------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
Scientists Want Nuclear Arsenal Cut
nukes in the netherlands
Australia probes reports of nuclear tests on babies
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display
Boeing Wins Air Force Contracts
Use of Depleted Uranium in the Balkans War
Suspected use of Depleted Uranium in smart bomb and missile systems
The Need for Cooperation With Europe
Today In History - June 5
'Assessment of build-up in China correct'
Japanese foreign minister is displeased with U.S. ties
No Payment for N. Korea
North Korea Threatens to Pull Out of Missile Pacts
North Korea Refuses to Stop Arms Exports, Delegation Says
More pins prick Bush's missile defense
Bush mission to convince Europe on NMD
Airborne Laser
Russia Warns U.S. On Missile Pact
ARE DOE CONTRACTORS PAID ENOUGH?
MAINE YANKEE NUCLEAR PLANT WILL SURVEY FOR RADIATION
Why not kill Yucca?
U.S. Sets Safety Rules for Yucca Nuclear Waste Site
CIA's Tenet Will Again Go to Mideast
Pit Viper takes bite out of worker radiation exposures
MILITARY
A Historian of War Ponders Peace
Opposition: Captures Afghan District
U.S. to resume limited military links with China
China Says War Games Are Routine
Chinese navy runs emergency deployment drill
Colombia Prisoner Swap Begins
Co. in Missions Has Iran Contra Past
Iran's Presidential Candidates
Putin Ally Heads for Iraq for Saddam Talks
Rumsfeld: Chinese aided Iraq's threat
Anti-Israel bias in Europe
Puerto Rico's Gov.: Bombing Must Stop
Kremlin acknowledges Chechen disappearances
Satellite Industry Resists Helping Military Industry
Kuchma Assures Rumsfeld on Democracy
U.S. Defense Chief Visits Balkans
OTHER
Glowing in the Wind
Survey Finds Support for Electricity Price Caps
OPEC Will Make Up for Oil Shortage
California Residents Answer State's Call To Cut Power Use
China Warns of Environmental Dangers
3 Fake Drugs Are Found in Pharmacies
Audit: Defense Sites Track Visitors
ACTIVISTS
Bill Moyers Reports: Earth On Edge
WEAPONS IN SPACE
UK CANDIDATE REFUSED ACCESS TO OFFICIAL VOTE COUNT
In Hong Kong, Tiananmen Square memories fade
Protesters kept at a distance; three arrested
-------- NUCLEAR
Scientists Want Nuclear Arsenal Cut
By Barry Schweid
AP Diplomatic Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; 6:03 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010605/aponline180301_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- As President Bush prepares for summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 16 American scientists and security experts are urging him to sharply reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to a total of 1,000 warheads.
The proposal, in a report released Tuesday, would amount to a cut of more than 90 percent of the roughly 10,500 nuclear warheads in the American arsenal for potential use against Russia and other countries.
The cutback, urged by the Federation of American Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists, would include the elimination of 1,670 tactical nuclear warheads that remained after former President George H.W. Bush deactivated almost all the weapons in the category in 1991.
The tactical nuclear warheads that remain are kept at Air Force bases in New Mexico and Nevada, on cruise missiles at Navy bases in Washington and Georgia, and in a few NATO countries.
The weapons are not needed to defend Europe - strategic nuclear weapons do the job - and they could be stolen or fall into unauthorized hands, the report said.
Bush, due to see Putin on June 16 in Slovenia, has said he is prepared to sharply reduce U.S. nuclear weapons while making plans for an anti-missile defense.
The scientists and security experts would cut back much further and are skeptical of Bush's plan for an anti-missile shield.
Deployment of a national missile defense would undermine Russia's confidence that it could retaliate quickly if the United States attacked, the report said. Russia would need to maintain its readiness for quick launch of its long-range nuclear weapons. And China, the scientists and security experts said, would likely respond by increasing its nuclear forces, possibly tenfold.
Bush has not decided on the kind of anti-missile program he would build. An administration review of options is underway.
At a news conference Tuesday, Richard L. Garwin of the Council on Foreign Relations said deploying a few interceptors near Grand Forks, N.D., or in Turkey as a shield against attack from Iran, might enhance U.S. security.
Tom Collina, director of global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the ultimate goal of the three groups is the prohibition of nuclear weapons. The report's 10-year plan, Collina said, is a step in that direction.
On the Net:
Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/
Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/index.html
--------
help us!! against nukes in the netherlands
Tue, 5 Jun 2001 wiseamster@antenna.nl
Dear all,
We need your creative and fast support for the following.
The Netherlands has one nuclear power plant, called Borssele, that is still operational. Due to strong pressure from the environmental movement the Dutch government decided in 1994 that Borssele has to close down before 2004. However, the owners of the NPP are challenging this decision as they argue that their license is valid beyond 2004. On June 22nd, there will be a courtcase between the owners (EPZ, Essent, Delta) and the Dutch government about this. WISE, Greenpeace and Stop Borssele (the local group who has been fighting the plant in the last 22 years) will organise an event on the morning of the courtcase, demanding that the NPP will be closed down NOW, and not in 2004, and certainly not later than that!
Part of the manifestation will be an international banner and we would like you to participate in it! We would be very happy if you could contribute an A1-sized (118 cm. wide, 83 cm. high) piece of cloth on which you express your concern about this, in your own language, in your own words and drawings. You could do this as an organisation (preferably) or as an individual. Think of something like 'Stop Borssele NOW', close it down now, phase out now, or any other lines against nuclear power.
We think this issue has international relevance, as for the Netherlands it is so easy to phase out nukes so if we don't make it how can we expect other countries to do so! Especially with the current 'political winds' tendency to favour nukes, not only in the US but also in Europe, we think it is very important to raise our voices internationally and together.
Of course we need to receive your contribution very soon. It needs to be in our office by Thursday 21 June at the latest. So please take out your pencils, brushes and paint (remember: it rains quite often in the Netherlands so do not use something that becomes messy after a few raindrops) as soon as possible and mail us your part of the banner. If you are going to send us something please confirm by sending us an e-mail so that we know in advance how many cloths we can expect.
Contact us if you would need more background information
Hope to hear from you soon. No Nukes, not in the Netherlands, nor anywhere else!
WISE Amsterdam
(this request could reach you via the Greenpeace wires aswell - most likely in other wordings. Be sure we work together and let any of us know about your contribution. We will send pictures to everyone who helps us!)
-------- australia
Australia probes reports of nuclear tests on babies
Tuesday, June 5, 2001
By Reuters
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/06/06052001/reu_babies_43895.asp
Australian Broadcasting: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-5jun2001-32.htm
CANBERRA, June 5 - Australia launched an investigation on Tuesday into reports that the bodies of Australian babies were sent to the United States for use in nuclear energy experiments in the 1950s and 1960s.
Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said he was not aware of an alleged operation in which the babies' bodies were shipped overseas for research purposes without their parents' permission.
British newspapers this week that the bodies of stillborn babies and infants were snatched from Australian hospitals for use in U.S. Department of Energy tests to monitor radioactivity levels of the element Strontium 90.
"Project Sunshine," the reports said, began in 1955 when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was awarded a Nobel prize for his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, to test atomic bomb fallout.
The reports said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South America over 15 years without the permission of parents.
"Obviously the information that has come to light is very disturbing and the minister has asked his department for information," a spokesman for Wooldridge told Reuters.
He said the minister was seeking hospital records from that era from the relevant health authorities in Australia's six states and two territories.
This was the second report of humans being used in nuclear tests to emerge in Australia in the past month.
Australia last month raised allegations its troops were used as human guinea pigs during British atom bomb tests in the 1950s to test protective clothing in low-radiation nuclear tests at Maralinga in the South Australian outback.
Britain told the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no humans had ever been experimented on during its atom bomb tests, but documents unearthed in Australia's National Archives by a Scottish researcher contradicted this.
----
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-5jun2001-57.htm
Details of plans to build a replacement nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney's south go on public display today and mark the start of a 12 month assessment process.
The lengthy series of documents, including a safety analysis report, will be examined by the regulator the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) before any decision is made on the future of the reactor.
The plans include information on the building, which will contain the reactor, analysis of any possible accidents and information on temporary storage facilities.
Dr John Loy from ARPANSA says the plans even detail what the operators will do to protect the Lucas Heights reactor against a light airplane crash.
"They have in fact put a safety net around the reactor building to strengthen it defences against aircraft crash that's a bit unexpected," he said.
"That's a pretty superficial thing and I think otherwise we would see what they have done as being a professional approach of reactor design and analysis of its safety."
-------- business
Boeing Wins Air Force Contracts
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; 11:07 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010605/aponline110718_000.htm
ST. LOUIS -- Just a day after avoiding a strike at its St. Louis division, Boeing Co. won two major contracts from the Air Force.
Boeing said Monday that that it will modernize the cockpit avionics systems in 500 C-130 Hercules transport planes. The $4 billion contract awaits final Pentagon approval. The planes each would be equipped with six digital displays and a Boeing 737-style flight management system.
Boeing also said it landed a $335 million contract to upgrade F/A-18 Hornets recently sold to Switzerland.
The work for the C-130 contract would be performed at the Boeing Aerospace Support Center in San Antonio, as well as by the Air Force at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia and the Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah. The work would begin in 2004 and take 10 years.
The C-130s are built by Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Ga., but Boeing was told by the Air Force on Monday that it was selected in open competition to update the 500 planes in Air Force service.
Executives said Boeing beat out Lockheed and two other competitors.
The other contract comes because Swiss authorities want to update the 35 St. Louis-built Hornets delivered to Switzerland from 1995 to 1999. The improvements include upgrading the plane's ability to identify other aircraft as friend or foe while also improving the moving color map display in the cockpit.
Those kits will be supplied to Boeing by its subcontractors or by the U.S. government, and Boeing will oversee the Swiss installation of the kits on the planes, Boeing spokeswoman Ellen LeMond-Holman said.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to help our Swiss customer enhance the capability of their F/A-18 fleet," she said.
It also raises the prospect that the Swiss might eventually be interested in buying the more advanced version of the Hornet, known as the Super Hornet, LeMond-Holman said.
On Sunday, workers at Boeing's Military Aircraft and Missile Systems division in St. Louis accepted the company's second contract offer. That came two weeks after rejecting the initial proposal and authorizing a strike. That strike could have begun at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Five years ago, Swiss officials sharply criticized St. Louis aerospace workers who had gone on strike. The Machinists union members were then employed by McDonnell Douglas, which was bought by Boeing a year later.
-------- depleted uranium
Use of Depleted Uranium in the Balkans War:
Will the UNEP report include "Dirty" DU and missile targets?
Written 13 March 2001, updated 5 June 2001
From: "Dai Williams" <eosuk@btinternet.com>
The questions in this paper arose from suspected use of Depleted Uranium (DU) as the "dense metal" involved in warheads of a range of smart bomb and missile systems listed in an earlier message "Tip of the DU iceberg?". The UNEP report confirmed the presence of additional isotopes in DU arising from recycling nuclear reactor rods - "Dirty DU". Earlier statements on the "safety" of DU were based on the relatively "benign" characteristics of pure U238. Since the UNEP report several scientific comments have minimised the health hazards of these other materials e.g. Plutonium on the basis of their low concentration in DU. However if DU was used in far larger munitions than 30 mm shells in the Balkans and in locations not inspected by UNEP then the total scale of radioactive contamination in the Balkans war may be far higher than the UNEP study reported. These questions are also significant for current and future environmental and health studies in other conflict zones including Iraq and possibly Israel.
Dai Williams, DU researcher, UK
========
The international debate about hazards of DU munitions poses a problem for the US, UK and other governments (and munitions manufacturer) with a high investment in DU weapons systems. Expert denials have been used to reduce public concern about hazards of DU weapons.
The UNEP report on its brief study of 11 DU target zones in the Balkans due out today (13th March 2001) may raise more concerns, or may come to similar conclusions as the recent EU expert report that supported current US and UK government positions.
The following assessment based on current Internet sources (mainly Jane's defence website) re-visits concerns that began during the Balkans war. Newly located information raises some very serious questions that may or may not be covered in the UNEP report.
Contaminated (or 'Dirty') DU
The preliminary UNEP report already provided important new clues to the potential hazards of DU - the "Dirty DU" issue. The first lead to this was their location of DU by use of Beta and Gamma detectors (pure DU emits Alphas radiation). This was explained by an interim analysis indicating contamination with fission products that could only come from recycled uranium from reactor rods - U236 and Plutonium. This possibility was picked up by the Military Toxics Project in 1999 but UNEP's study was the first report of this in a DU target zone. US Government analyses suggest percentages are very small and present "minimal risks" to troops and civilians. However it seems possible that older US stocks of DU munitions e.g. used in the Middle East and Bosnia, and those manufactured by other governments e.g. Russia, the UK and Israel may have had minimal quality control for this contamination.
This issue suggests that earlier DU target zones may have contained significant levels of contamination by highly radioactive isotopes in addition to pure DU (U238). Expert and government denials of DU risks based on Alpha radiation hazards only are invalid for "cocktails" of multiple radioactive substances. Theoretically they might have some validity for pure U238. Practically and ethically they have been misleading by error or deliberate omission.
Other Internet sources indicate that other toxic materials like Beryllium may also be used in some DU munitions. This requires a complete toxicological assay of munitions and target zones - not only for Uranium elements and isotopes. These secondary substances, even in small traces, need to be considered in all future further epidemiological studies of suspected DU exposure. Any reference to these or similar materials in the UNEP analyses could be very important.
Use of DU in missiles
In 1999 Nato spokesmen denied that DU was used in cruise missiles in the Balkans War. Reports that DU had been used in some Tomahawk cruise missiles were discounted on the basis that it was only used as dummy warhead ballast in tests of nuclear versions.
After these enquiries and denials about the possible use of DU in missiles dropped out of subsequent discussions on the Internet (e.g. DU list) and in the media.
However the following points concern me:
Lost DU
Several countries in the Balkans region reported increased levels of airborne radioactivity during the Balkans air war in April-May 1999. For sufficient quantities to be detected over hundreds of miles suggests there must have been significant quantities at source.
These observations seem inconsistent with government, Nato statements and the latest EU Commission Report that radiation levels and hazards in DU target zones in the Balkans were minimal. Will the UNEP studies indicate sufficient ground radiation levels to explain wide dispersion of radioactive dust in the region? If not where did the increases in airborne radiation come from in spring 1999?
One explanation for could be that DU was not only used in 30mm shells armour piercing shells as Nato claims but also in missiles. This might account for a substantial tonnage of "lost DU".
