president.

And now, Cheney, a former defense secretary, is playing an unprecedented role in foreign policy for a vice president.

Differences between the State and Defense departments are fine, even desirable, if the White House manages them coherently, says Leslie Gelb, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Helmut Sonnenfeldt, a former White House and State Department official, said he would caution against concluding there are deep splits.

The differences may partly be a matter of style, he said. Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, tend to be blunt, while Powell worked in the past with officials whose ``tendency was not to be hard-edged,'' said Sonnenfeldt, a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution.

``There's a question whether there is a difference in speaking style or in approach,'' he said. ``It's a little early.''

Rep. Barney Frank, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, says the die is already cast.

Powell and other moderates ``are all being thrown out the window'' by the administration, he said, joining other House members in criticizing the suspension of negotiations with North Korea.

``There is a systematic reversal in all the areas so far where the moderates have tried to moderate,'' Frank said.

Powell's approach to foreign policy seems partly driven by humanitarianism and a sense that America can be a force for good.

He has proposed a revision of U.N. sanctions against Iraq to permit more consumer goods to reach Iraqis while trying to deny President Saddam Hussein weapons material.

Powell was the one to assure anxious NATO allies at their headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in late February that the Bush administration would stay the course with peacekeepers in the restive Balkans.

``We went in together and we will come out together,'' Powell said. In the presidential campaign, Rice had created a stir by saying the United States should pull troops out. Bush, too, had said he wanted to bring Americans home.

Some 750 American peacekeepers are being withdrawn from Bosnia, and more may be sent home later on. But Powell has reiterated the pledge since the cutback.

In the Middle East last month, Powell took the lead in urging Israel to lift its ``siege'' of the West Bank and Gaza, arguing if people are denied jobs and the right to move freely they become frustrated and prone to violence.

On Macedonia, Powell urged the Balkan government not to overreact in its conflict with ethnic Albanian insurgents.

Powell called them extremists. But he also the Slav-dominated government in Skopje should counter their drive not only with force but also by reaching up to the minority ethnic Albanians.

The White House followed a few hours later with a statement in Bush's name stressing condemnation of the insurgents.

---

U.S. Navy Study Backs Sale of Arms to Taiwan

International Herald Tribune
Monday, April 2, 2001
Michael R. Gordon New York Times Service
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=15467

TAIPEI A confidential review by U.S. naval officers has concluded that Taiwan needs a significant infusion of new weapons, including a sophisticated shipborne radar system that Beijing has put at the top of the list of arms it does not want Taipei to have.

The assessment was carried out by officers from the U.S. Pacific Fleet who visited Taiwan to assess its naval requirements in light of China's military buildup. While military factors are not the only consideration, the still-secret review is an important element of the deliberations about whether to sell Taipei the radar system, known as Aegis, and other naval weapons.

The decision on whether to sell naval, air force and army weapons, which President George W. Bush is expected to make within weeks, is one of the first major foreign policy tests for his administration and could set the tone of U.S.-Chinese relations for years.

Beijing has bitterly opposed the sale of sophisticated weapons, which it fears will lead to a new degree of cooperation between Taiwan and the United States and buttress pro-independence sentiment on the island.

Beijing has singled out as particularly objectionable potential sales of three types of U.S. weapons: the navy's Aegis, which China fears may provide the basis for an eventual anti-missile defense and blunt China's missile threat to the island; submarines, which China maintains are offensive weapons and which Washington has never sold to Taipei, and the army's advanced Patriot anti-missile system known as PAC-3.

Taiwan has sought to buy submarines as well as the Aegis and has been in discussions about the new Patriot system.

In addition to citing a need for the Aegis system by 2010, the U.S. naval officers who conducted the review concluded that Taiwan also needed Kidd-class destroyers as a stopgap. And they cited the need for new submarines as well as an underwater sonar array to detect Chinese submarines. Besides the naval review, similar studies have been carried out concerning other parts of the Taiwan military.

The pending decision on arms sales has split American analysts of China, including those in the Republican Party, putting pressure on Mr. Bush from both sides.

On one side are those who say it would be foolish to pick a diplomatic fight with Beijing before the administration has a chance to begin a dialogue with the leadership there. Washington's long-term interests, these experts say, are best served by finding a way to engage China, a country of 1.3 billion people and a nuclear power with a growing economy.

On the other side are pro-Taiwan conservatives who insist that the United States has a moral obligation to safeguard the island, which is a democracy with 22 million inhabitants, from threats from the Communist mainland. The conservatives also say that Washington should contain Beijing's growing military power in Asia.

There has been much discussion about China's growing force of short-range ballistic missiles, and Beijing has also deployed new warplanes, destroyers, submarines, anti-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles, many of which it bought from Russia. That has created a growing threat to Taiwan's aging fleet, whose role is to protect the island from attack and prevent a Chinese blockade.

Experts familiar with the officers' review say it concludes that by 2010 Taiwan will need vessels equipped with long-range surface-to-air missiles, a sophisticated battle management system and a phased-array radar, which is the hallmark of the Aegis system.

As an interim step, the review suggests that Taiwan buy four Kidd-class destroyers, which had most of the most advanced air defense systems before the Aegis was developed. The ships have been retired from U.S. service.

The conclusion that Taiwan needs new submarines is certain to be contentious. Currently, Taiwan has only four, including of World War II vintage that are used for training.

------

Military blueprint to set big changes

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200142231424.htm

An emerging blueprint for future U.S. military strategy will call on the armed forces to field more unmanned aircraft and longer-range cruise missiles to perform pilot-warplane missions, according to Pentagon officials and outside advisers.

These sources said President Bush's "top-to-bottom" review will call on "unmanned combat air vehicles" (UCAV) to drop ordnance that destroys early warning radar and anti-aircraft weapons. Cruise missiles capable of traveling thousands, instead of hundreds, of miles would be used against command and communication installations.

The strategy's major impact would be to decrease reliance on manned fighter-bombers, paving the way for potential cuts in two major programs under review: the tri-service Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Air Force's F-22 Raptor stealth fighter.

Defense sources said development of futuristic UCAVs and longer-range missiles are two clear themes emerging from a 6-week-old Pentagon review. The extensive, secretive exercise is challenging long-held defense thinking, such as the need for large Army divisions and Navy battle groups built around huge aircraft carriers. The review may produce the most revolutionary strategy for the 1.37 million armed forces since the Cold War ended more than a decade ago.

There are at least 10 study panels at work in newly carved-out Pentagon office space. Their membership, for the most part, is composed of outside civilian analysts and retired officers, some known for unconventional thinking. Absent are current senior military officers, whose role is limited to making presentations to the various groups. Panel members will then write final recommendations to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Defense sources say Mr. Rumsfeld wants to avoid the mistakes made in the last major review, the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Then, parochial service desires dominated the review. The Defense Department produced a status-quo strategy and force structure that critics say kept Congress and the defense industry happy, but failed to address new threats facing America in the next 10 to 20 years.

"Clearly, Rumsfeld is determined to conduct this review from the outside in," said a senior congressional defense aide. "Rumsfeld's own knowledge of the Pentagon has convinced him that the fix was in in 1997 so he's resorted to a very small coterie of internal advisers and outside panels."

Mr. Bush's desire for a comprehensive review of the military has led to a resurrection, of sorts, for one of the Pentagon's oldest policy makers - 79-year-old Andrew Marshall.

Mr. Marshall, who directs the Pentagon's futuristic Office of Net Assessment, has spent much of the past 50 years spouting unconventional ideas on how the military should plan for war. Repeatedly, generals and admirals have shunned any of his insights.

After a long career of proposing change, much of it done in secret reports, Mr. Marshall finally finds himself in the driver's seat.

By luck, an old Marshall admirer, Mr. Rumsfeld, was tapped by Mr. Bush to lead the Defense Department. Mr. Rumsfeld had liked Mr. Marshall's ideas during his first, brief stint as defense secretary under President Ford more than 25 years ago.

When he returned to the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld quickly installed Mr. Marshall as lead agent for the "top-to-bottom" review's all-important strategy study group. The post is key because Mr. Bush has stated frequently that his defense budgets will be driven by the emerging military strategy, not the other way around. This means Mr. Marshall's ideas carry the potential to shape how the armed forces will be structured, what weapons are bought and where they deploy overseas.

And that is what is making the Joint Chiefs of Staff nervous.

Mr. Marshall questions the Navy's need for new, huge carriers, arguing they are too vulnerable to foreign arsenals of anti-ship cruise missiles. He also questions the Air Force's need to buy 339 F-22s costing $62 billion.

Ex-Navy carrier pilots have detected the latest bureaucratic attacks on their beloved flattops and are starting to counterattack.

To retired Rear Adm. Jeremy Taylor, a career strike pilot, the debate reminds him of his last years in the Pentagon. The year was 1990. The Cold War had just ended. The department was shrinking the armed forces. And the Air Force was waging a frontal assault on the necessity of large aircraft carriers, arguing a fleet of B-2 stealth bombers could unleash the ordnance of two such ships.

But when the infighting ended, the Navy surfaced victorious.

"The Air Force got 20 B-2s, and we still have our large carriers," said the former two-star admiral, who served as the Navy's director for aviation plans and requirements.

"Anybody who thinks the small carrier is comparable to a large carrier has to have their heads in the sand," Adm. Taylor said. "The fact of the matter is we've been down this road and made this argument a million times. This Mr. Marshall in the Pentagon, along with Rumsfeld and President Bush, are being poorly advised and are going down the wrong road."

"The Marshall crowd has always preached 'little' carriers to avoid missile attack," Adm. Taylor added. "My question is, what missile attack? When did one get hit? Who is going to target it? It's a moving platform. It has layers of defenses all around it. This is not a sitting duck. It is a fortress."

"When you invest in a platform that can give you the versatility, the mobility and flexibility to participate across the spectrum of warfare you'd be foolish to get rid of it. The reason carriers continue to be built is this argument wins every time. The problem isn't our enemies. It is our friends who propose to change what works with something they're not sure will work," he said.

However, if the Joint Chiefs have complaints about the possible revolutionary nature of the "top-to-bottom" review, they can blame the commander in chief himself. In fact, Mr. Bush while a presidential candidate was remarkably frank about his intentions in a 1999 speech announcing his plans for serious and sweeping defense reform.

"I intend to force new thinking and hard choices," Mr. Bush said then. He sent a warning to the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps by saying, "When our comprehensive review is complete, I will expect the military's budget priorities to match our strategic vision - not the particular visions of the services, but a joint vision for change."

In particular, he highlighted a few major weapon systems: stealth ships able to fire missiles "great distances," unmanned aircraft and long-range bombers. He did not mention Navy carriers as being central to the military's new strategy for the 21st century.

The fact that Mr. Rumsfeld has stocked his defense study groups with some unorthodox thinkers does not mean the death of carriers or big cuts in jet fighter production. The defense secretary must first approve such recommendations, at which point the service chiefs will have their chance to change his mind. And even if Mr. Bush goes along, carriers and new jet fighters enjoy significant constituencies in Congress, which the Constitution grants broad powers in overseeing the armed forces.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, already has sent the White House a warning he will oppose a shift from giant carriers to smaller platforms. His state is home to Newport News Shipbuilding Inc., which builds the current Nimitz-class super carriers.

"Carriers have been, are and will be for the foreseeable future an absolute essential part of our deterrence force, and, if required, our offensive first-strike force," Mr. Warner said.

Mr. Bush has proposed a relatively lean $310 billion defense budget for fiscal 2002. Defense sources say he will augment that number in late spring based on early study group recommendations. The sources expect these proposals to center on improving quality of life in the armed forces and setting new parameters for a national missile defense system.

Big programmatic changes, such as whether to eliminate major weapon systems and redesign Navy ships, will likely wait for the 2003 budget presented to Congress in February.

-------- ukraine

Cold War Chills in Ukraine

By Jackson Diehl
Monday, April 2, 2001
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24463-2001Apr2?language=printer

Picture a country at a strategic crossroads where an unpopular and unpleasant ruler is besieged by his opposition. He wants American political support; in exchange, he promises to back U.S. strategic interests in his region. He threatens to turn to Moscow if he is spurned. The "realists" of the foreign-policy establishment want to back him, but it's not easy: After all, there's pretty good evidence tying him not just to large-scale corruption and electoral fraud but to murder.

It sounds like the kind of Cold War dilemma the United States used to face in what was called the Third World, but this is happening now, in Europe, in Ukraine -- the center of a region where a smaller, 21st-century version of the contest for influence between Washington and Moscow is quietly being played out. Ukraine is one of a half-dozen unstable countries between Poland and the Caspian Sea that are torn between the aspiration to join a prosperous and democratic Europe and the undertow of their history as former Soviet republics -- a pull recently reinforced by the rise of an ambitious Russian president.

You'd think their choice would be easy, but as Ukraine shows, it hasn't turned out that way. A decade after declaring independence, Ukraine -- a country the size of France with a population of 49 million -- still is desperately poor, its economy hamstrung by corruption and the monopolies of Russian-style oligarchs, its political system dominated by former Communist apparatchiks. Since last fall, President Leonid Kuchma, a former missile factory manager, has faced mounting criminal allegations, including tape recordings linking him to the murder of a journalist whose body was found beheaded.

As an opposition coalition has mounted unprecedented street demonstrations in the capital, Kiev, both sides have dispatched emissaries to Washington to plead for support from the Bush administration. Kuchma's foreign minister, Anatoliy Zlenko, was in town last week, and his message was blunt: Ukraine's regime, he volunteered, was inclined to believe that a one-superpower world led by the United States "has a lot of advantages" and was even sympathetic to the Bush administration's missile defense plans. "What weighs more," he appealed to an audience at the Heritage foundation. "America's national interest or confidence" in a government's democratic credentials?

Should America make the wrong choice, Ukrainian officials are quick to point out, an alternative is readily available. Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Ukraine last month and literally embraced Kuchma before offering a series of deals to tighten the economic and military bonds between Ukraine and Russia. "The big problem," says the Clinton administration's former ambassador to the region, Stephen Sestanovich, "is that you have got a president who is facing a murder rap and the Russians are prepared to hold their nose and offer him friendship."

Similar dilemmas are to be found across the region. In Georgia and Moldova, post-Communist governments have tried, and mostly failed, to build democracy, free markets and ties to NATO and the European Union; now, with Russia growing stronger, they are being tugged backward. Moldova, rejected by the European Union, recently restored to power a Communist Party that has proclaimed its intention to build a new union with Russia; Georgia recently gave in to incessant pressure from Moscow and renounced a plan to pursue integration with NATO. Despite Zlenko's overtures to the Bush administration, Kuchma complied with a Russian demand last fall that he fire his foreign minister, Boris Tarasyuk, the most prominent pro-Western politician in Ukraine.

Putin's aim is not to reestablish the Soviet Union but to draw such countries as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Azerbaijan back into a Russian sphere of influence -- a zone where a phone call from Moscow can cost the foreign minister his job or, as happened last month, cancel a regional summit meeting. Rather than extend the zone of European integration and Western influence, this band of countries could drift into a separate, Russian-led camp -- magnifying Moscow's leverage over both the EU and NATO.

Does the Bush administration care about all this? That it does is vividly demonstrated by the fact that Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has distanced himself from peace talks between the Arabs and Israelis, is hosting a summit meeting in Key West, Fla., this week for the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, who hope to strike a peace deal. Azerbaijan's president, Heydar Aliyev, is a classic strongman who stifles opposition, steals elections, and is grooming a son to succeed him; but his country also has large oil and gas reserves and is prepared to allow the construction of a pipeline that would carry Caspian Sea energy to the West by a route that bypasses Russia.

Azerbaijan's beleaguered democrats don't get very far with either party in Washington. "On the merits we are on Aliyev's side and shouldn't be shy about it," says Sestanovich. Putin, after all, is also working Aliyev hard.

Ukraine offers a harder test. There is no oil there, but much geopolitical weight, and the chances that democracy could triumph over the apparatchiks and oligarchs are considerably greater. Powell, says a senior official at State, wants to "find a way to resolve this in a way that strengthens Ukraine's democracy." That seems right, but does that mean backing Kuchma, or his opposition? So far, there is no clear answer to that.

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

Uranium victims losing leaders

Denver Post
Apr. 2, 2001
By Electa Draper Denver Post Four Corners News Bureau
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0402c.htm

- THE FOUR CORNERS - The coalition trying to hold the U.S. government to its promise of monetary relief for sick uranium miners and those caught downwind of nuclear testing has a serious problem with its leaders.

They keep dying.

"Since the coalition was founded in January 1999, we've lost four of our leaders," says Lori Goodman of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Reform Coalition. "The latest to die was Carol Dewey of Dove Creek, a downwinder."

Dewey was 52 when she died in January. As a youth, she had spent a weekend camping in southeastern Utah. It was the wrong weekend. She was downwind of a nuclear testing site in Nevada. She died of a rare and extremely aggressive form of thyroid cancer.

The hardest part for Dewey, Goodman says, was telling her cousin and camping companion years later what she had learned about the consequences of their illtimed outing. Her cousin had been pregnant at the time and later had a child with a serious birth defect.

Two generations had been imperiled by a desert picnic. But there was no way for them to know that then.

"They were deceived. They were experimented on," says Goodman, who also works with Dine Care, a private nonprofit agency concerned with environmental issues on the Navajos' Four Corners reservation. "They still think they're dealing with a bunch of hicks and Indians."

The Four Corners' 4,000 mines provided the United States with much of the uranium that built the nuclear arsenal for the Cold War. The industry was the region's bread and butter for decades, but it also poisoned many thousands of people here. The inhabitants ruefully call this the "National Sacrifice Area." Waiting for compensation

Dewey, like roughly 3,500 others, was deemed eligible by the government for one-time compensation of up to $100,000 under a 1990 law, called RECA for short, that was amended last year. Congress just increased payment amounts by $50,000 and expanded eligibility to cover previously excluded workers, such as mill workers and some of those who smoked cigarettes.

However, the government hasn't made good on even the first act. Roughly 300 of those whose claims were approved have never been paid (100 of them eligible since 1990), and the program is out of money. The Justice Department has issued IOUs.

Many IOU holders have gone to their graves without compensation, and many others didn't live long enough to see even a piece of paper.

Former miner and mill worker Kenneth Randolph, 72, of Cortez, says he can name 40 uranium workers who died in their 40s of lung diseases such as silicosis, fibrosis and various cancers. He has lost three brothers and some cousins.

"I'm past due," Randolph says. "I'm one of the lucky ones, but it's catching up with me." He has had spots on his lungs for 20 years and has such trouble breathing that he can't do much of anything. He received his IOU two years ago.

"They don't seem to be in any hurry to pay me," Randolph says.

Norma Howell's husband, Robert, spent his last 14 years gasping for breath. He died of lung cancer in 1994 in Cortez. He had started hauling uranium ore to a mill near Uravan in 1957. He later worked five years at the Happy Jack Mine in Fry Canyon, 78 miles west of Blanding, Utah, where a trailer park for miners sprouted up over mine tailings.

"We were really close to the mine site," Howell says. "The stockpile was across the road. I had to wipe the dust off my table before every meal. The men would come home to lunch in their diggers. You just got used to sleeping with sand in your bed." Flash floods would bring pools of runoff, radiation-contaminated water, into the camp, and the children would splash around in it.

"Kids played on the stockpile every day," Howell says. "It makes me shudder to think of it now, but we were assured at the time it was safe. The government knew better, since 1947, but they needed the product."

In the 1970s, mine managers started taking some precautions, Howell says, but the early workers were hapless guinea pigs. Now 71, she also has lung and thyroid problems. Her husband's claim for compensation was denied because he was a smoker.

Many Navajos affected

The Navajo Nation provided many, perhaps one-quarter, of the workers in the uranium mines and mills of western Colorado and New Mexico, eastern Utah and Arizona. And Navajos, Goodman says, are at a particular disadvantage in dealing with the U.S. government in the aftermath.

Many don't speak English. Many Navajo homes - some agencies estimate as high as 80 percent of rural residences - are without telephones, electricity, televisions or any other means to stay abreast of the issue.

Widows of uranium-contamination victims were told to produce marriage certificates to qualify for benefits. Many Navajo widows do not have state-issued marriage certificates. And, because the earlier law excluded lung-cancer patients if they smoked, it excluded Navajos who used tobacco ceremonially, however infrequently.

"My father worked in an underground mine without any kind of protection," says Earl Saltwater of Shiprock, N.M. "I have pictures of him standing in a front of a mine in a T-shirt with short sleeves and a hole, denim pants and a helmet - no gloves, mask, goggles, no special shoes. They never informed him his job was dangerous or he was exposed to radiation. They never tell him anything like that."

Saltwater's father had a seventhgrade education. His mother had no schooling. His father suffered for 30 years with respiratory illnesses before dying at age 92 of lung cancer. His mother, who lived in the uranium camps with her husband and children, died of cancer at age 70.

"I was so angry for years," Saltwater says. "They killed my father and my mother. They still give us a hard time to compensate us. They make all kinds of excuses. They ask for all kinds of documents. We are exhausted from this."

After five years of the claims process, Earl Saltwater Sr.'s heirs were paid $100,000; the lawyer got $10,000.

"I was raised in mining camps in southern Colorado and on the Navajo Nation," 43-year-old Gilbert Badoni says. "The people who worked in the mines were like prairie dogs, driven in and out of holes."

Badoni is president of an 800member advocacy group called Navajo Nation Dependents of Uranium Workers.

"We have lost hundreds of miners (including his father), and we are seeing deaths among the spouses, also dying of silicosis and fibrosis. We see birth defects at an alarming rate. We will not rest until Congress apologizes to the workers and to the family members."

Republican lawmakers such as Sens. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Orrin Hatch of Utah, as well as Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado, have introduced bills to get enough money to pay all the approved claims.

Meanwhile, others are pending and more than 1,000 additional claims could be filed this year as Congress debates what to do with the budget surplus and President Bush's proposal for a $1.6 trillion tax cut.

---

Entergy, FPL call off merger

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By ALAN SAYRE AP Business Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406586167

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Entergy Corp. and FPL Group Inc. on Monday called off their proposed $9 billion merger, which would have created the nation's largest power utility.

The deal, announced last July, had been considered by Wall Street analysts to be on the rocks since March 19 when the companies issued a statement that issues had arisen over managing the combined company and the value of some assets.

The companies blamed each other for the deal's crackup.

In a statement, Entergy said that ``accepting various positions taken by FPL Group would leave Entergy with no merger of equals, as approved by shareholders.''

New Orleans-based Entergy said the company objected to proposed changes to the combined management structure put forth by FPL Group and that the merger had become ``equivalent to a takeover'' without the normal premium for its shareholders.

In its statement, Juno Beach Fla.-based FPL Group said it had concluded that the merger would not benefit its stockholders.

``A principal reason for FPL Group's decision centered on discrepancies in Entergy's financial forecasts and Entergy's repeated refusal to provide financial documents and other information requested by FPL pursuant to the merger agreement,'' FPL Group said.

Both companies said they believed it was unlikely that the deal would have been approved by state utility regulators.

In afternoon trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Entergy slipped 2 cents to $37.98 while FPL shares gained 30 cents to $61.60.

Last year, both companies said their proposed merger would be the trend of the future, resulting in a handful of power giants serving most of the nation's electricity consumers.

During a conference call with analysts, FPL Group chairman James Broadhead said he believed that power companies would continue to try to combine.

``However, it is clear that the regulatory approval for these mergers is going to be formidable,'' Broadhead said.

Entergy president Wayne Leonard said the merger came apart because of a ``difference of corporate cultures'' that led Broadhead to demand that Leonard and other top Entergy officers leave the combined company.

After Entergy rejected that demand, FPL Group ``raised issues that we considered totally manufactured to question our competence.'' If Entergy had given in to Broadhead's demands, Entergy shareholders would have received no premium _ and it is unlikely that state regulators in Entergy's service area would have approved the combination, Leonard said.

Entergy's board considered filing a suit Sunday, but decided to call off the merger, Leonard said.

Last July, the companies announced the all-stock deal _ then worth about $7 billion _ to forge a utility powerhouse with 6.3 million customers from Florida to Arkansas. Shareholders approved the deal in December, and it was expected to be completed in the fourth quarter after regulatory scrutiny.

Both companies said Monday that they were confident of success without the merger.

``We are disappointed that we were unable to achieve the benefits of the merger,'' Entergy chairman Robert v.d. Luft said. ``However, we are confident that our management team will continue to deliver superior results to our shareholders through other avenues.''

Broadhead said FPL Group ``will be a formidable competitor in the energy business and will generate solid value for our shareholders and customers as a stand-alone company.''

The combined company would have been headquartered in Juno Beach and would have had 6.3 million retail customers in five states extending from Texas to Florida.

That would have surpassed Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co., which has 4.8 million customers and is the nation's largest utility in terms of customers.

FPL Group, which is based in Juno Beach, Fla., is the parent company of Florida Power & Light. Entergy, based in New Orleans, has regulated power businesses in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Both companies have extensive holdings in nuclear power generation and wholesale power trading, in which large volumes of electricity are sold on the competitive market to industry and other utilities.

The combined company would have been headquartered in Juno Beach and had a generating capacity of more than 48,000 megawatts, including 10,000 megawatts of nuclear generating. Entergy owns eight nuclear plants. FPL Group has four.

-------- ohio

Local study to compare chemical levels in kids, adults
Battelle will do research on 50 central Ohio youths

Columbus Dispatch
Monday, April 2, 2001
Michael Hawthorne Dispatch Environment Reporter

With the help of about 50 children from central Ohio researchers this spring are trying to determine whether kids face greater exposure than adults to pesticides and other pollutants.

The study, required by Congress under laws intended to keep food and drinking water safe, follows a recent survey that found that most Americans carry detectable amounts of pesticides, plastics and heavy metals in their blood and urine.

Researchers also are driven by a growing number of studies that suggest even low levels of pollution can cause cancer, reproductive problems, birth defects and learning disabilities. Many of these chemicals remain in the environment years after they were manufactured, sprayed or applied.

"We want to measure what kids encounter in their everyday lives,'' said Marsha Morgan, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist overseeing the exposure study.

"There's not a lot of information out there about this, so we hope to fill in some of the gaps,'' she said.

This particular study won't evaluate the health risks associated with various chemicals. But enough concerns have been raised by other research that the EPA has pressured the chemical industry to phase out two common household pesticides, diazinon and chlorpyrifos, also known as Dursban.

Dursban and diazinon will be among the chemicals measured by the study. Others include the weed-killer 2,4-D and a group of synthetic compounds called phthalates, which are used to soften plastics in toys and to emulsify soaps.

Children are thought to have greater exposure to these chemicals because they spend more time on the ground. Research also suggests that kids are more sensitive to the toxic effects of chemicals found in and around lawns, carpets, toys and furniture.

Scientists from Battelle, an international research organization based in Columbus, will conduct the exposure study by taking urine samples from about 160 children ages 18 months to 5 years old from Ohio. A similar- sized group will be studied in North Carolina.

Researchers hope to determine whether there are any differences between children from different income groups and those cared for in day-care centers or at home, Morgan said.

"Parents also will be included so we can determine if there is any difference in the level of exposure between adults and their children,'' she said.

Citing the privacy of the participants, the EPA wouldn't release the names of the day-care facilities. But children in Franklin, Cuyahoga, Defiance, Fayette and Licking counties will be involved.

The report is among a number of surveys intended to assess the routes of exposure and the health effects of various chemicals.

"We're finding there are a lot more pollutants in people's bodies than previously thought,'' said Richard Wilex, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, an organization that advocates more-aggressive efforts to reduce pollution. "Kids are more at risk because their bodies are still developing.''

Chemical manufacturers say their products are safe when used properly. The industry contends that an average person's exposure to pesticides is far below the level considered unsafe by the government.

"The business of chemistry makes thousands of products that make people's lives better, safer and healthier,'' proclaims a Web site established by the American Chemistry Council to counter concerns about their products.

"Combining government requirements with voluntary industry practices makes a strong and secure safety net designed to protect human health and the environment.''

mhawthor@dispatch.com

-------- nevada

The Armageddon Nominee

Editorial:
The Boston Globe,
April 2, 2001
http://www.capitolvoice.com/stopbolton/globe.html

IF PRESIDENT GEORGE Bush is worried that his appointments to key positions are not pleasing the right wing of his own party, he may take heart from the introduction Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms gave Bush's nominee to be Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton.

Bolton, a Helms protege, heard himself praised Thursday by the senator from North Carolina as "one of the best and wisest" nominations Bush has made for "senior foreign policy positions."

Helms made his reasons for kinship with Bolton explicit. He recalled saying at an American Enterprise Institute event that "Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, for what the Bible describes as the final battle between good and evil in this world." Helms's political action committee, the National Congressional Club, was represented by Bolton when that PAC was fined for evading campaign finance laws. In turn, Helms backed Bolton for previous positions in the State and Justice departments.

When Bolton was an assistant attorney general in 1989 he refused to provide documents that Senator John Kerry requested on drug trafficking by the Nicaraguan contras. Kerry, who was dubious at Thursday's Foreign Relations Committee hearing about Bolton's professed backing for the 1994 Framework Agreement freezing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, asked the nominee if he might be exhibiting a "confirmation conversion."

But the main reason to oppose Bolton for the number three position in the State Department is neither his collaboration with Helms nor his coyness at his confirmation hearing. Bolton does not belong in the arms control job because, as the director of the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project, Joseph Cirincione, says: "Bolton is philosophically opposed to most of the international treaties that comprise the nonproliferation regime."

Characteristically, Helms left no room for ambiguity at Thursday's hearing when he said to Bolton: "John, I want you to take that ABM Treaty and dump it in the same place we dumped our ABM co-signer, the Soviet Union -- on the ash heap of history." The 1972 Antiballistic Missile treaty that Helms and Bolton zealously oppose has served as what Cirincione calls "the cornerstone of strategic stability in the world because it reins in the nuclear forces of the nuclear powers."

Not only the ABM Treaty, but also the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Conference on Disarmament, the verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention and any effort to prevent an arms race in outer space are all valuable instruments for arms control. They would all be imperiled were Bolton to be put in charge of arms control at the State Department.

-------- tennessee

Despite advances, radiation accidents are human reality

April 2, 2001
By Frank Munger News-Sentinel senior writer
http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/fm04022001.shtml

On May 5 of last year, an Egyptian man found a metal instrument along the road near Meet Halfa, his hometown. He took it to his house, where he lived with his wife, two sons, two daughters and a sister, and placed the shiny object on a cabinet near the front door. A month later, June 5, the man's 9-year-old son died in a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed the boy with bone-marrow failure and skin inflammation.

A week later, the father died of similar symptoms, triggering a look-see from authorities at the government's infectious disease outfit.

Soon thereafter, the rest of the family was hospitalized, all with the same signs. This time, a search of their house was in order because the collective evidence pointed to radiation sickness.

Sure enough, the roadside curiosity piece turned out to be an unshielded radiography source containing iridium-192 -- a beta-gamma emitter used like a portable X-ray machine to check the quality of welds and perform other industrial scans.

The Egyptian family had been exposed unwittingly to radiation for several weeks at home. And, to a lesser degree, so were 150 to 200 friends and "family associates" who gathered on a regular basis outside the entryway to talk and enjoy each other's company.

Fortunately, the rest of the family recovered from their radiation-related illnesses, although there could be delayed health effects -- including a higher risk of cancer -- in years to come.

The tragedy at Meet Halfa is one of the radiation accidents discussed last month at an international conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored by Oak Ridge-based REACTS (Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site).

Robert Ricks, a radiation biologist who direct REACTS and hosted the conference, shared some of the accident details and his observations in a recent interview.

"I think the message is that sources of this nature can be very dangerous when they're lost to the environment or improperly disposed of," Ricks said.

People get hurt or even die, despite improved knowledge and technologies available for treatment of radiation victims, he said.

"The bottom line is there are human factors involved in all of these accidents, and humans are imperfect," Ricks said.

Radiation accidents involving discarded medical and industrial sources don't get as much attention as problems at nuclear power plants or weapons facilities, but they occur around the world with surprising regularity and, in some instances, they prove deadly.

Here's another radiation horror story from last year, this one in Thailand.

Three sources of cobalt-60, once used for medical therapies in a Bangkok hospital, were abandoned, still encased in their lead shielding, in a parking lot.

A scrap collector and his associates attempted to crack open the containers, but they were unsuccessful. So together they were able to lift and transport one of the teletherapy devices to a nearby junkyard, where a worker used a cutting torch to break open the lead cover.

In the process of the salvage operation, the radioactive cobalt inside the container fell to the ground undetected.

Unfortunately, the 450-curie source of cobalt stayed there for another two weeks, exposing all who came near to high levels of radiation. Calculations indicated that an hour next to the junkyard source would be lethal, Ricks said.

Lots of people were in and around the radioactive source over a 16-day period, with at least 10 people receiving severe doses of radiation -- the first victims showing up at hospitals with skins burns and suppressed immune systems. Three of those people died over the next couple of months.

"Nobody will ever know exactly what the exposures were because we don't know how long they were anywhere near the source," Ricks said. "One would have to estimate the doses were somewhere between 300 and 500 rads."

Ricks said radiation accidents continue to happen worldwide, despite efforts to educate people regarding the dangers of these sources and the importance of disposing of them properly.

The good news, he said, is that medical response to radiation accidents has improved, with information now available widely on how to treat symptoms and enhance the chances for surviving extreme doses.

One reason for improved clinical care has been the introduction of cytokines, in particular a naturally occurring growth factor that helps proliferate the blood count in victims, Ricks said. "The genetic code for it has been identified, and it can now be produced in large quantities using what's called recombinant DNA technology," he said.

Ricks added: "The therapy has been around for about 11 years, but we're learning more and more about how it works. ... One of the problems in whole body radiation at any significant dose is that individual blood counts fall and a person is immuno-suppressed, at risk of infection and bleeding. Now there are molecules that can be administered to increase the blood count."

Senior writer Frank Munger can be reached at 482-9213 or by e-mail at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This weekly column on science and technology also is available on our Web site at http://www.knoxnews.com/science/munger/.

-------- us nuc politics

A chilly wind in the Pacific
The Bush administration casts a wary eye toward China, and elsewhere

US News & World Report
World Report 4/2/01
By Thomas Omestad
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010402/china.htm

China would have to wait its turn. First, it was decided, George W. Bush would welcome the leaders of America's Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, to the White House. Only later-a few days later-would he receive China's top foreign-policy mandarin.

Timing is important in diplomacy, and the careful sequencing of visitors to the White House was intended to drive home a point: The new president puts allies first, and China is no ally. Gone is Bill Clinton's optimistic description of a "strategic partnership" with Beijing. China in the time of Bush II is a "strategic competitor"-still a key partner in trade, to be sure, but also a troublesome, even threatening power on the rise.

The concern cuts both ways, and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen came to the United States last week to take the measure of a new administration whose anti-Communist and pro-Taiwan leanings worry Beijing's leaders. "The Chinese are a bit uncertain, even scared, about what to expect," says Bates Gill, a China expert at the Brookings Institution.