Other missile systems
Enquiries to governments about use of DU in missiles need to cover weapon systems involved - not restricted to Tomahawks.
A recent Internet investigation indicated that in 1996 Boeing started to convert nuclear armed AGM-86B missiles to conventional (i.e. non-nuclear) versions re-named CALCM (Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles) - AGM-86C.
One version of these - the AGM-86D - uses an "advanced penetrating warhead to quickly provide theater commanders with a long range weapon to precisely attack an enemy's most valuable facilities." (source Jane's website and Boeing via: http://www.defence-discovery.com and search for "Defeat of High Value Targets". See also Boeing CALCM AGM-86C).
In the USA in1998 Lockheed Martin developed an Advanced Unitary Penetrator (AUP-3M).
In the UK British Aerospace Royal Ordnance developed a penetrating warhead system known as BROACH/Multiple Warhead System (MWS). In May 1998 ground tests in Wales indicated that this could penetrate a 12-foot thick concrete target. It was selected for US AGM-86 systems.
Both warhead systems were under competitive evaluation in 1998-99 to win contracts for re-equipping AGM-86 systems. In December 1998 Operation Desert Fox was an ideal opportunity to test these systems in combat. The Balkans war presented many more opportunities in April-May 1999.
High penetration of targets requires high kinetic energy munitions i.e. made of high- density materials. DU and Tungsten are the most commonly referred to materials in reports on kinetic energy munitions. DU has three advantages over Tungsten: easy availability, far lower cost (it is a waste product of nuclear processing) and its pyrophoric quality that makes it an effective incendiary as well as high penetration material.
BROACH warheads weigh approximately 400 kilograms of which 90 are explosives. After control systems this leaves 150+ kilos of penetrating material. If this is DU (clean or dirty) it would create a far higher volume of Uranium oxide dust than A10 anti-tank attacks. Just 20 missiles would match the total quantity of 10,000 GAU-8/A 30mm armour piercing shells that the US admitted to using in the Balkans war (the DU penetrators in these shells weigh just under 0.3 kilograms). Since deep penetration missile warheads also contain explosive charges the likelihood that DU would oxidise is likely to be higher than the percentage of 30mm shells fired that hit hard targets and burned into DU oxide dust.
It seems likely that the AGM-86D system was tested in attacks on command bunkers during Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. Photographs showed that occupants were incinerated suggesting incendiary as well as blast effects.
The map of DU targets in the Balkans war shows a high concentration on the Kosovo - Albanian border. This area is reported to have many deep bunkers built during Tito's regime. If Serb forces used these bunkers they would have been regarded as strategic targets, hence justifying high penetration cruise missile attacks. Even if they were unoccupied they would have been ideal targets for combat testing of the new AGM-86D systems.
If cruise missiles did use DU then the tonnage of DU pollution in parts of the Balkans may be far higher than that declared so far by Nato. And the UNEP team may have been directed away from the most heavily contaminated DU target zones.
Questions to ask the US Government:
How many AGM-86C or D missiles were fired in the Balkans air war in 1999? How many of these were equipped with high penetration warheads? (BROACH, AUP-3M or other). Which and how many sea-launched missile systems used deep penetration warheads? How many of any high penetration warheads contained Depleted Uranium? What was the total tonnage of DU munitions used during the Balkans war of ALL munitions containing DU - in addition to the 30 mm shells so far declared? What were the target locations of all air- or sea-launched cruise missiles, including strategic or system testing targets in Kosovo and Serbia?
Questions to ask UNEP, or look for in their report:
How many of the 11 sites inspected had experienced cruise missile as well as A10 attacks?
Was UNEP given the option to visit cruise missile targets?
The discovery of one or two 30 mm DU penetrators in each location indicates a need for more detailed study when resources permit. 30 mm shells are fired in bursts of 50-100 shells per attack. What happened to the rest? If the 11 sample locations did not include cruise missile targets will UNEP endeavour to do a follow up study of deep penetration cruise missile target sites as well this year?
Questions to ask the UK Government
Does the BROACH warhead system use Depleted Uranium?
Did the BROACH warhead tests in South Wales include some experiments with Depleted Uranium components?
If DU is not used in the BROACH system what high-density material is used instead?
If DU is used in the BROACH system what environmental precautions have been taken to protect staff and local communities in South Wales or any other testing location in the UK?
Where are the BROACH warheads manufactured in the UK? Have there been any accidents or incidents during their manufacture? Have these been fully investigated?
Where UK manufactured missile warheads used in Operation Desert Fox or in the Balkans war?
What is the full chemical analysis of components in the BROACH and any other UK manufactured weapon system using Depleted Uranium? i.e. what level of contamination from other radioactive or toxic elements exists?
What UK missile systems use MWS technology (BROACH or other warheads)?
Conclusions
1. In "Defeat of High Value Targets" on the Janes website "the unique advantages of MWS (multi-warhead system) technology are set to make it the preferred system for cruise missiles throughout the world." In April 1999 the US Government awarded Boeing contracts to convert 95 surplus ALCM's to CALCM's.
If DU is being used extensively in high penetration missile systems it is easier to understand the US and UK governments' strong opposition to a global ban on the use of DU in weapons systems. Armour piercing shells can use tungsten as a substitute - as in the Phalanx naval gun system. But deep penetration cruise missiles are of major tactical importance. They would be very reluctant to loose this capability.
2. If DU has been used in cruise missile systems in the Middle East or Balkans wars they may added significantly to the tonnage of DU oxide in the atmosphere around target zones - and hence radiation exposure to troops and civilians.
3. If questions are asked of the US, UK or other governments, or Nato, about the use of Depleted Uranium then every weapon system with high penetration or incendiary effects has to be questioned. They should not be expected to volunteer information.
4. Each military operation is an opportunity to field test new weapons systems in action. The UK Government will use the Official Secrets Act to suppress disclosure of the weapons system it is using or developing. The USA has more public disclosure of information. This information is readily available to potential arms purchasers and the public through Internet information services like Janes. The UK Government's use of the Official Secrets Act to conceal use of controversial weapons systems including Depleted Uranium has to be questioned in the public interest.
5. Tactically and economically DU weapons have many advantages for military purposes, and to reduce nuclear waste stockpiles. It is understandable why they wish to retain the option to use DU munitions.
6. In humanitarian and environmental terms I am deeply sceptical about the completeness and sponsorship of scientific research claiming that DU oxides - alone or in combination with agents - pose no risk to human health.
7. Whether or not our countries should be armed with DU munitions should be a matter for Parliaments, not the military to decide. To make these decisions the public must have full access to the scale of testing, hazards and combat use of DU munitions.
8. If DU has also been used in missile systems in conflicts in the Middle East and Balkans then concealing its use will have put additional people at risk in each target location.
9. The new generation of MSW deep-penetration warheads was only in its trial period during the Balkans war. How many of the world's current stocks of cruise missiles are equipped with depleted uranium warheads? And how many countries have the US and UK exported these systems to?
Other DU researchers may have answers to some of these questions. I look forward to the UNEP report but suspect that the UNEP team did not have all the information they needed to do a full evaluation of DU use in the Balkans war. 30 mm anti-tank shells may be only the tip of the DU iceberg. If we ask the wrong questions we get the wrong answers.
======
Footnote:
The final UNEP report indicated low levels of DU contamination on the sites visited and remarkably few 30 mm penetrators. One subsequent report suggests that KFOR troops had partially cleaned up these locations before they were disclosed to UNEP for inspection.
However if DU was used in some cruise missile and smart bomb systems in the Balkans war these would have involved quite different locations, including locations in Serbia as well as Kosovo.
Full disclosure on the nature of the "dense metal" used in any weapons system in the Balkans war is needed to re-evaluate targets zones involved, communities at risk and potentially wider geographic dispersal of DU oxide dust.
Earlier enquiries about the use of DU in bomb and missile systems met official denials. Current data suggests that earlier systems need review for potential DU content and that pre-Balkans War conflict zones - at least since the Gulf War - may need re-evaluation for the levels of DU contamination involved and subsequent exposure risks to civilians and troops.
This paper and "Tip of the Iceberg" were forwarded to UNEP in March. No reply was received. Further investigation and wider public discussion are required.
DW
5 June 2001.
----
Tip of the Iceberg? - suspected use of Depleted Uranium in smart bomb and missile systems
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 09:30:42 +0100
From: "Dai Williams" <eosuk@btinternet.com>
The following information (direct quotes from Internet sources) suggests that Depleted Uranium (DU) may have been in much wider use since 1998 that previously thought. If DU is the "dense metal" referred to it has radical implications for the total tonnage of DU used in the Balkans war and the location of DU contaminated targets in Kosovo and Serbia. This would invalidate the UNEP studies of DU target zones in the Balkans and increase the hazards faced by local communities, Nato and KFOR troops in the vicinity of bomb and missile targets. The nature of the weapons systems involved would involve far wider atmospheric dispersion of DU oxide than from the 30 mm anti-tank shell targets inspected by UNEP. "Dense metal" may have been used for its enhanced penetration effect in earlier versions of some of these systems. A review is needed of the materials specifications of all bomb and missile systems in use since 1990 and used in earlier conflicts.
The "dense metal" referred to will be known by manufacturers and Government departments so it should be fairly easy for elected representatives in Nato countries to establish the facts. Although the systems described or proposed are mainly from the US inventory including components supplied by UK manufacturers similar technology is likely to be under development by weapons manufacturers in other countries. These questions could have profound implications for international control of the proliferation of Depleted Uranium weapons systems. They may explain the reluctance of the US and UK Governments to consider a global ban on DU munitions. They are offered to DU List subscribers for comment and clarification.
Dai Williams, DU researcher, UK.
===============================================================
Extracts from Janes' Defence website
DU is a heavy metal that, when alloyed with titanium (up to 0.75% by weight), becomes a material with a density (18,600kg/m3) and ductility suited to making penetrators for kinetic energy anti-tank munitions, or liners for shaped-charge warheads.
During the Balkans operations from 1992 to 1996, only the US Air Force acknowledges its use in some of its 30mm cannon shells fired from the GAU-8A cannon. It is true that some guided weapons used depleted uranium to increase the penetration effect and that the 20mm Phalanx close-in weapon system, used to protect warships at sea from sea-skimming missiles, also has a percentage of DU rounds.
http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdw/jdw010108_1_n.shtml
Questions
Which of the following systems use Depleted Uranium as the "dense metal" referred to?
How many of these system concepts have been produced in prototype or production form?
How many of these systems or their derivatives have been used in military operations since Operation Desert Storm?
How many countries have stocks of these systems?
--
High penetration weapon system concepts / plans (including "dense metal" penetrators)
[Air Force Mission Area Plan (MAP)]
ANNEX F Common Solution/Concept List (U) [as of 11 July 1997 - Rev 10] Extracts from:
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/usaf/docs/mast/annex_f/part26.htm
WPNS104 -- 20,000 Pound Direct Strike hard Target Weapon
DESCRIPTION: This concept is a 20,000 lb. class precision guided, adverse weather, direct attack bomb employed on the B-52 and B-2 aircraft. It will make use of the GCU developed by the JDAM program which uses GPS aided INS for adverse weather guidance. Precision accuracy will be attained by using differential GPS (DGPS) technology demonstrated on programs such as Enhanced Differential GPS for Guidance Enhancement (EDGE) and Miniature Munition Technology Demonstration (MMTD). The weapon will make use of the JDAM interface under development for the B-52 and B-2 aircraft and would be carried internally using new suspension hardware within the bay. The warhead will be a 20,000 lb. penetrator with dense metal ballast. This concept uses the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF), an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS113 -- 2250 lb Boosted Penetrator
DESCRIPTION: The boosted penetrator is based on achieving maximum penetration without sacrificing operational flexibility. Total system weight will be less than 2,250 pounds so that it can be carried by all AF tactical aircraft and bombers as well as the Navy's F/A-18. The goal is to achieve greater penetration than the GBU-28 with a near term, affordable design. A dense metal warhead will be used with a wraparound rocket motor to allow internal carriage in the F-117. Advanced explosives will be used to compensate for the reduced charge weight. This concept integrates the boosted penetrator warhead with a JDAM guidance kit with an adverse weather Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). JDAM utilizes a GPS aided INS packaged in a tailkit for accurate navigation and guidance in adverse weather and other battlefield obscurants. The SAR seeker mitigates target location errors and GPS errors improving overall system accuracy. Employing the seeker also gives JDAM a capability against the GPS jamming threat. JDAM is an autonomous direct attack weapon integrated on F-16 C/D, F/A-18 C/D, B-52, F-117, and B-2 aircraft with plans for integration on F-15E and B-1. It is capable of inflight (in route to target area) retargeting and engagement of both horizontal and vertical targets. This concept uses the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF), an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS114 -- 1000 lb Dense or Ballasted Penetrator in GBU-32
DESCRIPTION: This concept is a 1000 pound dense or ballasted penetrator integrated with a GBU-32 guidance kit using compressed carriage for internal carriage in advanced fighters (F-22, JSF) or carriage in cruise missiles (JASSM, CALCM, ACM, ATACMS, Tomahawk.) The warhead would either be designed with a dense metal case or contain dense metal ballast for maximum penetration. The warhead will be filled with an advanced insensitive explosive to compensate for the reduced charge weight. The warhead will be integrated with the GBU-32, the JDAM tail kit for 1,000 lb class warheads. JDAM utilizes a GPS aided INS packaged in a tailkit for accurate navigation and guidance in adverse weather and other battlefield obscurants, day or night operations. JDAM is capable of inflight (in route to target area) retargeting and engagement of both horizontal and vertical targets. This weapon is designed for internal carriage on the F-22. It is also compatible with the following aircraft: F-15E, F-16, F-117, JSF, B-1, B-2, B-52H, F-14, F/A-18, S3, P3, AV-8B. This concept uses the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF), an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS115 -- 1000 lb Penetrator with Precursor in GBU-32
DESCRIPTION: This concept is a 1000 pound multistage warhead involving two shaped charges with a follow through penetrator warhead. The warhead will be integrated with the GBU-32, the JDAM tail kit for 1,000 lb. class warheads. JDAM utilizes a GPS aided INS packaged in a tailkit for accurate navigation and guidance in adverse weather and other battlefield obscurants, day or night operations. JDAM is capable of inflight (in route to target area) retargeting and engagement of both horizontal and vertical targets. This weapon is designed for internal carriage on the F-22. It is also compatible with the following aircraft: F-15E, F-16, F-117, JSF, B-1, B-2, B-52H, F-14, F/A-18, S3, P3, AV-8B. This concept uses the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF), an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS158 -- LODIS/SWAK/DASSL/Boosted Penetrator
DESCRIPTION: The High Leverage Munitions (HLM) concepts are a class of next generation weapons designed to efficiently package small, highly lethal mini missiles of the future. They employ direct dispense technology being developed under WL/MN Low Cost Dispensing (LODIS) program as a means of high density loadouts for both internal and external carriage. This low observable/low drag container is capable of incremental or salvo dispensing and has virtual interface capability. Air bags are used to eject the mini missiles. The dispenser serves as a shipping/stores container. Electrical interface to the mini missiles is made via a single 1553 bus. This concept integrates Small Smart Bombs with LODIS for attacking fixed targets. The Small Smart Bomb is a 250 pound weapon that has the same penetration capabilities as a 2000lb BLU-109, but with only 50 pounds of explosive. With the INS/GPS guidance in conjunction with differential GPS (using all 12 channel receivers, instead of only 5) corrections provided by GPS SPO Accuracy Improvement Initiative (AII) and improved Target Location Error (TLE), it can achieve a 5-8m CEP. The submunition, with a smart fuze, has been extensively tested against multi-layered targets by Wright Laboratory under the Hard Target Ordnance Program and Miniature Munitions Technology Program. The length to diameter ratio and nose shape are designed to optimize penetration for a 50lb charge. This weapon is also a potential payload for standoff carrier vehicles such as Tomahawk, JSOW, JASSM, Conventional ICBM, etc. This concept upgrades the SSB to add a low cost solid state LADAR (LASER RADAR), which is a terminal, autonomous seeker that is used in the guidance near the end of flight in order to take out the Target Location Error. This seeker is based on the Wright Lab Demonstration of Advanced Solid State LADAR (DASSL) program. The LADAR will provide a three dimensional image of the target. Coupled with INS/GPS during the midcourse guidance, this terminal seeker can reduce the CEP to <3m. This concept incorporates a solid rocket motor to increase the impact velocity of the SSB which will result in increased penetration performance. Two designs are under investigation; one with an inline motor and the other with a wrap around rocket motor to minimize total weapon length. The inline design was extensively tested against multi-layered targets during WL Hard Target Ordnance Program.