The tougher U.S. line that Chinese officials fear reflects a broader change in foreign policy under Bush. Most of the president's advisers see the world in more threatening shades than did their Clinton-era predecessors. They style themselves as clear-thinking realists who will correct the excessive moralism of the Clinton years. Consequently, Russia's status as a young, struggling democracy is de-emphasized; its role as a weapons proliferator and a source of spies is talked up (read related story). North Korea, despite a diplomatic near breakthrough last fall, is once again cast as an enduring threat-one reason for developing a costly missile defense system. The term "rogue nations" for the likes of Iraq and Iran has been brought out of retirement.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010402/china.b.htm

Strategic challenge. China policy, though, may ultimately provide the clearest signs of a shift. The Republican Party is split over China. Business-oriented free traders favor the moderate style of engagement followed by George W.'s father. On the other side, defense hawks have joined forces with Christian conservatives, who doubtless were pleased that Bush criticized China's religious repression during his "photo op" with Qian. The hawks focus on China's projected military capabilities, for instance, citing China's announced 17.7 percent hike in military spending as a harbinger of strategic challenge. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week briefed Bush on a major strategic review that advocates reorienting U.S. military forces toward the Pacific.

Among those taking key posts in the administration are several who signed on to a statement two years ago urging the Clinton administration to "declare unambiguously" that the United States "will come to Taiwan's defense in the event of an attack or a blockade." They include Paul Wolfowitz, the new No. 2 at the Pentagon; Lewis Libby, a senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney; Richard Armitage, the incoming deputy secretary of state; and John Bolton, who will be State's senior official for international security. Cheney and Rumsfeld are also believed to prefer a more overtly pro-Taiwan posture, perhaps through military training and intelligence sharing. "The Chinese government may not worry about President Bush very much, but it is concerned about the top officials of the administration . . . because they are Cold War guys who are conservative and have not had much experience in dealing with China," says Chu Shulong, a senior researcher at a Chinese government think tank.

China's immediate concern is that the administration will approve Taiwan's request to buy four destroyers equipped with the sophisticated Aegis radar and antimissile system. Such a sale, Qian charged, would constitute a "grave violation" of U.S.-Chinese agreements and increase the risk of military conflict over Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a renegade province.

Missile buildup. The sale, many analysts say, would touch off a new U.S.-Chinese crisis. Chinese officials hint that their response would be to accelerate the missile buildup on their side of the strait, just 100 miles from Taiwan. Military exercises, including test firings of missiles into the waters off Taiwan, could follow, as they did during tensions in 1995 and 1996. U.S. officials suggest that China's buildup of missiles aimed at Taiwan (said to be 300 now and growing by some 50 a year) will influence their assessment of Taiwan's security needs. The message: Cap the missile growth or Washington will support Taiwanese countermeasures. One idea under discussion within the administration is to start building the Aegis-equipped destroyers but to defer the question of whether they should be sold to Taiwan or go to the U.S. Navy.

The Chinese are also preoccupied with the Bush administration's pledge to pursue missile defense, which Beijing fears would negate its arsenal of fewer than 20 nuclear-tipped missiles. Bush himself depicted China as a nuclear threat during the campaign, citing a comment by a Chinese general that China has the nuclear weapons to "incinerate Los Angeles."

The thinking in Beijing, however, is that both arms sales to Taiwan and the missile shield are elements of a larger American strategy to spread its "hegemony" and support Taiwan's independence. A Chinese defense white paper last October portrayed the United States as the primary threat and an obstacle to reunification with Taiwan. Bush reportedly told Qian: "Nothing we do is a threat to you, and I want you to tell that to your leadership."

Still, the suspicions are mutual-and growing deeper with incidents such as China's detention of a visiting Chinese-born scholar from Washington's American University. "China's foreign policy is based on threats and coercion," says Larry Wortzel, a former military aide at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing who follows Asia for the conservative Heritage Foundation. "I can't think of another country that has had its senior officials threaten the use of nuclear weapons against the United States." With talk like that, Bush has a lot more to ponder than just arming Taiwan.

With Bay Fang in Beijing and Kevin Whitelaw

-------- us nuc waste

USA Today
04/02/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Nevada

Reno - Opponents of a federal proposal to put a nuclear dump waste in Nevada say they're worried about new figures showing an 18% increase in train derailments since 1997. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other foes say the numbers underline the dangers of transporting nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Texas

Austin - Senator J.E. Brown, chairman of a committee hearing a bill to build a radioactive waste dump in West Texas, received a $10,000 campaign donation from a businessman whose company could operate the site, documents show. Brown also is the co-author of the waste dump bill. He said he saw nothing wrong with accepting the money and plans to vote on the bill.
--------

Company Announces First Contracts in the Nuclear Waste Industry

Yahoo News
April 2, 2001
http://sports.yahoo.com/m/environmental/news/getf/20010402/getfcompanyannouncesfirstcon.html

FAIRFAX, VA, - The international technology holding and marketing company Eurotech Ltd. announced it has secured the first two contracts for its EKOR Radiation-Resistant Material, which is a highly radiation resistant silicon-geopolymer material for encapsulation of radioactive wastes.

Eurotech notes the customer's objective in the first contract is to evaluate the performance of EKOR Matrix, which, when mixed with low-level radioactive waste creates a waste form suitable for disposal. The second contract is for EKOR Sealer, where the customer's objective is to evaluate EKOR's performance in preventing the migration of radioactive contaminants on equipment used in the production of radioactive materials.

"While the initial EKOR sales will demonstrate proof of principle and have modest dollar values, these early sales are important milestones, as they represent necessary steps to full deployment of EKOR at Department of Energy sites," said Don Hahnfeldt, Eurotech's CEO and President. "More importantly, our recent activity over the last month, including the variety of EKOR product presentations made to key waste management contractors, represents the groundwork for future growth and sales. Examples include field presentations of EKOR Matrix and EKOR Sealer at multiple sites. EKOR is following required industry protocol to prove the product and application effectiveness."

In related news, Eurotech announced that its EKOR product has been used to "cocoon" a fuel containing mass inside Chernobyl's failed reactor No. 4 for more than nine months, with no loss in effectiveness according to the Chernobyl Shelter Agency. In addition, the Shelter team that applied and tested EKOR under an agreement with Eurotech has identified other uses for EKOR.

"Now that we have confirmed the ability of EKOR to provide an effective isolation barrier and to maintain its integrity under severe radiation exposure, we are planning further application development projects," said Artur Korneev, the Deputy Director of the Shelter Object. "These projects include important tasks such as dust suppression and repairing corroded concrete surfaces such as walkways. Each of these projects is designed to demonstrate EKOR's use in actual conditions and represent important preparation for the future large scale applications inside the sarcophagus."

The EKOR family of products addresses a broad spectrum of applications where its multiple forms can be used as sealers, coatings, and waste encapsulation matrices, or foamed into cavities to control airborne contamination.

Eurotech Ltd. works with scientists and research institutes in Russia, Israel and other countries to develop and commercialize innovative technologies that have widespread or critical application. For more information, visit http://www.eurotechltd.com.


-------- MILITARY

In From The Cold War
Bush's pick for U.N. ambassador has some spooky stuff on hus resume

In These Times
April 2, 2001
By Terry J. Allen
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/allen2509.html

Like spooks from an abandoned B-Movie graveyard, officials of the Reagan-Bush era are emerging from the dirt and showing up inside the George W. Bush administration. The latest resurrection is John Negroponte, whom Bush recently nominated as ambassador to the United Nations.

As U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, Negroponte abetted and covered up human rights crimes. He was a zealous anti-Communist crusader in America's covert wars against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua and the FMLN rebels in El Salvador. The high-level planning, money and arms for those wars flowed from Washington, but much of the on-the-ground logistics for the deployment of intelligence, arms and soldiers was run out of Honduras. U.S. military aid to Honduras jumped from $3.9 million in 1980 to $77.4 million by 1984. So crammed was the tiny country with U.S. bases and weapons that it was dubbed the USS Honduras, as if it were simply an off-shore staging ground.

The captain of this ship, Negroponte was in charge of the U.S. Embassy when, according to a 1995 four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, hundreds of Hondurans were kidnapped, tortured and killed by Battalion 316, a secret army intelligence unit trained and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. As Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson wrote in the series, Battalion 316 used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." Members of Battalion 316 were trained in surveillance and interrogation at a secret location in the United States and by the CIA at bases in Honduras. Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, the chief of the Honduran armed forces who personally directed Battalion 316, also trained in the United States at the School of the Americas.

Negroponte tried to distance himself from the pattern of abuses, even after a flood of declassified documents exposed the extent of U.S. involvement with Battalion 316. In a segment of the 1998 CNN mini-series Cold War, Negroponte said that "some of the retrospective effort to try and suggest that we were supportive of, or condoned the actions of, human rights violators is really revisionistic."

By the time Negroponte was appointed ambassador by President Reagan in 1981, human rights activists in Honduras were vocally denouncing abuses. Former Honduran congressman Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga pleaded with Negroponte and other U.S. officials to stop the abuses committed by the U.S.-controlled military. "Their attitude was one of tolerance and silence," Diaz told the Sun. "They needed Honduras to loan its territory more than they were concerned about innocent people being killed."

Negroponte ignored such protests, and annually filed State Department reports from Honduras that gave the impression that the Honduran military respected human rights. But in an interview with In These Times, Negroponte's predecessor as ambassador, Carter appointee Jack Binns, tells a different story: "Negroponte would have had to be deliberately blind not to know about human rights violations. ... One of the things a departing ambassador does is prepare a briefing book, and one of those issues we included [in our briefing book] was how to deal with the escalation of human rights issues."

Binns considered the U.S. support for Alvarez and Battalion 316 "counterproductive" to the declared objective of "establishing a rule of law." This lack of enthusiasm, Binns says, led to "my being cut out of the loop" by the Reagan administration, which he served for several months before Negroponte took over. In the summer of 1981, Binns recalls, "I was called unexpectedly to Washington by Tom Enders, the assistant secretary of state. He asked me to stop reporting human rights violations through official State Department channels and to use back channels because they were afraid of leaks."

As Binns explains, back-channel messages "don't officially exist. The message is translated over CIA channels, decrypted and hand-carried from Langley, one copy only. No record."

Binns did not agree to use back channels and when he returned to Honduras, he received no further reports of human rights violations from the CIA. "I was deliberately lied to," says Binns, who later found out that Reagan administration had been working behind his back.

Honduras was only one of many hot spots where Negroponte served. He spent four years as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the height of the Vietnam War. As an aide to then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger at the Paris Peace Talks, he fell out of favor with his boss, wrote Mark Matthews in a 1997 article in the Sun, "by arguing that the chief U.S. negotiator was making too many concessions to the North Vietnamese." Negroponte also served in the Philippines, Panama and Mexico, where he was a strong booster for NAFTA.

Rumored to have been Colin Powell's pick for the job of U.N. ambassador, Negroponte has a reputation as a loyal bureaucrat and efficient fixer. He also has a Cold War mentality characteristic of many of the old Reagan-Bush people surrounding the new president.

The lessons Negroponte has learned from the past may shed light on what kind of U.N. ambassador he will be if his nomination is approved by the Senate. When he appeared in 1981 before a Senate committee for confirmation as envoy to Honduras, he said, "I believe we must do our best not to allow the tragic outcome of Indochina to be repeated in Central America."

The tragedy to which he referred, of course, was the defeat of the United States, not the devastation and death caused by U.S. intervention.

---

Bush nearing decision on Taiwan arms

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582216

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is nearing a decision on whether to allow Taiwan to buy four destroyers equipped with the Navy's most advanced anti-missile radar system. Those close to the process expect he will give the self-governing island most of what it wants, but not all.

Bush will decide in the next few weeks what kind of arms package to approve for Taiwan, administration officials said. It is a major presidential decision that comes each April.

The closely watched action will be the strongest signal yet of Bush's policy for dealing with China, which adamantly opposes the sale.

Taiwan is seeking an arsenal of high-tech military hardware to counter a growing missile threat from the mainland, a threat documented last week by the Pentagon's top Pacific commander.

At the top of Taiwan's wish list are four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The warships, priced at more than $1.2 billion apiece, are equipped with missiles and radar systems that can simultaneously track more than 200 targets.

Administration officials said over the weekend that Bush has yet to make a decision.

But officials close to the process, including Republicans in Congress involved in military issues, said they expect Bush to approve the sale to Taiwan of destroyers equipped with a sophisticated radar system _ but that it be a scaled-down version of the Aegis system.

They also said they expected Bush to attach some strings to the sales, allowing his decision to be reversed if China removes some of the missiles it has been massing on its side of the Taiwan Strait.

Former President Clinton turned down Taiwan's request for the destroyers last year.

But Taiwan's leaders and the island's supporters in Congress have been heartened by recent comments by administration officials that appeared to spell a harder line toward China.

``Bush administration policy and majority sentiment in Congress are the same,'' said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who is influential on China-Taiwan issues. ``We want to give the People's Republic of China every incentive to stop their military buildup. That means there should be consequences if they fail to do so _ as well as incentives.''

Taiwan is also requesting Kidd-class destroyers, diesel submarines, and the Army's advanced Patriot anti-missile system known as PAC-3.

The United States has never sold Taiwan submarines and was not expected to this time, either.

Beijing fears the radar-equipped destroyers would give Taiwan a military advantage. Taiwan says they are needed to help counter +the threat from China's missile buildup.

Those familiar with deliberations of Bush's national security team see hints in how he may be leaning, citing congressional testimony last week by Adm. Dennis Blair, the commander of U.S. troops in the Pacific.

Blair, just back from a visit to China and Taiwan, said Aegis-equipped destroyers clearly fall under the criteria of the law that permits U.S. sales of defensive arms to Taiwan.

He said that China now has 300 short-range and medium-range missiles pointed at Taiwan 100 miles away. He said China has been increasing the force by about 50 missiles a year.

If China continues to increase the number and accuracy of its missiles, the United States ``will be required to respond'' by helping Taiwan to offset the increased threat, Blair told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The United States is bound by a 1979 law to provide defensive weaponry to Taiwan to counter an invasion threat.

``The best solution...is restraint on the Chinese side so that the United States would not support an arms race,'' Blair added.

A Republican congressional source involved in the arms sale issue said Blair's testimony clearly made the case for going ahead with the sale of the Aegis-equipped radar ships to Taiwan _ but with an escape clause to back away from such a sale if China changed course.

The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was ``lot's of wiggle room'' for the administration.

If Bush decides to go ahead with the Burke-class destroyers that Taiwan wants, it would take at least a year after a presidential decision for Taiwan to complete a deal with the destroyers' manufacturers and then up to eight more years for the ships to be built and delivered.

Bush may approve the sale in such a manner as not to specify the ``Aegis'' system, the official said. And, perhaps more likely, Bush might decide to go with the Kidd-class destroyers equipped with Aegis-like radar _ one step below the Burke-class destroyers, several GOP sources said.

Beijing fears that the Aegis system could one day be incorporated into a U.S. missile defense system.

House supporters of the destroyer sales were circulating a letter intended to go to Bush on Monday citing a ``legitimate need for Taiwan to acquire the Arleigh Burke Aegis destroyers.''

The letter had gained 80 signatures by week's end _ not only from conservatives but also from several moderate-to-liberal Democrats, including Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Martin Frost of Texas, Nita Lowey of New York, and Tom Lantos and Nancy Pelosi of California.

---

S. Korea may detain U.S. soldiers

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406585322

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A new accord that gives South Korea more jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers accused of crimes went into effect Monday.

The revised treaty allows U.S. soldiers accused of murder, rape, arson, drug trafficking and eight other serious crimes to be turned over to South Korean police upon indictment.

Local police also may detain soldiers arrested in murder or rape cases without an indictment.

It replaces the countries' earlier agreement under which indicted soldiers remained in U.S. military custody until they were convicted in the Korean judicial system and all appeals were exhausted.

The rights and responsibilities of the U.S. troops here are a politically sensitive subject for South Koreans. Rape and other serious crimes involving U.S. soldiers receive keen media attention and trigger anti-U.S. protests by a small group of activists.

The U.S. and Korean governments signed the agreement in January, following 11 rounds of negotiations since 1995.

South Korea, in return, has agreed to grant to accused U.S. troops rights that they would have at home, including the right to legal counsel and a speedy trial.

On Monday, officials from both countries met to discuss logistics of the accord, specifically environmental and health issues such as preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from animals imported for the U.S. military. They plan to meet every other month.

The United States has similar agreements with all countries where U.S. troops are based. About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against a possible North Korean invasion.

-------- australia

Reith slams Labor's military plan

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By JOSH GORDON
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFX9TCCOZKC.html

Defence Minister Peter Reith yesterday abandoned the bipartisan approach to national defence, accusing Labor of having a "fixation" with the navy and air force and claiming it would run down the army if in government.

Releasing a discussion paper highlighting Coalition and Labor defence policy differences, Mr Reith said Opposition Leader Kim Beazley was obsessed with the air and sea defence of a "blue water Maginot (line)" to Australia's north and would reduce land capabilities as he had done when he was defence minister 11 years ago.

He said Australia was able to lead forces in East Timor only because the Government had pumped resources back into Australia's land forces.

"The central difference (between the Coalition and Labor) is about the structure of our forces basically how much money we should spend on the navy, the air force and the army," Mr Reith told Channel Nine. "And it was only for the fact that ... John Moore, my predecessor, had put a lot of effort into the army that we were able to undertake the East Timor exercise."

Opposition defence spokesman Stephen Martin angrily retorted that Labor fully supported the government's defence white paper, which outlines $23.5 billion in defence spending over the next decade. He said Mr Reith was a "fool" trying to make "petty politics" out of a bipartisan issue.

"Defence has been bipartisan over a long period of time," Mr Martin said. "I'm quite happy to continue that but, quite honestly, I'm also prepared to get in the trenches and fight all sorts of guerrilla warfare with this boofhead if he wants to keep on in this way."

Mr Reith's discussion paper Defence 2000 and the Defence of Australia concludes that Labor's defence policy would be too narrowly focused on defending Australia's coastline and would not pay enough attention to promoting regional peace and security.

It also argues Labor does not recognise that the defence force faces increasing demands for operations such as humanitarian relief, evacuations and peacekeeping.

Mr Martin claimed "internal defence sources" had told an opposition Senate committee the government had commissioned Australian Submarine Corporation chairman John Prescott to write a secret report that recommended closure of several shipyards across Australia.

Mr Martin said the report, which cost $166,000, indicated that thousands of jobs in Australia's naval shipbuilding industry were in jeopardy. He called on Mr Reith to rule out such a threat.

Asked about the report yesterday, Mr Reith said he was unaware of it, but would not rule out closures.

"You're talking about privately owned assets of Australian companies," he said. "I think in the end you will see decisions actually made by the private companies that own those assets."

The defence white paper shows that next financial year $500 million will be added to the $12 billion defence budget. The following year a further $1 billion will be added, and spending will be increased by 3 per cent every year after that for the rest of the decade.

-------- colombia

Colombia rebels, government talk

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582101

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A rebel army and the government agreed to resume contacts aimed at opening formal peace negotiations, a government peace envoy said Sunday.

The National Liberation Army, or ELN, froze talks with the government in March to protest military operations within its sanctuary. But after meeting with rebel commanders this weekend, peace envoy Camilo Gomez said the talks will start again.

``The obstacles to continue don't exist now,'' Gomez said late Sunday.

The two sides are trying to broker an agreement to relinquish a 1,860 square-mile demilitarized zone to the rebels for nine months to host peace talks. A right-wing paramilitary army and civic groups have opposed the handover, but the resistance appeared to be subsiding.

The military was ordered to withdraw troops from the region in the southern part of Bolivar State to facilitate the discussions. A general said that had the order not been given, his soldiers could have seized the rebel army's base camp and captured its leaders within 24 hours.

The 5,000-strong rebel group has been battling the government for more than three decades. But observers say it has been weakened in recent years in confrontations with the military and the paramilitary army and is ready to strike a peace deal.

President Andres Pastrana's government ceded a larger demilitarized zone to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 1998 to start peace talks. Discussions with that guerrilla army have achieved little.

The 37-year armed conflict kills some 3,000 people a year.

-------- drug war

One man's damaged brain: what statistics don't show

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By CHLOE SALTAU
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFX1UECOZKC.html

At first Frank Fabiani's family thought he was sleeping. Then they noticed his lips had turned blue and they called an ambulance. Surely a shot of Narcan would have him up and bounding around?

Nearly three years after he overdosed on heroin, Mr Fabiani's 35-year-old limbs are gripped with spasticity. He can hardly communicate, and sometimes his eyes water - difficult to tell whether it's the effort of trying to make a point or the pain of reliving the day he suffered serious, debilitating brain injury.

His mother, Gemma, 61, dabs his eyes while his son, Ricky, 4, climbs over his wheelchair-bound body, rubbing his head against his father's chest.

He has listened while Gemma Fabiani explained how her son, a talented junior squash player, started smoking marijuana in his late teens, progressed to harder drugs, developed a mental illness and then, in the middle of 1998 when they thought he was clean, took a near-fatal dose of heroin.

If he had been upstairs at the time he would almost certainly have died.

"Maybe a good angel was looking after him," Mrs Fabiani said.

The occupational therapists who work with Mr Fabiani believe there is a growing number of heroin overdose survivors with severe brain injury, who don't show up in the statistics or reports on Australia's drug problem. "People think you get high or you die," therapist Michelle Tehan said. "There's no understanding among people who take drugs that this could be a consequence."

Her colleague, Michelle French, runs a small occupational therapy practice in North Fitzroy that sees one or two new overdose survivors with bad brain injuries every month. At the moment they have a dozen such clients aged between 20 and 43.

Ms French hopes a national accreditation program for occupational therapists, launched in Brisbane yesterday, will encourage more OTs to work with these victims of the heroin crisis.

"Most of the time it means they can't walk and they have severe communication problems. With one client it has taken two years to develop an eye-blink, just to say yes," Ms French said.

In Mr Fabiani's case, it is all he can do to utter the word "van". A few days ago he and his mother waited for five hours for a maxi-taxi to arrive to take them home after a doctor's appointment. The family is desperate for funding to buy their own van, having "fought tooth and nail" for State Government money to adapt a downstairs bedroom. Before then Mr Fabiani had spent months in a nursing home and two years in the living room at the family's Epping home.

The 71 hours a week of funded attended care recommended for Mr Fabiani (to get him dressed, showered, fed and for rehabilitative treatment) has been cut to less than 30 hours a week.

Brain damage can follow heroin overdose because of a rapid rise in blood pressure, sometimes causing the veins at the base of the brain to explode and depriving the brain of oxygen.

Ms French said the survivors were mainly young men. Often they had to manage their addictions as well as cope with the massive physical disabilities associated with brain damage.

There were few community options for young victims of acquired brain injury, she said, which meant they often lived in nursing homes ill-equipped to meet their special needs. For Mr Fabiani, the load is carried by his ageing parents, Gemma and 71-year-old Tony.

---

Lack of regulation muddles meth lab cleanup

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By RICH VOSEPKA Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581889

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Once police shut down a methamphetamine lab, haul away the chemicals and lock up the suspects, a final concern lingers.

The acids, solvents and other chemicals used to manufacture the drug may still penetrate walls, appliances and carpets, and they may pose a danger to anyone who moves into the place afterward.

But Utah, like many other states, has no standards for cleaning up former meth labs. The state has no certification system for private companies that decontaminate the labs, and health officials have no data to accurately assess the health risk posed by residual meth-making waste.

``There's a lot of uncertainty,'' said Kent Grey, director of environmental remediation and response for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. ``How clean is clean?''

For Lisa Stong, the answer was ``not clean enough.''

Stong unwittingly rented a Riverton house to a methamphetamine cook, who used common decongestant tablets along with chemicals such as iodine, red phosphorous, freon and lye to make the powerful stimulant. The abrasive mix left stains and contamination throughout the house and garage.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency shut down the lab last May.

Since then, cleaning up the place has been a nightmare, Stong said.

There currently is no written policy on cleanup, but when the Salt Lake Valley Health Department learns of a meth lab, health officials close the property, said Kevin Okleberry of the environmental health department in Salt Lake County.

The health department distributes a list of local cleanup contractors and property owners must hire one of the contractors or clean the property themselves before health officials will allow anyone to move back in, he said.

Stong hired one of the companies on the list, Rocky Mountain Asbestos Abatement, and agreed to pay $1,800 for the work. But she said the cleanup amounted to nothing more than spraying the house with a paint injected with decontamination solution.

When health inspectors returned, the house failed.

``They came out and said they would not pass it. She said she could still smell the chemicals,'' Stong said.

The problem, said Ron Samford, owner of Rocky Mountain Asbestos Abatement, is that Stong's house needed a much more thorough decontamination, and Stong didn't want to pay the $3,500 price tag.

Stained countertops, sinks and appliances usually are torn out and thrown away. The carpet almost always needs to be replaced, and heating and air conditioning ducts have to be scrubbed, Samford said.

``There's no way it's going to pass with that stuff in there,'' Samford said.

Samford also hauls contaminated materials to a hazardous waste site and uses chemical tests to assure a property is clean before seeking a health department inspection, he said.

But nothing in Utah law or county health regulations requires him to do so.

``Right now, there is no licensing program and there are no standards for the state of Utah,'' said Dennis Downs, director of the state solid and hazardous waste control board.

A policy being considered by the Salt Lake Valley Health Department would set official cleanup standards.

The unwritten policy currently followed by Salt Lake County health officials has some holes in it, a decontamination expert said.

``They really don't have procedures that they follow. They don't go to every lab. It's really up to the inspector,'' said Mike Rowzee, owner of Certified Decontamination. ``There are places that were not decontaminated correctly, or they were not closed'' to occupancy.

The proposal in Salt Lake County would add legal teeth to the procedure that health officials now follow, according to Okleberry.

The need for cleanup guidelines has grown as methamphetamine has proliferated.

For the DEA, meth has become the top law enforcement priority in Utah, said Barry Jamison, an agency spokesman. The DEA pays for the initial cleanup of meth labs, hauling off the bulk chemicals and equipment used in the ``cooking'' process, he said.

In 1997, the DEA cleaned up 129 labs in Utah. By 1999, the number had grown to 266. The number leveled off in 2000, at 210, but at about $3,000 each, cleaning up the labs is costly, he said.

The danger from contaminates that still lurk in former meth labs may not reveal itself for many years, Samford said.

For example, children who rub their hands on a wall contaminated with iodine or phosphorous and then lick their hands would not likely get sick right away, but kidney or liver damage could show up later.

``It's not an immediate health risk. It might not show up for five or 10 years,'' Samford said.

State health officials recognize the risk but have few conclusive studies to guide them.

``That's the concern that's out there, but it's tough to find any definitive levels,'' for long-term, low-level exposure, Grey said.

One state that has adopted uniform meth-lab standards is Missouri, whose health officials publish guidelines for decontaminating the labs.

A ``good, thorough cleaning'' often is all that is needed to make a former meth lab habitable, said Brad Harris, an environmental specialist with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

A Missouri study of 70 labs found that the residual contamination left after a meth lab is cleaned up is negligible, Harris said.

``Essentially what contamination they found were standard household products,'' Harris said.

---

USA Today
04/02/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Indiana

Martinsville - A statewide campaign is underway to educate businesses about the ingredients used to make methamphetamine. Many legal items, including ether, cold medications, lithium batteries, drain cleaners and lye, are used to make the drug. Police said public awareness is needed to stem meth production. As many as 800 meth labs could be raided this year, authorities said.

Minnesota

St. Paul - A bill calling for a state study of using marijuana as medicine goes before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. Gov. Ventura's health commissioner has expressed support for medicinal marijuana.

-------- korea

S. Korea puts soldier accord in effect

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581965

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A new accord that gives South Korea more jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers accused of crimes went into effect Monday, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

The new accord, adopted by the two governments in December, means that U.S. soldiers accused of murder, rape, arson, drug trafficking and eight other serious crimes would be turned over to South Korean custody upon indictment.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement, which the new accord replaces, indicted soldiers remained in U.S. military custody until they were convicted in the Korean judicial system and all appeals were exhausted.

The new accord removed one of the most contentious disputes between the two allies. South Korean activists campaigned, sometime violently, for a revision of the old accord _ first signed in 1966 then revised in 1991 _ which they believed infringed upon their sovereignty.

South Korea's legislature approved the accord recently. Lee Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military command in South Korea, confirmed that the new agreement took effect Monday. She said it needed executive endorsement only and did not require congressional approval.

The two countries scheduled a joint meeting later Monday to discuss how they can better cooperate under the new accord. Both sides will be represented by Kim Sung-hwan, a director-general in the Foreign Ministry, and Charles R. Heflebower, deputy U.S. commander in South Korea.

The two sides plan to hold such joint meetings every other month.

In return for the new rules on custody, South Korea has agreed to strengthen the rights of accused U.S. soldiers, such as legal counsel and speedy trial. If South Korean police arrest U.S. soldiers for murder or rape, they now can maintain custody even before the soldiers are indicted.

The new agreement also calls for enhanced safeguards for accused U.S. soldiers regarding detention facilities and media exposure.

About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against a possible North Korean invasion.

The Pentagon has Status of Forces Agreements with all countries where U.S. troops are based, and many here viewed the old legal arrangement as less favorable to locals than similar arrangements for U.S. troops in Japan and Germany.

The U.S. military became a target of criticism by local environmentalists after it was found in 1999 to have dumped 24 gallons of formaldehyde into the Han River, a main source of drinking water for Seoul's 12 million people.

-------- puerto rico

Pataki Assails Bombing Tests at Vieques

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/nyregion/02PATA.html

Chasing the coveted - and elusive - Hispanic vote, Gov. George E. Pataki came to East Harlem yesterday to announce that he would travel to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques next week and continue to press Washington to end the Navy's bombing exercises there permanently.

As New York governor, Mr. Pataki has no direct involvement with Vieques. But over the last several months, he has staked a claim on the issue, speaking out forcefully for an end to the bombing trials, attending rallies and meeting in February with a fellow Republican, President Bush, and his aides. Just days after he met with the president, Mr. Pataki said yesterday, the administration suspended the bombing exercises, which have not yet resumed.

At a speech at the Julia de Burgos Mission for the Arts, Mr. Pataki said he planned to go to Vieques next Monday along with three state commissioners - of health, environmental conservation and economic development - to meet Puerto Rico's governor, Sila M. Calderón. Ms. Calderón's victory in last fall's election was in large part due to her fierce opposition to the United States Navy's use of the island for bombing trials. Mr. Pataki said he would talk to residents and, upon his return, present his findings to the Bush administration.

"I know it is time to stop the bombing but I want to see it in person," Mr. Pataki said. "I want to be there and see it myself, not just for my own knowledge, but so I can go back and go down to meet with President Bush and tell him: `I have been there, Mr. President. I have seen the devastation. No más bombas!' "

Mr. Pataki has not yet said if he will run for a third term as governor, though it is widely believed that he will. Vieques is a visceral and vital issue for many Puerto Ricans in New York, the largest and certainly most politically potent group of Latinos in the state.

Whether Mr. Pataki's stance on Vieques will actually yield votes from Puerto Rican residents in particular, or from Latinos in general, remains unclear. But among the longtime Vieques bombing opponents who gathered yesterday in the East Harlem neighborhood known to residents as El Barrio, the political dimensions of the governor's visit were not lost.

"It's rare that politicians are looking for our votes," said Gloria Quinones, who heads a group called Todo el Barrio con Vieques. "If he wants to do the right thing for the wrong reason, it's O.K. with us."

Representative José E. Serrano, a Democratic congressman from the Bronx who was born in Puerto Rico, praised the governor's newfound embrace of the antibombing crusade, but he dismissed the notion that it might persuade Hispanic voters to support him. New York Hispanics have been largely Democratic. "He will be surprised to find out that Puerto Ricans will be grateful but will still vote Democratic," Mr. Serrano said in a telephone interview.

Critics say the bombing exercises endanger the lives of the 10,000 residents of Vieques, a small island off eastern Puerto Rico. The death of a Puerto Rican civilian from an errant bomb in 1999 spurred the movement to end the bombing, but Navy officials say that Vieques is its only suitable location for aerial bombing tests.

Mr. Pataki's visit to East Harlem was short and eclectic. Accompanied by two Democratic lawmakers who represent the area - State Senator Olga Mendez and Assemblyman José Rivera - Mr. Pataki spoke briefly at the community center, peppering his remarks with "gracias" and shouts of "no más bombas."

Once, chuckling at his own attempts at Spanish, he told the 100 or so people in attendance, "I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but I'm trying."

He posed for pictures, watched a group of youths dance to a thumping hip-hop beat in the hall downstairs, and took a one-and-a-half-block walk along Lexington Avenue, past the nail salons and mofongo spots, peeking into a supermarket to shake hands in front of a stack of Bustelo coffee cans.

One prominent Hispanic leader in New York who was not traveling with the governor yesterday, but whose presence was very much felt, was Dennis Rivera, the president of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, and an outspoken critic of the bombing. Mr. Rivera has perhaps been the person most instrumental in drawing the governor into the Vieques issue. He will also join Mr. Pataki on next week's trip to Vieques.

Mr. Rivera is a formidable Democratic power broker whose union of health care workers mobilized heavily to support Hillary Rodham Clinton in last year's Senate race. But he has also enjoyed a close relationship with Mr. Pataki for the last few years, since the governor agreed to a health care reform bill that Mr. Rivera's members wanted badly. Mr. Rivera remained neutral in the 1998 election, aiding a Pataki victory.

When President Bush took office, Mr. Rivera asked the governor to support an end to the Vieques bombing. Mr. Pataki swiftly delivered. In early March, while attending a governor's conference in Washington, Mr. Pataki and Governor Calderón met with President Bush to press the case. Five days later, Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, suspended bombing.

"I think certainly the fact that he's prepared to stand with the people of Vieques on the most important issue in Puerto Rico means, I think, he will endear himself to the Puerto Rican people," Mr. Rivera said in an earlier interview.

Mr. Pataki's stand on Vieques carries little political risk for the governor. Few voters other than Puerto Ricans care about it. But Mr. Pataki does stand to gain something. Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 3 among the state's registered voters, and Mr. Pataki and his handpicked State Republican Party chairman, Sandy Treadwell, are trying to make inroads into what many Republican strategists see as a weak link in the Democratic coalition.

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in next year's gubernatorial race, said through a spokesman, Steven Greenberg, that he welcomed the governor's support on the issue of Vieques. "Carl has long been opposed to the bombing of Vieques, has long called for a permanent end to the bombing of Vieques, and having the governor arrive at this position now is a good thing," Mr. Greenberg said. "Hopefully the president will recognize there's bipartisan support on this issue."

-------- u.n.

Serbs storm UN building in Bosnia

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406592103

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Hundreds of survivors of a Serb massacre during the Bosnian war stormed the U.N. building here Monday after hearing that a Muslim commander was about to be arrested by the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

A crowd of mostly women stoned security guards and police after breaking down a metal barrier and pounding on the building's glass doors. Security guards prevented them from entering the building.

The protesters were angry because they thought Naser Oric was inside and had been indicted. U.N. officials, however, said Oric had been brought in for questioning, but had left the building and has not been indicted.