WPNS169 -- JASSM P3I Penetrator
DESCRIPTION: This concept is a P3I to the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) to replace the baseline warhead with an advanced penetrator that meets or exceeds the objective penetration requirement specified in the JASSM Operational Requirements Document (ORD) and to add a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) seeker for adverse weather precision attack capability. JASSM is the next generation cruise missile to destroy the enemies war-sustaining capabilities outside the ranges of the area air defenses. The Standoff capability allows us to target key enemy centers of gravity without putting the warfighter in harms way, well beyond the range of current assets. The warhead concept is a 1000 pound dense or ballasted penetrator. The warhead would either be designed with a dense metal case or contain dense metal ballast for maximum penetration. The warhead will be filled with advanced insensitive explosive to compensate for the reduced charge weight. The JASSM will be compatible with the B-52, F-16, F/A-18 (threshold), B-1, B-2, F-15E, F-117, S3, P3 and JSF (objective). This concept uses the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF), an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS170--UNITARY CALCM--BLOCKII with Shaped Charge Precursor
DESCRIPTION: The Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) is a highly affordable, very long range standoff missile which is produced by modifying surplus AGM 86B, Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM). The CALCM Block I missile, currently in production, incorporates a 3000 LB Class blast fragmentation warhead and Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver for navigation. The Block I system, when launched from CONUS based B-52 aircraft is highly effective against soft, above ground targets like Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM) or radar sites. The Block II program is the Precision Strike variant of CALCM. It incorporates a penetrating warhead, updated state of the art, near-precision, GPS guidance, and a modified terminal area flight profile to maximize the effectiveness of the warhead. The penetrating warhead is augmented with two forward shape charges. To maximize the warheads effectiveness against hardened targets, the Block II will maneuver and dive onto its target in a near vertical orientation. The updated guidance system will increase the systems lethality by obtaining a less than 5 meter CEP.
The Precision Strike variant of CALCM was successfully demonstrated in December 1996. A CALCM modified with a new precision GPS implementation flew for 4.5 hours, performed a newly developed steep terminal dive, and impacted the target within 2.5 meters of the aim point. The demonstration clearly showed that CALCM is capable of delivering it's warhead with precision accuracy from extremely long standoff ranges.
A feasibility study was concluded in April 1997, in which it was determined the BROACH Warhead on CALCM would offer very significant hard target capabilities. Foreign Comparative Test (FCT) funds have been provided by DoD for a demonstration of the UK's BROACH Warhead. The FCT will conclude in early 1998.
The current Block II program is structured for EMD to begin in first quarter FY99 with missile production to commence in third quarter FY00. Total procurement is for 130 missiles.
JUSTIFICATION:
This program will provide the warfighter a hard and deeply buried target defeat capability from outside theater defenses. The Block II CALCM will be capable of holding at risk high priority assets essential to the enemy's warfighting ability. The system can prosecute these target from standoff ranges well outside theater defenses thereby ensuring deploying aircraft are not placed in harms way.
WPNS506 -- AUP 1000 pound Warhead Development
DESCRIPTION: Advanced Unitary Penetrator (AUP) is a 2000lb class penetrator warhead intended as an upgrade/replacement for the BLU-109 warhead in applications requiring increased penetration. The AUP is designed to provide increased penetration capability over the BLU-109 warhead while maintaining the same overall weight, mass properties, dimensions, and physical interfaces associated with the BLU-109. This warhead is compatible with the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF) or the Joint Programmable Fuze (JPF). The HTSF is an accelerometer based electronic fuze which allows control of the detonation point by layer counting, distance or time. The accelerometer senses G loads on the bomb due to deceleration as it penetrates through to the target. The fuze can distinguish between earth, concrete, rock and air.
WPNS510 -- JASSM w/multi-Stage Warhead, GBU-32
DESCRIPTION: Program develops the BROACH warhead for possible use on numerous platforms. BROACH is a dual stage, shaped charge with a follow through penetrator.
ANNEX F Common Solution/Concept List (U) [as of 11 July 1997 - Rev 10] http://fas.org/man/dod-101/usaf/docs/mast/annex_f/index.html
Related sources
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/index.html
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/agm-86c.htm - AGM-86C/D
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/GBU_15.html - variant BLU 109
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/AGM_65_Maverick.html - variants E/F/G/K 300 lb
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1999/news_release_991202o.htm - Boeing chooses UAP9 for AGM-86D
-------- europe
The Need for Cooperation With Europe
By MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT,
June 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/opinion/05ALBR.html?searchpv=nytToday
WASHINGTON - Later this month, President Bush will take his first official trip across the Atlantic, to attend meetings with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, the European Union and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. He can expect to encounter some disagreement, just as his secretary of state recently did. But then, Europeans disagree among themselves, and vigorously. One would have be a whirling dervish to see eye to eye with all of Europe all the time.
The main topics in Europe will be arms control, regional security policy (notably for the Balkans) and the environment. And in each case the key question will be whether, or to what degree, the Bush administration can work with our European allies.
With regard to arms control, prior presidents have relied on many tools to protect against the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction. President Clinton's strategy included deterrence, efforts to safeguard nuclear materials and expertise in the former Soviet Union, missile talks with North Korea, sanctions against countries like Iraq and Iran, increased investments in counterterrorism, and steps to develop a limited system of national missile defense.
To date, President Bush has placed primary emphasis on the single tool of national missile defense to guard against the single and somewhat narrow threat posed by missiles. In recent weeks, his envoys have been consulting their European counterparts about missile defense. I know from my own talks with European officials that many have faith in deterrence and are skeptical about the extent of the threat posed by missiles from nations like North Korea and Iran. They are concerned about the possibility that the administration's plans to deploy extensive missile defenses will prompt an arms race with China and a breakdown in cooperation with Russia.
If the administration truly wants to build a consensus on missile defense, President Bush needs to begin by resuming talks with North Korea on reasonable terms - and he should define his broader proposal in a manner that responds to emerging threats without exacerbating or reviving old ones.
During the last year of the Clinton administration, we made progress toward an arrangement with Russia under which our nuclear arsenals would be reduced and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty modified to allow defense against missiles launched by terrorists or outlaw states. Russia ultimately decided to wait for a new administration before making a deal. The world will be watching the Bush- Putin summit to see whether such a broadly beneficial arrangement can be reached, and if not, which side is responsible for the failure.
While in Europe, President Bush will also have an opportunity to define more clearly his approach to NATO and regional security. Under President Clinton, America led in enlarging the alliance and preparing it for new missions. NATO's door should remain open, and every European country that proves its ability to fulfill membership obligations should be invited to join.
The alliance must also adjust to Europe's evolving security identity. European security and NATO are no longer synonymous. The war in Kosovo exposed the deficiencies of European military forces. In response, the E.U. plans to organize and equip a 60,000-strong rapid-reaction force by 2003. A more capable Europe will mean a more capable ally and partner for America. At the same time, we must work toward effective NATO-E.U. links, a collaborative planning process and a means for ensuring E.U. consultations with Turkey and other non-E.U. NATO members.
The new European force must complement the alliance, not duplicate or compete with it. To assure this outcome, President Bush must show that he understands and supports European aspirations, while holding firm against any move that would weaken or divide NATO.
The main regional security problem remains the Balkans. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have made conflicting statements about America's continued participation in peacekeeping deployments like those in Bosnia and Kosovo. Attempting to explain, Secretary Powell recently told reporters: "Secretary Rumsfeld is always looking for opportunities to back off on some of the overseas commitments we have, and that's his job. The president wants to do that. But we have to balance it against our responsibilities."
President Bush should demonstrate clearly while in Europe that he understands the importance of the Balkans to our own interests, and that America is not looking to renege on the commitments we have made. By so doing, he will reassure our allies - who are already bearing most of the costs and risks in the region - and lend needed support to moderate forces in the Balkans.
Finally, the president should use his trip to show seriousness of purpose on the environment. The decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol dismayed many in Europe and quite a few here at home. We consume twice the energy per capita that Europeans do. America remains by far the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. If we are going to reject Kyoto, we have an obligation to lay out alternatives that are grounded in science and have a plausible chance of achieving international consensus. President Bush should present such ideas - if not during his June trip, then soon.
Since early in his presidential campaign, George W. Bush has rightly emphasized the importance to American interests of strong and cooperative ties with our allies. As I can testify from my own experience, these ties require constant tending. There are pressures on both sides of the ocean that, if not stoutly resisted, could drive us apart. But we simply cannot afford a feeling in America that we do not need Europe - or a feeling in Europe that it does not need America. We cannot journey safely through the 21st century on divergent paths.
Madeleine K. Albright was secretary of state from 1997 to 2001.
----
Today In History - June 5
The Associated Press Monday, June 4, 2001; 8:01 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010604/aponline200110_000.htm
In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as the Marshall Plan....
One year ago: President Clinton visited the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, the last stop in his weeklong European tour, where he dispensed $80 million in American aid to help entomb the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident.
-------- india / pakistan
'Assessment of build-up in China correct'
By Our Special Correspondent,
The Hindu & indiaserver.com, Inc.
Tuesday, June 05, 2001
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/06/05/stories/0205000c.htm
NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. India has rejected China's sharp reaction to its concerns of a military build-up by Beijing, saying it was a ``well considered assessment'' of the Defence Ministry.
On being asked about China's strong reaction to the Defence Ministry's annual report, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman told presspersons here today that ``the assessment of the Ministry of Defence, or any other Ministry, is very well- considered.''
Beijing had termed as `irresponsible' India's objection to `normal' military cooperation between China and Pakistan. The Defence Ministry's annual report had pointed out that China was working towards the goal of achieving the `superpower' status in the new millennium and rapidly modernising its armed forces.
``Every major Indian city is within the reach of the Chinese missiles and it is reported that this capability is being further augmented to include submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs),'' the Ministry report had said. ``The asymmetry in terms of nuclear forces is strongly in favour of China which additionally has helped Pakistan to build missile and nuclear capability,'' the report had added.
-------- japan
Japanese foreign minister's underlings say she is displeased with U.S. ties
June 5, 2001
Canadian Broadcast
http://cbc.ca/cp/world/010605/w0605119.html
TOKYO (AP) - Reports that Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka recently criticized U.S. plans for a missile-defence shield in private talks with foreign leaders have prompted critics within her own bureaucracy to attack her for undermining Japan's neutral position and possibly damaging ties with the United States.
Reports on Tuesday said Tanaka made similar comments to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer last month during a meeting in China, adding Japan should consider changing its security arrangement with the United States.
"Japan has been protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella," Kyodo News service quoted her saying.
"That was the easy way. Now Japan has become the world's second-largest economy and it has to shoulder a heavier responsibility."
The brouhaha has thrown doubt on plans for Tanaka to travel to Washington ahead of Prime Junichiro Koizumi's meeting with President George W. Bush in July - though Tanaka said Tuesday she will go ahead with the trip to "straighten things out."
The popular Tanaka took office in April and immediately irked the powerful bureaucrats at the Foreign Ministry. She threatened to punish those responsible for a recent embezzlement scandal and cancelled appointments made before her arrival. She scolded leading bureaucrats in public.
Now the bureaucrats, long used to running the show in Japanese government, are taking revenge. Ministry officials criticize her - under the cover of anonymity - in newspaper articles every day.
And Tanaka has been clear the leaks about her U.S. missile-shield comments - which she in part denies - came from within her own ministry.
"Public servants must refrain from disclosing things that should be kept confidential," she told a parliamentary committee Tuesday.
"It's damaging to national interests to intentionally leak such confidential information and it makes the people distrust the government."
Playing a key role in the latest scandal is former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
Hashimoto had been expected to return to the premiership this spring but his hopes were dashed when Koizumi led an insurrection in the governing Liberal Democratic party and swept to office.
The former prime minister was identified by the government this week as the source of Tanaka's alleged criticism of the U.S. missile-shield plan to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Downer on Monday denied Japanese news reports he chided Tanaka for her remarks and said he would "report" her to the U.S. government.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher faced questions about the tempest Monday.
"Reports that somebody said something to somebody else are not half as important as the fact that we have ongoing and continuous consultations with our friends and allies, including the Japanese," Boucher said.