Oric was the wartime commander of the Srebrenica enclave, a supposed U.N. ``safe haven'' in Bosnia overrun by the Serbs in 1995. Up to 8,000 Muslims and Croats were killed or disappeared there in the bloodiest massacre of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Oric, a former bodyguard of Slobodan Milosevic, is considered a hero by Bosnian Muslims for his defense of Srebrenica during the Serb siege.

But Bosnia's Serbs say he was a war criminal, accusing him of killing dozens of Serb civilians before the siege of the town. He reportedly organized raids into Serb-held areas to get weapons and food.

A survivors' group issued a statement earlier Monday saying that Oric had surrendered under pressure from the tribunal.

Vincent Coeurderoy, the head of the U.N. international police force here, said that Oric had left the building and would return at an unspecified time.

A spokesman for the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Jim Landale, said that Oric was called in for questioning about a routine investigation.

``We don't normally comment about our investigations, but since there was a crowd problem I can say that Oric is not under indictment,'' Landale said. He gave no further details.

The protesters chanted ``We want Naser!'' and held banners accusing the United Nations of participating in the massacre at Srebrenica. U.N. peacekeepers stationed there at the time failed to stop Serb forces from overrunning it.

Chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte visited Sarajevo last week.

A few Bosnian Serbs have appeared before the tribunal in connection with the Srebrenica atrocities. Key figures accused of genocide in connection with the massacre remain at large, such as wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic.

Huso Mehmedovic, a survivor, said there were no Serb graves around Srebrenica, ``while Muslim graves you can find if you scratch the surface.''

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

Ten Myths About The Defense Budget

In These Times
April 2, 2001
By Lawrence J. Korb
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/korb2509.html

After the Cold War ended, many U.S. military leaders were worried that the defense budget would be slashed dramatically. Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed the concerns of many when he said he feared there would be a stampede in Congress to shift money from the military budget to such things as schools, housing and crime prevention.

Still, there were those who recognized the need to shift funds from defense to social needs. The late Sen. John Tower, for instance, said during the 1989 hearings on his unsuccessful bid to become secretary of defense in the first Bush administration that if the Soviet Empire collapsed, the U.S. obviously would reduce its allocation of resources to defense. Tower was a defense hawk who, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was largely responsible for the Reagan buildup, but he asserted that the United States could be spending enormously less on defense in the absence of a Soviet threat. "If there were no Soviet threat," he said, "we'd be maintaining the kind of Army we had in 1938, [which was] about half the size of what the Marine Corps is now" (or about 197,000 troops).

But the Army of today is not half the size of the Marine Corps of a decade ago. The active duty Army still has nearly 500,000 soldiers. Even the Marine Corps is not half the size it was a decade ago. Today's Corps has 172,000 marines, down only about 12 percent since 1989. Nor are we spending enormously less on defense than we spent during the Cold War. In fact, the budget for fiscal year 2002 that President George W. Bush just outlined to Congress calls for spending $324.8 billion, which is $14.2 billion more than the spending slated for this year (and the likelihood of additional spending is high).

Even if one adjusts for inflation, we are again hovering in the range of our defense spending during the Cold War. Our military spending is nearly three times that of all our potential adversaries combined. Yet we have not shifted enormous sums of money from defense to such areas as education and housing. In fact, for fiscal year 2001, Congress passed a budget resolution that gives the Pentagon 51.3 percent of the total discretionary budget.

One would think the current situation has materialized because the threats we face are growing or our adversaries are spending more. In fact, the U.S. share of the world's military spending today stands at about 35 percent, substantially higher than during the Cold War. In 1985, at the height of the Reagan build-up, the United States and the Soviet Union spent equal amounts on defense; now Russia spends only one-sixth of what the United States spends. If one adds in the spending of U.S. allies, the picture becomes even more favorable to the United States. Our NATO allies spend three times more on defense than Russia. Israel spends as much as Iraq and Iran combined. South Korea spends nine times more on defense than North Korea. And Japan spends more on defense than China.

The main reason political leaders from both parties and continue to approve ever larger expenditures on defense than necessary is that they have accepted a series of misleading assumptions, or half-truths, about the current state of America's military. Before developing a more realistic budget, it is important to confront these myths squarely.

MYTH #1: Defense spending should be increased because it consumes the smallest portion of the GDP and the smallest percentage of the overall budget since the beginning of World War II.

This argument has been advanced by President Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and former Army Chief of Staff Dennis Reimer. While this statement is true as far as it goes, it tells us more about the tremendous growth of our economy, the rising cost of health care, and the aging of the population than it does about national security. Moreover, it implies that the U.S. military is now in as bad shape as it was in 1940. What has been forgotten is that, at the beginning of World War II, the U.S. military was was one-tenth the size of Germany's, half the size of Japan's, and ranked 16th in the world.

MYTH #2: The defense budget has been reduced over the past decade to help lower the budget deficit. Now that the federal budget has a hefty surplus, defense spending should be increased.

The defense budget has been reduced from the lofty levels of the Reagan years primarily because the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed. Moreover, the total combined defense expenditures in 1999 of the "countries of concern" (formerly "rogue states")--Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Syria--was $13.8 billion, or about 4 percent of the U.S. defense budget. The United States and its allies account for 65 percent of the world's total military expenditures.

MYTH #3: Defense spending should increase because there is a gap between defense programs and defense resources.

The Joint Chiefs claim there is a $150 billion gap between current defense funding and what is needed. The fact is the Joint Chiefs will never be satisfied. Had we listened to them during the Cold War, this nation would have spent several trillion dollars more, throwing money at all sorts of nonexistent gaps in our defense.

MYTH #4: The military needs more funding to implement its two-war strategy.

Such a position--the need to be able to conduct two major conflicts simultaneously--defies both logic and history. When the United States was bogged down in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf wars, no other nation threatened U.S. vital interests elsewhere in the world. At least two bipartisan groups established by Congress since the end of the Cold War have rejected the two-war strategy, simply calling it a justification for larger forces. Yet it remains a guiding policy of the U.S. military.

MYTH #5: Deploying troops in peacekeeping operations like Bosnia has diverted large sums of money from core defense functions.

In fact, peacekeeping operations consumed less than 2 percent of the defense budget during the Clinton administration. Only 10,000 U.S. troops, out of a total force of 2.3 million, are currently involved in these small-scale contingencies. Furthermore, the threat from regional "rogues" has been wildly overestimated and is rapidly declining.

MYTH #6: The Pentagon needs more money because it is facing an investment shortfall.

The secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs claim the Pentagon has needed $60 billion a year in new equipment to keep its forces modernized. But during the past five years, the Pentagon on average has spent less than $50 billion on new equipment. Moreover, the $60 billion dedicated to new equipment in the fiscal year 2001 budget has put the U.S. military in an arms race with itself.

For example, the amount of money earmarked for new equipment assumes that the Defense Department must replace its current generation of tactical aircraft, the F-16, F-15, F-14 and F/A-18 C/D, with the newer, more sophisticated and much more expensive, F-22 and F/A-18 E/F, even though the current aircraft are already the best in the world. Similarly, the Pentagon claims it needs a new generation of submarines, even though the current generation has many years of useful life left--and no next generation of Soviet submarines to threaten it. Finally, the current $60 billion benchmark ignores the fact that the U.S. procurement budget is 40 percent more than all of our allies combined, 75 percent more than either Russia or China, and nine times greater than that of Iraq and North Korea put together.

MYTH #7: The readiness of our armed forces is declining because we are not spending enough on "operations and maintenance," which is the money it takes to keep weapon systems functioning.

In fiscal year 2000, real operations and maintenance spending per capita was 10 percent higher than at the height of the Reagan build-up, exceeding $100 billion for an active duty force of 1.36 million. Moreover, the armed services are still using the same readiness criteria as they did during the Cold War to justify additional expenditures. Even if the mission-capable rates of tactical aircraft have declined by 5 percent or even 10 percent compared to 1985, as some have claimed, that's not a real problem unless the North Korean or Iraqi military is 90 to 95 percent as capable as the Soviets were.

MYTH #8: The services are failing to meet their recruiting goals, even though they have lowered the quality standards they maintained in the '80s.

On the contrary, the armed services now have a higher percentage of "high quality accessions" (high school graduates and people scoring average or above average on the armed forces qualifications test) than at any time during the Reagan years.

MYTH #9: Personnel are leaving the services because a much higher percentage of the force is deployed overseas than during the Cold War.

Some have claimed that the military has been deployed overseas once every nine weeks in the past decade. The fact of the matter is that in the '80s more than 500,000 (or 25 percent) people of an active duty force of 2.1 million were deployed outside the United States. Today that number is about 230,000 or 15 percent of an active force of 1.36 million.

MYTH # 10: There is a pay gap between the military and civilian sectors; therefore, pay and benefits for all military personnel must be increased substantially.

As evidence of the gap, proponents of a pay raise claim that the military suffers a 13 percent pay gap relative to the private sector. They also argue that this has created a situation in which 12,000 military people are on food stamps.

But as Cindy Williams, former head of the Congressional Budget Office's National Security Division, has demonstrated, there really is no pay gap. The majority of the men and women in the armed services earn more than 75 percent of their civilian counterparts. An entering recruit with a high school diploma makes $22,000, while an officer earns $34,000. After 20 years, the salary of an enlisted man exceeds $50,000, while that of officers tops $100,000. In addition, throughout their careers, military personnel are eligible for a wide variety of bonuses and receive a generous package of fringe benefits (free health care, generous noncontributory retirement, etc.).

While it is true that some 12,000 military personnel are technically eligible for food stamps, the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that the vast majority of them are individuals with large families in the lower ranks who live on-base. Because they live on-base in rent-free quarters, they do not receive their housing allowance. If they lived off-base, or if their compensation were adjusted to reflect the fair market value of their housing, most of these people would not be eligible for food stamps. Correcting these distortions reduces the number to less than 1,000 soldiers.

None of this analysis is meant to indicate that the military does not face challenges. But these challenges or problems can be met without throwing more and more money at the Pentagon. The majority of the problems faced by the Pentagon are self-inflicted. In the '90s, the Defense Department conducted three reviews of its strategy and force structure. Despite the fact that these reviews were conducted by three different secretaries of defense, they did not result in any fundamental changes. Structurally, the force of 2000 is little different from what it was a decade ago. Although the force is somewhat smaller, it is in essence a "Cold War-Lite" force. The troops drive the same tanks, fly the same planes, and sail the same ships as they did in 1990. Moreover, they use the same procurement strategy and employ the same organizational and operational models.

While such a development is understandable from a bureaucratic and political view, it has given America the worst of all possible worlds. Not only do we spend more than is necessary on defense, we get far less than we should for our money. A true bottom-up review that resulted in a realistic budget would give us a more effective defense at a greatly reduced cost. What would this budget look like? The United States could have a realistic defense budget for around $260 billion, which is about 20 percent less than the $324.8 billion budget proposed for fiscal year 2002 by President Bush.

The reasons for the current excess in U.S. defense spending are clear. Our leaders have accepted a number of half-truths about defense spending, the current shape of our armed forces and the threats to our national security. They have not shown the political courage to stand up to the Pentagon and its supporters who wittingly or unwittingly mouth these misleading statements. If these trends continue, the United States is likely to spend at least $500 billion more on defense in the coming decade than is necessary to provide for our national security. Although we are a wealthy nation, and currently have a budget surplus, this is still a large amount of money that could be put to much better use elsewhere.

Lawrence J. Korb is vice president and director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 1981 to 1985, he served in the Reagan administration as assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs and logistics. This article is excerpted and updated from "A Realistic Defense Budget for the New Millennium," a report produced by Korb in conjunction with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities (www.businessleaders.org).

---

Locke criticizes Bush on water rules

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581616

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is leading a strategic assault on the environment after he announced plans to rescind a Clinton-era regulation limiting the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, a Democratic governor said Saturday.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke said Bush is in the pocket of big business and is taking his cues from the energy industry.

``It is the wealthy donors and the special interests that helped put him in the White House who want to loosen environmental controls,'' Locke said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. ``As a result, their problems are his problems, and the environmental regulations that are in their way, are in his way too.''

The comments were in reaction to Bush's announcement this week that he will pursue a reduction in the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, but not before more scientific studies indicate where the level should be set.

The current standard, set in 1942, allows a maximum of 50 parts per billion. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended reducing that to 5 parts per billion as demanded by many environmentalists, but President Clinton directed that the standard be set at 10 parts per billion.

The Bush administration says it will withdraw the Clinton standard, which would have taken effect later this year.

Health and environmental groups have been campaigning since 1996 to reduce the standard. The EPA acted as part of a court settlement after the National Academy of Sciences found in 1999 that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, and might cause liver and kidney cancer.

Locke said Bush's action is just the latest in his ``anti-environmental initiatives.''

``On the campaign trail, then-Governor Bush promised that he would place limits on the level of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere,'' Locke said. ``Right after he got into the White House, though, that pledge went out the window.''

``Two days later, the president announced that he thought our national parks, such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, have great potential for oil drilling,'' the governor said. ``We urge the president in the strongest terms to protect our environment.''

---

Foot & mouth cases climb in Britain

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582050

LONDON (AP) - Despite large-scale slaughter and a policy change permitting the burial of young cow carcasses, the number of foot-and-mouth cases in Britain continued to climb Sunday, surpassing 890.

The severity of the crisis reportedly led Prime Minister Tony Blair to postpone a general election believed to have been planned for May 3. However, Blair made no announcement Sunday, despite newspaper and television reports that he would now wait until June for a nationwide vote.

A new policy allowing burial of cows younger than 5 years old instead of burning them should speed up the disposal of thousands of dead animals, some of which have lingered on farms for three weeks, said Brig. Alex Birtwistle, who is in charge of the huge slaughter and burial site in Cumbria, northwest England.

Some 120,000 sheep have been buried at the airfield and 10,000 animals a day were being culled there, Birtwistle told BBC-TV on Sunday.

He said he hoped to bring the slaughter-to-disposal time to less than 24 hours within days.

The burial of cow carcasses had been banned because of concerns that mad cow disease, the fatal brain-wasting ailment scientists fear can be transmitted to humans, would spread to the water supply.

The Agriculture Ministry has determined that the burials do not pose a risk to the water table or surrounding land, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown announced Saturday. He insisted Sunday that the highly contagious disease was ``most certainly under control.''

Meanwhile, a new case of foot-and-mouth was confirmed in the southwest county of Cornwall, which had appeared disease-free for four weeks.

A new outbreak spelled the end of the Cheltenham Festival, Europe's biggest horse jump-race meet, which was canceled Sunday when the disease came within 5 miles of the racecourse.

The races, originally set for March, was rescheduled for April 17-19 when the disease was first discovered. The British Horseracing Board has now canceled the meet.

Foot-and-mouth disease, which is not harmful to humans, strikes cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, pigs and cows. More than 940,000 animals have been earmarked for slaughter, and 166,000 carcasses were awaiting disposal.

The slaughter was taking an emotional toll on veterinarians, said Lt. Col. Gary Donaldson, leader of the army effort in Durham and Cleveland counties in the northeast.

``We are finding them in tears,'' he said. ``Not only are they killing animals they want to cure, they are also having farmers in extreme trauma.''

The bolt-guns used to stun animals before slaughter were overheating, and trained soldiers also were finding the ``wholesale slaughter'' traumatic, he said.

---

In a Humble World, Defense Deputy Stands Firm

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/politics/02WOLF.html

WASHINGTON, March 31 - Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz was listening to the interviewer's first question when he suddenly changed the subject to his tenure as ambassador to Indonesia a decade ago.

"By the way, I want to interject that in Indonesia I am a major international figure," Mr. Wolfowitz said. "And I have to admit that I enjoy it."

He recalled that when he visited Indonesia several years ago, "Waiters and waitresses in the hotels would come up and say, `Are you Mr. Paul?' " And he said that when one of his former students went to homes of ordinary Indonesians, he discovered that "they still have my picture on the walls."

Mr. Wolfowitz, 57, is serving a president who is determined that America's approach to the world will be governed by humility, but no one has ever accused Mr. Wolfowitz of being particularly humble. And as the Pentagon's second in command, he is likely to become an even more "major international figure."

In his audition for the job, he persuaded Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to make him his "alter ego."

As Mr. Wolfowitz later explained, "You want to be as close to the secretary's thinking as you can get and to some extent substitutable." His other role, he said, is to "take care of as many things as possible that shouldn't clutter" his boss's desk.

Mr. Wolfowitz has already made news in both roles. He and Mr. Rumsfeld rattled the Russians with a joint interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph two weeks ago in which they branded Russia a proliferator of dangerous weapon technologies. And as the official responsible for second- tier issues, Mr. Wolfowitz negotiated a compromise on head-gear for the United States Army (black berets for the regular Army, tan for the Rangers).

He is the intellectual architect in a steely, staunchly conservative triad that includes a political overseer (his former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney) and a bureaucratic black belt (Mr. Rumsfeld). This group has emerged as the most influential and disciplined in President Bush's national security team.

Mr. Wolfowitz has forged deep bonds with the two men over the years. As undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, he was the point man to Defense Secretary Cheney in the Persian Gulf war. And he worked for Mr. Rumsfeld twice in the last five years - as foreign policy strategist when Mr. Rumsfeld took charge of Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996 and as a member of the Rumsfeld Commission, which warned in 1998 that the United States was increasingly vulnerable to attack by long-range ballistic missiles.

But where Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney go out of their way to be bland, Mr. Wolfowitz combines James Mason-like good looks, a silky voice and a pronounced activist vision - articulated with either passion or caution depending on time and place.

Years ago, Mr. Wolfowitz called himself an ideologue to distinguish himself from balance-of-power realists who tended to focus more on the achievable than on fixed ideals. Now, he says, "I never considered myself an ideologue."

His friends, however, like the label. "Paul is an ideologue in the sense that he treasures ideas and respects people with a firm world view," said Kenneth L. Adelman, a friend who worked with him in the Reagan administration. "He never liked the mushy middle."

Not surprisingly, Mr. Wolfowitz's appointment has been met with delight on the right. "He's the type who says, `Let's use government to promote our agenda and not just react to the world as we find it,' " said Edwin J. Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. "It's important to have his voice there."

But Mr. Wolfowitz's interventionist approach could put him at odds with Mr. Bush's pledge to halt what he calls overdeployments of troops around the world. Mr. Wolfowitz criticized the decision to end the 1991 war against Iraq so quickly, a course of action advocated by Mr. Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now secretary of state. In recent years, Mr. Wolfowitz proposed overthrowing President Saddam Hussein of Iraq by arming opposition forces and using American ground troops to create a mini-state for them in southern Iraq and protect it.

Mr. Wolfowitz vigorously endorsed the decision in late 1992 to send American troops on an open-ended humanitarian mission in Somalia. He advocated arming the Bosnian Muslims in their war against the Serbs and criticized the Clinton administration as waiting too long to intervene militarily in Kosovo.

For the moment, at least, Mr. Wolfowitz has no intention of singing off-key in the new administration. On Iraq, for example, he has softened his line. Asked now about his proposal to create an armed enclave for opposition forces, Mr. Wolfowitz replied, "I don't know if it's doable," adding "whether you help them by risking American lives or not is a very important line to cross."

He has also embraced President Bush's notion about humility, saying at a Pentagon welcoming ceremony on March 16, "At his first cabinet meeting President Bush prayed, `Grant us a servant's spirit in our new positions.' I can only add amen to that."

Friends and ideological soul mates say humility is not part of Mr. Wolfowitz's diplomatic tool kit. "I don't think Paul has joined the government to help preside over a declining American role in the world," said William Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard.

Mr. Wolfowitz's absence of uncertainty is often interpreted as arrogance, a characterization his friends dispute. "I just don't think he wastes a lot of time with dim people," said Robin Cleveland, a friend and senior official at the Office of Management and Budget.

Mr. Wolfowitz is sensitive to a criticism that has dogged him for years: that he is a less than gifted manager. But in the interview he acknowledged that "punctuality is not my middle name." And he speculated that "maybe people think I think too much" before making decisions.

Mr. Rumsfeld has given Mr. Wolfowitz advice on how to become more efficient. "Start things on time and end on time," Mr. Wolfowitz quoted his boss as telling him. "Whatever decision you make, make it fast."

Early on, Mr. Wolfowitz was slated for stardom. The son of a Cornell University mathematics professor, he became a protégé of Allan Bloom, the political philosopher, and Albert Wohlstetter, the father of hard-line conservative strategic thinking, at the University of Chicago. There, Mr. Wolfowitz received a Ph.D. in political science, then landed a teaching post at Yale. After joining the government in 1973, he held a number of key posts at the Defense and State Departments. From 1994 to 2000, he was dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

There is even a minor character in Saul Bellow's novel "Ravelstein" inspired by Mr. Wolfowitz: a gifted Pentagon official named Philip Gorman who phones Abe Ravelstein (a thinly disguised Allan Bloom) from time to time with inside information (unclassified, of course). "It's only a matter of time before Phil Gorman has cabinet rank, and a damned good thing for the country," Abe Ravelstein says at one point.

Indeed, after advising the Bush campaign on national security matters, Mr. Wolfowitz was a leading candidate to become defense secretary. So it goes without saying that if Mr. Rumsfeld, 68, leaves his post before his tenure runs out, his "alter ego" would be ready to step in. At his welcoming ceremony, Mr. Wolfowitz joked about his boss, saying, "In another time you were the youngest secretary of defense ever. In a short time, you will be the oldest."

---

USA Today
04/02/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

New Mexico

White Sands Missile Range - The Army's new Patriot interceptor missile performed well, a missile range spokesman said. Data showed that three missiles intercepted their targets, the spokesman said.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

PM to dump Kyoto deal

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By ANNABEL CRABB
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFX81FCOZKC.html

Federal cabinet is today poised to back the United States in an effective withdrawal from the Kyoto global warming reduction process, hastening the collapse of the international protocol.

Key cabinet ministers - backed by Prime Minister John Howard - will argue that a new deal needs to be established, including controls on greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries such as China.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss signalled yesterday he would support a new approach. "Clearly, there's no great point in Australia reducing its emissions if our near neighbors are under no obligation to do a similar thing," he said. "I hope arising out of the Americans' announcement that we can end up with a better all-embracing announcement in the future."

After President George W. Bush announced last week that the US would withdraw from the Kyoto process, Environment Minister Robert Hill said he would lobby the Bush administration to reconsider.

But in a move that could elevate the environment as an issue in this year's federal election, senior government sources last night confirmed that cabinet today is likely to side with the US, with the government sharing the American view that domestic industries will be harmed while other nations are free to pollute extensively.

The apparent division between Senator Hill and Mr Truss follows a long-standing disagreement between them on greenhouse policy.

Continued negotiations with the US will centre around the potential for achieving a more effective deal, rather than reviving US interest in Kyoto.

But Senator Hill yesterday insisted Australia would remain committed to its Kyoto targets, telling The Age he was not aware that any of his cabinet colleagues were backing a retreat. "We've signed the Kyoto agreement, and we've accepted what we believe to be a fair target," he said.

The 1997 Kyoto agreement is premised on an acceptance that developed nations should take the lead in cutting greenhouse emissions to slow global warming.

But Mr Bush last week announced that the agreement was against America's interests and would not be supported.

His announcement infuriated European nations, which believe developed nations must lead the way.

Swedish Environment Minister Kjell Larson emerged from a weekend meeting of European ministers vowing that the protocol would live on with or without the US. "No individual country has the right to declare a multilateral agreement as dead," he said.

Senator Hill, who will go to New York in a fortnight for further greenhouse discussions, said US involvement was crucial. "If the United States does withdraw from the Kyoto protocol, then that will spell the end of it," he said.

But he described Australia's commitments under the protocol as fair and reasonable.

"We've always said that everyone should reduce their emissions - both developed and developing nations - we've always accepted that (the absence of developing nations) was one of the shortcomings of the agreement," Senator Hill said.

Mr Truss said Australia had secured a "good deal" under the Kyoto agreement and it was important that any new deal reproduced the special considerations Australia received.

---

North's mould menace
Overcrowding causes sick buildings and sick people, Crees say

Montreal Gazette
Monday 2 April 2001
ALEX ROSLIN Special to The Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/010402/5018239.html

For three years, there were 16 people living in Marion Sam Cox's three-bedroom home in Chisasibi, a Cree community in northern Quebec.

All those people generated so much humidity in the house during the long northern winters that toxic mould soon festered behind the walls - the same kind of potentially deadly mould that recently forced the shutdown of operating rooms at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.

In a quiet voice, Cox, 63, a Cree elder, told MPs last week that the mould left her severely ill.

"I couldn't go to work a lot of times because I had severe headaches and asthma attacks all the time," she said.

"I knew it was the house making me sick because I never had those problems before. I had to go to the clinic all the time. The doctor said I had to use a puffer and medication for the rest of my life."

Cox was part of a Cree delegation that testified before the House of Commons standing committee on aboriginal affairs about a housing shortage that the Crees are calling an emergency.

The hearings on housing continue this week with testimony from other First Nations and federal-government officials.

Cree Grand Chief Ted Moses accused Ottawa of stalling until the lack of housing became a serious health and social crisis, and neglecting its obligation to provide adequate housing under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.

Sixty per cent of Cree homes are overcrowded by Canadian standards, Moses said. The average Cree home has 5.2 people, far more than the Quebec average of 2.5, he added.

Years of underfunding by the federal government have left Cree communities with a need for 1,400 new homes to ease existing overcrowding, plus 600 more homes for new families over the next five years and 250 new homes to replace "sick" houses, like Cox's, that should be condemned, Moses said.

Total estimated cost to fix the problem: $427 million.

"I call it a time bomb. We have been trying for many years to address the issue," Moses said, inviting the MPs to the Cree communities to see the problems first-hand.

In Chisasibi alone, 179 inhabited houses need to be vacated and burned, said other experts called by the Crees.

"But there is no place to put those people," said Norm Hawkins, a housing advisor to the Crees. "We can't have people live in tents at 40 below zero."

Dr. Robert Harris, a public-health expert who works in Chisasibi, said Cree health officials are being overwhelmed by serious respiratory and ear infections caused by moulds. Especially heart-wrenching, he said, are the many children he sees with severe asthma, some as young as one year old.

Harris told The Gazette that Chisasibi residents fed up with the overcrowding are organizing a demonstration to greet federal Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault when he visits the community this Friday.

In his testimony, Harris cited studies that found Chisasibi residents are hospitalized twice as often due to respiratory problems as the Canadian average and stay in hospital for those problems three times longer; that the death rate from respiratory problems is 2.6 times higher than the Canadian average; and that the reduction in the Crees ' life expectancy due to respiratory problems is 10 times greater than average.

He gave the example of Cox, the Cree elder. She had an average of 18 emergency-room visits per year for asthma while living in one of the "sick" houses. When she moved to a new house, her emergency-room visits dropped to four a year.

The humidity level in the homes is 50 to 80 per cent, compared with the recommended 30 per cent, Harris said. The mould and humidity also cause foul odours, sewage backup, fungus, wheezing and nausea, he said.

Other findings of the studies:

n 48 per cent of very crowded homes reported social, alcohol and family-violence problems, compared with only 20 per cent of uncrowded homes.

n 68 per cent of houses in Chisasibi needed major structural repairs.

n 43 per cent of houses reported problems with moulds.

n People in a mouldy house have twice the risk of wheezing and sore throats than people with no mould, a three-times-greater risk of sinus problems and a 1.9-times-greater risk of developing depression.

The MPs were clearly moved by the testimony of Cox and the others, and by a photo of a Cree child whose face was covered in rashes caused by mould. One opposition MP said he was revolted.

Some Liberal MPs criticized their own government.

"I believe people in the Indian Affairs Department are working as hermits," said Guy St-Julien, Liberal MP for the Quebec riding Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik, which includes the Cree communities.

"They are working in an ivory tower. They don't know what's happening in the Cree communities. I'm not happy with my government, which hasn't woken up. This is a very pressing problem."

Liberal MP Benoit Serre agreed: "You would have to be blind not to see there is a national (aboriginal) housing crisis, not only in (Cree) communities, but across the country.

"This is a major, major problem. If we can spend $500 million on (development of) the Toronto waterfront, I think we can spend $500 million for aboriginal housing. We have an obligation as a national government."

Gerard Binet, another Liberal MP, promised to pressure his government for help, saying: "It's a crying problem."

In an interview, a senior Indian Affairs Department official downplayed the health problems, saying they may be largely the Crees' fault.

"A lot of this is because of lack of awareness of house-owners," said Ian Corbin, the department's director of infrastructure and housing.

"A lot of this is the result of poor maintenance and lack of awareness of house-owners of what they should do to get rid of mould."

Hawkins, the Cree housing advisor, said that's not true.

He said the moisture and mould are the result of overcrowding: "Those houses were designed for an average family with four or five people, not 10, 12, 15 people."

Vir Handa, an engineering professor at the University of Waterloo who testified on behalf of the Crees, agreed.

"The amount of moisture generated is completely out of proportion to the house's ability to absorb it. The problem is not the house - it's overcrowding."

The MPs were told that the problems will only get worse because 70 per cent of Crees are less than 30 years old, and many are starting new families.

---

Poll backs gas emission reduction

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581341

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two-thirds of Americans say President Bush should develop a plan to reduce the emission of gases like carbon dioxide that have been blamed for causing global temperature increases, says a poll released Sunday.

In the middle of last month, Bush reversed himself on a campaign promise that his administration would reduce carbon dioxide emissions. His administration has also announced it will pull out of an international agreement aimed at combating climate change.

The Time-CNN poll, taken after the announced pullout, found that three-fourths of Americans say they consider global warming to be a serious problem. More than four in 10 said they consider the problem very serious and three in 10 said it was fairly serious.

European officials have warned the decision to pull out of the climate agreement, known as the Kyoto Protocol, could harm U.S. relations with the rest of the world.

And Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Todd Whitman warned the Bush administration that the carbon dioxide emissions issue was a matter of ``international credibility.''

Bush said he changed his position because he would not do anything to further harm the economy or affect the energy supply. He and Whitman have said the administration remains open to discussions of ways to reduce global warming.

The Time magazine cover story includes a letter to the president from former President Jimmy Carter, former news anchor Walter Cronkite, former astronaut and senator John Glenn, scientist Stephen Hawking and several others asking the president to ``develop a plan to reduce U.S. production of greenhouse gases.''

``No challenge we face is more momentous than the threat of global climate change,'' the letter said. ``The current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol are a matter of legitimate debate. But the situation is becoming urgent and it is time for consensus and action.''

By a 3-1 margin, Americans said they believe emissions of gases like carbon dioxide are causing global temperature increases. Three-fourths of Democrats and half of Republicans said they believe such emissions are causing temperatures to increase.

People were evenly split on whether they would be willing to pay 25 cents more per gallon for gasoline to reduce pollution and global warming. A decade ago, six of 10 were willing to pay that much more.

A majority _ 55 percent _ said the government should require improvements in fuel efficiency for cars and trucks, even if it means higher prices and smaller vehicles. Four in 10 disagreed.

The poll of 1,025 adults was taken March 21-22 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

---

Danes continue oil spill cleanup

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582029

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Nearly half of the oil that spilled into the Baltic Sea after a tanker collision and soiled Danish beaches has been scooped up, officials said Sunday.

A freighter rammed the oil tanker Wednesday off southeastern Denmark, sending some 764,000 gallons of the tanker's total cargo of 9.7 million gallons into the Baltic.

Cleanup crews have been aided by good weather along the coast, said Joergen Holst Hansen, a representative of the Danish Emergency Management Agency.

The slick soiled more than 12 miles of coastline and has killed more than 700 birds. Crews were scrambling to keep the slick from reaching a bird sanctuary that is home to 10,000 birds in the Fane fjord on the southern coast of Moen island.

``We are reckoning with a dramatic number of bird deaths,'' said Alfred Schumm of the World Wildlife Fund's Baltic Sea Project in Germany.

More than 200 people joined cleanup efforts on the coasts of the islands Moen, Bogoe, Faroe and Falster, officials said. A similar number worked from the sea to contain and pump the oil. Cleanup is expected to be finished within a week.

``We believe that the remaining oil in the Baltic Sea has sunk and is out of our reach,'' said police Sgt. Klaus Lose from the town of Stubbekoebing, 70 miles south of Copenhagen. He said small slicks likely were floating around and would eventually dissipate over the next weeks.

The rest of the tanker's oil was to be transferred to another vessel Monday.

A preliminary report issued Saturday by the Danish Maritime Authorities said the Baltic Carrier tanker may have had a steering problem. A spokesman for the Germany-based company that owns the tanker agreed but declined to say whether technical problems played a role.

Staff on the bridge of the Cypriot sugar freighter Tern told investigators they could not avoid hitting the tanker.

---

Tyson, Ky. residents in odor trial

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By KIMBERLY HEFLING Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406586165

MARION, Ky. (AP) - Just about everybody agrees the smell from hundreds of thousands of chickens - and their waste - isn't pleasant.

Some of the residents near one of the state's largest chicken farms complain the stench attracts buzzards and makes just about any kind of outdoor activity unbearable.

``It's so bad you almost sometimes want to get sick,'' said Jennifer Moore, who lives in the adjacent Greenwood Heights subdivision.

But whether it's a public nuisance punishable by millions of dollars in fines will be up to a jury to decide next month.

If convicted, Tyson Foods and farmer Mike ``Bud'' Wardlaw, which operates the chicken houses under contract with Tyson, could face up to $100 million in fines.

Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson contends the prosecution under a city public nuisance ordinance - typically reserved for barking dogs, stray cows and loud neighbors - is misguided and calls the fines excessive.

``Nuisance ordinances are intended to address animals given to chasing vehicles, attacking other animals,'' Tyson lawyers wrote in court papers. ``These offenses are not typically committed by nonresident chickens.''

Over about the last decade, an increasing number of western Kentucky farmers have opened chicken operations and nearby residents have grumbled about the smell and potential harm to groundwater. But state officials said never before have the complaints made it as far as a criminal jury trial.

Crittenden County Attorney Alan Stout said the smell has disrupted life in such a manner that it damages the property.

``When the actions of a corporate citizen have such a strong impact on the day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens, then the only way to combat the actions of corporate America are through civil penalties and fines,'' Stout said.

Wardlaw, originally under contract with Hudson Foods, purchased the 111 acres to build the operation in 1997. That same year, more than 50 neighbors filed suit in an attempt to stop construction. A judge ruled there was no legal reason to curtail the project until it became a public nuisance.

Later, a state regulation went into effect requiring chicken houses be at least 2,000 feet from an incorporated city limit.

Wardlaw's operation would be too close under current regulations, said Ira Linville, executive director of the state's newly created Office of Environmental Services.

Wardlaw declined to comment for this story.

After the residents' lawsuit failed, the City Council in 1999 amended the penalties under an existing ordinance, making it possible to fine by the animal per day.

Wardlaw's operation, which includes 16 chicken houses, typically has 400,000 birds.

``If you do the math, 400,000 times $250, you can see what it adds up to,'' said Stout, the prosecutor.

``That sounds like a lot of money,'' Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said. ``We do want to be a good neighbor''

The trial is expected to begin May 18.

---

Oil spill threatens Danish beaches

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406592431

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - With at least 1,000 ducks, swans and seagulls already dead, hunters combed oil-soiled Danish beaches Monday to destroy birds coated in oil and beyond saving after a tanker collision.

More than 200 people working on land with forks, spades and pitchforks, and 200 more working from the sea have scooped up nearly half the 764,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Baltic Sea after a freighter and oil tanker collided Wednesday off Denmark.

Some 59,000 gallons remained on 12 miles of soiled beaches and the rest was believed to have sunk.

On Monday, a Finnish tanker, the Tervi, connected a line to the damaged tanker to pump the remaining fuel from the Baltic Carrier, which had been carrying 9.7 million gallons of oil.

The spill has stained the islands of Moen, Bogoe, Faroe and Falster, which are on the migration route for numerous birds, including eider ducks, long-tailed ducks and goosanders.

Workers installed a floating barrier to keep the oil from entering a bird sanctuary on the island of Moen that is home to about 10,000 birds.

The Danish Forest and Nature Agency sent 20 hunters to search more than 75 miles of coastline to kill oil-coated birds deemed beyond saving.

``We have counted at least 1,000 dead birds,'' agency spokesman Finn Jensen said, adding it is too early to determine how many birds may have died. ``It is hard to tell, but 2,000 is a realistic estimate.''

Knud Flensted of the Danish Ornithological Society said he fears the number of dead birds could rise as much as five times that because many might not die immediately.

``It is worse than I had expected,'' Flensted said. ``In the two weeks that follows the accident, we will see birds _ dead or dying _ in the whole region.''

The collision took place in a busy ship traffic lane between Denmark and Germany when the German-owned tanker apparently turned suddenly and hit the Cypriot sugar freighter Tern.

A preliminary report by the Danish Maritime Authorities said the year-old, double-hulled tanker may have had a steering problem. A final report was to be released later.

Up to 160,000 vessels sail through inner Danish straits every year.

---

Blair Faces Choice on Disease Shots

Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
InfoBeat News
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406585801

LONDON (AP) _ Prime Minister Tony Blair faced a decision Monday on whether to go ahead with vaccination of dairy cattle to help contain foot-and-mouth disease in two hard-hit regions.

The European Union's veterinary committee last week gave Britain approval to vaccinate up to 180,000 cattle to help slow the spread of the disease in Cumbria county in northwestern England and Devon in the southwest.

Blair's office on Friday admitted that many farmers are opposed to vaccination and said he hoped to make a decision on Monday.

With about 900 cases confirmed since the outbreak was detected on Feb. 20, Britain is struggling to control the epidemic. Blair reportedly has decided to put off national elections at least until June 7, instead of the expected May 3, to concentrate on the crisis.

The government and the European Union agree in opposing routine inoculation of sheep, cattle, coats and other cloven-hoofed animals against foot-and-mouth disease.

Any vaccinated animals would eventually be killed anyway.

Emergency vaccination is usually used when authorities are struggling to kill their animals fast enough. The disease has an incubation period of only two weeks and spreads rapidly and easily, so vaccination can slow the spread of the infection.

Chief veterinarian Jim Scudamore has said that supplies of the vaccine were plentiful, should the government decide to implement the policy.

---

No Days Off at Foie Gras Farm

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/nyregion/02FOIE.html

FERNDALE, N.Y. - Inside several large barns rising out of the muddy fields here, migrant workers feed nearly 30,000 ducks three times a day by inserting tubes down their throats. After 30 days of intensive feeding, the farm sends the birds to slaughter, producing a prized gastronomic delight from their swollen, succulent livers: foie gras.

In the last decade, the Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm in this Catskill community has had astonishing success. It now produces three-fourths of all American-made foie gras, and visiting chefs from France have given the farm the ultimate compliment, saying its foie gras rivals the French variety.

But while the farm's owners bask in the acclaim of food writers and celebrity chefs, the 80 feeders - all immigrants from Mexico - lead an existence that is light-years removed from the opulence that foie gras symbolizes. The workers, who know that animal-rights groups often complain about the treatment of the birds, have a big complaint of their own: the farm requires them to work 30 days in a row, and some say they have not had a full day off in years.

"The conditions for the workers are crueler than the conditions for the ducks," said Maura Gonzales Rusas, a feeder. "It's hard work, it's heavy work, and we never seem to get to rest."

As one of the largest agricultural employers in the state, Hudson Valley Foie Gras has become ground zero in a debate over whether the 30,000 farm workers in New York should be given a right that state law guarantees all other workers: a day of rest each week. Leaders of the New York State Senate and Assembly are considering such day-of-rest legislation, with a vote expected sometime this fall.

On one side are the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O. and many members of the clergy, who are battling on behalf of the workers, saying that no one should be denied such a basic right. On the other side is the New York State Farm Bureau, the main growers' association, which says such legislation would badly hurt the agricultural industry.

Hudson Valley's owners assert that if their workers could take a day off, the feeding process would be disrupted and the ducks and their livers would not grow as fast or be as tasty.

"Our biggest problem is literally the ducks get used to one feeder and the quality of the results will be greatly damaged if someone else comes in one day a week to do the feedings," said Michael A. Ginor, an owner of Hudson Valley, adding that the farm tries to raise its birds with as little stress as possible.

Similarly, apple and berry growers voice fears that if their workers were given a day off during the harvest, much of the fruit would rot. And dairy farmers worry about who will milk the cows if their one hired hand has a day off.

"There are times when farmers need the extra help, and that may require having people work seven days a week," said John Lincoln, an upstate dairy farmer who is president of the state Farm Bureau.

This year, farm-worker advocates and labor unions have made day-of- rest legislation their primary goal to help New York's farm workers. Unlike almost all other workers in the state, farm workers lack certain rights, including the right to bargain collectively and time-and-a-half overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week.

"For those of us from a Judeo- Christian background, it's fundamental that everyone should be given a day of rest," said the Rev. Richard Witt, executive director of the Rural and Migrant Ministry of New York.

Three times a day, Ms. Gonzales works to fatten the 350 ducks assigned to her, usually taking less than 30 seconds to feed each one. A short, round-faced woman with ruddy cheeks, Ms. Gonzales moves slowly from pen to pen, pressing a finger under each bird's bill to open its mouth. She then uses a funnel and a small motor to force cornmeal, up to a pound each feeding, into a plastic tube and down the ducks' throats. The farm's owners say the tube does not hurt because the birds have calcified esophagi.

Many nights she sleeps only four hours, from 1:30 to 5:30 a.m., because the schedule often requires her to feed the ducks from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., then 6 to 9 a.m., and again in the afternoon - more than 1,000 feedings a day.

"When you work 30 days straight, you lose out on a lot," said Ms. Gonzales, 29, the mother of two boys, 10 and 3. "I'd like to have more time to spend with my children. And there's never time to go to church.

"Sometimes you get so tired that you fall asleep right in the middle of a feeding," she said in Spanish. "Usually one of the ducks will wake you back up because it's hungry."

When the intensive feeding begins,, the ducks are 14 weeks old and their livers weigh 3 ounces. By the end, the livers often weigh 1.5 pounds to 2 pounds. Hudson Valley sells Grade A livers, the largest and least blemished ones, for about $27 a pound. Hudson Valley's owners said the farm produced more than 400,000 pounds of livers last year, yielding revenues of about $10 million and pretax profits of $1.5 million.

Ms. Gonzales often works 63 hours a week, 9 hours a day for 7 days, and her hourly wage is $6, more than many of the state's farm workers earn. If her flock yields enough Grade A livers, she can receive a bonus of $300, though the bonuses are often half that.

Like many of the feeders - they call themselves "engordadors," meaning fatteners - she sends much of her money to relatives in Mexico, where many workers say they can earn only $6 a day.

Often the day after ducks are sent to slaughter, the workers are given a new batch, restarting the 30-day cycle, although some workers are allowed to take 30 days off, without pay. Occasionally, several workers said, they get a day or two off from feeding between cycles, but on those days they often have to clean the barns and unload trucks carrying new birds.

"I haven't had a full day off since I started working," said Nicholas Castelan Reyes, who has been a feeder since August 1999. Mr. Castelan said it would be easy for Hudson Valley to give each worker a day off each week and to have a backup worker feed the ducks that day.

But Mr. Ginor said such a change could seriously damage the quantity and quality of foie gras produced. Mr. Ginor said the birds would be frightened if a different worker fed the birds on the day the usual feeder was off.

"Stress is a big factor in foie gras production," he said. "When ducks are stressed, the foie gras is not as high quality. The size of the liver depends on the quality of the food and the stress levels of the bird."

Because the livers would be smaller if the workers took a day off, he said, the bonuses would be smaller too. Several workers disagreed, saying that using a backup feeder would have little effect.

But Izzy Yanay, an owner who oversees the farm day to day, said foie gras operations in France, Hungary and Israel had experimented with backup feeders, only to find that it hurt quantity and quality.

In France's foie gras industry, individual workers usually feed their ducks 14 days in a row - compared with the 30-day cycle here - at which point the ducks go to slaughter. These workers are then usually given 4 days off before they begin a new 14-day cycle. French workers receive five weeks' paid vacation, while the Hudson Valley workers, like most farm workers in the United States, receive none.

Mr. Ginor said that if the state passed a law giving workers the right to take a day of rest, he might seek to hire only those workers who agreed beforehand not to ask for a day off. Government officials said it would be illegal to require workers to forgo a basic right as a condition of employment.

Supporters of the day-of-rest legislation say that to discourage farmers from pressuring farm laborers into working seven days a week, any legislation should require that time and a half be paid to those who work on the seventh day.

But farmers oppose this idea, saying it would force farmers to give all their workers a day off.

"If you have a requirement to pay overtime on a voluntary day of rest, it means farmers won't be able to afford to hire a person on that day," said Julie Suarez, issues coordinator for the state Farm Bureau. "The reality is a lot of farmers aren't doing well financially, and you can't get blood from a stone."

---

Cloned cows die at Chico State University

USA Today
04/02/2001 - Updated 01:43 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-04-02-cows.htm

CHICO, Calif. (AP) - Two of three cloned heifers at the California State University, Chico, farm have died and the third may be in trouble, officials said.

One of the three calves died at the farm last week. Another died over the weekend at the University of California, Davis, which has also participated in the cloning experiment.

The three heifers were born March 9 to two surrogate cows. A total of 28 cloned embryos were implanted into 14 surrogate Hereford cows. The three calves were the only ones to survive.

Charles Crabb, dean of the university's college of agriculture, said the cows probably died from a bacteria buildup in their stomachs.

"It is not uncommon for cloned animals to have problems with their immune systems," Crabb said.

The two animals that have died came from the same surrogate mother. The third animal is feverish and has been moved to UC Davis, Crabb said.

The animals were part of a cloning experiment done by Cyagra, a Kansas-based biotechnology company. The cows were at Chico State to see how they would perform in a typical farm setting.

Researchers trying to clone animals have reported that many of their attempts have ended in premature deaths and birth defects.

---

Blair postpones British elections

USA Today
04/02/2001 - Updated 07:55 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/footandmouth/2001-04-02-elections.htm

LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair postponed local elections in Britain Monday because of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, a signal that national elections have also been put off until June. Blair, who had been expected to call national elections on May 3, made no comment on the date for a national vote. But Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said Monday that he had wanted a May national election, and had lost the argument.

With more than 900 cases confirmed since the outbreak was detected on Feb. 20, Britain is struggling to control the epidemic. Blair came under strong pressure from farmers, Church of England bishops and the opposition Conservative party to put off a national election.

"Our task ... now is to complete the putting in place of the short-, medium- and long-term strategies to insure the eventual eradication of the disease. Whilst this is going on, I believe it would not be appropriate to hold these elections on the 3rd of May," Blair said outside his office at No. 10 Downing St.

Prescott, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. radio, said he "was rather an advocate for May but I knew it was a very difficult decision." Many Labor party lawmakers, eager to capitalized on their strong poll ratings, had been pressing for a May election.

Conservative Party leader William Hague said Blair should not set a firm date.

"We just think it would not be possible or wise to set a precise date at this point when they don't know how the crisis will continue and when it will be resolved," said Hague.

The prime minister faced another important decision Monday on whether to go ahead with vaccination of dairy cattle to help contain foot-and-mouth disease in two hard-hit regions.

The European Union's veterinary committee last week gave Britain approval to vaccinate up to 180,000 cattle to help slow the spread of the disease in Cumbria county in northwestern England and Devon in the southwest.

Blair's office, admitting that many farmers are opposed to vaccination, said Friday that he hoped to make a decision on Monday.

The government and the European Union agree in opposing routine inoculation of sheep, cattle, coats and other cloven-hoofed animals against foot-and-mouth disease. The disease, which is not fatal to livestock or harmful to humans, weakens cattle, sheep and pigs.

Any vaccinated animals would eventually be killed anyway.

Emergency vaccination is usually used when authorities are struggling to kill their animals fast enough. The disease has an incubation period of only two weeks and spreads rapidly and easily, so vaccination can slow the spread of the infection.

Chief veterinarian Jim Scudamore has said that supplies of the vaccine were plentiful, should the government decide to implement the policy.

---

USA Today
01/04/02
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alaska

Soldotna - The soaring popularity of bear viewing is prompting Alaska wildlife managers to ask how they can protect bruins from well-meaning viewers and shutterbugs. Guides, wildlife managers and scientists came together over the weekend to discuss the interaction that takes place when humans and bears descend on the same salmon streams.

Oregon

Portland - One of the driest winters in 100 years is threatening baby salmon and clouding hopes for future runs on the Columbia River, but the river is awash with returning fish. It is the biggest return run since counting began in 1938.

Utah

South Jordan - State wildlife officials are hoping to use urban lakes, ponds and streams to hook children on fishing. Tom Pettingill, the agency's sport fishing coordinator, said there are at least 19 urban fisheries between Provo and Ogden. Beginning this month, the agency is sponsoring a mentoring program for city kids.

---

Diplomatic traffic

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
Embassy Row
James Morrison News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-200142212836.htm

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Today

• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He meets President Bush and congressional leaders. Mr. Mubarak is accompanied by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.

• Ivan Baba, deputy foreign minister of Hungary.

• Margot Wallstrom, environment commissioner of the European Union, and Kjell Larsson, environment minister of Sweden, who meet Sen. Robert C. Smith, New Hampshire Republican and chairman of the environment and public works committee.

• Swedish Environment Minister Kjell Larsson as head of a European Union delegation to discuss President Bush's policy on the Kyoto Protocol.

To contact James Morrison, call 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail morris@twtmail.com

---

Baltic oil spill nearly cleaned up

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200142211347.htm

COPENHAGEN - Nearly half of the oil that spilled into the Baltic Sea after a tanker collision and soiled Danish beaches has been scooped up, officials said yesterday.

A freighter rammed the oil tanker Wednesday off southeastern Denmark, sending some 764,000 gallons of the tanker's total cargo of 9.7 million gallons into the Baltic.

The slick soiled more than 12 miles of coastline and has killed more than 700 birds. Crews were scrambling to keep the slick from reaching a bird sanctuary on the southern coast of Moen island.

--------- genetics

Update on Mr. Schmeiser and Monsanto

RAFI Rural Advancement Foundation International
www.rafi.org | rafi@rafi.org
Geno-Types - 2 April 2001

Monsanto vs. Percy Schmeiser No Corporate Liability for Unsafe Sex and Bioserfdom

On 29 March 2001 a Canadian judge dealt a crushing blow to Farmers' Rights by ruling that Percy Schmeiser, a third generation Saskatchewan farmer, must pay Monsanto thousands of dollars for violating the Gene Giant's monopoly patent on genetically modified canola seed.

Under Canadian patent law, as in the US and many other industrialized countries, it is illegal for farmers to re-use patented seed, or to grow Monsanto's GM seed without signing a licensing agreement. If the Gene Giants and US Trade Reps get their way, every nation in the world will be forced to adopt patent laws that make seed saving illegal. The ruling against Schmeiser establishes an even more dangerous precedent because it means that farmers can be forced to pay royalties on GM seeds found on their land, even if they didn't buy the seeds, or benefit from them.

Percy Schmeiser did not buy Monsanto's patented seed, nor did he obtain the seed illegally. Pollen from genetically engineered canola seeds blew onto his land from neighboring farms. (Percy Schmeiser's neighbors and an estimated 40% of farmers in Western Canada grow GM canola). Monsanto's GM canola genes invaded Schmeiser's farm without his consent. Shortly thereafter, Monsanto's "gene police" invaded his farm and took seed samples without his permission. Percy Schmeiser was a victim of genetic pollution from GM crops - but the court says he must now pay Monsanto $10,000 for licensing fees and up to $75,000 in profits from his 1998 crop. It's like saying that Monsanto's technology is spreading a sexually transmitted disease but everyone else has to wear a condom.

The GM canola that drifted onto Schmeiser's farm was engineered to withstand spraying of Monsanto's proprietary weedkiller, Roundup. But Schmeiser did not use Roundup on his canola crop. After all, if Schmeiser had sprayed his crop, the chemical would have killed the majority of his canola plants that were not genetically modified to tolerate the weedkiller! Schmeiser didn't take advantage of Monsanto's GM technology, but the court ruling says he's guilty of using the seed without a licensing agreement.

Monsanto (acquired by Pharmacia last year) is the world's premiere Biotech Behemoth. Last week's court ruling has far-reaching implications for farming communities around the world. Last year, Monsanto's GM seed technology was planted on 41.6 million hectares (103 million acres) worldwide. That means Monsanto accounted for 94% of the global area sown to genetically modified seeds in 2000. (Total worldwide area = 44.2 million hectares or 109.2 million acres.) Thanks in large part to Terminator technology, the Monsanto moniker has became synonymous with GM seeds and corporate greed. Although Monsanto disavowed "suicide seeds" in the wake of international public protest, the company has routinely employed Draconian measures to prevent farmers from re-using patented seed, including the use of private police to root out seed-saving farmers, and toll-fee hotlines to encourage rural residents to snitch on their farm neighbors. Monsanto has threatened to "vigorously prosecute" hundreds of cases against seed saving farmers, but Schmeiser's was the first major case to reach the courts. Schmeiser courageously decided to fight back and speak out against bioserfdom.

Last week's anti-farmer verdict is being hailed as a landmark victory for Monsanto, but it's too soon for the Gene Giants to celebrate. Will the ruling against Schmeiser unleash a new biotech backlash in the heartland?

North American farmers grew three-quarters of the world's commercial GM crops last year, and now they're showing signs of biotech battle fatigue. Illegal traces of Aventis' StarLink maize (unapproved for human consumption) have disrupted grain markets and jeopardized exports. Unsold stockpiles of US maize are at their highest level since GM crops were commercialized. The US government announced last month that it would spend $20 million in taxpayer money to bail out the biotech industry, by purchasing maize seed that was contaminated with Aventis' StarLink genes. (StarLink maize was planted on less than 0.02 percent of all US maize cropland in 2000, but cross-pollination with other maize varieties resulted in seed contaminated with StarLink genes.) To add insult to injury, the federal bailout is using money that would normally go to disaster relief for farmers.

With the advent of genetic engineering and exclusive monopoly patents, the Gene Giants have abolished the farmers' fundamental rights to save and exchange seed. Now farmers are being forced to accept liability for genetically modified crops. How many bullets will they take for biotech?

In North America, where many farmers have embraced GM technology, there are signs of resistance worth noting:

* The National Farmers Union of Canada has called for a national moratorium on producing, importing and distributing GM food.

* A bill introduced in North Dakota (US), backed by the state's wheat farmers, would impose a moratorium on growing genetically modified wheat - a crop that Monsanto hopes to commercialize by 2003.

* In March 2001 the National Farmers Union (US) adopted a policy supporting a moratorium on the introduction, certification and commercialization of genetically engineered wheat until issues of cross-pollination, liability, commodity and seed stock segregation, and market acceptance are adequately addressed.

* The Indiana (USA) House of Representatives passed a bill last month defending the farmers' right to save seed.

* Oklahoma's Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Howard, recently commented: "After reviewing Monsanto's 2001 Technology Agreement, I would discourage any farmer from signing this document. Not only does this contract severely limit the options of the producer, it also limits Monsanto's liability...The protection of the Monsanto contract is strictly one-sided and I would encourage producers to carefully consider this before entering into this agreement."

* A North Dakota State University economist warns that growers of GM crops are exposing themselves to potentially huge financial risks by signing gene technology agreements. Dwight Aakre warns that "responsibility for providing assurance of non-contamination with GMO materials is being pushed back to the individual producer." Support Percy Schmeiser

Percy Schmeiser has filed a counter-suit against Monsanto, but his family faces enormous legal costs that cannot be sustained without outside assistance. Contributions to Schmeiser's legal defense may be sent to:

Schmeiser Defense Fund Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Humboldt, Saskatchewan Canada SOK 2A0

For more information about Percy Schmeiser's case, go to: www.percyschmeiser.com

To see the 62-page decision by Canada's federal court judge Andrew MacKay go to: http://www.fct-cf.gc.ca

RAFI (the Rural Advancement Foundation International) is an international civil society organization based in Canada. RAFI is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is concerned about the loss of agricultural biodiversity, and the impact of intellectual property on farmers and food security.

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

Blame Canada
Quebec City Prepares to crack down on FTAA protests

In These Times
April 2, 2001
By Darryl Leroux Quebec City
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/leroux2509.html

Since the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle, police forces around the world increasingly have demonstrated their willingness to crack down on anti-globalization protests. Canadian officials are keeping such lessons in mind as they plan their own response to the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, where tens of thousands of protesters are expected.

From April 20 to 22, Quebec City will host 34 heads of state for the summit, who will focus on finalizing the controversial Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. The FTAA would extend NAFTA to every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. The trade pact has been the subject of secretive negotiations since the first summit was held in Miami in 1994, and negotiators have set 2005 as the deadline for implementation.

The security measures planned for the summit are sweeping--it will be the largest police deployment in Canadian history. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimates that the overall budget for the police operation will be $30 million. More than 5,000 officers are slated to work the summit, and the Canadian army is presently training 800 riot police just outside Quebec City.

Authorities have established a "security perimeter," a no-protest zone that will cover four square miles of downtown. In early spring, police plan to erect a fence along the streets that line the perimeter to block protesters from the meetings. What's more, the 25,000 people who reside or work in the security perimeter will have to show a pass to enter the area, as will the 5,000 official delegates and 3,000 accredited journalists. A plan to run criminal-record checks on all Quebec residents receiving the pass was quickly shelved due to widespread public outrage.

At a November press conference, Serge Menard, Quebec's minister for public security, surprised many when he announced that Orsainville provincial prison will be emptied of its 600 inmates during the summit to make room for arrested protesters. Quebec officials plan to transfer all prisoners to other facilities across the province. Menard justified the need for such drastic police measures by saying, "If you want peace, you must prepare for war."

In December, the RCMP announced that it had rented all vacant apartments and houses within the security perimeter, and reserved all hotel accommodations within 55 miles to avoid leaving anything vacant for protesters. The RCMP even forced out several NGOs that had reserved hotel and conference rooms a year in advance. They also plan to seal all sewer entrances within the security perimeter for fear of protesters finding their way through the underground maze and onto the laps of government officials and business executives.

Canadian officials recently extended their oppressive policies to U.S. citizens. In a late January border incident, 10 New Yorkers en route to a meeting organized by the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee were denied entry into the country. Canadian border police searched their van, collecting and copying all documents pertaining to the mobilization against the summit.

More recently, former black panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin of Kalamazoo, Michigan was denied entry into Canada after speaking about police brutality, racism and the FTAA at February events in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. Canadian immigration officials told Ervin that before he can re-enter Canada, he must provide evidence that he is no longer a "clear and present danger" to state security--even though he has been to Canada nearly 20 times in the past five years.

In Quebec City, the paranoia surrounding the summit is reaching a fever pitch. On February 4, two plainclothes police officers arrested three youths for handing out pamphlets denouncing the summit security's violation of civil rights. Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier quickly apologized for the officers' actions once the story became public.

In response, the Rights and Liberties League of Quebec, one of the province's largest civil rights organizations, is forming a surveillance committee made up of lawyers and community members who will report on security measures, provide legal representation to arrested protesters and help those who encounter problems at the Canadian border.

Meanwhile, the RCMP continues to portray the summit as a "crisis situation," thereby justifying all police actions. When asked about the security measures infringing on civil rights, Julie Brongel, RCMP's spokeswoman for the summit said: "If they want to put this in a negative light, they're entitled to do so. But it's not going to change our methods."

---

IMF chief wants European rate cut

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By STEPHEN GRAHAM Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406586034

BERLIN (AP) - The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday added his voice to growing appeals for the European Central Bank to ease interest rates to shore up the continent's cooling economy and the beleaguered euro.

Even as Horst Koehler predicted that Europe's common currency will remain weak, the German government was launching a new drive to win over its skeptical citizens to the new money.

``An interest rate cut by the ECB would be definitely helpful for the European economy,'' Koehler told a German parliamentary panel's session on the global economy. Koehler's call followed a similar appeal from World Bank President James Wolfensohn in a weekend interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The ECB last week kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.75 percent, triggering a new decline in the single currency's value against the dollar. It has been the only major central bank to resist cutting rates this year amid the gathering slowdown.

Three rate cuts since January by the ECB's U.S. counterpart _ by a total of 1.5 percentage points _ ``demonstrated decisiveness, and the Federal Reserve has further room for maneuver, if necessary,'' Koehler said.

The IMF is likely to cut its forecast for euro-zone economic growth this year to 2.5 percent, Koehler indicated. In October, it had projected 2001 growth of 3.4 percent. World growth is likely to be a ``good 3 percent'' this year, he said.

The ECB's governing council next meets April 11, when many economists expect it will follow the Fed's example _ particularly if reports this week on European consumer and business confidence indicate a slowdown.

``They don't want to be a slave to the markets,'' said Michael Schubert, an economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. ``They need the data to make a plausible change of direction.''

Still, with investors increasingly betting on a quick U.S. recovery, even a rate cut in the 12 countries using the euro may fail to spark a renewed rise in the currency. Koehler forecast the euro will ``remain weak'' in the short term.

The euro edged below 87.50 cents early Monday, extending a three-month slide that has prompted economists to drop their forecasts of a lasting rebound against the dollar, and damped ordinary Europeans' enthusiasm for the currency.

It was trading at 88.23 cents Monday afternoon. Later, in midday trading in New York, the euro traded at 88.19 cents.

The currency is well above its all-time low of little more than 82 cents last October, but has shed a quarter of its value since its launch in January 1999.

Alarmed at that slide and the skepticism of citizens in Europe's most powerful economy over giving up their trusted marks, German government and central bank officials on Monday launched an information campaign they hope will build trust in the euro.

Nine months before stores begin accepting the new euro coins and bills, they set up a small white tent near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate _ the first stop on a tour of 100 cities where Bundesbank staff are to inform the public about the new currency.

Opinion polls have consistently found Germans have limited faith in the replacement for the mark and are only dimly aware of how and when it will disappear.

Economists say officials have struggled to communicate how successful the ECB has been at holding down inflation.

``This whole debate is down to insufficient explanation,'' Finance Minister Hans Eichel insisted at a news conference, noting that the mark had at times been weaker against the dollar than the euro.

``The euro, the currency of about 300 million people, will of course be much stronger and less at risk to speculation'' than the mark, he maintained.

-------

'Sponsorship' Gives Corporations Ringside Seats at Americas Summit

Mon, 02 Apr 2001
From: Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>
By Mark Bourrie

OTTAWA, Mar 22 (IPS) - The Canadian government is giving corporations access to political and bureaucratic leaders attending April's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canadian non governmental organisations and opposition parties say.

The Canadian government has actively solicited ''sponsorship'' donations from Canadian firms, many of them subsidiaries of US companies, for next month's summit, where a proposed Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will be discussed.

A lobbying firm with strong connections to the governing Liberal party has raised more than one million dollars from corporations, offering them access to decision-makers at social events connected to the summit.

Some companies are paying up to 500,000 dollars to sponsor events such as coffee breaks, luncheons and the Canadian Prime Minister's cultural performance and evening reception. In exchange, they receive benefits such as ''preferred seating'' at dinners with world leaders and invitations to social gatherings.

Democracy Watch, an Ottawa-based NGO, has asked the federal government's ethics commissioner to investigate the sponsorships. Duff Conacher, co-ordinator of the Ottawa-based group, said the Canadian government's embrace of corporate sponsorships ''amounts to a corruption of democracy''.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Jean Chretien defended the sponsorships, saying they are a normal part of the summit system.

''Every time we have had summits in Canada, we have always invited corporations in Canada to help the government offer the best reception possible,'' Chretien told the Canadian parliament. Everyone does this on a voluntary basis.

''Most of these people have interests in Latin America. As they are all coming to town, they want to show that they are good citizens of Canada like they are good citizens of these countries. None of these corporations will have a chance to have privileged access to the leaders during all of the meetings. They will be present with hundreds and hundreds of other people during receptions.''

Corporations that sponsored the 1997 meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders in Vancouver got similar benefits, he said. He said the companies were just being ''good citizens'' in helping support the summit.

But many Canadian groups opposed to globalisation say the sponsorships, combined with tight security to keep protesters away from the summit meeting sites, show that the Canadian government is overly beholden to big business.

''Trade bureaucrats say it is just business as usual. For a mere half a million dollars, corporations can pole vault right over the three-metre high chain-link fence. Has the Prime Minister no understanding of why ordinary citizens find this unsettling? Does the Prime Minister have no problem with corporations buying political access at the Quebec summit,'' New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDunnough said in Canada's Parliament on Tuesday.

''This has nothing to do with saving money. It as everything to do with giving corporations preferred access.''

Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, the country's most vocal anti-globalisation group, says the sponsorship deals show clearly that the FTAA is driven by corporations, and the host government doesn't want delegates exposed to any other points of view.

''I just think it's dead wrong. The more you pay, the more access you have. It's privileged access the rest of us don't get,'' she said.

Meanwhile, police are erecting a three-metre high fence to keep the tens of thousands of protesters planning to attend the Apr. 20-22 summit several kilometres away from the meeting areas. More than 5,000 federal, provincial and local police are being deployed around the historic fortress of Quebec.

More than 20 anti-globalisation activists have already been turned away at the Canada-US border.

The FTAA has become increasingly controversial in recent weeks, in large part because the government has yet to release the draft texts of the proposed deal.

Last weekend, protest groups held workshops in major Canadian cities to train activists in civil disobedience tactics.

''This is a very important chance to sit down and think about the issues and learn about the FTAA, so that we know what we're talking about and we know why we're going to be in the streets in Quebec City,'' said Steven Staples, issue campaigns co-ordinator for the Council of Canadians.

Social activists say the trade agreement will strip individual governments of their power to pass laws and regulations that protect the public, the environment and social services.

''It's about placing democracy under corporate control,'' said Staples, adding that the trade deal is the most far-reaching trade agreement ever. He says he hopes more than 50,000 protesters show up to the summit.

-------- police

HIGH COURT LIMITS RIGHT TO LAWYER

THE MORROCK NEWS DIGEST
http://morrock.com
MONDAY APRIL 2, 2001

You have the right to have an attorney present -- but not, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday, if you're being questioned by police on one charge and they begin interrogating you on a related offense. In a ruling involving a Texas murder conviction, the court said the suspect's lawyer did not need to be notified when police switched from grilling him about burglary charges to questioning him about a double murder that happened two days later at the burglarized house. The suspect confessed to the murders; his attorney said the confession was illegally obtained because the suspect was interrogated about the murder without a defense lawyer present.

---

Victim revered police

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By STEVE BUTCHER
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFXV0DCOZKC.html

In December 1998 Gregory David Couper lay nearly dead in a pool of blood surrounded by his heroes, members of the police.

Mr Couper, 43, so respected the police that he left money to the force in his will. His father, David Couper, has said in a statement to his lawyers that his son saw police as his friends and protectors.

This week a coroner will investigate the circumstances of Gregory Couper's death and whether four police officers had a role in it.

David Couper, a widower, said he had sought police help many times previously when his son suffered schizophrenic attacks.

"The police were always tremendous with Greg," he said. "Without fail, Greg would always thank the police for their help ...

"It was the uniform and the authority of the uniform that attracted Greg. Each person behind the uniform was treated with the same respect by Greg because of the uniform."

Mr Couper's statement details his son's gradual descent into schizophrenia in his teenage years, the disturbances, the "wanderings" and the voices in his head.

Then came shock treatment, medication, learning difficulties and disruptive mood swings in a man usually quiet and gentle.

But "while he often became loud when he was having an (schizophrenic) episode, he did not become violent," Mr Couper said.

Gregory Couper developed an alcohol problem that exacerbated his schizophrenia. When his family could not cope he went to hospital for treatment.

Mr Couper said that previously by "simply talking to Greg" the police could persuade him that "he needed to get some help and he would head off with us".

---

Suspended policeman is key to a death

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By STEVE BUTCHER
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFXHWW6OZKC.html

A Victorian policeman who owned an "arsenal" of weapons is central to an inquest starting today on the death of an unarmed man with schizophrenia.

A coroner will hear allegations that Senior Constable Scott Nelson Cheasley, 30, was seen with his knee "thrust" on to the neck of the man while applying a judo hold on him.

It will also be alleged that on December 2, 1998, Senior Constable Cheasley hit Gregory David Couper three times in the face and that he and three policewomen struck him with batons and handcuffed him.

Mr Couper's face was distorted by the pressure applied by the policeman as Mr Couper lay face-down in his room at a Windsor hostel, a civilian witness has said in a statement.

The proprietor of The Avenue Supported Residential Service, Gregory Lane, has stated that he saw Senior Constable Cheasley and his colleagues hit Mr Couper with their batons to his arms and legs as he sat in a chair.

The inquest will investigate the circumstances of the death of Mr Couper, 43, who died when his life support system was turned off four days after the incident.

After Mr Couper pushed and bruised an employee, the hostel management called police because a crisis assessment team was unavailable.

Mr Couper's father, David Couper, has told lawyers that his son "really looked to the police as being his protectors" and friends.

It is believed that one, some or all four police officers have told investigators that they were fearful after Mr Couper became violent and that Mr Couper exhibited extraordinary strength, which required him to be restrained.

In an unrelated investigation, the Melbourne Magistrates Court was told in January that police found an "arsenal of martial arts weapons" at Senior Constable Cheasley's house, including "Rambo" knives, nunchakas, double-edged daggers and a samurai sword.

He was fined $5000 without conviction and put on a two-year undertaking to be of good behavior after pleading guilty to charges of possessing a regulated weapon, possessing a proscribed weapon and offences under the Victorian Firearms Act.

Senior Constable Cheasley, a policeman since 1989, had also possessed a can of capsicum spray, knuckledusters, butterfly knives and ammunition.

His barrister, Joe Gullaci, told the court that his client, who had no prior convictions, had collected the weapons legally and had studied martial arts disciplines over the years.

The Age has seen two letters written in June last year by senior officers of the Ethical Standards Department that show that race hatred material and a photograph relating to the Ku Klux Klan were found at Senior Constable Cheasley's house.

---

For Black Officers, Diversity Has Its Limits

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By C. J. CHIVERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/nyregion/02POLI.html

The New York Police Department employs 465 captains, the group of senior officers from which its most prominent and powerful commanders are selected. You can count the number of black men in captains' uniforms on two hands. There are nine.