-------- korea
No Payment for N. Korea
WORLD In Brief - ASIA
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; Page A18
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21375-2001Jun4?language=printer
SEOUL -- The chief of a U.S.-led international consortium yesterday dismissed North Korea's demand for extra compensation for expected delays in building two nuclear reactors.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO, agreed in 1994 to build two light-water reactors in North Korea by 2003 and to provide heavy fuel oil in return for a freeze of Pyongyang's suspected nuclear program. The reactors would replace Soviet-designed, graphite-moderated reactors, which experts say produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium.
However, the $4.6 billion reactor project will be delayed at least until 2008 because of funding problems and tension on the Korean peninsula, consortium officials say.
North Korea is threatening to scrap the deal unless the consortium -- including delegates from the United States, Japan and South Korea -- compensates it for the loss of electricity caused by the delay.
KEDO chief Charles Kartman rejected that demand, saying 2003 was a target date, not a contracted date. North Korea will receive 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil worth $100 million a year until the first reactor is completed, he said.
---
North Korea Threatens to Pull Out of Missile Pacts
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL,
June 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/world/05CHIN.html?searchpv=nytToday
BEIJING, June 4 - Citing their deep displeasure with Washington, officials from North Korea have threatened to pull out of two agreements under which that isolated nation had promised to halt missile testing and to stop building nuclear reactors that could be used to produce weapons, an American academic said today.
In a meeting in Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun told the scholar that the United States had made hostile and offensive statements about North Korea, the American said as he returned from a visit there. Mr. Paek complained to the visitor that the administration was backing away from commitments made by President Clinton.
Last month, a delegation from the European Union said the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, had told them that he would unilaterally extend his country's moratorium on missile testing and production until 2003 as a good will gesture. But the foreign minister appeared to cast doubt on that.
"It has yet to be decided whether we maintain the moratorium on missile testing," Selig Harrison, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who has studied North Korea, related that Mr. Paek had told him. "That depends entirely on the policy of the new U.S. administration, whether it is hostile or not."
Since he took office in January, Mr. Bush has signaled that he intends to be tough with North Korea, rejecting the policy of cautious engagement that had characterized Mr. Clinton's last year in office.
Administration officials have been openly skeptical about South Korea's "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North. The officials have also pushed for immediate and aggressive inspections of North Korean nuclear sites, actions that North Korea has said it will not allow.
Mr. Harrison said four high North Korean officials had each told him that such policies could threaten the two loose accords that now form the foundation for relations between North Korea and the United States.
Under the first, the Agreed Framework, signed in 1994, North Korea said it would stop producing weapons-grade plutonium, closing its lone operating reactor and shelving plans for two others in exchange for a promise to help meet energy needs. The plan called for the United States, Japan and South Korea to build two light-water reactors in North Korea by 2003.
North Korean nuclear reactors produced plutonium that could readily be processed for use in nuclear weapons. The light-water reactors do not.
The second agreement, when Mr. Kim agreed in 1999 to a temporary moratorium on missile testing in exchange for relaxed American economic sanctions, was negotiated by former Defense Secretary William J. Perry. In late 1998, North Korea alarmed the world by sending a long- range unarmed missile toward Japan.
Both agreements seem in jeopardy, said Mr. Harrison, whose book ``Korean Endgame'' will be published this year. After a five-day visit to North Korea last week, his seventh, Mr. Harrison said that Washington's hard-line attitude seemed to have strengthened the hand of conservatives in Pyongyang.
``I don't believe anyone has decided that we need nuclear weapons at this stage, but everybody is thinking in that direction in light of the hostile policy of the Bush administration,'' Mr. Harrison said he was told by a top military official, Col. Gen. Ri Chan Bok.
The basic goal of the 1994 pact was to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons by giving it a relatively safe reactor. But construction on the two light-water reactors, originally to be completed in 2003, is years behind schedule. Western officials now predict that the first one will not operate until at least 2007.
The leader of the consortium that is supplying the reactors, Charles Kartman, said today on a visit to Seoul that the first reactor would be delivered in 2008.
North Korea, whose infrastructure is largely in ruins, is desperately short of power. Mr. Harrison said officials saw Washington's insistence on earlier - and more aggressive - inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a new precondition for building the reactors that would result in further delays.
``If the Bush administration is reluctant to provide the electricity it owes us, this would mean it is breaking the Agreed Framework,'' Mr. Paek was quoted as saying. ``We would be driven to go our own way and to go back to our original plan of building our own reactors.''
-----
North Korea Refuses to Stop Arms Exports, Delegation Says
By DON KIRK,
May 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/05/world/05KORE.html
SEOUL, South Korea, May 4 - North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, refused to renounce exports of missiles and missile technology, the European Union's top security official said today.
"He claimed technology was part of trade," said the official, Javier Solana, a member of a European Union delegation that met with Mr. Kim on Thursday.
Mr. Solana said Mr. Kim had cut short efforts to discuss missiles and missile technology exports during the five-hour session, making it clear that, "If he finds people who want to buy, he will sell it."
Mr. Solana indicated, however, that the delegation had been equally firm in emphasizing the European Union's opposition to such exports.
"You can imagine this is an answer we cannot take," said Mr. Solana as the delegation concluded its mission to North and South Korea aimed at reviving the stalled peace effort between the two countries.
Mr. Kim's rejection of suggestions that North Korea stop missile exports contrasted with his pledge to the European Union delegates to extend North Korea's moratorium on missile-testing, which began in 1999, until 2003.
Goran Persson, the Swedish prime minister who led the delegation in his role as president of the European Union, had not mentioned missile exports in his upbeat assessment of the delegation's visit after meeting this morning with President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea.
Analysts noted, however, that North Korean negotiators bargained hard with American diplomats last year on the export of missiles and missile technology, demanding aid equivalent to North Korea's earnings from sales abroad, mainly to Middle Eastern countries. Choi Jin Wook, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of National Unification, an adjunct of South Korea's Unification Ministry, noted that North Korea had suggested last year that it might stop missile exports if compensated with loans and payments.
A formula under which the United States would provide the North with such aid was the focus of negotiations in the final weeks of Bill Clinton's presidency.
North Korea is "so desperate to resume talks with the United States that their intention is not so tough as it seems," said Mr. Choi, suggesting that the North Korean leader's latest refusal to renounce missile exports may be a bargaining ploy to draw the United States back into talks.
President Bush, citing the problem of verifying any agreement, has suspended talks pending the completion of a review of policy toward North Korea.
Mr. Solana said the European delegation also impressed on Mr. Kim the need to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency on inspections of nuclear power plants to be built under the 1994 Geneva framework agreement. "He has to comply with the international community," said Mr. Solana. Mr. Persson and Mr. Solana both seemed impressed by the informal atmosphere of the talks.
"He was able to listen and argue with us," Mr. Persson said, referring to Mr. Kim. "He listened, then said, `That's a good point,' or `I must consider it.' "
The talks went nowhere, though, when they touched on human rights.
"We don't share the same values so it's much more difficult to have a dialogue on these issues," said Mr. Persson. "On the other hand, he was very much interested to learn from us. It was he who proposed to send a study group to Europe to learn about the market economy."
-------- missile defense
More pins prick Bush's missile defense
Wariness in Moscow and European capitals increases, and Senate Democrats signal no need to race ahead.
By Peter Grier (grierp@csps.com)
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/05/p2s1.htm
WASHINGTON
Four months after taking office, Bush officials have found it far more difficult than they had anticipated to generate foreign enthusiasm for one of their top geopolitical priorities - missile defense.
If anything, wariness about the costs and arms-control side effects of new missile-defense systems has increased in Moscow and allied European capitals in recent weeks, despite the dozens of meetings and thousands of frequent-flier miles racked up by US envoys.
Things aren't going much better back in Washington, defensively speaking. Newly empowered Senate Democrats are signaling that they see no need to race ahead and begin to deploy systems before the end of President Bush's current term.
The bottom line: The Bush team's early insistence that it would erect a missile shield whether other nations approved or not appears to be increasingly in question.
"There was this brief window the administration had when they had successfully convinced the world that missile defense was inevitable," says Joseph Cirincione, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "That bubble appears to have burst."
The sharpest and most recent pin to prick the administration's dreams of defense was wielded by NATO allies at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Budapest, Hungary, last week.
Resistance to several US positions
Despite intensive diplomacy, Secretary of State Colin Powell failed to win allied endorsement of a common intention to move away from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and toward a strategy based on missile-defense systems. Allies refused to join the US in saying that missiles fired by rogue states or by accident from big powers are currently a worldwide threat.
Secretary Powell was sanguine about the setback, saying that eventually allies would realize that the threat from Iraq, North Korea, and others is immediate and clear. "It will take us time to persuade everybody of that proposition, but I'm sure we will be successful at the end of the day," he said.
Others were not so sure. The administration has been lobbying its friends on missile defense virtually without ceasing for months, they point out. Mr. Bush himself has buttonholed every NATO visitor to the Oval Office on the subject, and he outlined his vision for a new world of defense-based deterrence in a lengthy May 1 speech.
"Yet at their first opportunity in a public forum, the allies essentially rejected the Bush administration approach," says Stephen Young, senior analyst in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.
To some extent, NATO's less-than-warm reception was a comment on the state of US-Russia dialogue as much as a judgment on the abstract appeal of the missile-defense concept.
If Moscow would agree with Washington to move away from ABM pact limits and toward some sort of brave new defense world, Europe would undoubtedly salute and follow along, note analysts.
Toward that end, the administration has been trying to figure out what combination of the geopolitical equivalent of jewelry and flowers might persuade Russia to follow the US lead.
Bush has already indicated that the US is willing to move toward much smaller nuclear arsenals - something Moscow has long pushed for - in a defense-dominated world. The administration is also reportedly considering an offer of aid, joint exercises, and arms purchases to try to get Russia to agree to scrap the ABM pact.
The problem is, Russia has already publicly rejected this package, even before Bush has a chance to proffer it at his June 16 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia.
"If such proposals come - we have not yet received them - I am sure they will not solve the ABM issue," said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov last week.
Window of opportunity still open
Yet behind this rhetoric may still be opportunity for the Bush administration, say some experts. A deal with Moscow is far from impossible, they say.
Ironically, the Democratic takeover of the Senate might make such a bargain somewhat more likely. With pro-ABM Treaty Democrats holding at least one of the nation's purse strings, Moscow can rest assured that for the moment it is next to impossible for Bush to press ahead with unilateral missile-defense deployment.
Russia's central concern is that any defenses be limited enough in scope to ensure that its own offensive nuclear weapons are not rendered impotent. Whether that requires a new treaty structure to replace the ABM pact, or revisions to ABM, or some sort of handshake agreement, remains to be seen, says Mr. Cirincione of Carnegie.
In any case, the administration will likely have to start filling in the blanks of its still-undefined plan before Russia begins sounding more interested, he says.
"There's a deal there that can be struck," says Cirincione, "but it's not going to be easy."
For further information:
Europe falls out with US over missile shield plan Electronic Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=V1jmF5Gx&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/5/30/wdef30.html
NATO isn't buying Powell's pitch Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0105/31/world/world6.html
National Missile Defense Department of Defense
http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/nmd.html
National Missile Defense FAS
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/nmd/index.html
Online NewsHour: National Missile Defense
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/nmd_splash.html
SpaceWar.com - Your Portal To Military Space
http://www.spacewar.com/
US missile defence plans consign ABM Treaty to history, but where do the allies go from here? Janes.com (May 3)
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/bmp010503_1_n.shtml
----
Bush mission to convince Europe on NMD
By Batuk Gathani, The Hindu, June 5, 2001
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/06/05/stories/03050002.htm
BRUSSELS, JUNE 4. The European and American officials have begun preparations for the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush's first official visit to Europe. Mr. Bush will meet the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, in Slovenia at the end of his European tour.
Mr. Bush is being briefed intensively before his crucial meetings with the European Union and NATO leaders. He will directly face his European critics over missile defence, the future of NATO and environment issues. The U.S. authorities have already warned its citizens travelling to Sweden to be ready for hostile demonstrations at the E.U. summit in Stockholm, as thousands of environmentalists and anti-armament groups are expected to converge. From Sweden, Mr. Bush will visit Poland where he will again argue for the expansion of NATO. (NATO has 19 members and could have over 25 members within a decade.)
The U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, arrived in Turkey today to begin his European tour. After meeting Turkish officials, he will meet his counterparts in the European capitals and special importance is being attached to his meeting with the Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov.
During a series of meetings and speeches this week, Mr. Bush's main mission in Europe appears to be to attract European support for his plans to build a missile defence shield. According to European observers, since the loss of majority in the Senate, Mr. Bush's ambition may have received a setback.
The incoming Democratic Chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Commission and critic of the Bush administration's missile defence strategy, Mr. Carl Levin, is widely quoted in the European media saying that he doubts if anything could be achieved before the U.S. presidential election in 2004. However, most Europeans agree that the Bush strategy has at best helped to ignite debate on nuclear deterrence.
Mr. Bush will make his own presentation of the proposed missile shield. If the result of the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell's visit to Europe at the end of May is any criterion, the U.S. and NATO have already split over missile defence. The European members of the NATO alliance last month refused to acknowledge the ``common threat'' posed by missiles from potential enemies or so-called `rouge' states like North Korea, Iraq and Iran. Early May, the U.S. also dispatched a team of senior officials to Europe and Asia in a concerted bid to persuade friendly nations to cooperate or at least show sympathy for the defence plan.
Mr. Bush is to reiterate this perception in major European capitals this week. According to European officials, Mr. Bush is ``more than determined'' to offer Mr. Putin unprecedented collaboration on defence against rogue missile attacks particularly from the Islamic fundamentalist countries in West Asia.
----
Airborne Laser
The chemical laser fires from a nose-mounted turret aboard an Air Force 747. (Artist's conception courtesy Team ABL)
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/missiledefense/ABL_InflightArt.jpg
http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/missiledefense/abl.htm
The Airborne Laser (ABL) project places a high-energy chemical laser aboard a modified 747-400F cargo jet flying a few hundred miles from possible missile launch sites.
Infrared sensors detect a ballistic missile launch, and tracking lasers guide the main laser - whose beam emanates from a turret in the plane's nose - to its target. A three- to five-second burst from the laser destroys the missile while it is still in the vulnerable "boost phase" of flight, before the warhead separates from the rocket.
The boost phase lasts only five minutes or so, making time and proximity to the missile critical elements of the ABL system.
A fleet of seven aircraft is planned, with the first three slated to be operational as early as 2005.