In 1990, 7.7 percent of the department's sergeants were black men. Since then, the proportion of black men working as these front-line supervisors has fallen by more than a quarter, to 5.7 percent.

The absence of black men is similarly stark in the elite commands. There are 59 officers in the Aviation Unit, which maintains and flies the department's fleet of helicopters. One is black.

After a generation of diversifying its ranks, America's largest police department has undergone unmistakable change. The proportion of women in uniform has risen more than sixfold since 1974, with real advances made even among black women. Hispanic representation has increased by nearly 500 percent. Prodded by lawsuits and public demand, a department in which nearly 9 of 10 officers were white men has come perceptibly closer to resembling the city.

But the department has failed in one crucial respect. For all the recruiting campaigns, the millions of dollars spent, the pledges by police commissioners and mayors to make the department reflect the city it polices, the advances have largely excluded black men.

Personnel data show that the proportion of black males in uniform has increased to 9.2 percent from 7.7 percent since 1974, and that modest increase was almost entirely a result of the merger with the better-integrated housing and transit departments. Before the 1995 merger, the percentage of black men in the department had declined over two decades.

Moreover, male black officers have been losing ground. The proportion of male black supervisors has declined since 1990. The number in senior positions is down since 1995. And five prestigious commands - Major Case detectives and Emergency Service, Mounted, Aviation and Harbor Units - are almost all white.

All this in a city that the 2000 census says is 25 percent black.

"I don't take it for granted that I'm in a specialized unit, and I know I shouldn't complain," said Officer David K. Leader, the department's only black helicopter pilot. "But where are the others?"

The failure of the police to attract and advance black men means that the department, by its own measure, has not achieved one of its most important personnel objectives, one publicly embraced most recently by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's administration. It also means that after three decades of trying, the department is still in pursuit of the fully representative force that a procession of police commissioners have said could foster public trust in a city where tension between the police and residents persists.

Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik, appointed last August, said that he was concerned about the problems suggested in the department's demographics, but would not comment in detail because he had not analyzed its equal employment record.

"Would I like the numbers to be better?" Mr. Kerik asked. "Of course."

Consistent calls for police integration reach back to rioting in the early 1960's, and were endorsed in the 1968 report on race relations by the federal Kerner Commission.

Since then, the national experience with police diversity has been mixed. Many cities have required court intervention to open their ranks, and many of those that markedly changed their demographics, including Miami and Los Angeles, still have fractured relations with minority neighborhoods. Others, like Boston, improved their reputation as their departments changed.

New York is a city whose leadership has explicitly promoted the belief that more male black officers would improve the force, and set out to remake the department on its own. But success remains elusive.

Not even the presence of a black mayor and black police commissioner changed the pattern. Under Mayor David N. Dinkins and Lee P. Brown, the commissioner for much of Mr. Dinkins's term in the early 1990's, representation of black men in the ranks barely budged. Mr. Dinkins said he found integration was difficult to accomplish because the city lacked a residency requirement, and thus white men from the suburbs dominated each academy class.

"I'm sad, it ought not be," Mr. Dinkins said. "I wish we had done better."

Mr. Giuliani's aides say that the mayor has long seen the value of integration, and recognized the shortage of black officers. But William J. Bratton, Mr. Giuliani's first police commissioner, said the mayor did not back several initiatives in his first term aimed at accelerating diversity.

Mr. Giuliani did address the problem of recruiting minorities after the Amadou Diallo shooting in 1999. But personnel records make clear that little progress has been made attracting and promoting black men across his two terms, and in some respects, black men have regressed. Fewer hold top positions than in 1995, and the department's recruiting, despite its most aggressive spending ever, has met the barest of successes in hiring black men.

Mr. Giuliani would not be interviewed on this subject.

To be certain, the department is not directly responsible for all of its difficulties in hiring black men and advancing their careers. A large proportion of black officers have been stymied for promotion by Civil Service rules, over which the department has limited control. And because many local young black men lack the requisite education, they do not qualify for the Police Academy. Most who do qualify express little interest in signing up.

The uniqueness of the challenge is underscored by the department's relative success with black women. The number of black women on the force has risen from near statistical insignificance in 1974 to nearly 5 percent today. Their representation in supervisory jobs has also increased.

But the department's efforts also appear to have been significantly undermined by its own actions and reputation. For instance, its recruiting efforts have been made more difficult by the strong perception among blacks that police tactics in the city are overly aggressive and racially driven.

Further, an examination of department records, interviews with dozens of black police officers and senior officials, and a review of records prepared by the City Council and equal employment auditors shows that the department's commitment to greater integration has been uneven.

In recent years, the department has used money earmarked to create a minority- recruiting unit for other uses, refused to document its performance to auditors and done little to address the virtual segregation of elite commands.

And black officers and detectives, many of them saying that the overt racism of yesteryear is effectively gone, describe their exclusion from the department's legendary cliques, which they say have created networks of relentlessly political white officers who hold sway over plum assignments. In the end, many black officers see their employer as awkwardly self-satisfied: at once publicly endorsing the merits of diversity and championing it as a priority while resisting change, exaggerating its successes and excoriating its critics, none more fiercely than those in its own ranks.

"The department wants to have great relations with the black community," said Officer Raymond S. Skeeter, a recruiter. "But it does not even have good relations with its own members. We are not welcome the way whites are. We do not have the same opportunities. If the New York Police Department wants to get along with blacks on the street, it has to start with getting along with blacks in its own organization."

Promotions

Experience Loses To Exam Scores

Trim and square-jawed in his dress uniform, Sgt. Kelvin Alexander strode across the auditorium at 1 Police Plaza in February 2000 to the applause of hundreds of guests. Howard Safir, then the police commissioner, clasped his hand, posed for a photograph and gave him a $500 check.

Sergeant Alexander was receiving an award for superior work in community relations. He was grateful, but curious: if the department regarded him as one of its best, why could he not get a promotion or a raise?

The answer lies in the department's promotion system, which disproportionately limits the advances of black men.

To select police supervisors, the city relies on Civil Service rules, the municipal offshoot of a reform movement that spread through the nation after the Civil War. The rules aimed to replace the political spoils system with objective measures.

Under these rules, the primary arbiter of promotion to the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant and captain are multiple-choice exams of police-related knowledge, including the department's rules and regulations, tactics and criminal law. The top scorers are placed on an eligibility list, and then promoted in descending score order over several years.

The city gave eight of the exams in the 1990's. In each case, black men flocked to the chance at advancement, applying for the tests at rates higher than whites. And in every case, black men represented a significantly smaller portion of those selected.

The tests work like filters in sequence. Few blacks make it to sergeant, fewer still to lieutenant, almost none to captain. The tests have also had a disparate effect on Hispanics and women, but not as markedly.

It is not until supervisors reach the rank of captain that they can be promoted at the discretion of the police commissioner, and be eligible for a chief's stars. And although recent experience shows that black men in the most senior positions are promoted significantly faster than their white peers, the Civil Service system produces so few black captains that the inevitable result is evident in the executive ranks: the number of male black inspectors and chiefs is minuscule, and dropping, to 10 last fall from 12 in 1995.

Senior black men are a small enough population - 19 of the 699 officers at captain or above - that when a ranking officer was asked to provide a list of them, he laughed. "You don't need a roster," he said. "You got Ron, and Monte, and Elton, and Timmy," and he quickly named them all.

Many experts say the city's reliance on multiple-choice exams almost guarantees that blacks will continue to falter, given the larger national experience with standardized tests. "Certainly there are big racial disparities, glaring racial disparities," said Stephan Thernstrom, a Harvard University professor who has studied standardized tests. "So one of the big questions to me is, well, do these tests measure police aptitude?"

The question echoes throughout the department. Blacks say the promotion system's outcome might be justified if the exams actually predict supervisory skill. But officials say they have no evidence the recent tests have been reviewed in this way.

In the absence of a detailed analysis, many officers and police officials question their value. They say there are elements of leadership - courage, judgment, integrity - that are critical in the station houses and on the beat but impossible to judge by the tests.

"I think if we were to say that someone who does well on a test will make a better sergeant than someone who scored 10 points lower, well, that's probably not true," said James H. Lawrence Jr., the department's chief of personnel and senior black officer. "The process that we have for determining the promotions is not serving us the way we would like it to serve us."

Commissioner Kerik said the decline in black supervisors was not related to ability. "The African-American police officers I have worked with are extremely professional, bright people, absolutely on par with whites," he said.

It is this apparent contradiction - the department says the performance of blacks equals that of whites, but does not seem inclined to examine a system that ensures unequal promotion rates - that has made many blacks deeply suspicious.

The unease is fueled by anecdotes. One black officer and former Army sergeant said he was promoted six times in the military, which selects supervisors on the basis of performance, not tests. He has never been promoted in the Police Department.

"You can't tell me for a minute that this place knows more about leadership than the United States Army," he said.

Kelvin Alexander, whose supervisors say he is exceptionally talented, took the sergeant exam three times before passing. He has taken the lieutenant exam twice, missing by a single question. "I have a college degree," he said. "I am an avid reader and have a passion for history. But it seems whenever I come up for promotion in the Police Department, I come up short."

He said the cost of a system that excludes black men from rank went beyond poor morale among black officers. It is evident in the distrust many city residents express, reflected in polls and demonstrations.

"How can anybody be surprised at the problems the department still has in the community?" said Sergeant Alexander, who is a member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a fraternal group. "It hasn't changed for black men here in 25 years, and in a lot of ways it's getting worse."

Many officers and experts pointed to other cities that, like the military, have found a balance between ensuring diversity and limiting patronage. These cities, including Houston and Denver, use performance records, tests and interviews to select supervisors.

Sergeant Alexander says he thinks the department is not interested in exploring alternative methods of promotion, and he isn't alone. He mused aloud about how white officers would react if the promotion system consistently excluded them from greater pay, stature and more challenging work, and the department did not address it.

"It's a bigoted process," he said. "And you just can't get the department to see it."

Black men have also lost ground in other areas, including special-assignment status, which grants increased pay in lieu of rank. In 1996, 15 of the 111 sergeants and lieutenants receiving this pay were black men; last December, the number was 7.

Sergeant Alexander said he had requested special-assignment pay for years, without success. Another sergeant recently told him how he had received his special-assignment pay: a connection in City Hall.

An officer since 1983, Sergeant Alexander said he attended the academy for the most fundamental reason: he needed a secure, respectable job to provide for a young family. He recalls the lectures at the academy about fairness and integrity, about the meritocracy that the department had become.

His sense of optimism has evaporated. "For black men," he said, "a lot of what they told us hasn't turned out true."

Specialties

For an Elite Unit, Get a Contact

Officer David Leader remembers his first helicopter patrol. It was 1991, and he sat at the controls of a Bell 206 helicopter at Floyd Bennett Field and felt the aircraft roar to life as he worked the controls. Moments later, he was bound for the Manhattan skyline.

"Here I was thinking, `I've got it made,' " he said. "I was in command of a helicopter heading out over New York City. It was the culmination of years of work."

A decade later, Officer Leader, one of the few black men in the department's elite commands, has seen the limits of hard work.

According to personnel statistics, the Emergency Service Unit, with 501 officers, has 37 black men; the Mounted Unit, with 124 officers, has 3. There are 3 among the Major Case detective squad's 43 members, and 2 among the Harbor Unit's 159.

Dozens of officers, black and white, identified a single factor for the virtually all-white rosters: "hooks," friends in high places whom officers rely on to get what they want.

Hooks, police officers say, have a simple correlation to careers. The officers with the best connections, black or white, are often the cops with choice assignments.

"I can tell you how this happens," said one black detective. "It's phone calls. The guys with the hooks get the right phone calls, and that's how they get the best jobs. Most of the time, when a black officer is looking for a big job, he can't get the phone calls."

Many white officers say they can also be deprived of perks for lack of connections, but they acknowledge that because there are so few black men at the top, black officers have less access to the spoils system.

The department has been on notice about the near segregation of the elite units for years. Benjamin Ward, the former police commissioner, who is black and held the post from 1984 to 1989, said he routinely pressed the issue with his staff, and forced transfers to try to bring a degree of balance.

In 1996, Wilbur Chapman, the former black chief of patrol, tried again. He analyzed the imbalances in the Street Crime, Anticrime and Highway Units. In an internal memo based on that study, a deputy commissioner told Mr. Safir that many elite units consisted entirely of white men "despite the fact that they serve communities that are either ethnically diverse or majority minority."

The memo recommended that "the process by which applications, interviews and assignments are evaluated be reviewed to guarantee that all candidates receive equal treatment and consideration."

No changes were made until 1999, when an all-white team from the Street Crime Unit fired 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo, killing him as he reached for his wallet. The memo surfaced, and Mr. Safir ordered a mass transfer of blacks to street crime duty.

Detective Jacqueline Parris, the president of the Guardians Association, another fraternal group, recounted the department's desperation. Michael A. Markman, who was the personnel chief, called her to a meeting.

"He asked me to get as many blacks as I could get to go to Street Crime, and he'd make them detectives on the spot," she said.

Street crime duty remains relatively diverse, with 46 blacks making up 15.6 percent of its 294 officers in January. Many officers say its demographics prove that the department can diversify when it cares to.

One former white chief called the unequal access to the department's most prominent and exciting jobs "a quiet shame."

"The department finds black men good enough to do very, very sensitive jobs where they are needed to save the white bosses from being maligned, like in community affairs, or where they are needed to make cases, like breaking up black drug gangs in undercover narcotics duty," he said. "But somehow the department didn't find them good enough for the specialized duty?"

Chief Lawrence, named to head the personnel section after Mr. Kerik was appointed, said he would look to diversify the units where blacks are underrepresented. "Opportunity in all of these units should be equal across the board, so naturally, when I look at this data, I am concerned," he said.

But even if more blacks were moved to elite units, many blacks said, the larger phenomenon - hooks - will endure.

Police Officer Dennis E. Gray, a member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, recalled that a white chief's daughter picked up the phone and easily transferred to better duty. "It's who you know and who you're related to, more than what you do," he said.

An Army reservist and a graduate of St. Francis College in Brooklyn, Officer Gray has passed the latest sergeants' exam and is awaiting promotion. But his broader frustration is great enough that he might turn in his badge. "Having seen how the system works, I wonder if it will work for me," he said.

Officer Leader is also considering quitting, which surprises him, given his early, profound satisfaction as a pilot. But all the other black pilots - by his tally there have been five in the unit's 72-year history - left long ago, and, he said, less experienced white pilots have been trained to fly the search- and-rescue helicopter, the Bell 412.

It is an honor Officer Leader has requested for years but has never been granted. Last fall he asked to transfer. "I have hit the glass ceiling," he said. "I would just be torturing myself to stick around."

In January he filed a departmental discrimination complaint, claiming that he had been denied training because of his race.

"If it was really an objective to make sure the city's mosaic reflects through the whole Police Department, then with 41,000 officers they ought to be able to find more than one black man who wants to fly," Officer Leader said. "Right now the department has one black pilot, and when I leave they'll have zero. They can say what they want, but a zero is hard to explain."

---

USA Today
04/02/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Arkansas

Springdale - Police said the driver of an 18-wheeler was more emphatic than necessary in refusing to accept a ticket for running a stop sign. The truck was put in reverse and backed into a parked patrol car, shoving it about 40 feet into a ditch, police said. The driver, Kenneth Hartwell, 49, was arrested a few minutes later. The police officer was outside his car and wasn't injured, officials said.

Mississippi

Laurel - A man charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest filed a criminal complaint against a police dog that aided in his capture. K-9 officer Rex and four police officers were named in Larry Breland's affidavit. Breland claims he was bitten several times by the dog after he was handcuffed and lying on the ground.

Vermont

Burlington - University of Vermont administrators are investigating students' claims of harassment by campus police. Students have described officers peering in students' windowsand looking for reasons to search rooms and knapsacks for beer and drugs. The campus police chief says he hasn't heard any credible complaints.

-------- spying

U.S., CHINA AT ODDS OVER NAVY SPY PLANE

THE MORROCK NEWS DIGEST
http://morrock.com
MONDAY APRIL 2, 2001

A Navy spy plane crashed in midair with a Chinese jet fighter Sunday, sending the Chinese jet plunging to its destruction. The American plane, with 24 crew members aboard, landed on a Chinese island, and as of Monday, China had not agreed to allow U.S.officials to pay an immediate visit to the crew.

President Bush issued a formal demand that China return the Navy jet at once without any "tampering" -- showing U.S. fears that China could gain the secrets of what is described as one of the most technologically sophisticated U.S. surveillance planes.

American officials said they had not communicated with the plane's crew since Sunday, when crewmen reported that armed Chinese were about to come aboard.

"Our priorities are the prompt and safe return of the crew and the return of the aircraft without further damaging or tampering," Bush said.

China has assured the U.S. that the flight crew is safe and receiving aid, the White House said Monday.

Three U.S. destroyers that were already in the South China Sea region will be moved closer to "monitor the situation," a U.S. official said -- not as a show of force but as part of a "constant signal of U.S. interest." The warships remained more than 100 miles from the crash site.

The U.S. described the midair mishap as an accident that occurred in international airspace when two Chinese fighter planes, following a pattern in recent months of "conducting intercepts in an unsafe manner," approached the U.S. aircraft and one bumped its wing.

The incident occurred two months after another accident involving the U.S. military. On Feb. 9, the U.S.S. Greeneville submarine collided with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel, off the coast of Waikiki, sinking the boat and leaving nine Japanese dead.

---

Ad Hoc Reasoning?

Slate - Today's Papers
By Scott Shuger
Monday, April 2, 2001

Everybody leads with the collision of a U.S. Navy plane and a Chinese fighter over the South China Sea, which apparently caused the fighter to crash (its pilot is missing) and forced the U.S. plane to make an emergency landing on a Chinese island. China blames the U.S. but a Pentagon spokesman observes that jet fighters are far more maneuverable than the propeller-driven Navy plane.

The coverage puts the incident in the context of increasingly edgy relations between the U.S. and China. Most prominently mentioned in that regard is President Bush's imminent decision about whether or not to sell sophisticated arms to Taiwan. Plus, the papers report that in recent months, the Navy flights off the coast of mainland China have been met by increasingly aggressive Chinese fighter responses. There's also mention of lingering Chinese resentment over the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo war. Both the NYT and LAT find plenty of anti-U.S. sentiment in Chinese Internet chat rooms. The WSJ, which puts the story atop its front-page world-wide news box, mentions one factor that might mute China's official indignation: Beijing's desire to host the 2008 Olympics.

USAT goes high with the Pentagon's concern that 18 hours after the collision, it still hadn't been able to contact the Navy plane's crew. Both USAT and the LAT quote a U.S. admiral complaining that the island where the plane landed is "a place that has telephones." The coverage reports that U.S. officials are inbound to that island. The NYT says they would seek to escort the crew out of the country and make sure the plane was not inspected or tampered with by the Chinese. The WP quotes an unnamed "Western former military officer" predicting a "long standoff" over the plane, and an unnamed "former U.S. Air Force officer" (does the WP allow describing the same unidentified source as if there might be two different people involved?) saying that Chinese military officers would attempt to get a look at the plane's "advance radar and surveillance devices."

As to the Navy plane's mission, the WP says Asian media report that most such flights are aimed at obtaining information about Chinese missile deployments. The LAT's is the only headline calling the aircraft a "SPY PLANE." The paper goes on to say that the aircraft contains "top-of-the-line electronic data-gathering equipment that can intercept telephone calls and e-mail as well as radar and fax data." The paper also identifies the plane's squadron, which Today's Papers remembers used to have the motto "In God We Trust. All Others We Monitor."

---

U.S. military critical of China

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By JAYMES SONG Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582227

HONOLULU (AP) - The top-ranking U.S. military officer in the Pacific blamed the collision of a Navy surveillance plane with a Chinese fighter jet on a ``pattern of increasingly unsafe behavior'' by China's military in the South China Sea.

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, criticized China in a news conference Sunday at Camp Smith in Honolulu.

``I must tell you that the intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple of months have become more aggressive to the point that we felt they were endangering the safety of the Chinese and American aircraft,'' Blair said.

U.S. military officials had ``launched a protest at the working level'' before Sunday's incident, but did not receive a satisfactory response, he said.

``We went to the Chinese and said your aircraft are not intercepting in a professional manner. There's a situation here,'' Blair said.

``It's not a normal practice to play bumpercars in the air,'' he said.

The EP-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea early Sunday and made an emergency landing in China. The Chinese government said the fighter crashed and its pilot was missing.

The American plane landed at a military airfield on Hainan, a Chinese island. Chinese officials assured the United States the crew members were safe.

But the United States has had no contact with the 24-member crew since it reported that the it landed safely with no injuries, Blair said.

``We just don't know'' what has happened to them, Blair said.

If a Chinese plane were to make an emergency landing in Hawaii, the United States would put the crew in touch with its base and make arrangements for the repair and return of the aircraft.

``We are waiting right now for the Chinese government to give us the kind of cooperation that is expected of countries in situations like this,'' Blair said.

China blamed the U.S. aircraft for the collision, but Blair said the larger, slower American plane was more likely to have been hit by the nimble Chinese fighter.

``It's pretty obvious who bumped who,'' he said.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Arms Service Committee, also blamed China's military for the collision. He spoke after being briefed by the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington.

``This is a tragic military accident that could have been avoided if Chinese pilots had respected the laws of international airspace.'' Warner said.

---

China jet intercepts U.S. Navy plane

Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
InfoBeat News
By JOE McDONALD Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581959

BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea on Sunday and made an emergency landing in China. The Chinese government said the fighter crashed and its pilot was missing.

China blamed the U.S. aircraft for the collision off the southern Chinese island of Hainan. But the commander of U.S. Pacific military forces said the Chinese planes were at fault, sharply criticizing China for more ``aggressive'' tactics in intercepting U.S. planes.

``It's not a normal practice to play bumpercars in the air,'' Adm. Dennis Blair told reporters at Camp Smith in Honolulu.

The American EP-3 plane landed at a military airfield at Lingshui on the southern end of Hainan, and China assured the United States that the 24 crewmembers were safe. The U.S. Pacific Command asked for the return of the crew and aircraft.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said Monday that a group of U.S. diplomats had left for Hainan, but it could not say if they would see the crew. The embassy did not say when the diplomats were expected to arrive.

Blair said U.S. officials had had no contact since the crew since its initial report that it landed with no injuries. ``We just don't know'' what has happened to them, Blair said.

``We are waiting right now for the Chinese government to give us the kind of cooperation that is expected of countries in situations like this,'' he said. ``But as time goes on, it's increasingly worse and it's been 18 hours that we don't have a phone call yet from our crew. We're talking about a place that has telephones.''

China's Foreign Ministry said earlier that ``proper arrangements'' had been made for the crew, but did not say where they were.

The incident comes at an uneasy time in U.S.-Chinese relations. The Bush administration has taken a warier attitude toward Beijing, and the president is reportedly leaning toward selling Taiwan much of the high-tech weapons it seeks _ a sale bitterly opposed by China.

The U.S. plane was on a routine surveillance flight in international airspace when two Chinese fighters intercepted it, said Col. John Bratton, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command. Officials In Honolulu showed a map that put the collision about 80 miles southeast of Hainan, well outside the 12-mile territorial sea and airspace.

China claims most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters _ a claim rejected by countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

``The U.S. side has total responsibility for this event,'' the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it had made a ``serious'' protest.

It said two Chinese fighters were sent up to track the plane as it approached Chinese airspace. ``The U.S. plane abruptly diverted toward the Chinese planes, and its head and left wing collided with one of the Chinese planes, causing the Chinese plane to crash,'' it said. It said rescuers were searching for the missing Chinese pilot.

But Blair blamed the Chinese fighters, which he said were similar to F-16s, fly much faster and have more maneuverability than the EP3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737.

``Big airplanes like this fly straight and level on their path, little airplanes zip around them,'' he said. ``Under international airspace rules, the faster more maneuverable aircraft has obligation to stay out of the way of the slower aircraft.

``It's pretty obvious who bumped into who,'' Blair said. ``I'm going on common sense now because I haven't talked to our crew.''

He said the collision was likely an accident _ but that it reflected a ``pattern of increasingly unsafe behavior'' by the Chinese military. He said U.S. officials had protested to Beijing earlier about the behavior but ``did not get a satisfactory response.''

``Intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple months have become more aggressive to the point that we felt they were endangering the safety of the Chinese and American aircraft,'' he said.

Distrust has risen between Beijing and Washington in recent weeks, exacerbated by China's recent detention of two scholars with links to the United States. China, in turn, has been protesting the prospect of the United States' selling new arms to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade Chinese province.

Cmdr. Rex Totty, another spokesman for the Pacific Command, said U.S. planes routinely run reconnaissance missions in the area and ``it is routine for Chinese aircraft to respond by intercepting and shadowing us.'' He denied U.S. aircraft enter Chinese airspace.

The EP-3 _ an unarmed four-engine propeller-driven plane _ can pick up radio, radar, telephone, e-mail and fax traffic, said Nick Cook, an aviation expert with Jane's Defense Weekly in London.

The U.S. plane took off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, the U.S. military said. It is based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state and was flying with a crew of 22 Navy personnel and one each from the Air Force and the Marines.

Bates Gill, a China expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said China was acting like any military power by trying to ward off ``activities aimed at its airspace.''

The collision with the American plane is a ``small victory'' from China's perspective, Gill said. ``You've sent the message about intruding in airspace. You forced it to land. You've got your hands on it.''

Cook noted a similar collision in the 1980s between a Soviet fighter jet and a Norwegian P-3 _ similar to the EP-3 _ over the Barents Sea, which lies north of Norway and Russia. Both planes landed safely, he said.

---

U.S. protests access to spy plane

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406589247

BEIJING (AP) - The U.S. ambassador to China said Monday that American officials were being denied contact with the crew of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane more than a day after an in-flight collision forced it to land in China.

American officials sought to keep the Chinese from boarding the aircraft, insisting they had no right to do so. There was no indication whether Chinese experts were trying to examine the EP-3's sophisticated monitoring equipment.

Three American diplomats flew to Hainan island and were making their way to an air base where the EP-3 plane landed Sunday after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace, said Ambassador Joseph Prueher. China says the fighter crashed and that a search was under way for its pilot.

In Washington, U.S. officials said the United States is keeping three Navy destroyers in the vicinity of Hainan island instead of continuing their journey home from the Persian Gulf. President Bush discussed the incident Monday with his national security team.

Chinese leaders appeared to be still trying to decide on a response. The government issued no new information after a statement Sunday blaming the collision on the American pilot. The U.S. ambassador complained that top officials weren't involved in diplomatic contacts.

``It is inexplicable and unacceptable and of grave concern to the most senior leaders in the United States government that the air crew has been held incommunicado for over 32 hours. The Chinese so far have given us no explanation for holding this crew,'' Prueher said at a news conference.

A U.S. military spokesman in Hawaii, Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger, refused to say whether the crew was supposed to destroy their equipment to keep it from falling into foreign hands.

The U.S. plane was standing empty at the military airfield where it landed in the town of Lingshui, said a Chinese sailor contacted by telephone at an adjacent naval facility.

The crew has been moved to a military guesthouse, said the sailor, who refused to give his name.

The U.S. military says the plane was on a routine surveillance flight when two Chinese F-8 fighters intercepted it Sunday morning. The EP-3 collided with one of the fighters about 60 miles southeast of Hainan.

The unarmed propeller-driven EP-3 took off from the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. It carried a crew of 22 Navy personnel, one Air Force officer and one Marine.

The EP-3 is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner and can monitor radio, radar, telephone, e-mail and fax traffic, according to defense experts.

Military experts say such U.S. flights to monitor China's military are routine. Confrontations have been reported in the past.

On March 23, a Chinese warship intercepted a U.S. Navy survey vessel in the Yellow Sea, said an American military official. The USS Bowditch was outside Chinese territorial waters but inside the area regarded by China as its exclusive economic zone.

The Chinese vessel followed the Bowditch until it left that area, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

China has accused the pilot of the EP-3 of intruding into Chinese airspace by landing without permission after the collision. However, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing insisted the pilot followed ``commonly accepted principles of international law'' for an emergency landing.

Chinese officials say the crew is safe, according to U.S. officials. They say Washington has asked China to help with repairs and return the crew as quickly as possible.

The incident comes at an uneasy time in relations between Washington and Beijing. China has been cool to the Bush administration's more cautious approach to relations. It warned that ties could suffer over the announcement expected this month of new arms sales to Taiwan, the island China considers its own territory.

Washington also has protested China's recent detention of two scholars with links to the United States.

Ordinary Chinese expressed anger and outrage at the collision Sunday. Few doubted the official explanation blaming the U.S. pilot. Discussion forums on Web sites were filled with demands to seize the American plane and jail the crew.

Public anger may have been increased by the failure of state media to report on a U.S. offer to help look for the missing Chinese pilot. Some complained that the U.S. government was more concerned with its uninjured plane crew than a missing Chinese.

``We won this battle. Even though we lost a fighter jet and its pilot is missing, we have 24 war prisoners and a surveillance plane fully equipped with the most advanced radar and electronic equipment,'' said a message on the Web site Sina.com signed ``East Don't.''

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, rejected the Chinese account blaming the American pilot. Blair said the faster, more nimble Chinese plane bumped into the larger, slower American aircraft.

Officials at Hainan government offices and the Lingshui military airport refused to comment, saying they had been ordered not to give information to reporters.

At least six reporters for Hong Kong and foreign news organizations who traveled to Lingshui were detained by police and soldiers and ordered out of the area.

Prueher said tensions would mount the longer the crew are held incommunicado.

``The downside potential if we do not resolve this well is fairly high because it can bleed over into some other areas,'' he said.

Blair, speaking Sunday in Hawaii, criticized what he called previous unsafe intercepts of American planes by Chinese fighters. He said the U.S. military had protested such behavior before the incident Sunday.

``It's not a normal practice to play bumper-cars in the air,'' Blair said.

---

Sailor Says U.S. Spy Crew Was Moved

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406589363

BEIJING (AP) _ Chinese authorities have moved the 24 crew members of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane to a military guesthouse, a Chinese sailor said Monday, a day after an in-flight collision forced the aircraft to land on a Chinese island.

The U.S. ambassador to China said Monday that American officials were being denied contact with the crew, and President Bush demanded their ``prompt and safe return.''

The EP-3 plane was standing empty at the military airfield where it landed in the town of Lingshui on Hainan island, said the Chinese sailor, who refused to give his name and was contacted by telephone at an adjacent naval facility.

American officials sought to keep the Chinese from boarding the aircraft, insisting they had no right to do so. There was no indication whether Chinese experts were trying to examine the EP-3's sophisticated monitoring equipment.

Three American diplomats flew to Hainan (HEYE-nahn) island and were making their way to an air base where the EP-3 plane landed Sunday after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace, said Ambassador Joseph Prueher. China says the fighter crashed and that a search was under way for its pilot.

In Washington, U.S. officials said the United States is keeping three Navy destroyers in the vicinity of Hainan island instead of continuing their journey home from the Persian Gulf.

After discussing the incident with his national security team, Bush said he was dismayed that diplomats had not been given access to the crew.

Chinese leaders appeared to be still trying to decide on a response. The government issued no new information after a statement Sunday blaming the collision on the American pilot. The U.S. ambassador complained that top officials weren't involved in diplomatic contacts.

``It is inexplicable and unacceptable and of grave concern to the most senior leaders in the United States government that the air crew has been held incommunicado for over 32 hours. The Chinese so far have given us no explanation for holding this crew,'' Prueher said at a news conference.

A U.S. military spokesman in Hawaii, Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger, refused to say whether the crew was supposed to destroy their equipment to keep it from falling into foreign hands.

The U.S. military says the plane was on a routine surveillance flight when two Chinese F-8 fighters intercepted it Sunday morning. The EP-3 collided with one of the fighters about 60 miles southeast of Hainan.

The unarmed propeller-driven EP-3 took off from the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. It carried a crew of 22 Navy personnel, one Air Force officer and one Marine.

The EP-3 is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner and can monitor radio, radar, telephone, e-mail and fax traffic, according to defense experts.

Military experts say such U.S. flights to monitor China's military are routine. Confrontations have been reported in the past.

On March 23, a Chinese warship intercepted a U.S. Navy survey vessel in the Yellow Sea, said an American military official. The USS Bowditch was outside Chinese territorial waters but inside the area regarded by China as its exclusive economic zone.

The Chinese vessel followed the Bowditch until it left that area, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

China has accused the pilot of the EP-3 of intruding into Chinese airspace by landing without permission after the collision. However, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing insisted the pilot followed ``commonly accepted principles of international law'' for an emergency landing.

Chinese officials say the crew is safe, according to U.S. officials. They say Washington has asked China to help with repairs and return the crew as quickly as possible.

The incident comes at an uneasy time in relations between Washington and Beijing. China has been cool to the Bush administration's more cautious approach to relations. It warned that ties could suffer over the announcement expected this month of new arms sales to Taiwan, the island China considers its own territory.

Washington also has protested China's recent detention of two scholars with links to the United States.

Ordinary Chinese expressed anger and outrage at the collision Sunday. Few doubted the official explanation blaming the U.S. pilot. Discussion forums on Web sites were filled with demands to seize the American plane and jail the crew.

Public anger may have been increased by the failure of state media to report on a U.S. offer to help look for the missing Chinese pilot. Some complained that the U.S. government was more concerned with its uninjured plane crew than a missing Chinese.

``We won this battle. Even though we lost a fighter jet and its pilot is missing, we have 24 war prisoners and a surveillance plane fully equipped with the most advanced radar and electronic equipment,'' said a message on the Web site Sina.com signed ``East Don't.''

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, rejected the Chinese account blaming the American pilot. Blair said the faster, more nimble Chinese plane bumped into the larger, slower American aircraft.

Officials at Hainan government offices and the Lingshui military airport refused to comment, saying they had been ordered not to give information to reporters.

At least six reporters for Hong Kong and foreign news organizations who traveled to Lingshui were detained by police and soldiers and ordered out of the area.

Prueher said tensions would mount the longer the crew are held incommunicado.

``The downside potential if we do not resolve this well is fairly high because it can bleed over into some other areas,'' he said.

Blair, speaking Sunday in Hawaii, criticized what he called previous unsafe intercepts of American planes by Chinese fighters. He said the U.S. military had protested such behavior before the incident Sunday.

``It's not a normal practice to play bumper-cars in the air,'' Blair said.

---

Asia Awaits End of US-China Standoff

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By THOMAS WAGNER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406590194

TOKYO (AP) _ Japan urged Beijing and Washington on Monday to avoid allowing the collision of a Chinese warplane and a U.S. surveillance aircraft to strain their relations or jeopardize the peace and stability of the region.

Across Asia, people awoke to front-page headlines on Monday about the collision in the South China Sea, which forced the U.S. plane to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan island on Sunday. The U.S. military has blamed Beijing for the accident. China said the surveillance plane was at fault.

``China blames U.S. for fighter crash,'' said a headline in the English-language South China Morning Post in Hong Kong on Monday.

``U.S. spy plane hits China jet,'' said the English-language tabloid Hong Kong iMail.

Other stories in the Chinese territory showed concern about the state of relations between China and the Bush administration, which already had seemed to be taking a harder line toward Beijing than former President Clinton had during his eight years in office.

``Sino-U.S. relations: Adding frost to snow,'' said the front-page headline in the Chinese-language daily Ming Pao. The article characterized the incident as the most serious diplomatic friction ever between the United States and China.

Later in the day, about 100 people protested outside the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong. They blamed the United States for the collision, accusing the American plane of improperly flying over Chinese territory, and saying officials in Washington were too cowardly to admit it.

``I'm furious,'' said one of the demonstrators, Chan Chi-yan, a 70-year-old retiree. ``Chinese people cannot be insulted.''

In Taiwan, the collision was the lead story of hourly television newscasts Monday and it made front-page headlines in all the main newspapers, which ran large photos of EP-3 surveillance planes and maps of the plane's flight path.

``American plane intercepted, Chinese communist fighter crashes into the South China Sea,'' a headline in the Mandarin-language United Daily News said.

Taiwanese paid close attention to the event because it might influence a U.S. decision this month about selling weapons to this island. Taiwan says it needs advanced weapons to fend off a possible attack from China, which claims the island is a breakaway province.

Taiwanese Ministry of Defense official Kao Yang told lawmakers, ``If both sides take a hardline position on the issue, it might have a positive influence on our arms talks.''

Japan and South Korea were also monitoring developments closely.

The surveillance plane was based in Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. For decades, 87,000 U.S. troops based in South Korea and Japan have provided the bulk of military security that these nations and Taiwan rely on against communist countries such as North Korea and China.

In South Korea, one afternoon newspaper, the Munhwa Ilbo, predicted that China would use the accident to turn up its heat on Washington about the possible military sales to Taiwan.

As U.S. officials left Beijing on Monday to visit the island where the U.S. surveillance plane had landed, Japan's government quickly asked both sides to show caution.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Japan hopes the United States and China will ``swiftly and smoothly'' resolve any differences over the accident.

``Good relations between the U.S. and China are extremely important for the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region,'' the top government spokesman said.

In the streets of Hong Kong, pedestrians seemed less pessimistic about the outcome of the dispute over the collision.

``I think it was just a mistake. There are lots of uncertainties between China and the U.S., and I don't think they want to do anything funny at the moment,'' said Angely Wong, a clerk.

``It's purely an accident,'' said Amak Ng, 35. ``I think they can solve this pretty soon.''

---

Bush Demands Return of Plane, Crew

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406606037

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush on Monday demanded China arrange the ``prompt and safe return'' of 24 U.S. crew members and their plane packed with spy technology, seeking to end a standoff reminiscent of the Cold War.

But despite U.S. demands for immediate access to the crew and aircraft, China indicated that access would not be granted before Tuesday night, China time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said later.

``We find it very troubling about the lack of speed. We continue to press for prompt access,'' McClellan said.

Earlier, Bush said he was dismayed U.S. diplomats had not been given access to the crew after the plane made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan.

``I'm troubled by the lack of a timely Chinese response to this request for this access,'' he said on the White House lawn. Bush said failure to comply would be ``inconsistent with standard diplomatic practice.''

``Our priorities are the prompt and safe return of the crew and the return of the aircraft without further damaging or tampering,'' he said.

The U.S. plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter early Sunday. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the spy plane's left engine and left wing were damaged. The plane is from an electronic reconnaissance squadron whose home base is Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state.

U.S. officials sought to keep Chinese officials from boarding the Navy plane and ordered three Navy destroyers to stay near the island.

At an appearance later Monday with Egypt's president, Bush declined to address reports Chinese officials may have boarded the U.S. plane but said he was sending a ``very clear message and I expect them to heed the message.'' Bush also stated the United States believes its plane was in international airspace, not inside China.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, protested the lack of access to the crew of the turboprop-driven EP-3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner.

``Under international law, that should've happened long ago, Shelton said in an interview. ``We should have had access.'' He said it was ``hard to imagine'' the U.S. plane had initiated the collision.

China blames the U.S. plane for the crash, saying it suddenly veered into one of its F-8 fighters.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the crew had communicated after the collision to indicate no one was injured, but he said no one has spoken directly to them since they landed on Hainan.

Bush said U.S. officials had been in contact with the Chinese since the incident, which happened Saturday night U.S. time.

He offered assistance in finding the missing Chinese jet, one of two he said were shadowing the American plane when the collision happened. ``Our military stands ready to help.''

Chinese representatives have told U.S. officials the crew is safe, McClellan said.

The U.S. destroyers happened to have stopped at Hong Kong en route home from the Persian Gulf when the EP-3 was forced to land, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The destroyers will remain in the area indefinitely instead of resuming their journey home, the officials said.

Bush discussed the incident Monday with his national security team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser to the president.

A senior U.S. Navy admiral said Monday that Chinese officials have no right to board the U.S. plane.

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the plane, which contains sensitive cryptological and other electronic surveillance equipment, is considered sovereign territory, similar to an embassy.

``We physically cannot prevent the Chinese from boarding the plane,'' he said on ABC's ``Good Morning America.''

``What protects the plane really is the concept of sovereign immunity.''

Standard procedure under the circumstances would call for the EP-3 crew to destroy as much of the plane's highly sensitive surveillance equipment as possible once it landed on Chinese territory, said another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One official said that shortly after the collision the crew sent two messages _ one to indicate no one aboard had been injured in the collision and another to indicate the plane had landed safely.

American officials say they don't know if Chinese officials have boarded the plane since it made the emergency landing.

``Our primary objective now is to get in touch with our people and ensure they are OK and get them back,'' Blair said. Fixing the plane and getting it back ``is our second order of business here.''

U.S. officials say the surveillance plane was on a routine mission when it was intercepted by two Chinese F-8 fighters. The Chinese plane's pilot is missing.

Blair said that without talking to the crew, U.S. officials won't know who was responsible for the collision.

``But I can tell you the rules of international air space are that the smaller, faster aircraft has the responsibility for staying clear of the larger, slower aircraft,'' he said. ``And I know from practice that our aircraft like the EP-3 fly straight and level with great care.''

The Chinese jet is smaller.

Blair said he has no doubt the plane was in international air space when the collision occurred.

The incident follows an increase in tensions between the United States and China. China has been concerned about new arms sales to Taiwan, which China considers its own territory. Washington has protested the arrest of two scholars linked to the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told a news conference that the the incident with the spy plane is a ``delicate matter'' for U.S.-Chinese relations. ``I think, for the Senate and for us and for the Chinese government, to keep a calm relationship and a constructive one and ... to lower the temperature is the right way to proceed,'' he said.

---

Spy Plane Collision Enrages Chinese

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406589679

BEIJING (AP) _ Chinese reacted with outrage Monday to the collision of a U.S. Navy plane and a Chinese fighter jet, and some demanded that authorities seize the American plane or imprison its 24 crew members.

In interviews on the street and in comments posted online, Chinese urged their government to resist what they see as U.S. bullying. The EP-3 surveillance plane is being held at an island air base in the South China Sea as U.S. diplomats try to gain its release.

Few Chinese seemed to doubt the official explanation blaming the American plane. Some said the government should use the aircraft and its crew to extract U.S. concessions. Others said the plane should be dissected to learn its high-tech secrets.

``America is too despotic,'' said one young man with shoulder-length hair wearing fashionable khakis and a bright windbreaker. ``China needs to take a hard line on this.''

``We can't not take action. If they want to fight a war, we'll give them a war,'' said another young man walking to work in a Western-style business suit.

Both men declined to give their names.

Most young Chinese are nationalistic and, despite a fondness for American pop culture, see the United States as an obstacle on China's path to superpower status.

Official media cheered Chinese basketball star Wang Zhizhi's departure last week to play in the United States. But other reports denounced possible U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the island democracy that China considers its territory.

Although the government seemed to be weighing its options Monday, some said the strong public reaction could push it to take a harder line.

Many recalled the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia two years ago. That sparked mass anti-U.S. protests in cities across China. Most Chinese refused to accept Washington's explanation that the bombing was unintended.

In Hong Kong, demonstrators organized by a pro-Beijing labor group gathered outside the U.S. consulate in a loud but peaceful protest blaming the United States for the collision.

About 100 people shouted that the United States had ``invaded our country's air space and knocked down our fighter jet,'' and they accused the Americans of being too cowardly to face up to it.

Web surfers left messages on the People's Daily's ``Strong Country'' chat site urging the government to keep the plane as a bargaining chip. One writer, using the pseudonym ``Love or Not Love,'' said the plane's crew should be put in a prisoner-of-war camp.

``If the Chinese government shows weakness again in handling the collision, it will arouse strong dissatisfaction among Chinese people,'' said one posting, signed ``Trouble Maker.''

Others called for caution.

One warned against protests like 1999, saying those ultimately hurt China. A more ``mature response'' would protect China's interests and win greater benefits, said the writer, who used the pen name ``Pigtail.''

Public anger may have been even more extreme because state media haven't reported U.S. offers to help search for the Chinese pilot who Beijing says crashed in the sea.

One posting signed ``zrf197962'' on the popular sina.com chat-room expressed admiration for the missing pilot, saying he stood up to American ``hegemony.''

---

China's Shadowing Had Annoyed U.S.

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/world/02MILI.html

WASHINGTON, April 1 - Chinese fighter jets have flown dangerously close to United States reconnaissance planes over the South China Sea several times in recent months, prompting complaints from American officials to the Chinese, senior Pentagon officials said today.

The officials said it was not uncommon for Chinese jets to shadow American spy planes in that region. The one involved in the latest incident was a sophisticated, long-range maritime surveillance plane used to monitor the activities of ships, submarines and aircraft and also capable of intercepting and interpreting electronic signals from military units on land.

Because the plane, an EP-3E Aries II turboprop aircraft, is considered among the Navy's most sophisticated surveillance planes, American officials are demanding that the Chinese not board or search the aircraft without American permission.

"According to our lawyers, the aircraft enjoys sovereign immune status," said Cmdr. John Singley, a spokesman for the United States Pacific Command based in Hawaii. "This precludes foreign officials from searching, inspecting or detaining the aircraft without U.S. consent."

American officials said crews of EP-3E's are trained to destroy sensitive data and surveillance equipment if an aircraft is in danger of capture. But it was not known tonight whether the crew members in Hainan had tried to do that.

The Navy plane, equipped with a distinctive saucer-shaped antenna on its underbelly and loaded with electronic devices, was capable of monitoring Chinese military activities along the shore and in the South China Sea by intercepting and recording a wide variety of communications, including radio and radar transmissions. The plane carried no weapons, Pentagon officials said.

The United States, like other military powers, has long asserted its right under international law to patrol the high seas using ships, planes and submarines. The practice has led to conflict before at times of tension, as when North Korea seized the spy ship Pueblo in 1968 and held its crew of 82 captive for 11 months.

While the Bush administration expressed hope that the incident off the Chinese island of Hainan would not badly strain relations with China, officials said the assertiveness of Chinese pilots in recent months as they shadowed American flights had raised concerns among American commanders about potential midair collisions even before the Navy surveillance plane clipped wings with a Chinese fighter jet on Sunday.

"The intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple of months have become more aggressive, to the point that we felt that they were endangering the safety of Chinese and American aircraft," said Admiral Dennis C. Blair, commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command.

Though Navy officials declined to comment on the specific mission of the aircraft, they described it as "routine." Typically, EP-3's make several flights over the South China Sea a month, the officials said, often to monitor Chinese naval activities. There was no indication that the mission had any relation to heightened tensions over potential American military sales to Taiwan.

The plane made an emergency landing on Hainan shortly after the accident. American military officials said that the plane landed safely and that all 24 crew members appeared to be in good condition - though the officials complained that the Chinese had not allowed contact with the crew members since the plane landed.

"This is a tragic military accident that could have been avoided if Chinese pilots had respected the laws of international air space," said Senator John Warner, the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the armed services committee. "China, as an emerging military power, appears in the eyes of military persons the world over very unprofessional, unless it comes forward promptly with an accurate explanation of the incident and returns our aircraft and crew."

Though numerous American reconnaissance planes have crashed or been shot down over the decades, it is rare that countries, other than American allies, have been able to look closely at nearly intact versions of those sophisticated planes.

Pentagon officials refused to comment on what kinds of classified information or equipment might be aboard the plane. But they said the United States would consider it a severe breach in diplomatic protocol for the Chinese to board or search the aircraft without American permission.

"That would be a real diplomatic issue if they boarded the plane," said a Pentagon official. "We expect the Chinese to follow all international rules in terms of the integrity of the aircraft, as well as taking care of the welfare of the crew."

Pentagon officials said the EP-3E was over international air space, at least 50 miles off the shore of Hainan Island, when the two Chinese-made F-8 fighter planes began shadowing it on Saturday night.

The Navy aircraft was part of a squadron based on Whidbey Island, Wash., but it began its mission on Saturday from Kadena air base on Okinawa, about 1,000 miles from Hainan.

The slow-moving plane, which runs on four turboprop engines, has a range of more than 3,000 nautical miles and is capable of staying in the air for more than 12 hours at a time, requiring it to carry two sets of pilots on most long-range missions.

The crew members of the EP-3E that landed on Hainan included 22 Navy personnel - three of them women - one Air Force member and one marine, American officials said.

Since the early 1960's, EP-3's have been flying near the borders of China, Russia and North Korea to collect a variety of electronic transmissions that have been used to analyze those countries' military activities and the sophistication of their communications systems, said Norman Polmar, a Navy analyst and author.

He said no EP-3 had ever been shot down or captured by another country. "There is a considerable amount of equipment on there that is, I would guess, superior to the Chinese military's," he said. "For them to obtain it would be a real intelligence loss."

Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld was monitoring the situation from Washington and had been in contact by telephone with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, several times today.

He said the American armed forces had not been placed on a heightened state of alert as a result of the accident.

Pentagon officials said they had no clear idea about the condition of the Navy surveillance plane. But they said the damage must have been serious for the pilot to have radioed a distress signal and then made an emergency landing on Chinese territory.

"If he thought he could get to Hong Kong or the Philippines or anywhere else, I'm sure he would have taken the opportunity," a Pentagon official said.

---

U.S. Plane in China After It Collides With Chinese Jet

New York Times
April 2, 2001
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL with DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/world/02CHIN.html

BEIJING, Monday, April 2 - A United States Navy spy plane on a routine surveillance mission near the Chinese coast collided on Sunday with a Chinese fighter jet that was closely tailing it. The American plane made an emergency landing in China, and the United States said it was seeking the immediate return of the 24 crew members, all said to be in good condition, and of the sophisticated aircraft and all its intelligence equipment.

The midair crash occurred about 50 miles southeast of China's Hainan Island, in what American officials described as international waters. The EP-3E Aries II aircraft, which had taken off from an American air base in Okinawa, Japan, issued a Mayday call but managed to make an emergency landing on the island. The Chinese plane crashed into the waters below.

China's foreign ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao, said a search was under way for the pilot, and Chinese state television broadcast an angry statement on Sunday night saying that "the U.S. side has total responsibility for this event."

But Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command, said Chinese planes had become increasingly aggressive in tailing American military aircraft in recent months, even prompting the United States to register a protest. "It's not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air," he said.

In Washington, President Bush's advisers, finding themselves dealing for the first time with a sensitive military incident with the Chinese, went to some lengths to avoid ascribing blame. And instead, they immediately focused their attention on an airport in the city of Lingshui, on Hainan, where the damaged plane was sitting on the tarmac. Whether the crew members were still on board was unclear.

"The question now is do we have access to the crew, when do we get the crew back, and how do we get the aircraft back," said one administration official. "This is going to be a test of everyone's ability to stay cool and work things out."

The White House said diplomats from the American Embassy in Beijing, and other American officials based in China, were traveling to Hainan and would seek to escort the crew members out of the country and make sure the Chinese did not inspect or remove the equipment aboard the plane. It was not clear if the Americans erased any data they had collected or sought to disable any of their equipment.

The incident comes at a particularly sensitive moment of transition in Washington's relations with Beijing. Within weeks, President Bush is to make a decision on whether to sell sophisticated arms and radar equipment to Taiwan, and how the two countries handle this incident may color the internal debate within the Bush administration over what kind of technology to provide to the Taiwanese.

Chinese officials, meanwhile, are likely to use the incident to take their measure of the Bush administration. They are already highly sensitive to what they believe is a tougher posture toward China - one that views China as a military competitor first and a trade partner second.

Even before the Sunday incident, the first interactions between the new administration and Beijing's leaders have been difficult, marked by the recent defection to the United States of a high-level Chinese Army colonel, and China's detention of visiting American scholars.

Now, with a Chinese Air Force pilot missing and one of America's most sophisticated surveillance planes sitting lame on a tarmac - a tempting intelligence bonanza for the Chinese military - Mr. Bush and his Chinese counterpart, President Jiang Zemin, are faced with a new diplomatic tangle before they have even met.

"This has the potential to become a major international incident, especially if the Chinese try to examine what's on the plane or to make the crew get off," said David Shambaugh, an expert on the Chinese military at George Washington University. "This is a sophisticated surveillance aircraft, and the last thing the military wants is the Chinese crawling all over it. It's loaded with electronic surveillance gear that can hear and see into the mainland."

Already, China's rough and tumble Internet chat rooms - always a sounding board for nationalistic sentiments - were filled mostly with angry invective, but also calls to stay calm.

"Insist on pursuing the U.S. pilot for criminal responsibility," said one posting on the People's Daily Great Power Forum and "Don't give the plane back - it costs over $100 million to get one of these."

Two years ago, after NATO planes accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three, many Chinese believed that the act was deliberate and complained that President Jiang had not stood up to American aggression. That incident provoked angry rock-throwing demonstrations outside the American Embassy here, and was resolved with millions of dollars in reparations.

The details of what happened today, and why it happened, are sketchy. While there is little doubt that neither side intended for the spy plane and the Chinese fighter to collide, the two countries have increasingly been involved in a dangerous aerial cat-and-mouse game that has echoes of periodic incidents with the Soviet Union during the cold war.

While American officials say that Chinese "chaser" planes have recently gotten closer to American surveillance craft, it is unclear whether that is a result of a political decision from Beijing, a military decision by the Chinese Air Force or the judgments of Chinese pilots. And while it is unclear what caused the accident - the Chinese said late Sunday that the American plane veered suddenly - the EP-3 is a lumbering, slow- moving propeller plane that is significantly less maneuverable than a fighter aircraft.

Not surprisingly, the two sides seemed to be taking a different view of what happened high above the South China Sea.

Officials with the United States Pacific Command stressed that the plane, which took off from Kadena air base in Japan, was on a routine mission, no different from many others it has flown in the area. While they insisted the plane was in international air space, the American officials did not give the exact coordinates of the aircraft at the time of the collision.

While releasing few details, Cmdr. Rex Totty of the Pacific Command said the collision "had the appearances of having been an accident" rather than a provocation, noting that United States planes are sometimes tailed on missions near China. But he added: "It is typically true than when military aircraft are shadowing they keep a sensible distance so that this sort of thing doesn't happen. But the Chinese do have a history of getting close."

About a year ago, another EP-3 was trailed closely by Chinese jets off Zhejiang Province, although the Chinese jets ceased pursuit when the United States plane left the area, one expert said.

An American Embassy spokesman in Beijing said American officials had been in contact with the Chinese government throughout the day. The American ambassador to Beijing, Joseph Prueher, is no stranger to this kind of mission: he is a retired Navy admiral who once commanded the United States forces in the Pacific, and therefore had operational control over the spy missions off the Chinese coast.

Ambassador Prueher said on Sunday that "it appears also the Chinese have lost an aircraft, and we're sorry that occurred."

Ambassador Prueher has worked hard during the last two years to encourage better communications between the two militaries. He has won the respect of many in the Chinese military during his stay here, which is scheduled to end in a month. The contacts he has made in the Chinese military may now be put to the test.

Tonight, the Chinese side put responsibility for the collision firmly with the United States. "Tailing and monitoring American military reconnaissance aircraft along China's coast belongs to proper aviation activity and is in keeping with international conventions," said Mr. Zhu, the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The "direct cause" of the collision, he said, was that "the U.S. plane violated aviation rules and suddenly veered toward and approached the Chinese plane." In the ensuing collision, the nose and wing of the United States plane had clipped the Chinese fighter, he said, adding that the Chinese had issued "a stern representation and protests to the U.S. side."

American officials said they had no information yet about the condition of the plane or whether the Chinese were respecting its "integrity" - a euphemism for not going on board.

People who answered the phone tonight at Lingshui Airport, on Hainan's southeastern coast, refused to give any details about the plane or even to confirm that it was a military airport; it is not listed in directories of commercial flights.

Mr. Zhu said China was making "appropriate arrangements for the 24 crew members of the U.S. plane," which he said had "entered Chinese airspace without permission and landed on a Chinese airfield."

It was unclear if Mr. Zhu was suggesting that the plane was in Chinese airspace at the time of the collision or merely that it had entered Chinese airspace "without permission" in order to make its emergency landing.

China claims ownership of scattered islands in the South China Sea, and Chinese maps all carry a series of dark red bars around the sea, suggesting that it is part of China - although Chinese officials have denied that interpretation of the country's boundaries. China has been engaged in a longstanding dispute with the Philippines over the Spratly Islands, more than 100 miles from China, as a result of such claims.

But international conventions state that territorial waters and airspace extend only 12 miles from land. As a matter of practice, foreign vessels and aircraft, whether military of commercial, generally operate freely in the South China Sea.

The incident is a potentially damaging one to relations for both sides.

While the Clinton administration carefully cultivated military-to-military ties with the Chinese and for a time called Beijing a "strategic partner," a phrase that was later dropped, the Bush administration has said that it will treat China more as a competitor.

In the next few weeks President Bush is expected to make a decision on whether to sell Taiwan sophisticated weapons to buttress defenses on the island, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

These include a ship-borne radar system, called the Aegis, that China fears could be used not only to help protect Taiwan but also as part of an American-designed "theater missile defense" that is ostensibly aimed at nations like North Korea. But China fears that it is also intended to undercut its small nuclear arsenal. Chinese leaders have expressed vigorous opposition to both the antimissile system and the possible Aegis sale, and suggested that they would react by building up their offensive ability.

Under President Bush, who has a strong constituency among conservatives in Congress who are suspicious of China's growing power, the Defense Department put a freeze on planned military exchanges with China, pending review of their utility.

"We have routinized communication channels between the militaries, and now there's a even a hot line between the two leaders" of China and the United States, Professor Shambaugh said. "This is the time when we'll see if they've really built any `mutual understanding and trust.'"

---

Tensions mount over downed U.S. plane

USA Today
04/02/2001 - Updated 08:52 PM ET
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/wphoto.htm

HAIKOU, Hainan Island - A standoff between China and the United States over a downed American surveillance airplane on Chinese territory grew more tense Monday as U.S. embassy officials were denied access to the aircraft's 24-member crew. U.S. military officials said the last communication received from the Navy's EP-3 Aries plane Sunday was that armed Chinese soldiers were approaching the aircraft. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said China promised to allow U.S. officials access to the crew on Tuesday. China is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time.

In Washington, President Bush said he was "troubled" by China's refusal to grant immediate access to the crew. The plane made an emergency landing on this South China Sea island Sunday morning after apparently colliding with one of two Chinese F-8 fighter jets dispatched to intercept it. The Chinese jet and its pilot are missing.

Bush huddled with his national security advisers on how to deal with the first international crisis of his administration. The incident could have major repercussions on already fragile relations between Washington and Beijing.

In a sign of how seriously Washington is taking the matter, Pentagon officials said three U.S. destroyers will be kept stationed in the South China Sea region. The warships will remain in the area indefinitely instead of resuming their journey home, the officials said.

However, Bush decided not to telephone Chinese President Jiang Zemin, not wanting to suggest the White House was treating the situation as a crisis.

"I'm troubled by the lack of a timely Chinese response to this request for access," Bush said. "Our embassy officials are on the ground and prepared to visit the crew and aircraft as soon as the Chinese government allows them to do so."

When reporters asked the president whether Chinese troops had boarded the EP-3, Bush did not answer. But military experts predicted that the Chinese would be eager to examine all the high-tech intelligence gathering gear the four-propeller plane was carrying. "I guarantee you they are going through the airplane," retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney said.

Military officials say standing orders when an EP-3 is captured require the crew to destroy as much sensitive data and equipment as possible. Whether they had time to do that in this case is unclear.

U.S. officials contend that the plane should enjoy "sovereign immunity" under normal diplomatic practices. That means Chinese officials should not board it, detain it or destroy it in any way. "We expect the Chinese to respond in accordance with international law," Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday in an interview with a group of newspaper editors.

U.S. officials say the Navy plane was in international airspace over the South China Sea, more than 60 miles southeast of Hainan. China, which claims sovereignty over the entire sea, says the EP-3 caused the collision when it veered into one of the F-8 fighters.

U.S.-Chinese relations were rocky before the incident. U.S. officials have protested China's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement and Beijing's detention of at least two Chinese-born scholars who are U.S. citizens.

Anti-American sentiment in China still remains high two years after the mistaken bombing by an American warplane of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Chinese officials have also been leery of Bush's intentions after statements by administration officials suggesting he may take a harder line toward China than did former President Clinton.

China also opposes Bush's advocacy of a missile-defense system and has adamantly opposed Taiwan's request to the United States for the sale of four destroyers equipped with the Navy's most advanced anti-missile radar system. Bush was nearing a final decision on the sale of the destroyers and other military hardware to Taiwan and was expected to announce his decision within a few weeks.

Contributing: Bill Nichols, Dave Moniz and Bill Sternberg in Washington, wire reports

---

Bush demands China return Navy plane, crew

USA Today
04/02/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-02-bushchina.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Monday demanded China arrange the ''prompt and safe return'' of 24 U.S. crew members and their plane packed with spy technology, seeking to end a standoff reminiscent of the Cold War. But despite U.S. demands for immediate access to the crew and aircraft, China indicated that access would not be granted before Tuesday night, China time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said later. ''We find it very troubling about the lack of speed. We continue to press for prompt access,'' McClellan said.

Earlier, Bush said he was dismayed U.S. diplomats had not been given access to the crew after the plane made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan.

"I'm troubled by the lack of a timely Chinese response to this request for this access," he said on the White House lawn. Bush said failure to comply would be "inconsistent with standard diplomatic practice."

"Our priorities are the prompt and safe return of the crew and the return of the aircraft without further damaging or tampering," he said.

The U.S. plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter early Sunday. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the spy plane's left engine and left wing were damaged. The plane is from an electronic reconnaissance squadron whose home base is Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state.

U.S. officials sought to keep Chinese officials from boarding the Navy plane and ordered three Navy destroyers to stay near the island.

At an appearance later Monday with Egypt's president, Bush declined to address reports Chinese officials may have boarded the U.S. plane but said he was sending a "very clear message and I expect them to heed the message." Bush also stated the United States believes its plane was in international airspace, not inside China.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, protested the lack of access to the crew of the turboprop-driven EP-3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner.

"Under international law, that should've happened long ago, Shelton said in an interview. "We should have had access." He said it was "hard to imagine" the U.S. plane had initiated the collision.

China blames the U.S. plane for the crash, saying it suddenly veered into one of its F-8 fighters.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the crew had communicated after the collision to indicate no one was injured, but he said no one has spoken directly to them since they landed on Hainan.

Bush said U.S. officials had been in contact with the Chinese since the incident, which happened Saturday night U.S. time.

He offered assistance in finding the missing Chinese jet, one of two he said were shadowing the American plane when the collision happened. "Our military stands ready to help."

Chinese representatives have told U.S. officials the crew is safe, McClellan said.

The U.S. destroyers happened to have stopped at Hong Kong en route home from the Persian Gulf when the EP-3 was forced to land, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The destroyers will remain in the area indefinitely instead of resuming their journey home, the officials said.

Bush discussed the incident Monday with his national security team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser to the president.

A senior U.S. Navy admiral said Monday that Chinese officials have no right to board the U.S. plane.

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the plane, which contains sensitive cryptological and other electronic surveillance equipment, is considered sovereign territory, similar to an embassy.

"We physically cannot prevent the Chinese from boarding the plane," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"What protects the plane really is the concept of sovereign immunity."

Standard procedure under the circumstances would call for the EP-3 crew to destroy as much of the plane's highly sensitive surveillance equipment as possible once it landed on Chinese territory, said another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One official said that shortly after the collision the crew sent two messages - one to indicate no one aboard had been injured in the collision and another to indicate the plane had landed safely.

American officials say they don't know if Chinese officials have boarded the plane since it made the emergency landing.

"Our primary objective now is to get in touch with our people and ensure they are OK and get them back," Blair said. Fixing the plane and getting it back "is our second order of business here."

U.S. officials say the surveillance plane was on a routine mission when it was intercepted by two Chinese F-8 fighters. The Chinese plane's pilot is missing.

Blair said that without talking to the crew, U.S. officials won't know who was responsible for the collision.

"But I can tell you the rules of international air space are that the smaller, faster aircraft has the responsibility for staying clear of the larger, slower aircraft," he said. "And I know from practice that our aircraft like the EP-3 fly straight and level with great care."

The Chinese jet is smaller.

Blair said he has no doubt the plane was in international air space when the collision occurred.

The incident follows an increase in tensions between the United States and China. China has been concerned about new arms sales to Taiwan, which China considers its own territory. Washington has protested the arrest of two scholars linked to the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told a news conference that the the incident with the spy plane is a "delicate matter" for U.S.-Chinese relations. "I think, for the Senate and for us and for the Chinese government, to keep a calm relationship and a constructive one and ... to lower the temperature is the right way to proceed," he said.

---

U.S. spy plane lands in China after collision

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200142231243.htm

A Chinese military jet crashed yesterday after colliding with a U.S. Navy EP-3 spy plane over international waters, and the damaged U.S. aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in southern China.

The aerial incident occurred a week after another confrontation between a Chinese warship and a U.S. Navy surveillance ship in the Yellow Sea described by Navy officials as a "threatening" Chinese action against the ship in international waters.

China's official Xinhua news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the pilot of the downed F-8 interceptor jet was missing in the South China Sea.

Spokesman Zhu Bangzao also said the 24 U.S. military personnel that were aboard the Navy four-engine plane are at a military airfield at Lingshui on Hainan Island and have been provided with "proper arrangements."

However, Mr. Zhu also stated China "reserves the right to further negotiate" about their fate - suggesting the 22 Navy sailors, one Air Force airman and a Marine are being detained. Three female sailors are among the crew, a U.S. government official said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said today that a group of U.S. diplomats had left for Hainan, but it could not say if they would see the crew. The embassy did not say when the diplomats were expected to arrive.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the United States expects China to return the EP-3 crew. "That is our expectation. That is the standard practice. We would expect them to follow it," he said.

State Department spokeswoman Michelle King said officials had been assured the crew was "safe and well."

The military spying incident comes at a time of growing tension between the United States and China over Beijing's recent arrest of two American academics, plans for new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and a proposed U.S. national missile defense opposed by the Chinese.

"It looks like there has been a turn toward the hard line in Beijing," said one national security official. "The Chinese think [President] Bush is trying to challenge them and they're reacting."

U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Dewey Ford said the aerial incident occurred about 9:15 a.m. local time Sunday (8:15 p.m. EST Saturday) as the Navy aircraft, an electronic eavesdropping version of the P-3 Orion, was being shadowed by two Chinese F-8 jets about 50 miles southeast of Hainan Island.

One of the F-8s touched the EP-3 and caused unspecified damage, Col. Ford said. The American plane then issued a "mayday" distress call before making an emergency landing on the island.

Pentagon officials said the EP-3s were monitoring a Chinese military exercise north of the island and that the close passes between U.S. and Chinese aircraft have been occurring almost on a daily basis in recent weeks.

Xinhua stated in a dispatch from Beijing that the U.S. aircraft "bumped" the Chinese fighter after it "suddenly turned" during the encounter near Hainan.

In Honolulu, Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of the U.S. Pacific command, said the collision is part of a pattern of unsafe activities by the Chinese military toward U.S. surveillance activities.

"I must tell you that the intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple of months have become more aggressive to the point that we felt they were endangering the safety of the Chinese and American aircraft," Adm. Blair told reporters at a news conference.

"It's not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air," he said.

Adm. Blair said the military is "waiting right now for the Chinese government to give us the kind of cooperation that is expected of countries in situations like this."

"But as time goes on, it's increasingly worse and it's been 18 hours that we don't have a phone call yet from our crew. We're talking about a place that has telephones."

As of last night, Adm. Blair said "we just don't know" what happened to the 24 service members.

The admiral dismissed Chinese claims that the EP-3 was at fault. "It's pretty obvious who bumped who," he said.

Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview that the Chinese should release the crew and aircraft.

The Chinese military appears "very unprofessional" in the eyes of military personnel worldwide unless it explains the incident, the senator said.

"This is a tragic military accident that could have been avoided if Chinese pilots had respected the laws of international airspace," Mr. Warner said.

Mr. Zhu, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the plane "intruded into China's airspace and made an emergency landing."

China has protested the incident to the U.S. government, Mr. Zhu said.

Pentagon officials said the Chinese have stepped up recent intercepts of the EP-3s, which are based at Kadena Air Base in Japan.

The encounters have included some intercepts by F-8s armed with air-to-air missiles and some without missiles. "They've been flying within 20 feet of the EP-3s," said one official.

"This was a routine surveillance mission and one of the two F-8s bumped our aircraft," Col. Ford said.

"We are working through the embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in Washington to make arrangements for the return of the aircraft and crew," Col. Ford said. The crew is safe, but none of the names of those on the EP-3 have been released.

The EP-3 is equipped with sophisticated electronic eavesdropping equipment and its capture by China's military would be an intelligence boost, a defense official said.

Asked about the incident yesterday, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said if the U.S. plane was in international airspace, "I think this could have . . . some serious repercussions."

On NBC's "Meet the Press," the Arizona senator said it is crucial that the EP-3 "not be inspected or entered by any Chinese" because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence equipment aboard. "We need assurance from the Chinese" on that, he added.

Mr. McCain said he hopes the Chinese will "help us repair that plane and get it off that island very quickly."

At the State Department, a spokeswoman said U.S. ambassador to China Adm. Joseph Prueher met with China's vice foreign minister yesterday in an effort to resolve the matter.

"We've been in touch with the Chinese since last night and throughout the day, both in Washington and China," said Miss King, the State Department spokeswoman.

Mr. Prueher, a retired admiral, met with the Chinese vice foreign minister, who was not identified, last night in Beijing "in an initial meeting to resolve the situation," she said.

Mr. Bush was notified of the incident Saturday night and received an update report yesterday morning, a White House spokesman said. The president is spending the weekend at the Camp David retreat in western Maryland and was informed of the events by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The EP-3 incident came a week after a March 24 encounter in the Yellow Sea, near the Korean Peninsula, in which a Chinese frigate closed to within 100 yards of the unarmed surveillance ship USS Bowditch as it conducted ocean survey operations in the region, Navy officials said.

According to the officials, the Chinese ship, the Jianghu III-class frigate Huangshi, "made aggressive and provocative maneuvers" toward the survey ship.

The Chinese ship also aimed its gunfire control radar, but not its gun, at the Bowditch and told the the ship by radio it was not allowed to operate inside the 200-mile coastal zone China considers its "Economic Exclusion Zone."