Source: Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Federation of American Scientists, TRW
-------- russia
Russia Warns U.S. On Missile Pact
The Associated Press Tuesday, June 5, 2001; 8:53 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010605/aponline085311_000.htm
MOSCOW -- Maintaining a tough stance in the run-up to a U.S.-Russian summit, Russia's defense minister warned Washington on Tuesday that its withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty would shatter the entire system of arms control agreements.
"If we assume that the ABM Treaty loses force, it's logical to assume that the subsequent treaties that were based on it will also lose force," Sergei Ivanov told reporters after meeting with visiting Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton.
"That means we will enter a phase of total unpredictability in the sphere of global security," he added.
The ABM treaty prohibits a nationwide defense against ballistic missiles. The U.S. administration has tried unsuccessfully to persuade Moscow to amend the treaty to allow Washington to develop a limited missile defense system.
The missile defense issue will hang over the first meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart George Bush, scheduled for June 16 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Ivanov said Moscow was ready to discuss the ABM issue, and praised the United States for launching a series of consultations rather than taking unilateral steps.
He added, however, that the consultations had been short on substance.
"It's too early to speak about any specific parameters yet," he said.
The United States has insisted that the planned defense system would be aimed at containing threats from potential nuclear nations, such as Iran and North Korea. Russia has acknowledged that there are some new threats but argued that they must be dealt with without modifying the ABM Treaty.
Ivanov said Russia and the United States would form working groups to continue discussions.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
ARE DOE CONTRACTORS PAID ENOUGH?
Tri-City Herald
Tuesday, June 5, 2001
by John Stang
From: "vcolley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>
The Department of Energy's Inspector General's Office tried to figure out how much profit its environmental cleanup contractors should make -- and came away scratching its head.
A DOE cleanup contract comes with significant risks and responsibilities, so DOE wants to know what fees are needed to attract the most top-notch bidders, said the May inspector general's report.
The Inspector General's Office studied three major DOE cleanup contracts --Bechtel Hanford's, Kaiser-Hill's at Rocky Flats and Bechtel Jacobs' at Oak Ridge. The three contracts are set up differently, and the study concluded not enough information was available to reach a conclusion.
The study was prompted by a DOE belief that the fees -- meaning profits --offered in its contracts are not big enough to attract "best-in-class contractors," the report says.
The Inspector General's Office report also referred to an April study by DOE's contractor reform office. That concluded the profits and profit margins in tackling DOE environmental work are less than companies can earn from engineering and construction projects in the private sector. Consequently, the report said, the pool of companies willing to do DOE work is shrinking, sometimes resulting in only one or two bidders materializing for major DOE contracts.
The DOE Inspector General's Office report noted Bechtel Hanford's and Kaiser-Hill's contracts enable them to earn higher fees than contractors at other DOE sites. But the study reached no other conclusions on Bechtel Hanford and Bechtel Jacobs.
The study did raise questions about Kaiser-Hill's contract because when its original contract expired, DOE awarded a new contract to the same company without putting it out for bids. At the same time, Kaiser-Hill's maximum possible fees increased under the new contract.
Bechtel Hanford has been Hanford's "environmental restoration" contractor since 1994 -- posting high scores on each DOE evaluation. Its five-year contract was extended by three more years until June 30, 2002.
When DOE granted that extension, it changed the fee structure from a combination of a base fee plus a graded bonus to where 100 percent of the fee is based on performance. For fiscal 2000, Bechtel Hanford earned a profit of $10.8 million, or 8 percent. DOE plans to drastically overhaul the contract when it is put out for bids several months from now.
-------- maine
MAINE YANKEE NUCLEAR PLANT WILL SURVEY FOR RADIATION
June 5, 2001 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-05-09.html
EDGECOMB, Maine, The Maine based environmental group, Friends of the Coast- Opposing Nuclear Pollution announced Monday that tidal areas adjacent to the decommissioning Maine Yankee Atomic Power Station will be surveyed for radiation.
Under the agreement, Friends of the Coast and Maine Yankee Atomic will work together to contract an independent survey of tidal areas which lie just outside of the plant's licensed site.
The survey will target identifying and quantifying radioactive pollution deposited in tidal sediment during the Wiscasset reactor's 24 year history of operations. Also included in the study will be seaweed, salt hay, and shellfish.
The study will calculate potential radiation doses to a theoretical future resident of the site from the ingestion or use of marine resources from the Maine Yankee property shoreline.
Friends of the Coast and Maine Yankee expect to seek a survey contractor later this year with the actual survey work planned for 2003. Raymond Shadis of Edgecomb, spokesman and negotiator for Friends of the Coast, said the survey will be timed to follow the final large volume, and potentially radioactive, liquid and airborne releases from plant demolition activities, including reactor containment and spent fuel pool demolition.
"The agreement is an alternative to litigating the issue before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which is both costly and uncertain," said Shadis. "In the rare and unlikely event of a complete victory in the NRC's court, we would only succeed in adding red tape to the project while achieving less for the environment."
The survey will be linked to a marine sediment survey, which is intended to identify and plot reactor derived radionuclides deposited on the bottom of the Sheepscot River estuary.
The survey agreement comes at the end of an 11 month period of technical review for Maine Yankee Atomic's Revised License Termination Plan. The plan, several hundred pages in length, was withdrawn for revision in order to reflect Maine's new, strict radiological cleanup standards and a previous agreement with Friends of the Coast that abandoned plans to bury radioactive demolition debris on the waterfront site.
-------- nevada
Why not kill Yucca?
Tuesday, June 05, 2001
Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: Steve Sebelius
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jun-05-Tue-2001/opinion/16248817.html
There's a delightful "Dilbert" cartoon in which Wally, Dilbert's dorky co-worker, is assigned the task of reassigning cubicles for the office. He immediately sets about using the newfound position to his advantage, which prompts Dilbert to inquire as to whether Wally really should be abusing his power. Wally's retort: "What would be the other reasons to have power?"
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid faces much the same dilemma in Washington, D.C., these days, having convinced U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., to leave the Republican Party, where moderates are greeted with all the joy that PETA reserves for a barbecue. But the unfortunate downside for Reid, who with Jefford's 51st vote is scheduled to become majority whip today, is the pressing question of Yucca Mountain.
Will Reid, using his newfound power, sap the dollars currently going to scientific studies of the site, thus delaying the process?
Nope. Here's the good senator, the day after the announcement: "I have always tried to be fair. I have the ability to cut back funding significantly, but I believe there's a process in line that Yucca Mountain be characterized, and I'm not going to stop it from being characterized. That would be very little, that would show I'm a little person," Reid said. "I don't think the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) will ever approve it."
Huh?
Reid may be right about one thing: There has been a process in line to characterize Yucca Mountain, a process that reached its apex in 1987 when Nevada was singled out unfairly to be the nation's nuclear waste dump. It was a political act, arbitrary, capricious and more or less permanent. So if Reid has the opportunity to starve the beast by another political act -- cutting funding for the dump -- then he ought to do it, and to hell with the looming specter of looking "little."
But Reid, who has become the state's No. 1 practitioner of nuclear politics, is more cautious when asked about the issue, at once claiming he could cut funding but admitting that he can't stop Yucca from moving forward, no matter what he does. In an interview in his eighth-floor office in the new Lloyd D. George federal courthouse, Reid recalled the sage advice about doling out favors for the home state, given him long ago by former U.S. Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss.: "Don't be greedy." (Stennis, of course, has an aircraft carrier, a NASA space center and an institute of government named after him, the ultimates in legislative pork rewards.)
But why shouldn't Reid be greedy and use every trick in his briefcase to drive a wooden stake through the heart of the biggest threat to Nevada's quality of life (and the nation's highway safety, if the scary press notices are to be believed)?
Perhaps it's because he can't. There isn't, after all, a bill that can be shelved, a deal that can be made, a filibuster that can be had with new best friend and sidekick U.S. Sen. John Ensign.
And even as incoming Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is declaring Yucca Mountain dead so long as Democrats hold the Senate, Reid himself is explaining that what Daschle really means is that any attempt to get interim storage in Nevada, or to let the Nuclear Regulatory Commission instead of the Environmental Protection Agency set radiation release standards, is dead. Yucca, as an institution, is still alive. It's barreling along on autopilot until the inevitable finding by the NRC which will be (with all due respect to Reid's prediction) that Yucca is the perfect place to bury nuclear waste. That will be followed by the inevitable decision by President George W. Bush (brought to you, in part, by the Nuclear Energy Institute) that the trucks should start their engines, followed by the inevitable veto from Nevada, followed by the inevitable override by Congress, a vote that Reid frankly acknowledges he cannot win.
"The only thing I can do is to put up roadblocks," Reid says, recalling his amateur boxing days. "There are different ways you win fights." Instead of a knockout, Reid's hoping for a decision -- that Yucca is unsafe -- from the very people who've spent billions to prove otherwise. Is there a way to get odds on this?
[Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at Steve_Sebelius@lvrj.com.]
----
U.S. Sets Safety Rules for Yucca Nuclear Waste Site
By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 6, 2001; Page A02
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26072-2001Jun5?language=printer
The Bush administration yesterday unveiled final health and safety standards for a proposed nuclear waste depository in the Nevada desert that officials hope will allow construction of the long-stalled project, which is essential to the president's efforts to rejuvenate the nuclear power industry.
With the new standards regulating all potential sources of radiation exposure from groundwater, air and soil, administration officials said they hope they have navigated a difficult political obstacle. They believe the standards are tough enough to satisfy many environmentalists and Nevada residents, but not so stringent that they would block the project.
A dispute over the standards posed the last major hurdle to an administration decision on whether to go forward with the project. First proposed in the summer of 1999 by the Clinton administration, the standards drew sharp criticism from scientific groups and from Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) and other GOP lawmakers who complained they were too stringent.
Yesterday, Bush administration officials claimed a double win: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham insisted that his department could meet the new standards and launch the controversial project by the end of the year, while EPA officials boasted that they had essentially preserved the same tough standards proposed by the Clinton administration.
"As a nation, we must address our nuclear waste disposal problem, but we must do so in a way that protects public health and the environment," EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said. "These are strong standards, and they should be. We designed them to ensure that people living near this potential repository will be protected -- now and for future generations."
Controversy over the proposed underground storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has endured for nearly two decades as the nation groped to find a way of disposing of dangerous wastes from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities now stored around the country.
Construction of the storage site for 78,000 tons of radioactive wastes would be vital to President Bush's plan to address the nation's long-term energy needs partly by expanding the use of nuclear power plants.
Abraham is expected to recommend by the end of the year that Bush go forward with plans to seek licensing of the site.
But the project has drawn strong opposition from Nevada state officials and lawmakers, including Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), the powerful Senate Democratic whip. Nevada officials argue that the repository would pose serious threats to the region in the event of an accident or earthquake and that the waste would have to be hauled by truck or rail through more than 40 states, adding to the risk of spills.
Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), the incoming majority leader, vowed last week while attending a fundraiser for Reid in Las Vegas that the Yucca Mountain project was "dead" as long as the Democrats retained control of the Senate. Although political observers say that it would be difficult to block the project indefinitely, Reid, now the chairman of a key appropriations subcommittee, and the Democrats could probably slow its construction by holding down its budget.
Congressional and industry backers of the plan have pushed for adoption of less stringent standards drafted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, while Nevada officials and other opponents want the tougher EPA standards.
Last year, Congress passed a bill sponsored by Murkowski, then chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that would have accelerated the schedule for transporting high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain and blocked the EPA from setting radiation standards for the proposed nuclear waste dump. Former president Bill Clinton vetoed the bill and the Senate sustained the veto by one vote.
When the Bush administration left open the possibility it still might block the EPA standards, Reid retaliated by putting a hold on two nominations to high-level EPA posts and an appointment to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
A spokesman for Reid did not return calls seeking comment last night.
"From Nevada's standpoint, we are very wary of any of the administration's proposals on nuclear waste," said Dan Geary, a Nevada field organizer for the National Environmental Trust. "They have continued a tradition of insisting the site selection and development of Yucca Mountain is a scientific process, but we don't believe it, and from the beginning it has been a political process."
The standards regulate all potential sources of radiation exposure and are designed to protect residents closest to the repository at levels within the agency's acceptable risk range for environmental pollutants. This corresponds to a dose limit of no more than 15 millirem per year from all sources -- or about twice the exposure of just living in a brick house for a year.
Because the proposed repository sits above an aquifer that is a critical source of water for irrigation, dairy farming and drinking water, the EPA included a separate standard that would limit groundwater radiation contamination to 4 millirem per year, the same standard that is used in the Safe Drinking Water Act.
While the core environmental requirements are the same as in the original Clinton proposal, two modifications will change how the Energy Department would demonstrate that the Yucca Mountain facility is safe. One would add an additional one-mile safety buffer between the nearest resident and the location where the DOE must prove it is meeting the EPA standard.
The second would increase the volume of water the Energy Department will have to analyze to show it is meeting the environmental standard. An EPA official acknowledged that increasing the volume of the sample would have the effect of diluting the concentration of the contaminant being analyzed -- which in some instances might make it easier to meet the standard. But officials said that would be offset by the larger buffer zone.
-------- us nuc politics
U.S. Puts Squeeze On Arafat to Crack Down on Extremists
CIA's Tenet Will Again Go to Mideast
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; Page A17
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19597-2001Jun4?language=printer
The Bush administration increased pressure yesterday on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on armed extremists while preparing to dispatch CIA Director George J. Tenet to the Middle East in a bid to restore cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces.
As senior members of Bush's national security team convened at the White House to consider the volatile Middle East, officials said they were extremely nervous that one more Palestinian terrorist attack could invite a massive Israeli reprisal, destroying any prospect of peace talks in the near future.
"We're waiting for another bomb. It's hanging by a thread," said a senior administration official. "It's time for Arafat to demonstrate he's a serious partner."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered that message by telephone, telling Arafat to back up his call this weekend for a cease-fire with concrete measures, according to administration officials. Powell said these should include arresting Islamic militants who may be planning additional attacks and instructing his security chiefs to resume cooperation with Israeli counterparts, U.S. officials said.
Powell also called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and encouraged him to "continue the measured response" he has taken, despite mounting calls among Israelis to retaliate for a suicide bombing Friday outside a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed 20 people, mostly teenagers.
Mostly, though, the Bush administration sought to ratchet up international pressure on the Palestinians, continuing a campaign of telephone diplomacy launched after the Tel Aviv bombing. By evening, Powell had called Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and European Union security affairs chief Javier Solana to review the situation and ensure "they make clear to . . . Yasser Arafat that now is the time to implement an unconditional cease-fire," a senior administration official said.
"We've seen instructions [from Arafat] that are encouraging. We've seen statements in both the Arabic media and the international media from Chairman Arafat. We've also seen some reduction in the level of violence," said State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher. "We need to see further steps. We need to see further efforts, and we need to see a further reduction in the violence to make it a real cease-fire, to make it last."
Powell's round of calls to Middle Eastern leaders followed midday meetings at the White House attended by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Tenet, Powell, his deputy Richard L. Armitage and various mid-level experts, some of whom have worked nonstop since Friday's bombing.
After the session, administration officials said Tenet probably would head to the Middle East in coming days, but only if the Palestinians continued to curtail violence and showed they were intent upon reviving security cooperation with the Israelis. A senior State Department official said top Palestinian officials must resume their participation in security talks.
Two of Arafat's top lieutenants, Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, have boycotted recent meetings after each escaped Israeli attacks. Dahlan's motorcade came under Israeli gunfire in April while returning to Gaza from a security meeting with Israeli officials at the U.S. ambassador's home in Tel Aviv. And last month, Israeli artillery fired on Rajoub's home in Ramallah.
U.S. officials are hoping Tenet can reinvigorate the security talks by building on his longstanding relationship with Palestinian and Israeli security services. Tenet "can really bear down on the security stuff like nobody else can. He knows it. He knows them. He has information, and they trust him," a senior State Department official said.
By sending Tenet back to the Middle East, the Bush administration would reverse its earlier decision to pull the plug on the CIA's high-profile effort as a broker between Israeli and Palestinian security services. During the Clinton administration, Tenet had assumed a remarkably public role for a CIA director, traveling to the region at least 10 times, often to persuade the sides to improve their coordination and to urge the Palestinians to move more forcefully against extremists.
But in limiting the CIA's involvement this winter, Bush administration officials said the two sides had to learn to cooperate directly rather that concentrating on wooing the American mediators.
A senior State Department official said yesterday that the volatile situation now merited Tenet's attention. "It's a balance that has to be achieved between pushing the situation along but not becoming the object of the negotiations," the official said.
The administration has also asked William J. Burns, the State Department's point man on the Middle East, to remain in the region in case he is needed to join in negotiations. Burns had been scheduled to return to Washington from Amman, where he has been U.S. ambassador to Jordan, and to be sworn in yesterday as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. The ceremony was postponed.
-------- us nuc waste
Pit Viper takes bite out of worker radiation exposures
5 JUNE 2001
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/pnnl-pvt060501.html
Contact: Geoff Harvey geoffrey.harvey@pnl.gov 509-372-6083 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
RICHLAND, Wash. - Radiation exposure to personnel working in highly contaminated nuclear tank waste equipment pits may be reduced by as much as 75 percent thanks to the Pit Viper, a remotely operated cleanup system unveiled today by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The most dose-intensive work under Hanford's River Protection Program is the repair and refurbishment of hundreds of equipment pits on the nuclear site. The overall concept of the Pit Viper system is to minimize worker exposure in these high radiation zones through the use of remote technology applications.
"It is anticipated that the remotely operated Pit Viper system can achieve a 50 to 75 percent reduction in radiation exposure as well as significant improvements in operational processes," says Sharon Bailey, Pit Viper project manager at PNNL. "It's simple, but very effective technology based on commercially available components performing multiple tasks. The entire process will be much safer and more efficient than ever before."
DOE's Office of Environmental Management provided technology development funding for the Pit Viper program via the Office of Science and Technology's Tanks Focus area and the Robotics Crosscut Program. PNNL is working with CH2M HILL Hanford Group, the tank waste management contractor at Hanford, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and commercial equipment suppliers to develop, demonstrate and deliver the Pit Viper for Hanford use.
More than 600 tank waste equipment pits are located adjacent to Hanford's 177 underground storage tanks near the nuclear site's central plateau. The rectangular concrete pits lie below ground and contain valves and pipe couplings designed to allow transfer of highly radioactive waste from one underground tank to another. This waste transfer will be essential once construction of Hanford's vitrification, or glassification, plant is complete around 2007. Millions of gallons of liquid radioactive waste will be transferred through miles of underground piping and numerous equipment pits to be treated and immobilized for disposal.
These equipment pits are contaminated and must be inspected, cleaned, decontaminated and refurbished before the transfer of the tank waste can begin. Workers must repair or remove equipment within the pits, conduct radiation mapping or characterization, remove debris, repair wall cracks, and clean, prep and paint walls.
The Pit Viper uses a hydraulic manipulator arm to perform these tasks. "The arm is capable of lifting 200 pounds while fully extended. It is operated remotely from a console in a control trailer located up to 200 feet away from the equipment pit," says Bailey. "The operators work in a clean, safe environment while viewing cleanup activities on television monitors captured by four cameras."
The manipulator arm is mounted on a backhoe that is maneuvered adjacent to an equipment pit. A variety of tools that attach to the manipulator's gripper are available to perform the many cleanup, repair and maintenance tasks.
###
Background:
The 586 square mile Hanford site in southeastern Washington State produced plutonium for the nation's national defense effort for more than 50 years, and now is engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup and restoration project.
PNNL currently is testing the Pit Viper system in a non-radioactive environment at DOE's Volpentest HAMMER Training and Education Center in north Richland. Deployment in the field is anticipated this summer after which the system will be turned over to CH2M HILL Hanford Group.
Business inquiries on this or other PNNL technologies should be directed to 1-888-375-PNNL or e-mail: inquiry@pnl.gov.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a DOE research facility and delivers breakthrough science and technology in the areas of environment, energy, health, fundamental sciences and national security. Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio, has operated PNNL for DOE since 1965.
-------- MILITARY
A Historian of War Ponders Peace
An appreciation of John Keegan's unusually perceptive books-including his latest-on the history of warfare.
D.C. Dispatch |
June 5, 2001
On Books
by Patrick B. Pexton
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/books2001-06-05.htm
War and Our World
by John Keegan
Vintage Books, 87 pages, $10.00 From a man who has made his life's work the study of war, comes this small book of abundant insight, and buoyant hope for a future if not free of war, then at least inclined to be more peaceable.
John Keegan was for years a military historian at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England. He made his first trans-Atlantic voyage into America's consciousness with the popular 1976 book The Face of Battle, in which he described in sobering detail just how soldiers faced off, were wounded, and died on three battlefields-Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and the Somme in 1916.
Since then, he has written more than a dozen books on military history and gained a worldwide following. In 1994, he received an unusual invitation from the White House. Keegan was the only foreigner from whom President Clinton sought advice on what he would say to Europeans when addressing the D-Day commemorations in France.
This book, more like a pamphlet at 87 pages, is a compilation of Keegan's 1998 Reith Lectures, delivered in several locations around England. In these five talks, Keegan tries to answer briefly but trenchantly some of the deep questions about warfare, including its origins, its impact on states and individuals, and most important, whether war is inevitable.
Keegan has a gift for crisp prose and direct statements. He defines war simply as "collective killing for some collective purpose." And, although his breadth of knowledge of all ages of history is impressive, and drawn on throughout this volume, this is not a book of sweeping generalizations or conclusions. He is careful and modest, and the more powerful for it. Keegan knows too much about five millennia of war-making, from the first organized struggles in 3000 B.C. of Mesopotamian farmers to protect their crops from invaders, to the humanitarian impulses of the recent Kosovo war, to be too certain about what direction war will take next.
But he maintains that the world is moving toward peace despite the 20th century's great irony-that even as famine, disease, and pestilence were curbed as never before, war became longer, more deadly, and more harmful to civilians than in any previous age. It is this weariness of war, combined with the invention of a weapon-the atom bomb-"which guarantees an unbearable excess of costs over benefits in any war in which it is used" that may combine to bring some hope. Perhaps now, Keegan says, the fourth rider of the apocalypse-war-can also be unhorsed.
Keegan says his lectures are meant to convince his audiences that "the worst of war is now behind us and that mankind, with vigilance and resolution, will henceforth be able to conduct the affairs of the world in a way that allows war a diminishing part."
Keegan spends pages debunking the many theories that imbue man with a natural inclination toward war. Science, he says, whether genetics, anthropology, or psychology, hasn't found any embedded reason in human physiology to explain why people make war. Certainly, men are aggressive and have always been risk takers, and have often wanted something their neighbor possessed. But no war-making gene yet been discovered, and "war is too complex an activity"-involving too many human talents in strategy, tactics, organization, leadership, and bravery-"for step-by-step genetic mutation to 'program' organisms for it," the author notes. Better explanations lie in the coming together of ancient social groups, both farmers and nomads, who fought rival groups for land, or meat, or riches.
Keegan also tries to demolish the old academic notion that war made states and states make war. Many states have not been warlike: Egypt of the early pharaohs, although perhaps founded by force of arms, had a period of peace that lasted nearly 1,500 years, an incomprehensible notion today. Many Polynesian states had no history of war, and so, too, Inuits. And many conquering armies-the great invaders on horseback, Huns and Mongols alike-did not create or sustain states, nor arise from them.
But Keegan reserves special condemnation for Prussian militarist Carl von Clausewitz, who after fighting against Napoleon, came up with the "pernicious" notion that war is nothing more than the continuation of politics by violent means. In almost all of his books, but most forcefully in his comprehensive History of Warfare, Keegan rails against Clausewitz's ideas that nation-states are amoral institutions and war is a value-free activity limited only by a threat of greater violence from an opponent. Keegan sees this as a justification for totalitarian states that do violence to their own peoples and neighbors without remorse, noting that both Hitler and Lenin were students of the German theorist.
Perhaps most persuasively, Keegan shows that as the influence of Clausewitz was growing in Europe, so, too, was the idea of European integration and a continentwide arrangement that would preserve peace. And in fact, peace held in Europe for most of the 19th century after the defeat of Napoleon.
Those impulses have produced today's European Union, a band of peaceful countries whose chief duty is not to pursue war, but to serve as "nanny" states for the social welfare of their citizens. Indeed, Washington has an impossible time these days getting the Europeans to boost their defense budgets.
These two parallel tracks of historical forces-the steady increase in deadly firepower and the growing pressure for peace-are the overarching themes of War and Our World. From the most primitive tribal warfare by hunters and gatherers to the modern high-tech wars of this era, Keegan can point to periods when warfare had its restraints. And throughout history, there was a persistent belief that war should and must have limits, that certain acts of war are unsupportable and indeed criminal, and "that the use of force by the strong against the weak is an intrinsically repellent activity."
This notion of a natural human instinct for restraint, and mercy, even in the most brutal battles, crops up in most of Keegan's books (whether The First World War, or Fields of Battle, which is about the wars of North America), but particularly in A History of Warfare. The instinct for restraint has its roots in the protections, going back millennia, for women and children; in more-recent conventions regarding prisoners of war, who were treated quite well throughout the 18th and 19th centuries; and in the strict code of conduct of the Japanese samurai. Even during World War I, despite the senseless killing in the trenches, most of the conventions on prisoners and on civilians held. It was only during World War II, with the rise of the totalitarian states and coercive ideologies, that the notion of restraint went begging. Japanese nationalists bred hatred in their soldiers, which led to atrocities against Chinese and Westerners. Hitler hunted the Jews. The Allies abandoned the aerial bombing of select military targets in favor of carpet-bombing the cities of Germany and Japan, and ultimately, the U.S. Army Corps dropped A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Keegan, nevertheless, sees restraint winning the war for human history.
He sees it in the way that soldiers and veterans are now treated by most of the economically advanced countries, as men of honor. Throughout most of military history, civilian populations dreaded the coming of soldiers, because most often these combatants were drawn from the dregs of society, or were slaves or mercenaries, who brought with them plunder and rape. In those earlier times, honor or chivalry was a part of the code of conduct for a very few officers or leaders of war.
But with the advent of universal conscription in the 19th century, a practice not seen since the Greek city-states of the ancient world, men were drawn from a larger cross section of the citizenry, and more families were hit by the loss of fathers, brothers, and sons (and, today-even without the draft-mothers, sisters, and daughters). Today, we honor our fallen war dead as the ultimate victims. "War has, in our time, chosen many victims, but none so numerous as the ordinary soldier himself," Keegan writes.
And now, with the 20th century's memory of mass civilian and soldier deaths still fresh, and the shadow of nuclear war ever present, violence is almost universally condemned as a method of problem-solving. "We live in an age," Keegan writes, "that deprecates conflict and sets the ideals of harmony, compromise, and communality above all others."
That conflict endures is irrefutable, Keegan concedes, but the signs that war is no longer acceptable to the broad masses are unmistakable. War, according to the United Nations, is illegal unless engaged in for self-defense or authorized by collective action. Progress is visible in the establishment of a permanent war crimes tribunal. The numbers of citizens in uniform in developed countries continue to decline steadily. Even America's elation over its Persian Gulf War victory was tempered almost immediately by the revulsion caused by the video of the "Highway of Death" leading out of Kuwait, showing miles of charred remains of men and materiel crushed by U.S. weapons.
Other evidence includes the variety of arms control treaties that have been negotiated, and largely honored, in the past 50 years. Europe is a forbidden zone for the deployment of intermediate-range missiles. Most nations have signed test-ban treaties on nuclear weapons, and prohibitions against chemical weapons. The number of countries acquiring nuclear weapons has been few. Movements are afoot today to ban the use of anti-personnel land mines and weapons in space. These, Keegan says, are all hopeful signs.
The counterargument, of course, is that war and violence continue, particularly in poor countries and from terrorist, ethnic, and fundamentalist religious groups.
And for this kind of war, Keegan suggests, the rich countries bear some responsibility, and some duty to stop it. "The decision of the great powers, taken during the struggle against Hitler, to arm guerrilla and partisan forces and to raise civil war as a means of bringing him down set an example easily followed, as it has been by national liberation movements and now by fundamentalists and ethnic extremists around the globe. The encouragement of subversion as a strategy was shortsighted and the long-term price is now being paid. The price is paid through the evasion of the ideal of honor as the warrior virtue, an erosion that has once again made unfair fight, sabotage, assassination, and massacre acceptable mean s of waging war."
In some parts of the Pentagon, and here and there around the Bush Administration, it is not unusual to hear some variation of the sentiment, "The military's job is to fight and win the nation's wars." Implicit in that declaration is that peacekeeping and other missions short of all-out war are somehow beneath the soldiering class, even implying that somehow there is less honor in the undertaking of them. Keegan would strongly disagree.