The ship was operating in international waters outside the internationally recognized 12-mile territorial limit.

The Navy ship was forced to flee the area and a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft also shadowed it, the officials said.

Intelligence officials said the ship was monitoring sea exercises of China's Xia-class ballistic missile submarine, which was operating in the area at the time of the incident.

Both the South China Sea and Yellow Sea encounters came despite a 1998 U.S.-China agreement aimed at preventing such incidents at sea. They also are raising questions among defense officials about China's growing military power and aggressiveness in the region.

--------

"The Changing Nature of CIA Analysis in the Post-Soviet World"

Speech by John E. McLaughlin,
Deputy Director of the CIA
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, April 2, 2001; 12:00 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17769-2001Mar30?language=printer

'The Canned Goods Analyst'

When the conference organizers asked me to give its first keynote address, I reminded them that my principal work on this part of the world came after the Soviet Union had broken up. In fact, it was just three months after that breakup that I was put in charge of the Office of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis--the name we gave to the organization that picked up the responsibility for analysis of the former Soviet Union, once it had ceased to exist. Because I had the opportunity to lead our work on this part of the world at that pivotal moment, I thought that is what I ought to talk about rather than looking back at our effort on the Soviet Union. You are going to be doing that non-stop for a day and a half, so perhaps you will welcome a brief excursion into the decade that just passed into history.

This topic is germane to the conference for a number of reasons. First, what I encountered back in March of 1992 was in every way the inheritance of our long focus on the Soviet target. And the experiences we had in those early post-Soviet years were emblematic of the Agency's efforts, successful I believe, to adjust to a new world that no longer had a universally accepted organizing principle for American intelligence.

So let me take you back to the spring of 1992 and tell you something about the journey we have been on since then. Let me begin with an anecdote that I believe says a lot. On my first day on the job in 1992, I made the rounds, shaking hands with my new colleagues. I remember stopping by one officer's cubicle, and there, sitting on top of her computer, instead of the usual souvenirs, was a big can of peas with Cyrillic lettering. When I asked why, she replied: "I'm the canned goods analyst." We also had a timber analyst back in those days.

To me, that anecdote says volumes about Soviet analysis during the Cold War. For reasons that this audience will readily grasp, it was actually important that we understand things like the food processing industry--symbolized by that can of peas--in order to gauge the underlying strength of Soviet society. As you know, we tried every conceivable way to gain insights into that fundamentally closed system-a system whose functioning was opaque in the most basic respects, not only to the rest of the world, but to its own people - even to its leadership, as Vlad Treml will attest tomorrow. Sherman Kent, the founding father of national intelligence estimates, once said: "Estimating is what you do when you do not know." We did a lot of estimating during the Cold War, and we are doing a lot of estimating now. But what we didn't know then about the Soviet Union is different in so many ways from what we don't know now about Russia. Most of what we needed to know then was at least discoverable. Much of what we'd like to know now may not even be knowable.

Today, our Office of Russian and European Analysis does not employ a canned goods analyst, or even a timber specialist. The Russia that our analysts are trying to understand is no longer cloaked from view by a totalitarian regime. But in many ways I think it is even harder to grasp - by us and by the Russians themselves.

'A time of wrenching change'

It was not always this way. Dick Lehman, the creator of what we now call the President's Daily Brief, once remarked that the basic analytic training he got back in 1949 came down to a single piece of advice from his boss: "Whatever you do, just remember one thing-the Soviet Union is up to no good!" Simple, but that said it. To be sure, there were other targets, but as someone who worked on many of them, I can tell you that our interest was mostly derivative. For something to gain priority attention or command resources, there had to be a connection to the Soviet threat.

Many CIA analysts cut their baby teeth in SOVA - the legendary Office of Soviet Analysis--or in one of the celebrated offices that preceded SOVA's creation in 1981. And young analysts soon learned that the ultimate objective of their collective efforts - whether their expertise lay in peas or trees or tanks - came down to helping us gauge the Soviets' military strength and intentions. Everybody understood the paradigm. Everybody knew what the top analytic priorities were: the frontal threat to NATO, Moscow's first strike capabilities, the Soviet command and control system, arms control monitoring, the capacity of the Soviet economy to sustain military power. As many of you will recall vividly, the butter-guns question of how many dishwashers equals a tank was a serious analytic calculation - also I might add, a difficult proposition from a collection standpoint, considering that Soviet dishwashers actually looked like tanks!

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the nature of our analytic questions changed. Before, threats emanated from Soviet strengths. Now, dangers stemmed largely from Russia's weaknesses or simply from the uncertainties associated with its transformation. Now, we were not much concerned about a deliberate, surprise attack by Moscow or the sheer numbers of military forces and equipment. Instead, we worried about instability in 15 sovereign states instead of one, about the cohesiveness of Russia itself, about whether it was reconciled to the independence of the other 14 states, about the safety and security of weapons, about proliferation fueled by Russia's economic straits, and about how to maintain momentum in arms control when your original partner no longer existed.

And this was a time of wrenching change for our analysts. Economists who had worked their entire professional lives on a command economy were suddenly confronted with free prices and privatization. And it was not enough just to apply the tried-and-true lessons of macro-economic and micro-economic theory, for this was an economic transition unlike any that preceded it. We quickly discovered that no one had the market cornered on analyzing such a thing, and we had to actually devise from scratch methodologies to do things like gauge the size of the private sector.

Our political analysts, meanwhile, had to plunge into real electoral politics while our military analysts, sharply reduced in numbers, could stop worrying about the cost of Soviet defense while they refocused on more qualitative questions such as whether the military would play a stabilizing role in the new Russia. For their part, the canned goods and timber specialists were retooling in Uzbek language class, brushing up on Ukrainian politics, or starting to focus in detail on places like Chechnya.

While we were wrestling with these challenges, outside the Intelligence Community, in the world of politics, the pundits and the press, there was expectant talk of a "Peace Dividend." The "End of History" had come - the last, great ideological conflict was over. Skepticism was rife about the need for the US to sustain a global presence - diplomatic, military and intelligence. There was talk of a US-Russian strategic partnership and after a protracted post-Tiananmen policy rollercoaster, Washington and Beijing were getting back on track. Osama bin Laden and the missile threat hadn't made headlines-yet. Sanctions had put Saddam in a straitjack. The world seemed like a much less dangerous place.

When DCI Woolsey talked about the proliferators, traffickers, terrorists, and rogue states as the serpents that came in the wake of the slain Soviet dragon, he was accused of "creating threats" to justify an inflated intelligence budget.

As was the case with the State Department and the Defense Community, the Intelligence Community was downsized. By 1995, CIA's analytic ranks had shrunk by 17 percent from what they were in 1990. By the end of the 1990s, we were down by about 22 percent. I reduced the office I headed by 42 percent in the space of three years. Overall, our Russia effort decreased by 60 percent, as personnel were justifiably shifted in the ways I've described and to non-Russian areas.

'Fundamental Discontinuity'

Well, almost a decade has gone by since the Soviet collapse and even though there still is no organizing principle that pulls our priorities into an alignment comparable to the Soviet period, there is no shortage of work for the Intelligence Community. If anything, the list of issues the Director must discuss in the threat assessment he delivers annually to Congress grows longer and more complex each year. Those thirsting for the clarity of the Soviet period may have to live with the likelihood that what we see is what we may continue to get for a long time: a kaleidoscopic world of rapidly shifting, interconnected problems - the kind of world that presents the toughest challenge to an analyst trying to help decisionmakers minimize the risk of strategic surprise.

The futurologist Peter Schwartz believes that we have entered an era of what he calls "fundamental discontinuity" which will go on indefinitely due to globalization and the accelerating speed of technological innovation. I think he is right. Maybe because our analysts are used to thinking in geopolitical terms and five to ten years out, they tend to refer to this post-Cold War period as a "strategic pause"--or what Paul Kennedy might call the gap between "strategic epochs." Policymakers used to worry about a missile gap-- until our reconnaissance and imagery pioneers proved it didn't exist. Now, it's an "epoch gap", but I'm not so sure we can help with that!

My point is that after any great upheaval - in this case the Soviet collapse - there has usually been a period of confusion, uncertainty, and turbulence while the world sorts itself out.

Think back on the last time empires disintegrated on anything like the scale we witnessed when the Soviet Union came apart and imagine the challenge it presents to our intelligence analysts.

For example, if we had had a US Intelligence Community when the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires collapsed after World War I, could it have predicted the enormity of what came next: the rise of Hitler, the Holocaust, Stalin's purges, World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War?

Just as there was high potential for surprise in that period of transition, I believe that our nation has entered an era when the potential for unwelcome surprise is greater than at any time since the end of the Second World War. There are a number of reasons for this:

As we have seen in places as diverse as the Balkans, East Timor, and the Congo, the crumbling of Cold War constraints and the surge of globalization have unleashed forces that rapidly spill-over into open violence that can engulf entire regions.

Second, the revolution in technology enables, drives, or magnifies dangers to us. DCI Gates has said that after the 1960s, the US was never surprised by a Soviet weapons system. We cannot be as confident today that we know about our adversaries' capabilities, because paradigm-busting advances are occurring simultaneously in so many scientific and technical fields. As we point out in our report on the world in 2015, in science and technology, the time between discovery and application is shrinking every year.

Third, the advanced technologies that once were the preserve of the superpowers have passed into other hands. Access to advanced technology gives hostile states and non-state actors new shields and new swords. Greater power and longer reach. In today's networked world, they have easier access to information, finances, deception-and-denial techniques, and to each other. And the perception of America's so-called "hegemony" has itself become a lightning rod for the disaffected. Related to all of this, America's sole superpower status has created a global climate conducive to what I would call "experimental alliances", as various aspiring powers search for common cause, usually with the aim of off-setting American preeminence.

Fourth, the American public - for the first time - has to face the fact that the territorial United States - our power grids, our water and transportation systems, and our public communications networks are vulnerable to new and unconventional dangers like chemical and biological weapons and cyber attacks, and also to some older conventional threats like ballistic missiles. Last but not least, Russia and China and other key countries in volatile regions - Iran, and the Korean peninsula - are undergoing political, economic, demographic and strategic transitions whose outcomes could have widely varying national security consequences for the United States.

'A Three Dimensional Chess Board'

From the perspective of an intelligence officer, it seems that America's next move these days must always be calculated on a three dimensional chess board.

Given such a world, I tell our analysts that I do not belong to the Peter Schwartz School of "fundamental discontinuity" or the Paul Kennedy School of "epochal gaps." I belong to the Monty Python School of "Now for Something Completely Different." I am conscious every day of how important it is for our analysts to challenge the conventional wisdom, to separate what we really know from what we merely think, to consider alternative outcomes--in short, to not fall victim to mindset, overconfidence, or anyone's pet paradigm. Our country and its interests are at their most vulnerable if its intelligence professionals are not always ready for "something completely different."

On that score, today's Russia seldom fails to disappoint. Our Russia analysts would be the first to admit that at times they have had to struggle hard to anticipate what is coming next. But they have found some consolation in the thought that Yeltsin and Putin have probably felt the same way.

That said, I think when someday we have a conference about this latest decade, our analytic record on Russia will stand up well. Among the things I think it will show:

We got an early grip on the newly independent states and their likely evolution along different paths. In March of 1991 - nine months before the Soviet breakup - a new division was created in SOVA to devote more attention to the republics. Our analysts anticipated the violent crisis in the fall of 1993, when Yeltsin dissolved the Communist-dominated Supreme Soviet to break the constitutional gridlock that paralyzed the country. In 1994, we warned of the first Chechen War. We were forward-leaning on the outcome of the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1995-1996 and 1999-2000, and we published and briefed extensively on corruption and the rise of Russian organized crime, long before it became such a prominent issue. In the economic sphere, we warned policy makers of the looming economic crisis two months before the August 1998 ruble crash and called the rebound in the economy long before business and academic experts did. And we were frequently able to stay ahead of the curve in anticipation of Yeltsin's frequent government shake-ups.

'The Realm of the Unknowable'

On the things that can inflict harm on Americans or America's vital interests or those of our allies--such as loose nukes, proliferation and efforts to stymie NATO enlargement - we didn't know everything, but we put together a pretty good picture because we had a strong factual base from which to speculate.

But there were many "softer" issues--subjects which don't lend themselves to measurement--that were more difficult for us to assess with high levels of specificity. Putin's meteoric rise to the presidency is a case in point. When he was plucked from obscurity to become Premier, we would not have told you with confidence that he would rise to the Presidency--until his handling of the Chechen war dramatically increased his popularity. But in early 1999, Putin probably did not foresee this either. On such "unmeasurables," analysts must operate with greater degrees of uncertainty--they must work in the realm not just of the unknown, but of the unknowable.

What is knowable is that Russia's efforts to find its identity at home and its place in the world cannot be divorced from larger 21st century realities--the realities of a world in which countries globalize or get left behind, where national strength is measured not just in a military's access to hardware but in civilians' access to software-- an increasingly borderless world of hope and hazard and unremitting change--realities which all countries confront, including our own.

Just like their targets, to be successful in this new century, our intelligence analysts must adapt. US Intelligence must find new ways of doing its analytic business. And that is exactly what we are doing. Let me briefly describe some of the steps we are taking:

First, we have repositioned institutionally to meet the changing nature of the threats. Today we devote only a fraction of the effort we once did to Russia. In the old days, SOVA was the largest office in the Directorate of Intelligence; today, given the cross-border nature of many current and emerging threats, that distinction goes to the Office of Transnational Issues.

We also have channeled substantial analytic resources to specialized centers staffed by experts from across the Intelligence Community to deal with Nonproliferation and Crime and Narcotics issues.

And, as the National Intelligence Council's 2015 report demonstrates, we are paying increasing attention to non-traditional areas such as demographics, disease and water scarcity while continuing to chart trends in energy, economic development, and weaponry. We are spending more time on how these factors inter-connect and on how they affect security and stability.

Next, we have placed a high priority on getting our analysts the technical tools they need to deal with the growing problems of volume and speed. Information increases by about a million documents per day, and that's just on the web. Five years from now, our all-source analysts will have to deal with ten times the amount of information that they now receive from open sources and clandestine collection. One analyst recently told me that the way she does her job has changed more in one year than in the preceding nine due to her desk top links with the Internet and classified intelligence networks. Today, providing vital "value added" analysis to consumers sometimes depends as much on our analysts' ability to pluck key information out of the flood and move it quickly as it does on the analysis itself. Information-mining technologies and connectivity among our analysts within CIA, across the Intelligence Community and with our customers will help us stay ahead of the competition--I don't mean our commercial competitors, but the hostile actors who can-- and will--exploit what is commercially available.

'What Hasn't Changed At All'

But being smart about how we configure ourselves, allocate resources and use technologies will not be enough. As Sherman Kent put it decades ago: "There is no substitute for the intellectually competent human-- the person who was born with the makings of critical sense and who has developed them ... through firsthand experience and study."

With that in mind, we have over the last several years begun very aggressively to strengthen our analytical ranks that were so dangerously thinned after the Cold War. CIA, for example, is engaged in the largest across-the-board recruiting drive in a decade, and we are bringing in first-rate talent. We have established a new Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis to intensively train the new recruits. Beyond increasing our bench strength against key targets, we are going all out to achieve greater analytic depth. We are providing incentives for analysts to stay on their accounts longer. We are affording our analysts greater opportunities to travel and to broaden their experience. Because we claim no monopoly on wisdom, we are bringing in outside experts for short tours as scholars-in-residence. We also are encouraging our analysts to expand their contacts with specialists elsewhere in government, in the private sector and in academia.

Our objective is a vigorous, creative, agile analytic capability that is equal to 21st century challenges and second to none.

I will close my comments on all that has changed in the analysis business by talking about what hasn't changed at all. I've mentioned Sherman Kent frequently, and let me say that today's analysts have the same three wishes that he used to talk about in his day: "To know everything. To be believed. And to exercise a positive influence on policy."

Of course, today's analysts don't know everythinh--that's why they still call 'em estimates. And they realize, as did their predecessors, that they won't always be believed, in spite of the rigor of their analysis. As to whether our analysts have a meaningful influence on policy, we will soon hear from former decision makers on that score. As for the decade I've just discussed, I can tell you that if the volume of questions we answer is any indication, our analysts have been very influential indeed. I am very proud of what they've accomplished.

Thank you. I would be happy to hear your thoughts and take your questions.

-------- terrorism

Taliban rule out bin Laden handover

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
By KATHY GANNON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406584184

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Afghanistan's Taliban have ruled out any possibility of handing over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to any country _ including one that would try him under Islamic law, a Taliban official was quoted as saying Monday.

``Delivering Osama to a third country would just pave the way for the United States to arrest him and no one should expect the Afghan government to do this,'' the Nawa-e-Waqt newspaper quoted the Taliban's foreign ministry spokesman Faiz Ahmed Faiz as saying.

The Taliban were sanctioned by the United Nations in 1999 and again in January to press a demand that they hand over bin Laden for trial, either in the United States or a third country. The charge against the former Saudi businessman is terrorism.

On Washington's 10 Most-Wanted List, bin Laden is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

He has denied the charge and the Taliban, who have given him refuge, say the United States has not provided proof to substantiate their accusation.

Bin Laden also is the leading suspect in the suicide bombing last year of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.

There has been considerable speculation in recent months that the Taliban religious army that ruled 95 percent of Afghanistan may be willing to hand over bin Laden to a third country if he could be guaranteed a trial under Islamic law.

But according to the Nawa-e-Waqt newspaper, one of Pakistan's leading Urdu-language daily newspapers, there is no chance of that happening.

``Osama is a mujahed (holy warrior) who fought against the communists to help the Afghan nation,'' Faiz was quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union.

The Taliban spokesman also accused the western media of sensationalizing bin Laden and creating a monster of him.

``Osama is not such an important person as he as been portrayed by the West. He could not hurt anybody,'' said Faiz.

The U.N. sanctions have limited travel by Taliban officials, frozen their assets overseas as well as those of bin Laden. Sanctions also have seriously restricted the national airline, Ariana. It cannot make international flights and the U.N. sanctions committee has not allowed the airline to service those aircraft used for its domestic routes.

The Taliban have warned that the refusal to allow Afghanistan maintain its aircraft endangers the lives of thousands of civilians, who travel within the country on Ariana Airlines.

---

Taliban rules out handing over bin Laden

USA Today
04/02/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-02-binladen.htm

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Afghanistan's Taliban have ruled out any possibility of handing over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to any country - including one that would try him under Islamic law, a Taliban official was quoted as saying Monday.

"Delivering Osama to a third country would just pave the way for the United States to arrest him and no one should expect the Afghan government to do this," the Nawa-e-Waqt newspaper quoted the Taliban's foreign ministry spokesman Faiz Ahmed Faiz as saying.

The Taliban were sanctioned by the United Nations in 1999 and again in January to press a demand that they hand over bin Laden for trial, either in the United States or a third country. The charge against the former Saudi businessman is terrorism.

On Washington's 10 Most-Wanted List, bin Laden is accused of masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

He has denied the charge and the Taliban, who have given him refuge, say the United States has not provided proof to substantiate their accusation.

Bin Laden also is the leading suspect in the suicide bombing last year of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.

There has been considerable speculation in recent months that the Taliban religious army that ruled 95% of Afghanistan may be willing to hand over bin Laden to a third country if he could be guaranteed a trial under Islamic law.

But according to the Nawa-e-Waqt newspaper, one of Pakistan's leading Urdu-language daily newspapers, there is no chance of that happening.

"Osama is a mujahed (holy warrior) who fought against the communists to help the Afghan nation," Faiz was quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union.

The Taliban spokesman also accused the western media of sensationalizing bin Laden and creating a monster of him.

"Osama is not such an important person as he as been portrayed by the West. He could not hurt anybody," said Faiz.

The U.N. sanctions have limited travel by Taliban officials, frozen their assets overseas as well as those of bin Laden. Sanctions also have seriously restricted the national airline, Ariana. It cannot make international flights and the U.N. sanctions committee has not allowed the airline to service those aircraft used for its domestic routes.

The Taliban have warned that the refusal to allow Afghanistan maintain its aircraft endangers the lives of thousands of civilians, who travel within the country on Ariana Airlines.

-------- activists

Get involved in anti-FTAA organizing in DC!

From: Neil Watkins <neil@econjustice.net>
Mon, 02 Apr 2001

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

The Mobilization for Global Justice is organizing a number of actions in Washington, DC in April to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas:

* A bus is going to Quebec City from DC -- get your tickets now and don't be left behind!

* There will a solidarity panel and rally on the Charleston Five on April 7;

* We are planning A HUGE rally, with ACT Up Philadelphia, outside the offices of the United States Trade Representative on April 12, demanding "No FTAA!" and access to AIDS drugs for all;

* We will have an action on April 20, to coincide with the demonstrations occurring in Quebec City; and

* We are building for an exciting rally and action outside the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank, on Sunday, April 29!! [Read more about each of these events below]

But we need YOUR help and participation to build all of these actions and make our voices heard for global justice.

So, come out to the NEXT PLANNING MEETING of the DC Mobilization for Global Justice, the group organizing local solidarity actions against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)!

WHEN: This WEDNESDAY, April 4, 2001, 7 - 9 PM WHERE: SEIU building, 1313 L St. NW, lower level MORE INFO: Contact: (202) 756-4101 x1415 or mgj@onebox.com

ACTIONS/EVENTS COMING UP:

1) Don't Miss the Bus....to QUEBEC!

Secure your seat on the bus to Quebec City to protest against the FTAA! To reserve your seat, bring your $75 deposit to the meeting on APril 4. Total cost will be $150/person (transportation only) - We must have deposits of $75 by Wednesday's meeting!!

Itinerary:

April 18th: Early morning departure from D.C. (exact location TBA) to Burlington, VT, where we spend the night at U.S. convergence center April 19th: Depart Burlington for Quebec (contingent upon our ability to cross border)

April 20th: Quebec Action - Stop The FTAA!! (or border action if we're unable to enter Canada)

April 21st: Action (Quebec or U.S.)

April 22nd: Early departure for D.C., (exact location TBA) arriving late Sunday night (if all goes well)

Accommodations:

You will be responsible for your own housing in Quebec, but will have access to the convergence center in Burlington, VT. Check www.stopftaa.org for accommodations in Quebec. Also check outlying areas like Sainte Foy (20 min from Quebec), Charlesbourg, Saint Nicolas or Ancienne Lorette. Remember, it will be very cold!

Contact:

Jon Jacoby: jjacoby@citizen.org, or Konrad Fisher: konradfisher@yahoo.com

Misc.: The doctrine of infinite flexibility will be in effect throughout the trip!!!

2) APRIL 7 Solidarity Panel/Rally

SUPPORT THE CHARLESTON FIVE - STOP THE FTAA RALLY TO BUILD THE FIGHT FOR WORKER'S RIGHTS, CIVIL RIGHTS and TO STOP CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION!

Saturday, April 7, 4pm Metropolitan AME Church, 1518 M Street, NW (McPherson Square Metro)

Featuring:

· Ken Riley, president Int'l Longshoremen's Association, Local 1422, Charleston, SC · Bill Fletcher, AFL-CIO · Joslyn Williams, president DC Metropolitan Labor Council · Rev. Graylan Hagler, Plymouth Congregational Church · Fredy Tejada, Farabundo Marti Liberation Front · Michele Bollinger, Int'l Socialist Org., AFT Local 6 · Njoke Njehu, 50 Years is Enough Network

The Charleston Five, members of the International Longshormen's Association (ILA) in South Carolina face criminal charges after 600 police in riot gear attacked their pickets last January. The ILA was one of the leading groups in the fight against the Confederate flag flying over South Carolina's statehouse. An international campaign in support of these targeted workers is part of a growing movement for worker's rights and against corporate globalization.

This movement includes tens of thousands of people throughout the Americas fighting corporate-driven "free trade" who are currently organizing to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA, like NAFTA before it, is a fundamental attack on human rights, labor rights, the environment and basic democracy throughout the Americas.

Join in this rally to support the Charleston Five and to organize to stop the FTAA!

Sponsored by: DC Mobilization for Global Justice Endorsed by: The DC Metropolitan Labor Council Contact: (202) 756-4101 x1415 or mgj@onebox.com

For information about the Charleston Five: www.ilwu.org For information about organizing to stop the FTAA: www.a20.org

3) APRIL 12 RALLY

GLOBALIZATION AND AIDS: A LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE APRIL 12 - DEMONSTRATE TO STOP THE FTAA!

In April, trade representatives from North and South America will be meeting in Quebec to negotiate the terms of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA is a new, secret, pro-corporation trade agreement. If the FTAA passes, multinational corpo-rations will not be accountable to anyone, even countries' governments. Public services, good jobs, the environment and the lives of people with HIV/AIDS, women, and poor people will all be destroyed in the name of corporate greed.

Activists from Washington and ACT UP Philadelphia will demand access to affordable,life-saving, generic medications for people with AIDS in the global south and protection of socialservices for people in poor countries.

11:45am Meet at McPherson Square (15th and I Streets, NW)

12:00pm March to US Trade Representative Office (17th and F Streets, NW)

for more information contact Mobilization for Global Justice at 202.756.4101 x1415 or mgj@onebox.com

4) APRIL 20 Solidarity Rally

5pm, outside US Chamber of Commerce Details TBA

5) APRIL 29 Rally at the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank

DROP THE DEBT! Demand 100% debt cancellation for countries in the global South from the IMF and World Bank's own resources. Rally with speakers from around the world, and march.

TIME: 3-5 PM PLACE: Park across from World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW More details TBA

Neil Watkins <neil@econjustice.net> World Bank bonds boycott campaign Center for Economic Justice 1830 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009 phone: (202) 299-0020 fax: (202) 299-0021 web: www.worldbankboycott.org

---

Bush vs. Green: An Open Letter from Barbara Kingsolver

From: "Nicholas" <nicholasd108@yahoo.com>
Mon, 02 Apr 2001
Barbara Kingsolver,
AlterNet March 27, 2001

Barbara Kingsolver, renowned author of "The Poisonwood Bible" and "Prodigal Summer," wrote this call-to-action against Bushwhacking and other threats the new administration poses to the environment. It has been widely circulated by email, proving again the Internet's potential as a method to flex political muscle.

Dear Friend,

Okay, I'll admit it, I spent the inaugural weekend in denial. (He's not my president. Most of us didn't actually vote for the guy ... ) Ignored the smarmy front-page photos of parades and balls, skipped straight to Section B to look for coverage of the protests. But the fact is, we now have a new administration that's hostile to the things I love most: human kindness, the dignity of diversity, and the wild glory of life on earth. It's time to move on from denial to the next stage, which would be bitter cynicism or action.

I'm opting for action, because I don't really have a choice. Looking out my window right now I can see my two girls outside under the mesquite trees in this precious riparian woodland where we live, and my heart starts to break for all the beautiful things they'll never see if I allow unchecked Bushwhacking in the next four years. Civil rights and reproductive choice I suppose we could win back in time (though not the lives lost along the way), but the waters and wild lands devastated will never come back. So I've tak en a vow to spend at least some part of every week protecting the truths and places I treasure.

Part of that commitment involves this letter asking you to do the same. I'm fairly confident you'll agree with my concerns, because we're the majority. Not only did most of us not vote for the guy, we also -- by a handy majority, the polls say -- oppose the assault he and Gale Norton hope to launch.

To choose an urgent example, their plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is hugely unsupported by U.S. citizens, and has even met some opposition from his fellow Republicans. Most of us want the Arctic Refuge to remain pristine and untouched -- and we feel this way in spite of current energy worries and the fact that this magnificent birthing ground for Artic wildlife is, for most of us, a place we've only imagined. The widespread reputation of Americans for selfishness notwithstanding, we are wise and generous enough to care about lives and places beyond our own backyards.

Starting today, if you haven't already, I hope you'll do a handful of concrete things including these: Post the addresses of your legislators somewhere you'll see it, and make a habit of writing them weekly to help guide their decisions about social justice and the environment. Think of the California energy crisis as an opportunity to institute, in your home and your conversations with friends, a policy of conserving resources that will provide the only long-term solution. And get involved with your conservation community, locally and nationally.

A step I recommend is the Internet activist campaign called www.SaveBioGems.org. When you visit this site, it will take you only about ten minutes to send faxes to politicians and CEO's to voice your interest in protecting places like the Arctic Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, the Macal Rainforest of Costa Rica and Red Rock Wilderness of Utah. If you register there, the Natural Resources Defense Council will send you email alerts every so often (while also respecting your privacy) asking you to return to www.SaveBioGems.org to participate in a crucial fax or email campaign.

These things work. Every kind of communication adds up, and web activism is a new force in the political landscape. Lots of effective campaigns have made good use of the internet, such as the one against Nike, and it was web activism that recently helped NRDC to prevent the Mitsubishi corporation from destroying birthing grounds for the Pacific Grey Whale in Mexico. But it only works if we all care enough to get involved.

I believe the Bush administration has happened to us for a reason. Setting aside election fraud, family connections in Florida, and the fact that Republican districts almost everywhere have better voting machinery, the reason is complacency: too many people must have assumed that the things we cherish are permanently protected. We underestimated the power of wealthy corporations to put a Petroleocracy into the White House. Now that it's there, it's our obligation and our right as citizens to drown out its awful agenda with our voices. We have majority support, now we just have to use it.

Please take a minute to visit www.SaveBioGems.org, and if you agree with me, please extend this invitation to your friends and family. Thanks -- our kids ask the world of us, and my greatest hope is to give them one, intact.

Truly yours,
Barbara Kingsolver

---

She sails the world for a heartfelt cause

The Age
Monday 2 April 2001
By SALLY FINLAY
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/02/FFXTTECOZKC.html

What do activists do to relax? Ruby Haazen, 13, who stepped off a Greenpeace campaign yacht from Adelaide yesterday morning, was on her way to Luna Park.

"We are not always campaigning," said the young sailor. On the family yacht the Tiama, she and her parents, Henk and Bunny, have set sail to join some of the great environmental campaigns of the past three years.

They are in Melbourne to protest against what they say is an increasing number of ships carrying nuclear waste, and of Australia's ability to handle nuclear accidents at sea.

Last month the Tiama was part of a protest flotilla off Lord Howe Island, on the north coast of New South Wales, trying to head off two ships carrying plutonium.

"It got quite big, and hit a lot of newspapers in New Zealand," said Ruby, when asked if sailing the seas for peace made a difference. "I think a lot of people know more about it than they did before."

The big seas still make her nervous, especially when she is on watch by herself, but she is not daunted by the giant container ships that dwarf the yacht. "I am not really scared because they dogleg around us and are more scared of us than we are of them," she said.

Home is Auckland, New Zealand, where her friends and family live, but it can be a year between visits. Ruby, who studies by correspondence, will wait and see what the future brings for her. But her love of the wildlife in places like the Great Barrier Reef, Antarctica and South America will probably feature somewhere, she said.

Today Greenpeace will release a report into the inability of Australian authorities to handle a nuclear accident at sea, said Stephen Campbell, campaign manager for the Nuclear Free Seas Australian tour.

He said Greenpeace was concerned by the nuclear waste from the Sydney Lucas Heights reactor, now aboard a ship that can dock but not unload the waste in France. "The Bouguenais' inability to unload Australian waste from Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor reminds us of the dangers travelling around our seas."

------

Six College Students Occupy Sikorsky Corporation Conference to Protest Plan Colombia

From: "Peace Activist Coalition" <soawatch@hotmail.com>
Mon, 02 Apr 2001

Washington, DC - Six Oberlin College students disrupted the opening session of a Sikorsky Corporation suppliers conference at the National Guard Memorial building in Washington, DC. To protest the Sikorsky Corporation's profit from the war in Colombia, at 3:45pm, the six women locked their arms together inside pipes in the conference room. The six students are Sarah Bania-Dobyns, 22, from Denver, CO; Rebecca Johnson, 21, from Cincinnati, OH; Jacqueline Downing, 21, from Topsfield, MA; Laurel Paget-Seekins, 20, from Philo, CA; Sarah Saunders, 20, from Lake Orion, MI; and Kate Berrigan, 19, from Baltimore, MD.

Last summer the US Congress approved a $1.3 billion package, of mostly military aid, to Colombia. $221 million of the taxpayer money is going to Sikorsky for 30 Blackhawk helicopters. Sarah Saunders, one of the students who visited Colombia this January, said, "Blackhawk helicopters will not bring peace and economic development to the Colombian people or end the supply of drugs in the US. Instead, helicopters will fuel Colombia's violent 40-year civil war."

The people of Colombia did not want helicopters and military aid from the US. After Plan Colombia was written in Colombia, the corporate lobbying of the Sikorsky Corporation, among others, drastically altered the aid package before it passed the US Congress. "We are here to let the Sikorsky Corporation know that they cannot profit off war and the suffering of the people of Colombia without opposition," said Kate Berrigan.

There is growing opposition in the US to Plan Colombia and to military solutions to the drug trade. This independent action took place during a week of actions and lobbying in Washington DC, organized by School of the Americas Watch, to bring attention to Plan Colombia and the training of Latin American military personnel at the newly renamed School of the Americas. This evening, a vigil organized by Amnesty International is planned for outside the Colombian Ambassador's residence in Washington, DC.

For more information on Colombia, go to:
www.colombiasupport.net www.witnessforpeace.org www.americas.org

April 2, 2001
Statement for "Blackhawks Do Not Bring Peace" Action

We, the Peace Activist Coalition of Oberlin, OH, are here today to take a stand against Plan Colombia. We are women of nonviolence. We believe that our presence will make a difference in the hearts and minds of those who profit from the war in Colombia. Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion US aid package, is being used to enrich private corporations in the US and fuel the violence in Colombia, not to bring peace or to end the drug trade. We target the Sikorsky Corporation today because the Sikorsky Corporation is making $221 million on 30 Blackhawk helicopters that will be sent to Colombia. We believe that helicopters and military aid will not bring an end to the 40-year civil war or the drug trade in Colombia.

The people of Colombia did not want helicopters and military aid from the US. After Plan Colombia was written in Colombia, the corporate lobbying of Sikorsky, among others, drastically altered the aid package. Two of us have been to Colombia, and we have seen the effects of the violence of Plan Colombia. We have seen devastation and, as young people, we have hope and love for the children of Colombia. We are here to nonviolently show our opposition to the Sikorsky Corporation's role in Plan Colombia.

By locking ourselves together in the room of the Sikorsky Corporation's conference, we hope that our commitment and dedication will make our voices and the voices of the people of Colombia heard. We take this risk because we know that whatever the consequences, we are speaking the truth to power. We are young people who have a vision of peace and justice for the world, and we will continue to work for this vision.