As he notes in A History of Warfare, many ancient empires and city-states-two of the most stable being Rome and China-were careful to keep their peripheries guarded by well-trained legions, so that the peace was not threatened. This required men of skill and honor. Today, he writes in War and Our World, it requires something more. "It also requires a particular ethic, a readiness by the individual to risk his-or her-life not simply for any of the traditional values by which warriors fought but for the cause of peace itself."
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte.
-------- afghanistan
Opposition: Captures Afghan District
By STEVEN GUTKIN
Associated Press Writer,
JUNE 05, 07:39 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7CECA200
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban fighter planes pounded positions held by the northern-based opposition in heavy fighting Tuesday, while the opposition claimed a key military victory over Afghanistan's ruling militia.
Details of the clashes were sketchy, with both sides denying each other's claims. The fighting, which involved aerial bombardment and artillery exchanges, was the heaviest in Afghanistan in at least a month.
The Taliban Islamic militia controls 95 percent of the country and is fighting the opposition to capture the remaining five percent. The civil war, combined with the worst drought in 30 years, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and given Afghanistan the world's worst refugee problem.
Opposition leaders said at least 100 Taliban fighters died in the fighting Monday and Tuesday and that their soldiers had captured the strategic Yakawlang district in central Bamiyan province.
But Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the Taliban's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the opposition was exaggerating
``They're in the habit of making such claims,'' he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Taliban officials did not give casualty figures.
A Taliban official who asked not to be named, however, confirmed that the Islamic militia had lost Yakawlang. But he said the Taliban on Monday and Tuesday captured the Chal district in northern Takhar province.
Mohammad Habil, an opposition spokesman in Takhar, confirmed that Taliban fighter planes bombarded the Chal area three times on Tuesday, but said that the Taliban claim of having captured all of Chal were false.
He said that ``only two small villages around Chal'' fell to the Taliban, who lost 40 soldiers in the fighting.
Meanwhile, about 700 opposition fighters, armed with rocket launchers and automatic rifles, ambushed a Taliban contingent in Yakawlang late Monday, capturing the district and 20 Taliban soldiers, Mohammed Muaqek, an opposition leader, said.
The fighting killed 60 Taliban soldiers, he said. The opposition said none of its fighters died in the clashes.
``The Taliban have been feeling too powerful. We are forcing them back,'' Muaqek said by telephone from his base in northern Afghanistan.
Muaqek said Monday's opposition victory has advanced the opposition alliance to within 30 miles of Bamiyan city, which he said is now within the opposition's reach.
Muaqek said capturing Bamiyan city would enable the opposition to take control of a key road between central and northern Afghanistan and cut Taliban supply lines.
Bamiyan city is where the Taliban in March blew up two ancient Buddha statues, provoking an international outcry.
Control of Yakawlang has been changing in recent months. The Taliban had captured it just last month.
The opposition is led by former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and former defense chief Ahmed Shah Masood.
-------- china
U.S. to resume limited military links with China
June 5, 2001 Posted: 12:16 AM EDT (0416 GMT)
By staff and wire reports
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/06/04/rumsfeld.china.02/index.html
KIEV, Ukraine -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he will resume limited military links with China.
Rumsfeld's call came on Monday, after he admitted the United States virtually cut off all military ties with China following a standoff over a U.S. Navy spy plane and its crew.
He told reporters traveling with him on a European trip that he took immediate steps to halt trips by U.S. military personnel to China after the April 1 landing of a U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane on Hainan Island.
The U.S. spy plane had to make an emergency landing on the island after it collided with a Chinese fighter jet in international air space off China.
"It was clearly not business as usual," he said.
China held the 24-member reconnaissance crew incommunicado for days and did not release them until 11 days after the incident.
"And it was clear that we took steps to avoid having other Americans arrive in that country and find that they were not welcome -- or that they might be treated in a way that was unusual or abnormal," he added in an interview.
Approving exchanges
Since the crew of the crippled surveillance plane was released and China's recent agreement to return the aircraft to the United States, he had again begun approving some military exchanges with China.
"I have been approving things as we have gone along," he replied when asked if more normal relations might resume as the aircraft issue is finally settled and the plane is shipped back to the United States in pieces, as mandated by the Chinese.
"Now, some (exchanges) are down the road," he added, noting that it sometimes took weeks or longer to arrange for contacts such as visits by military officers and warship exchanges.
A senior U.S. defense official traveling with Rumsfeld earlier confirmed a New York Times report that the secretary had canceled a series of planned visits by Chinese military officers to the United States.
'Case by case'
"We are looking at things on a case by case basis," the U.S. official told Reuters. "Right now, the priority is to get the plane back."
China agreed last week to return the spy plane, a lumbering turboprop which U.S. officials said had been harassed by the Chinese fighter in international air space.
But Beijing insisted the damaged aircraft be dismantled into several large pieces and flown away in large cargo planes rather than repaired and flown out by an American crew.
Confusion erupted last month when Rumsfeld's office announced military-to-military contacts between the United States and China had been suspended.
Hours after the announcement, the Pentagon abruptly reversed it, saying the order had "misinterpreted" Rumsfeld's position.
The Pentagon said Rumsfeld had actually decided to subject military contacts to a case-by-case review, instead of a blanket suspension. These contacts include ship visits and military personnel exchanges between the two countries.
Rumsfeld is at the start of a week-long trip in which he was to have talks with Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma and other officials Tuesday followed by visits to five other countries.
----
China Says War Games Are Routine
JUNE 05, 06:23 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7CEB6580
BEIJING (AP) - China said Tuesday that war games under way on an island opposite Taiwan are routine annual exercises.
``As long as a country has a military force there will be military exercises,'' said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi. The war games are ``within the sovereignty, within the territory of China, which has nothing to do with any other countries.''
Sun said the drills, on China's Dongshan island off the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, were aimed at improving the fighting abilities of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the world's largest military.
Sun's low-key description of the maneuvers contrasted with reports in state-run media. They said the Dongshan exercises would practice how to seize an outlying Taiwanese island and attack an aircraft carrier - an apparent references to U.S. naval forces.
``The military exercises are routine annual exercises,'' Sun said. ``Don't confuse it with other issues.''
The state-run Beijing Morning Post newspaper said nearly 10,000 troops were taking part. Their weapons include missiles, amphibious tanks, submarines, warships and Russian-made Su-27 aircraft - among the most modern weapons in China's growing arsenal.
The newspaper said the war games, called `Liberation One,'' would be among the largest the 2.5 million-member PLA has ever conducted.
----
Chinese navy runs emergency deployment drill
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES,
June 5, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010605-672029.htm
The Chinese navy carried out an emergency deployment last week, sending ships and submarines out of ports as if preparing for an attack, according to U.S. defense and intelligence officials.
The May 27 exercise off northern China was described as a "rapid dispersal exercise," said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Nine surface warships, including guided-missile ships, and 15 attack submarines were detected during the exercises. Officials said it is likely that many more vessels took part.
Chinaīs navy was practicing to see how its ships would respond to an emergency combat deployment, the officials said. "It was aimed at assessing the readiness of their combat ships," one official said, noting that the exercise was monitored closely by U.S. intelligence.
One official said at least one U.S. intelligence agency failed to detect the exercise. The agency was not identified.
A second official said Chinese naval vessels fled their ports and returned after several hours at sea. "We detected it as it occurred," this official said. "We had a good handle on when they put out to sea as well as when they came back."
Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said the exercise by the North Sea Fleet did not appear related to ongoing military exercises in the south near Taiwan, the largest by Chinaīs military in recent years.
"This was a no-notice, or emergency, sortie," Adm. Quigley said in an interview. "It can be done for storms, or if there is a hostile action imminent."
Asked if the Chinese navy exercise was successful, Adm. Quigley said it was hard to tell. "An important element of any such exercise is who didnīt get under way, and that we donīt know," he said.
A defense official said the U.S. military has no plans to send an aircraft carrier to the region while Chinese war games are ongoing.
The U.S. aircraft carrier battle group led by the USS Kitty Hawk is in waters near Papua New Guinea and is expected to dock at the U.S. military base on Guam in the next several days.
Pentagon spokesmen have sought to play down the Chinese military maneuvers as non-threatening. Other defense officials have said the activities are worrisome.
The southern war games are based at Dongshan, an island directly opposite Taiwan and the base for 1996 Chinese military maneuvers that Navy intelligence viewed as possible preparations for military action against Taiwan. China fired several short-range missiles during those exercises, prompting the Pentagon to dispatch two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region.
The North Sea Fleet is considered the combat backbone of the Chinese naval forces. It has up to 300 ships and two squadrons of attack submarines. The mission of the fleet is to defend Beijing and the industrial centers of northern China.
It also is used to protect Chinese offshore oil drilling rigs in the region of the Yellow Sea.
The North SeaFleetīs key bases are located at Qingdao, Lushun and Xiaoping. Minor ones are situated at Weihaiwei, Qingshan, Dalian, Huludao, Lienyun, Lingshan, Ta Kushan, Changshan, Liu Zhang and Dayuanjiadun.
In the southern military exercises, Chinese marines conducted an amphibious exercise on Woody Island, a small military outpost in the South China Sea.
Opposite Taiwan, the Chinese military has massed hundreds of amphibious warfare vehicles for what many in the Pentagon view as a trial run for a possible future assault on Taiwan or one of its outlying islands.
Official Chinese news accounts said the military exercises involve some 10,000 troops and are practice for attacking U.S. aircraft carriers and the outlying Penghu island, located about 50 miles from Taiwanīs west coast.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters he has sharply reduced military exchanges with China as a result of Beijingīs handling of the downed EP-3E surveillance aircraft.
All exchanges were initially halted when China detained the aircraftīs 24 crew members after the plane made an emergency landing on Hainan island in the South China Sea. Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him in Ukraine that the military exchanges are being resumed on a limited basis.
"I have been approving things as we have gone along," Mr. Rumsfeld said when asked if normal ties will be resumed once the crippled EP-3E is returned.
"Now, some [exchanges] are down the road," he said.
The Pentagon announced in an internal memorandum issued last month that all military contacts with China had been halted permanently. Hours after the memo became public, the Pentagon reversed the policy and said the exchanges would continue on a case-by-case basis.
China barred a U.S. warship from landing in Hong Kong last month.
-------- colombia
Colombia Prisoner Swap Begins
By JUAN PABLO TORO
Associated Press Writer,
JUNE 05, 18:58 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/main.html?FRONTID=CSA&STORYID=APIS7CF0HH00
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Fourteen months after shooting down a government helicopter, leftist guerrillas on Tuesday freed its crew including a police colonel who was paralyzed and became a heartbreaking national symbol.
The release by Colombia's largest rebel band initiates a prisoner swap that is expected to boost faltering peace talks between President Andres Pastrana's government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Freed in the mountains of western Tolima state were Col. Alvaro Acosta and three crew members of the helicopter downed by the FARC. The group was flown to a hospital in Cali.
There was no immediate word on the health of Acosta, who was left paraplegic by the crash and is believed to be in severe pain and suffering from pneumonia.
Pastrana, speaking from Paraguay where he was visiting, wished Acosta ``a happy return home.''
Despite many reports of Acosta's anguish and deteriorating health, the rebels had refused demands to release him until a larger swap deal was in place.
Under a humanitarian accord struck Sunday, the government and the FARC agreed to exchange at least 57 ill war prisoners - 42 of them police and soldiers held by the FARC and 15 of them rebels imprisoned in government jails.
After the initial exchange, the guerrillas have pledged to unilaterally free at least 100 more of the roughly 500 servicemen they have been holding.
Some of the police and soldiers have languished for nearly four years in captivity, many living in open-air jungle pens enclosed by barbed wire.
-------- drug war
Co. in Missions Has Iran Contra Past
By KEN GUGGENHEIM
Associated Press Writer,
JUNE 05, 01:37 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=WORLD&PACKAGEID=colombia
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. drug eradication flights in Colombia are being flown by the same private company that Oliver North used to secretly run guns to Nicaraguan rebels during the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
Eagle Aviation Services and Technology Inc. has flown State Department planes on dangerous missions in Colombia for 10 years. Three of its pilots have been killed in two crashes.
But its work has received little attention, even as lawmakers scrutinize the use of contractors in the Latin American drug fight.
EAST doesn't work directly for the State Department. It is a subcontractor of Dyncorp Aerospace Technology, the military company hired by State to fly and maintain aircraft for counterdrug missions in Colombia.
EAST pilots spray herbicide on coca, the raw material for cocaine. They frequently face gunfire, sometimes from leftist guerrillas protecting drug traffickers.
Current and former State Department officials said EAST's Iran-Contra past has nothing to do with its Colombia work. ``That was 15 years ago. The issue is what they're doing, not what they did,'' said Jonathan Winer, a former State counterdrug official.
But one lawmaker who wants to ban the use of private contractors for antidrug missions in the Andean region said EAST's work in Colombia merits scrutiny.
``I think this kind of questionable background of being involved in covert, unapproved missions does add another level of questioning: Who are these people and who is holding them accountable?'' said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
Concerns in Congress about contractors have escalated since Peru's military fired on a plane of U.S. missionaries April 20. Contractors aboard a CIA-operated surveillance plane identified the plane as a possible drug flight. An American woman and her infant died.
EAST's president, retired Air Force Col. Thomas Fabyanic, declined to discuss the company's work. ``EAST is a privately held company and therefore we are not obligated to release any information in that regard,'' he said in a telephone interview.
In the 1980s, EAST and its founder, Richard Gadd, helped North, then a National Security Council official, secretly supply weapons and ammunition to Nicaragua's Contra rebels at a time that Congress had banned the government from providing lethal aid.
North also arranged for another of Gadd's companies to win a State Department contract to deliver legal, humanitarian aid. That created what Iran-Contra Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh called ``a rare occasion that a U.S. government program unwittingly provided cover to a private covert operation.''
Revelations of the Contra arms operation and that it had been partly funded by weapons sales to Iran led to convictions of top Reagan administration officials.
Gadd testified in the Iran-Contra case under a grant of immunity from prosecution, and neither he nor EAST was accused of illegalities.
The company kept working for the government.
In 1999 and 2000, EAST received more than $30 million under several Defense Department contracts, which included providing engineering, supplies, and other services for Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, according to Pentagon records.
Dyncorp declined to say how much it pays EAST as part of its five-year, $170 million contract with the State Department for antidrug operations.
Fabyanic said his company was prohibited from discussing its Colombia operations under the terms of the contract with Dyncorp.
Asked if EAST's role in Iran-Contra should be considered significant to its Colombia work, Fabyanic answered: ``Why would it be?''