- Sarah Bania-Dobyns, 22, from Denver, CO; Rebecca Johnson, 21, from Cincinnati, OH; Jacqueline Downing, 21, from Topsfield, MA; Laurel Paget-Seekins, 20, from Philo, CA; Sarah Saunders, 20, from Lake Orion, MI; and Kate Berrigan, 19, from Baltimore, MD -

For more information on Colombia, go to:
www.colombiasupport.net www.witnessforpeace.org www.americas.org

------

Anarchist base destroyed in dawn raid

Public Service Announcement <publica@tarakan.demon.co.uk>
Sunday Telegraph story
Mon, 2 Apr 2001
By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent

TWO hundred police officers staged a dawn raid yesterday on a secret training centre for anarchists who are planning to bring chaos to London on May Day. The Scotland Yard squad, including officers wearing riot gear, used mechanical diggers to demolish part of an empty factory, to prevent protesters from using it. The building, in Brixton, south-west London, had been chosen as the site for drilling 500 rioters in preparations for attacks on police during protests in the capital on May 1.

Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, authorised the raid after undercover surveillance of the building by Special Branch detectives uncovered plans by a newly formed anti-capitalist group who call themselves Wombles (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggle). Anarchists from across Europe were due to gather in the disused button factory this weekend for riot training and planning.

Yesterday detectives seized a training plan and material expected to have been used to make the rioters' protective uniform. Three interior walls of the building were daubed with anarchist graffiti including the slogan: "Smash Police Skulls".

Det Supt Bob Randall, who led the raid, codenamed Operation Dursley, said: "There is no doubt that this new radical organisation of anarchists is importing a frightening brand of continental-style violence into British protests. We have seen violent tactics used around the world against government leaders and business organisations in Prague and Seattle.

"Now they are being used here. Last year's May Day riots showed what mayhem and destruction can be caused when things get out of hand and this new organisation is actively preparing and inciting people to cause violence."

The Wombles, formed last September, are the British arm of the violent Italian anarchist organisation Ya Basta, which hijacked an Italian train last year and tried to drive it to a summit of world leaders in Prague before setting it on fire. Ya Basta has been behind scores of violent demonstrations across the Continent and has adopted what police describe as "sinister paramilitary-style tactics".

Their distinctive bulky white uniforms inspired the British anarchists to call them Wombles, because of their similarity in appearance to the stars of the 1970s BBC children's show, and later to adopt the name themselves. Despite being named after fluffy television characters, the Wombles form a highly trained and dedicated organisation. Many of the leaders have already been involved in actions abroad.

Detectives are increasingly worried about a significant outbreak of violence being planned for May Day. Det Supt Randall said: "Last year's demonstration was largely organised by Reclaim the Streets, which is a peaceful organisation, although there was trouble. This year the organisation has been overtaken by far more violent groups."

As The Telegraph revealed in February, the anarchists are using the board game Monopoly as a guide to co-ordinate their actions. A website instructs activists to seize the headquarters of major companies and utility firms. Police have now also uncovered evidence that McDonald's restaurants and Gap stores on Oxford Street are particular targets.

---------

Copter Stoppers Protests expose defense industry's role in Colombia

In These Times
April 2, 2001
By Hank Hoffman Stratford Connecticut
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2509/hoffman2509.html

Just before dawn on February 12, two dozen people lined up at the main gate of Sikorsky Aircraft, a defense contractor based here, and blocked the main entrance to the plant. Across the street, 75 people held banners proclaiming "Sikorsky kills Colombians."

The action marked the first major display of civil disobedience at Sikorsky over the sale of Black Hawk helicopters to the Colombian military. The protest, called by Colombia Action Connecticut, included members of the Catholic Workers--a faith-based pacifist group--drug-law reformers and the Connecticut Global Action Network. At a previous protest in December, six people were arrested when they tried to deliver a letter to CEO Dean Borgman protesting Sikorsky's sale of the helicopters.

Concern over Colombia has grown since President Clinton signed a $1.3 billion aid package last July. Defense contractors were the primary lobbyists for Plan Colombia, which includes 30 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters due to be delivered there by the end of this year.

The protesters tied up traffic for almost four miles. Many workers were visibly angry. "We're in favor of selling these Black Hawks," says Jeff Cederbaum, head of the Teamsters local that represents most Sikorsky employees. "We've actually been pushing our congressional delegation to make sure these go through. Our concern is making sure our members are working."

But at least a dozen passing motorists honked their horns in support. And after an hour and a half, protesters ended their blockade, without arrests. "We stopped business as usual," says Mark Colville, a resident of the New Haven Catholic Worker house. "I think we touched the consciences of people who work here. What they do with that is up to them."

The coalition plans to organize more blockades at Sikorsky. "I dread getting arrested and going to jail," adds Colville, who was arrested for the first time at the December action. "But I think it's necessary. There needs to be a dramatization of the fact that we're killing people daily in Colombia."

A version of this story originally appeared in the New Haven Advocate.

---

Of Mice and Mischief

Forbes
04.02.01
Zina Moukheiber, Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/forbes
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0402/056.html

The only time investment bank Stephens Inc. deals with mice is when they have to be chased out of the office. So why are animal rights protesters staging demonstrations outside its Little Rock, Ark. headquarters? Seems the bank has agreed to lend $30 million to Huntingdon Life Sciences Group of the U.K., a big contract-research organization. The lab, which counts Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck among its clients, uses mice, rats and guinea pigs to test compounds before beginning human trials.

No one is safe these days from the mouse protectors. They're stepping up their protests, employing terrorist tactics not seen since the 1970s. The Huntingdon lab itself has been under vicious attack by the group calling itself Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Recently, masked hoodlums attacked a managing director with pickaxe handles. The company nearly went bankrupt. In January Stephens, a 15.7% shareholder, agreed to put up money after the Royal Bank of Scotland bowed out-vandals were pouring glue into the bank-card slots of its cash machines.

Now Stephens is the target. The Huntingdon protesters have jammed its Web site and are planning to demonstrate at a financial conference Stephens is holding in Las Vegas in late March.

In Washington the mouse saviors are trying to get the medical industry entangled in red tape. After being sued by an animal rights group called Alternatives Research and Development Foundation, the Department of Agriculture agreed last September to place rats and mice under the Animal Welfare Act-requiring labs to keep endless records on every animal, something most already do. But biomedical industry lobbyists got Congress to withhold appropriations for the new rule.

All this would be mildly amusing if it weren't so serious. Scientists use at least 20 million rodents a year in experiments in the U.S., to test foods, drugs and chemicals and to unearth basic truths about the causation of disease and the functioning of the human immune system. Without the test animals, whole swaths of medical research would grind to a halt. Imagine a world where the mice are confined to the attic.

---

Protesters demand look at FTAA draft

By JEFF GRAY Globe and Mail Update
Monday, April 02, 2001

Police arrested about 70 protesters on Monday as they calmly attempted to enter the International Trade Minister's offices in Ottawa to get a look at the working text of the proposed hemispheric free-trade deal.

As many as 500 protesters gathered outside the Lester B. Pearson building on Sussex Drive, chanting and playing drums, and surrounding the offices with a human chain.

Non-essential staff at the Pearson building had been told to stay home because protesters had threatened "direct action" to get a hold of the free-trade area of the Americas (FTAA) document, which has not been released to the public.

Organizer Kerry Pither of the group Ottawa Convergence Against the FTAA said that small groups of protesters would approach the entrance, calmly read a "citizens' search warrant" and then climb the barricades.

Police would then arrest them, she said, something that organizers had expected.

"This was very much to show that the government is not being democratic," Ms. Pither said.

Protesters chanted "the whole world is watching" as arrests were made.

Opponents of the proposed FTAA, which will be discussed at the coming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, have called the negotiating process undemocratic because the working text is being kept secret.

International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew has said that his government cannot release the working text because the other 33 governments involved have not agreed to do so.

But he has said he will lobby his pan-American counterparts this week at a meeting in Argentina to agree to publish the 900-page FTAA "consolidated working text."

A former senior Canadian diplomat says international talks are always conducted in camera so participants can suggest concessions and make compromises without having to stick to rigid public pronouncements.

"It's absolutely standard diplomatic practice," said Thomas Delworth, who is now provost and vice-chancellor of Trinity College at the University of Toronto.

Both the Canada-U.S. free-trade deal and the North American free trade agreement were negotiated this way, Prof. Delworth said, as are peace agreements or other international accords worldwide.

Carl Schwenger, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said Canada has shown unprecedented openness in its consultations of labour, environmental and human-rights groups about the FTAA process, as well as by publishing Canada's entire negotiating position on the Internet.

Monday's protest, which organizers pledged would be non-violent, was organized by the Ottawa Coalition to Stop the FTAA and the Montreal-based activist group Opération SalAMI.

(Opération SalAMI was founded to oppose the defeated Multilateral Agreement on Investment, and its name means "dirty MAI" in French.)

Protesters included local students and activists as well as Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians. In a statement released Monday afternoon, her group demanded the release of the arrested protesters.

RCMP Corporal Louise Lafrance said not all those arrested would necessarily face charges.

With reports from Canadian Press

---

Protesters target Foreign Affairs headquarters today

Montreal Gazette
Monday 2 April 2001
KATE JAIMET Ottawa Citizen
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/010402/5018023.html

Thousands of police in riot gear facing masses of free-trade opponents will create a scary situation at the Summit of the Americas, human-rights lawyer Clayton Ruby told protesters-in-training yesterday.

"Sending in 10,000 police officers for an anticipated 10,000 demonstrators is not a buddy system," Ruby said in a speech to about 250 anti-free trade activists on Parliament Hill.

In an interview later, Ruby said a team of lawyers is already being put together to assist protesters who might be arrested and to help arrange bail.

"It will be scary. You're facing real police officers in their horrible riot gear," he said. "They're imperfectly trained and they're scared."

The anti-free trade activists - including federal New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough - met for a full day yesterday to plan for the April 20-22 summit in Quebec City.

As a prelude to the Quebec City demonstrations, organizers plan a protest today at the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Ottawa.

The purpose of today's protest, which is to begin at 7 a.m., is to demand a copy of the secret draft Free Trade Area of the the Americas agreement. Foes of the FTAA are angry that the draft copy of the accord, which forms the basis of negotiations, has never been made public. They argue that such a far-reaching deal should be available for public comment.

But the federal government argues it cannot release a copy of the draft without the consent of the 33 other countries negotiating the deal.

Canada's bargaining positions are posted on the Foreign Affairs Web site.

In anticipation of the protest today, all but key staff have been instructed to stay away from the Department of Foreign Affairs building. The building will be locked and RCMP and Ottawa police officers will be on hand.

The protesters are to begin today by blocking the entrances to the building, then attempt to enter it and seize a copy of the document, said Phillippe Duhamel, of the Quebec-based anti-free-trade organization SalAMI.

"They won't stop until physically being stopped," he said. "If there are metal barricades, they might climb over them. But they won't push (police). It's going to be non-violent."

Organizers say they are committed to non-violence at the Quebec City protests this month, but security officials are preparing for the worst with tough security measures, including the fencing-off of a large section of the provincial capital.

Several protest organizers said yesterday the prospect of violence at the demonstrations is being exaggerated so as to intimidate protesters.

- The Concordia University Student Union says students have voted in a referendum to oppose the federal government's participation in the FTAA talks in Quebec City. The referendum was held last week as part of the student union's general elections.

- The Foreign Affairs Department Web site can be found at: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/menu-e.asp. Then click on "Free Trade Area of the Americas" for information about the agreement.

---

The fine arts of political protest
Film-makers, comics, playwrights to be part of scene at Quebec City

Montreal Gazette
Monday 2 April 2001
MATT RADZ The Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/010402/5017916.html

Like a lot of other people, artists are making plans for the big show of global politics in Quebec City next month.

Montreal film-maker Magnus Isacsson has been getting ready for about a year, but he's not on his way to the provincial capital to negotiate or to wave a placard. He's not going to march in mute protest, a U.S. dollar taped over his mouth.

The director of documentaries The Emperor's New Clothes (1995), Power (1996), and Pressure Point (1999) will be on the job, overseeing production on a $400,000 feature-length movie of the event. Isacsson, 53, wants the big-screen documentary to reveal more than the flash of mainstream media coverage will.

The movie will continue the story begun in Pressure Point, which was subtitled Inside the Montreal Blockade.

An inside look at the 1998 protests outside talks on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, Pressure Point captured the early stages of the global (Seattle, Washington, Prague) wave of civil disobedience that might be about to crest April 20-22 in Quebec City as leaders of 34 nations negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.

An attempt to cut through the propaganda rife on both sides of the ideological divide, the movie will record the event from several points of view.

Five camera crews, each with a director, will each track a different summit participant - a politician/negotiator, a security-force officer, an international human-rights observer and protesters of different political stripes.

-

Film-makers will be a major presence at the summit, cabaret artist and standup comic Norman Nawrocki said: "There are at least six independent productions I've heard about."

In one of them, the versatile Nawrocki - he's also a violin-playing poet - is a subject.

Pressure Point co-director Michel Guy is working on the film with Marie Botie. It will follow Nawrocki and five other artists attending the alternative Peoples' Summit.

Nawrocki performed a benefit in Quebec City last week for La Casa, one of the grass-roots groups providing food and lodging for the Peoples' Summit.

"Our voices must be heard," Nawrocki said, enthusing about a young generation of painters, musicians and performers who are involved. "We want to participate. We want to contribute.

"I'll be there in Quebec City. Not as a 7-foot talking penis. But I'll be there."

-

For a street-kid film-maker named Roach, a veteran of what he thinks of as the anti-MAI and squeegee wars, the summit is the beginning of a film project he calls Le Voyage d'Espoir.

On his own since he was 13, Roach is, at 21, the only street kid with an agent and a Canada Council grant. The agent gets him work as a film extra; the $16,000 federal arts grant will enable him to film Voyage d'Espoir.

Roach says he wants to get away from "the wars" and talks about his fresh-air and sunshine dreams. He'll be filming as he follows the youth-job trail west to British Columbia to join other young Quebecers picking fruit.

Roach says he'll shoot some footage at the Quebec City summit, but not if things start getting out of hand.

-

Film-maker Mila Aung-Thwin says he probably wouldn't be going to Quebec City if he wasn't helping his friend Roach begin the Voyage (called The Land of the Second Chance in English).

A McGill University graduate in film and literature, Aung-Thwin, 25, estimates he has joined Roach at about a dozen anti-globalization protests in the past three years, shooting footage for another project, director Daniel Cross's documentary titled Spit: Squeegee Kids and Injustice, now in post-production.

Aung-Thwin and Roach have developed a unique working relationship.

"When the s--t hits the fan," Aung-Thwin said, "Roach hands over whatever piece of equipment he's using at the time to me and says, 'Hold this. I'll go beat up a cop.' "

Aung-Thwin said he admires, but does not entirely share, his friend's radicalism and guerrilla-like sense of commitment. "You know, Roach can be as dogmatic and reactionary as the forces he's fighting," he said.

"I find Roach way too hard-core sometimes, but at least he balances out what I would normally tend to see. (Gazette) columnist Neil Cameron just wrote an opinion piece mocking the protesters. ... If you analyze it from his perspective, then capitalism has really made the world a better place. But I have spent considerable time with people who have been failed by capitalism, so despite the fact Cameron's piece is well argued, I can't accept it."

-

To report that Verdun playwright David Fennario is going to ride the bus to Quebec City and protest is like saying the pope will be saying Easter mass this year.

A revolutionary who puts his social activism ahead of his literary practice, Fennario, 53, has become resigned to being identified as the author of Balconville, and remembered as the radical who in 1980 picketed his own hit play in solidarity with striking Place des Arts employees.

Fennario has been organizing an anti-Free Trade Area of the Americas coalition in Verdun. Last week, he lectured at Dawson College on the arts and globalization.

"With an ongoing effort to criminalize legitimate dissent, it's especially important for people to protest in order to show they're against this kind of police-state repression," Fennario said.

"In a democracy, people have the right to expect a dialogue. Don't just call out the police, like in North Korea."

-

Back in Plateau Mont Royal, Isacsson held a strategy meeting Wednesday night with one of the unit directors, Luc Cote, who was leaving for Buenos Aires. That's where 34 foreign-trade ministers, including Canada's Pierre Pettigrew, are getting together to prepare for Quebec City. Cote is going there to start tracking his View From the Summit character, an Argentine activist.

Isacsson's neighbour, sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, is wondering how he can raise $20,000 for a piece of protest art he wants to create.

"I'm almost 72 and I am sick and mad at the way politics is destroying our planet," said Vaillancourt, who designed the poster for Thursday's Fete de la Resistance SOS Humanite concert at the Medley.

"We can't take it any longer," Vaillancourt said, listing mad-cow disease and poverty among globalization's ills.

He's not merely joining the protest; he's using his celebrity to call attention to what's at stake. But if Vaillancourt raises the money to put together his protest piece, he won't be going to Quebec City. He will be across the river in Levis, building a 20-metre-high piece of art, a work so massive it will be visible from inside the Summit of the Americas security perimeter.

He wants his huge sculpture to light up the night with a message simple enough for the whole world to comprehend - just three letters: SOS.

---

Abbie Hoffman Memorabilia Auctioned

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406581898

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Nearly 100 pieces of memorabilia _ including unwashed socks _ that belonged to 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman are on display at the University of Connecticut.

The items, including declassified FBI documents related to his arrest at the violent Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, will be exhibited beginning this weekend through May 25.

In 1968, Hoffman started the Yippie movement, or Youth International Party, to bring together radicals to protest the Vietnam War.

He gained fame as one of the Chicago Seven, the group of radicals tried on charges of conspiring to disrupt the Democratic Convention. He and four others were acquitted of conspiracy but convicted of crossing state lines with intent to riot. Their convictions were overturned.

Hoffman's family donated the collection to the university after his 1989 suicide at the age of 52.

---

Demonstrators face Vatican radio

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582041

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Several hundred people demonstrated Sunday outside Vatican Radio, accusing it of polluting the air with electromagnetic waves.

At issue is the station's transmitter in the town of Santa Maria di Galeria near Rome. Residents fear leukemia cases in the area may be linked to radio station's electromagnetic emissions.

Protesters carried an effigy of the Grim Reaper perched atop a mock radio tower with a sign saying ``Electrosmog = Cancer.'' The skeletal, black-robed figure had a crucifix in one hand and a scythe in the other.

The Italian government, spurred on by public concern, has charged three Vatican officials with damaging the environment. They are scheduled to go on trial in the fall.

Prosecutors say Vatican Radio violates Italy's very strict standards on electromagnetic fields emitted by radio stations and telephone transmitters.

The Vatican insists the transmissions are in line with less strict international standards and says its officials are shielded from Italian law by the extraterritorial status granted the Vatican and its properties under a 1929 pact that established Vatican City as an independent city-state.

Vatican Radio beams the pope's words around the world from a forest of antennas erected 50 years ago in a sparsely populated area. Now some 100,000 people live in the nearby suburbs.

---

Greenpeace activists occupy oil rig

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582010

INVERNESS, Scotland (AP) - Environmental activists occupied an oil exploration rig on Scotland's east coast Sunday, accusing Houston-based oil company Conoco of contributing to global warming.

Police arrested 17 people, but the Greenpeace activists called their protest a success, saying it prevented the rig from setting out for a drilling operation in the North Sea.

Protesters climbed onto the rig in Cromarty Firth, an inlet 20 miles north of Inverness. Greenpeace said four climbers set up a camp high on one of the rig's legs, and two others rappelled down another leg to paint ``Oil Kills'' in giant letters.

``Air pollution from using oil is the main cause of global warming,'' a Greenpeace statement said. It accused the company of failing to invest in environmentally friendly fuels, such as a vegetable-oil-based substitute for diesel fuel.

``Our only hope of stopping our weather careering out of control is to leave three quarters of the oil, coal and gas underground,'' said protester Laura Yates.

Seventeen demonstrators were arrested as they attempted to board inflatable boats at Nairn Harbor in the Moray Firth, an inlet adjacent to Cromarty Firth.

Conoco, which leases the rig from Aberdeen, Scotland-based Transocean Sedco Forex, called the conduct of the protesters ``dangerous and irresponsible.''

``By staging this stunt at such a time and in a relatively small and crowded inshore anchorage, these people are endangering not only their own lives but those of the rig crew,'' said Conoco spokesman Keith Webster. ``They are also creating the possibility of an accident with potentially serious environmental consequences.''

---

Zapatista rebels arrive in Chiapas

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 4/2/2001
By ALEJANDRO RUIZ Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406582104

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) - Hundreds of supporters welcomed back Zapatista rebel leaders who returned Sunday to their home state of Chiapas from a march to the capital campaigning for Indian rights.

Rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos and 23 commanders arrived in this small highlands colonial city, from which they launched their march to Mexico City on Feb. 25.

``Today we end our march, but the fight continues,'' Zapatista commander Zebedeo told supporters gathered in San Cristobal's central plaza. ``We have to continue together, with you, on this path, confronting obstacles and walking among the thorns to achieve what Mexico wants.''

San Cristobal is one of six towns the rebels seized when they launched a brief uprising on Jan. 1, 1994. The rebellion led to 12 days of fighting and left 145 people dead. While the rebels have not been a major military threat since, they have mounted a successful campaign to demand that Mexico rethink its treatment of its 10 million Indians.

The rebel march arrived in Mexico City on March 11 and stayed in the capital another 18 days while fighting to appear before Congress to lobby for an Indian rights bill. Along the way to the capital, they were given exuberant welcomes in 12 states. President Vicente Fox made several goodwill gestures, including expressing support for the bill.

Cattlemen and landowners back in Chiapas threatened last month to block their return, demanding that the government order the rebels to give back land and cattle seized during spates of violence in 1994 and 1995. But there was no sign of a protest when the rebels arrived Sunday afternoon.

Following the rally in San Cristobal, the rebels headed to the Tzotzil Indian village of Oventic, a principal Zapatista base, to begin the next phase of their movement _ sharing with all Zapatista communities the results of their efforts to rally public and congressional support for the Indian rights bill.

The bill is one of three conditions the rebels have demanded before they will re-establish peace talks with the government, which stalled in 1996.

Federal legislators initially rejected the Zapatista leaders' request to speak before the entire Congress. When the leaders threatened to leave immediately, Congress narrowly agreed to let them speak.

During their hours-long, nationally televised appearance on March 28, rebel leaders _ appearing without military Subcomandante Marcos _ announced their willingness to trade their armed movement for political activism.

Ahead of their march, Marcos turned over his pistol and automatic rifle to honor his promise that the rebels would travel unarmed. But he was expected to recuperate his weapons upon his return.

---

Bob Moses honored for activism

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406586008

NEW YORK (AP) - Longtime activist and teacher Bob Moses believes he has the key to economic success in the age of technology: encourage students to become math literate.

``You're talking about the ability to handle technical language,'' Moses said. ``If they don't get it, they're effectively sharecroppered, the modern version of sharecroppered, where they don't have access to what's driving the economic arrangement.''

Moses, 66, was honored Sunday at a conference called Civil Rights & Activism: Lessons and Perspectives Across Three Generations, held in Harlem.

``His soul is everywhere people are changing, are struggling and fighting,'' said actor Danny Glover, who is on the board of directors of the Algebra Project, which Moses founded in 1982 to promote math literacy, especially among minority students.

Moses joined the civil rights struggle in 1960, and four years later organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project to expand black voter registration. Three of the participants - James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner - were murdered the day after they arrived in Mississippi, the basis for the movie ``Mississippi Burning.''

---

Vietnamese anti-war musician dies

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 4/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=406584323

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) _ Vietnam's most beloved singer-songwriter, Trinh Cong Son, who opposed the Vietnam War and sought postwar reconciliation, has died after a long battle with diabetes, an official said Monday. He was 62.

Dubbed the ``Bob Dylan of Vietnam'' by American folk singer Joan Baez for his anti-war songs during the height of the Vietnam War, his music is still widely performed in Vietnam and in overseas Vietnamese communities.

Son, who was persecuted by the South Vietnamese government in the late 60s and early 70s, wrote more than 600 songs over his career.

``His death is a great loss for Vietnamese music,'' said Ca Le Thuan, secretary general of Ho Chi Minh City's Musician Association.

His pacifist songs about the futility of war were banned at the time, but bootleg copies made their way throughout South Vietnam and overseas.

One of his most famous songs, ``Lullaby'' (Ngu Di Con), about the pain of a mother mourning her soldier son, became a hit in Japan in 1972.

When the war ended, most of Son's family fled overseas, but he decided to stay. He was equally unpopular with the new Communist government for his songs about reconciliation and spent 10 years in forced labor ``re-education camps'' as a result.

But by the late 80s, his popularity returned, and his songs are still performed by some of Vietnam's biggest pop artists, including singer Hong Nhung.

Born in the Central Highland province of Daklak in 1939, Son spent many years in the ancient imperial capital of Hue. Trained as a teacher, Son quit his job to begin composing love songs in the late 1950s.

Son, who was admitted to Cho Ray hospital last week, slipped into a coma on Saturday and died Sunday, Thuan said.

He is to be buried Wednesday in the province of Binh Duong.

---

USA Today
04/02/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Conneticut

New Haven - Auditors and law enforcement officials are investigating questionable spending by a New Haven antipoverty agency. Documents from the Community Action Agency show that it paid nearly $700,000 for paper supplies that are unaccounted for, the New Haven Register reported. State auditors also want to know why the agency used as many as 140 checking accounts.

---

Greenpeace Activists Leave Oil Rig

Associated Press
April 2, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Oil-Rig.html

INVERNESS, Scotland (AP) -- Nine environmental activists on Monday gave up their overnight occupation of a U.S. oil exploration rig on Scotland's east coast, police said.

The activists were not detained, police said. Seventeen other members of the group Greenpeace were arrested Sunday before reaching the rig in Cromarty Firth, an inlet of the North Sea 20 miles north of Inverness.

The activists, who painted ``Oil Kills'' on the rig in big, white letters, declared their action a success because their occupation of a rig leased to the Houston-based oil giant Conoco halted its departure for a North Sea drilling operation.

They accused Conoco of contributing to global warming by not investing in environmentally friendly fuels, such as vegetable oil-based substitutes for diesel.

Conoco, which leases the rig from Aberdeen, Scotland-based Transeocean Sedco Forex, called the conduct by protesters ``dangerous and irresponsible.''

---

Activists occupy rig off Scotland

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200142211347.htm

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Police arrested 17 persons yesterday as activists from the environmental group Greenpeace occupied an oil exploration rig off northeast Scotland.

A handful of protesters managed to evade capture to set up a small shelter halfway up the structure, and appeared set to continue the occupation of the rig overnight.

Police said five men and a woman were arrested on the Drill Star platform itself, and 11 in nearby Nairn harbor.

Angry villagers protest Vatican radio

ROME - Angry Italian villagers protesting electromagnetic radiation emitted by Vatican Radio staged a colorful demonstration near St. Peter's basilica yesterday.

A few hundred people from Cesano village near the radio's transmission station north of Rome demonstrated while representatives met officials of the radio that broadcasts papal events and speeches worldwide in some 40 languages.

Protesters blame the radio's transmission waves for a relatively high incidence of leukemia among children living near the antennae, a charge Vatican Radio forcefully denies.

---

No amendment against offense

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
Nat Hentoff
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010402-123181.htm

For more than 10 years, there has grown a contempt by many college students for free speech and press on campus. In a lead letter in the March 23 New York Times, Abraham Foxman national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and a friend of mine surprised me by sounding very much like these students who resoundingly attack offending articles in college papers as "bigoted" and "racist."

Mr. Foxman´s letter was about the controversial advertisement that conservative David Horowitz tried to place in a large number of college newspapers. The headline of the advertisement read "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea and Racist Too."

As of this writing, 32 college papers have refused to run the ad, and three of the few papers that published it have abjectly apologized. A Brown University newspaper did print the Horowitz ad, and Mr. Foxman accuses the paper of complicity in Mr. Horowitz´s alleged act of fomenting racism and hate.

First, although the ad offended many students, there is as yet no constitutional amendment protecting Americans from being offended. Second, the ad is neither bigoted nor racist. It´s part of a continuing debate. And to call Mr. Horowitz a racist is to cheapen the word and diminish its moral clout. Mr. Horowitz himself cheapens the word by describing the argument for reparations as racist. In criticizing the Brown student newspaper, Abraham Foxman ignores the fact that in the interest of encouraging a free exchange of ideas which is what colleges are for the Brown Daily Herald gave the students protesting the ad a free page of advertising to refute it, and donated the $750 the Herald received from Mr. Horowitz to the Third World Student Coalition. Moreover, the paper enlarged its space for opinion articles on the subject.

Mr. Foxman also neglected to report that some of the offended Brown students stole 4,000 copies of the edition of the Herald that had the ad in it. And student critics at the University of California at Berkeley home of the Free Speech Movement in 1964 stole copies of the Daily Californian, a campus newspaper that ran the ad. The editor of that paper, yielding to pressure, has since apologized for running this inflammatory and inappropriate ad.

The editor of the Harvard Crimson, which like any newspaper, on or off campus has the right to reject any ad, gave as his reason for refusing Mr. Horowitz´s that it would have aggravated the Crimson´s readers. And in New York, the editor of the Columbia Spectator, which also rejected the ad, said "I don´t think it´s the newspaper´s responsibility to create an atmosphere of free speech on campus. It´s not our power."

But his newspaper did exercise its power to constrict campus debate on reparations. Leon Botstein, president of Bard College in New York, commented on the climate for a diversity of ideas on college campuses in a letter to the New York Times. "We say we believe in dissent, but we actually do not practice it well."

Many students react to ideas they don´t like as though they were apprentice members of the Chinese Politburo. And a dismaying number of college professors and administrators remain silent as subversive newspapers are stolen, trashed and sometimes made into celebratory bonfires. The destruction of dissenting newspapers is in the tradition of pro-slavery mobs attacking abolitionist papers as demonstrated in Michael Kent Curtis´ new book, "Free Speech" (Duke University Press, 2000).

At the University of Wisconsin, the independent Badger Herald printed the Horowitz ad. Its editor and reporters were confronted by crowds of yelling students accusing them of spreading racist propaganda. The Badger Herald erred only in refusing to run an ad by the outraged Multicultural Student Coalition accusing the Badger Herald itself of chronic racism. Why not run it and answer it? That would have been a consistent First Amendment manifesto.

I asked John Nichols, editorial page editor of The Capitol Times in Madison, Wis., where the Badger Herald is being besieged, whether any professors had spoken in support of the student paper´s courage in wielding the excalibur of the First Amendment.

Mr. Nichols told me he didn´t know of any such brave professors. What about the law school? I asked. "Oh, we have some First Amendment experts there," Mr. Nichols said, "but no one said anything."

When the anti-free speech hordes arise, too many faculty members and administrators fear being called racists or bigots. Their silent cowardice further encourages students to forget that as Justice William Brennan of the Supreme Court told me it is from the First Amendment and its spirit of free speech and a free press that all our other liberties flow. From the students of today will come the teachers, lawyers, journalists and other influential citizens of the future. That is scary.

Nat Hentoff is a columnist for The Washington Times. His column runs on Mondays.

---

Review of book on bestiality earns Polly

Washington Times
April 2, 2001
By Andrea Billups THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200142231846.htm

Peter Singer, the Princeton University professor whose research has outraged right-to-life supporters and activists for the disabled, continues to engage in eyebrow-raising scholarship.

Some of the Australian-born bioethicist's latest writing appears on a soft-pornography Web site where he defends the findings of a new book on bestiality.

For this, Mr. Singer and his employer, Princeton University, have taken top honors in the fourth annual Polly Awards, bestowed by the Wilmington, Del.-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute for outrageous examples of political correctness on the nation's college campuses.

Students around the nation are invited each year to nominate the most flagrant episodes of PC run amok. This year they did not disappoint, said ISI Communications Director Winfield Myers.

Mr. Singer's contention that euthanasia may be appropriate for the terminally ill and certain severely disabled infants, if it eliminates suffering, has been publicly documented in his writings. But Mr. Myers said he wonders if Princeton President Harold Shapiro has any knowledge of "the wilds of Singer's imagination."

With the bestiality book review, posted on the Web site Nerve.com, "Mr. Singer carries his campaign against human dignity to a new low," said ISI officials in explaining the rationale for their top prize.

Mr. Singer "writes that our physical similarities with other mammals - mostly genital - are so strong that the taboo on bestiality stems not from physical differences but from our desire to differentiate ourselves, erotically and in every other way, from animals," ISI officials said.

In his piece on Midas Dekkers' "Dearest Pet: On Bestiality," Mr. Singer writes, "Who has not been at a social occasion disrupted by the household dog gripping the legs of a visitor and vigorously rubbing its penis against them? In private not everyone objects to being used by her or his dog in this way, and occasionally mutually satisfying activities may develop."

ISI officials think Mr. Singer's titillating musings, while protected under the cloak of academic freedom, hurt the reputation of the Ivy League school.

"Princeton is a trend-setting university with a hallowed history, but when its top ethicist smiles on bestiality, we vote no confidence in its leadership or moral vision," Mr. Myers said.

Other 2001 Polly winners include:

• University of Oregon: A student chapter of the Animal Liberation Front, which has offices on campus, publishes a newspaper, the Insurgent, paid for with student fees.

In the Dec. 8 edition, the paper included an eight-page insert that included a detailed guide on "economic sabotage" geared at liberating laboratory research animals through vandalism and arson. The guide also included the names and home addresses of research professors who do animal research. One professor has threatened to sue the university. But so far, administrators have taken no punitive action against the Liberation Front.

"First, you may want to decide what kind of establishment you want to target, a fur shop, a butcher shop, a factory farm or slaughterhouse, or maybe a fast food restaurant?" said the insert, which included detailed instructions on gluing locks, vandalizing vehicles, clogging toilets and arson.

"As dangerous as arson is, it is also by far the most potent weapon of direct action," the Insurgent told students, offering directions on "a simple way to burn a vehicle" and not get injured.

• State University of New York at Albany: The school is home to New York State's first college-funded S&M club, the Power Exchange. It was founded by two students with no objections from the administration, ISI official said.

The club is supported by student government funds, taken from student fees.

• Temple University: Temple student Michael Marcavage protested against a theatrical depiction of Jesus as a homosexual in a campus play called "Corpus Christi." Outraged, he complained to university officials and asked to put on his own dramatic counterproduction based on traditional Christian teachings.

When he later met with administrators and learned they were canceling his play for reasons that are under dispute, Mr. Marcavage became upset. In a lawsuit against Temple, he claims that when he tried to leave the meeting he was handcuffed and taken to the Temple University Hospital psychiatric ward, where doctors later said there was no medical reason to detain him.

• A tie between Villanova University and the University of California at Berkeley:

At Villanova, officials refused to pay expenses for National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston after the Villanova Times, the conservative student newspaper, brought him to the Philadelphia-area school to speak. University officials thought Mr. Heston was "too controversial," said the Times' editor, Chris Lillick.

Mr. Heston waived his speaking fees. But university officials called on the paper to pay for extra security for protesters who were expected from the school's Center for Peace and Justice. The center is also supported by school funds.

At Berkeley, "censorship took a more sinister form," ISI said.

After the school's main student newspaper, the Daily Californian, ran author David Horowitz's ad, "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea and Racist, Too," students protested and stormed the paper's offices. The protesters also demanded an apology from the paper's editors and stole all the remaining newspapers from campus racks.

Officials at ISI said the newspaper quickly caved in to the "radicals' " demands, publishing a formal apology that said the ad was full of "incorrect and blatantly inflammatory content." Editors at the paper also declined to file an official theft report with campus police.

------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)

------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!