Dyncorp spokeswoman Charlene A. Wheeless said her company checked out EAST's background before contracting it and found no wrongdoing.
``We feel strongly that EAST is a reputable company,'' she said. ``They do a great job for us as a subcontractor. We feel that they act responsibly.'' In his Iran-Contra testimony, Gadd said EAST was one of several companies he formed after retiring in 1982 as a lieutenant colonel from the Air Force, where he specialized in covert operations.
In the 1980s, the Contra rebels were trying to topple Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. The Reagan administration backed the Contras, viewing the Sandinistas as a Marxist threat to Central America. Democrats who controlled Congress believed the United States should stay out of the conflict and barred U.S. officials from providing lethal aid.
North turned to retired Gen. Richard Secord to set up a private arms pipeline to the Contras. Secord hired Gadd in 1985 to oversee the weapons delivery.
Through EAST, Gadd helped acquire planes to carry arms and ammunition from Portugal to Central America, and to make airdrops directly to Contra fighters. EAST also built an airstrip in Costa Rica near the Nicaraguan border.
EAST received $550,000 for its covert work, according to Walsh's final report.
``If you view the whole operation as somehow illegitimate and illicit, then anybody who participated in it could, you might say, have been involved in doing something wrong,'' former Iran-Contra prosecutor Michael Bromwich said.
But Gadd and his associates ``thought they were working for the White House,'' Bromwich added.
On the Net:
Federation of American Scientists link to Iran-Contra report: http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/
State Department narcotics control bureau: http://www.state.gov/g/inl/narc/
-------- iran
Iran's Presidential Candidates
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; 2:28 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010605/aponline142823_000.htm
A look at the 10 candidates vying in Friday's presidential election in Iran:
MOHAMMAD KHATAMI: Reformist president whose program of democratic reform has won him great popularity at home and abroad. He won 70 percent of the votes in the 1997 election, and is expected to win another four-year term. Born in Ardakan, central Iran, in 1943, he is a middle-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric who traces his descent from Islam's 7th century prophet, Muhammad. Holds degrees in philosophy and education. Backs better ties with Washington, but wants U.S. to avoid interfering in Iranian affairs.
ALI SHAMKHANI: Defense minister since 1997 and former minister of the elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. He is affiliated with hard-liners, though running as an independent. Liberals oppose his candidacy as a violation of the constitutional ban on military's involvement in politics. As army chief, he reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to whom hard-liners look for guidance. Born in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in 1955, he studied agricultural engineering.
ALI FALLAHIAN: Mid-ranking cleric and former spy chief born in Najafabad, central Iran, in 1949. He was educated at Qom's Haqqani School of Theology, a breeding ground for Islamic militants. He was among Iranian leaders indicted by a German court in 1997 for gangland-style 1992 slaying of three Kurdish dissidents and their translator in Berlin. He refused parliament summons for questioning about 1998 killings of dissidents. Running as independent, but close to Khamenei; member of assembly that elects supreme leader.
AHMAD TAVAKOLI: Finished second in 1993 presidential race, losing to Hashemi Rafsanjani. Born in 1951 in Behshahr, hotbed of extremism in northern Iran. He holds a doctorate in economics from England's Nottingham University and pledges to improve economy.
ABDOLLAH JASBI: Head of the Islamic Azad University, he is close to hard-liners. Born in Tehran in 1944, Jasbi holds doctorate from England's Birmingham University. Won only a few thousand votes in 1993 against Rafsanjani. Often caricatured in newspapers as "Prince Jasbi" for heading wealthy, state-owned institution that accepts nearly every applicant and charges hefty fees for an education widely regarded as inferior to that at other Iranian universities. Since starting his election campaign, has eased strict Islamic dress codes for men and women at his universities.
HASSAN GHAFOURIFARD: Former energy minister, vice president in charge of physical education and legislator with degrees in seismology and nuclear physics. Born in 1943 in Tehran. Affiliated with the Islamic Coalition Society, an ultraconservative group in hard-line camp. Opposes resumption of ties with the United States.
MOSTAFA HASHEMITABA: Vice president for athletic affairs, former head of the Iran Exports Promotion Center. Born in 1956 in Tehran. Supports a conservative wing within largely pro-reform Executives of Construction Party. Has said in recent interviews he backs hard-liners' closure of dozens of newspapers and crackdown on political dissidents.
MOHAMMAD KASHANI: Born in Tehran in 1942, Kashani holds a doctorate in law and teaches at the Beheshti University in Tehran. Headed the Iranian legal team at the International Court of Justice in claims against the United States. Critic of Khatami's reform program, opposes any improvement of ties with Washington.
MANSOUR RAZAVI: Little-known academic and elected member of Tehran City Council. Born in 1952 in Isfahan, central Iran. Holds doctorate in civil engineering. Promises educational reforms that would allow more young Iranians to enter universities.
SHAHABODDIN SADR: Born in 1962 in Tehran, Sadr is known for his hard-line views. Trained as a physician, Sadr is a former lawmaker and deputy health minister who failed to get re-elected in February's legislative polls.
-------- iraq
Putin Ally Heads for Iraq for Saddam Talks
By REUTERS
June 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-.html
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu flew to Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with President Saddam Hussein and other top Iraqi officials, the ministry said.
Shoigu, a close aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was due to discuss humanitarian issues, notably the creation of a national rescue and medical catastrophe service, Deputy Emergency Minister Yuri Brazhnikov said in a statement.
During his stay, which is due to last until Friday, Shoigu will also meet with Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and the interior, transport and health ministers.
Shoigu's visit comes the day after Iraq halted oil exports in a row with the United Nations over an oil-for-food program. It allows Iraq to export oil via a special U.N. account to buy food and medicines, and is an exemption from stringent sanctions imposed on Iraq over its 1990 invasion of neighbor Kuwait.
Russia and fellow permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, France and China, have been sympathetic to Iraq's demand for a lifting of the decade-old sanctions regime.
Baghdad's decision to cut off exports removes some five percent of world oil exports, boosting share prices for Russian oil firms as a side effect.
Moscow, whose oil firms are keen to win contracts to lift Iraqi oil and share in future refurbishment contracts once sanctions are eased, has so far declined to back ``smart sanctions'' devised by Britain and the United States.
London and Washington say the revised sanctions would ease the plight of ordinary Iraqis, ban military-related items and prevent Iraq from selling oil outside the U.N. system.
As a permanent Security Council member Russia, a traditional Baghdad ally, has a right of veto.
----
Rumsfeld: Chinese aided Iraq's threat
By Robert Burns
ASSOCIATED PRESS,
June 5, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010605-5529694.htm
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- The help Iraq has received from China and other countries to strengthen its air defenses is increasing the risks to U.S. and British pilots flying over northern and southern Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
After meetings with senior Turkish government officials in Ankara, Mr. Rumsfeld visited Incirlik Air Base in south-central Turkey and spoke with U.S. pilots who patrol the northern zone and told him of the heightened danger.
From inside an aircraft hangar, Mr. Rumsfeld praised the troops for risking their lives to help contain Iraqīs military and limit the threat to the Kurds in the northern region of the country.
"For all the difficulties you face, you do it remarkably well. Your resolve helps keep that still-dangerous regime in check," Mr. Rumsfeld told a few hundred troops, representing all the U.S. services, as well as the British and Turkish militaries.
A U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who has flown missions over northern Iraq since February said in an interview the threat from that countryīs air defenses has become greater in recent months.
"The threat has increased significantly. In the past five months, it has been greater than what weīve seen in the past," said the pilot, who could not be identified for security reasons.
"They are shooting much more frequently," he said of the Iraqi air defenders.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the troopsī mission, known as Operation Northern Watch, is necessary to keep a lid on Iraqīs military.
"The risk grows to the extent that other nations assist Iraq in strengthening its military capability, its air-defense capability," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Mr. Rumsfeld gave as an example U.S. assertions that Chinese workers were in Iraq early this year to install fiber-optic links in Iraqīs air-defense network.
Mr. Rumsfeld said President Bush plans for now to stick with the Clinton administrationīs policy of regularly patrolling the skies over Iraq to contain Saddam Husseinīs forces.
No planes have been lost in the 10 years since the no-fly zone enforcement began in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war, but Iraqi air defenses regularly fire on allied planes with surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the administration is still studying the matter of enforcing the no-fly zones.
"We donīt have any proposals to alter that at the present time," Mr. Rumsfeld said in an interview with reporters traveling with him from Washington to the Turkish capital.
Turkey was the first stop for Mr. Rumsfeld on a weeklong European tour that is his most extensive overseas trip since taking office.
In the airborne interview, Mr. Rumsfeld said the administration is not considering reducing the 100,000-strong American force in Europe, but is reviewing the way troops there and elsewhere abroad are arrayed.
-------- israel
Anti-Israel bias in Europe
Zalman Shaval,
June 5, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010605-5357752.htm
The last time a European government imposed trade sanctions on Jewish goods, it was Nazi Germany in 1938. Sixty -three years later it is the European Union which plans to ban the entry of duty-free products made by Jews living and working in the disputed territories in the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan, (nothing was said, of course, about Arab-produced goods).
Even goods from East Jerusalem are to be blacklisted. The amounts of those Israeli exports, by the way, are not very big about $200 million in all but it is the reprehensible principle and the dangerous precedent for which the E.U. deserves to be condemned. Elena Bonner, the widow of Russian human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, once compared denying the legitimacy of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria to ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia the truth of this, seems however, to have been lost on the policy-makers in Brussels in spite of their supposed commitment to strengthening the ethical dimension of their foreign policy. What may also have escaped them is that by banning the Israeli goods they would create additional economic hardships for ordinary Palestinians who are among the main beneficiaries of Israelīs economic activities in the "territories," and whose standard of living has already dramatically deteriorated as a result of the Palestinian Authorityīs corruption and inefficiency and of Yasser Arafatīs terrorist campaign.
Unfortunately, some European politicians and technocrats, having short memories, seem to have forgotten their own nationsī historic and moral responsibility to the Jewish people especially at a time when it is still struggling to rebuild itself in its ancient land, after having been the victims of historyīs greatest catastrophe right there, on Europeīs soil.
It isnīt as if the European Union didnīt have what should have been more pressing political matters on its plate. Israel-bashing, however, seems to be the preferred alternative. One shouldnīt generalize however: The record of some, especially that of Germany, the Netherlands, sometimes the U.K. - and, hopefully, Italy under its new government - is usually better).
Not content with the threatened economic steps, the presidency of the European Union, sitting in its rotating ivory tower (this time it was Stockholm), has also accused Israel of "disproportionate use of force" in its fight against terrorism and bloodshed. In effect it has said that Israel, the Middle Eastīs only democracy and the victim of Mr. Arafatīs so-called "El-Aqsa Intifada," carried the main responsibility for restoring peace. Strangely nothing was said about the Israeli governmentīs unilateral cease-fire and the Palestiniansī response to it more bombings and killings.
Apparently, the principle that Saddam Husseinīs aggression against Kuwait should not be rewarded is considered irrelevant in the case of the Palestinians. Not only that, but the functionaries who proposed the anti-Israel measures seem to be encumbered by an amazing degree of disregard both for history and for international law. The European Union, adopting the Arab (and previously Soviet) line, terms Jewish settlements in the territories "illegal" (a term never adopted by the United States) though many experts on international law disagree. Jerusalem, which, as every Christian, Jew and probably most Muslims know, has been the focus of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years, is also called "occupied territory" conveniently forgetting that had it not been for the war waged against it in 1967, Israel would not have been in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in the first place in spite of its unchallengeable, historical, legal and moral rights there.
Israelīs enemies are also making a quite successful effort in making the world forget that there never was a Palestinian state and that under international law, Israelīs claims to sovereignty in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are at least as good, if not better, than those of anybody else. The very essence of the peace-process, both of the U.S.-sponsored Madrid Conference and of the Oslo agreement, was that all these issues, including sovereignty, borders, settlements, etc. should be decided in talks between the sides. The European Union, and to some extent also the recent Mitchell report, ignore this truth juxtaposing the future of the Jewish settlements with Palestinian violence. Israel has always stated that it is prepared to make far-reaching and painful sacrifices for the sake of peace. But the sort of anti-Israel steps which the European Union is contemplating now, instead of making it clear to the Palestinians that compromise must be a two-way street is, to say the least, counterproductive.
Actually, it is rather a pity that the European Union does not do more to promote peace and stability in the Middle East. But as long as its present lack of even-handedness continues, it will not be able to make a constructive contribution in this respect. Europe seems to have a problem: It doesnīt want to be only an economic power (which it is), but also a political power (which it isnīt). So it isnīt only little Israel on which the E.U. vents its spleen, but increasingly the United States as well. Disagreeing on different issues is natural and perfectly legitimate. However, it would be a tragedy, if the European Union as is often the case at the United Nations and other international organizations which are strongly influenced by anti-Israel and anti-American forces would lend itself to the sort of anti-Israel stratagems which enlightened public opinion and a modicum of fair-mindedness should have rejected out of hand.
Zalman Shaval is ambassador of Israel.
-------- puerto rico
Puerto Rico's Gov.: Bombing Must Stop
By PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writer
JUNE 06, 02:32 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=CSA&STORYID=APIS7CESSVO0
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Since the United States seized Puerto Rico more than 100 years ago, the island has fought the federal government to fly its own flag, protect the Spanish language and stop Navy bombing exercises on the outlying islands of Culebra and Vieques.
All but one of those battles have been won, with the Navy warning it plans a fresh round of bombing on its Vieques firing range next week.
A referendum set for November would allow voters the option of ending the military maneuvers, but only in 2003 - a delay that angers many opponents.
``If you know a woman is being battered, you're not going to tell her to stay until 2003,'' Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon told The Associated Press in an interview this week. ``The bombing has to stop immediately.''
The Navy maintains Vieques provides unique training that saves lives in combat. Calderon said she agrees with the need for the Navy to train in Puerto Rico, but believes it can be done without bombing exercises.
``Vieques is a very important place to do air-to-ground bombing because we can do on-shore bombing while marines practice landing on the beach,'' Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode said. Bombing practices could resume June 13 and last up to 18 days, she said.
The Navy built a strong presence on Culebra and Vieques in the 1940s, displacing residents and using the land to ready marines and sailors for World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. In those days, the Navy dropped live bombs and explosive shells. Now the practice maneuvers use only inert bombs.
The Culebra exercises stopped in 1975 after islanders derailed a mock marine invasion by blocking the harbor with boats, and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had just brokered an end to the Vietnam War, helped negotiate the Navy's withdrawal.
But the exercises continued on Vieques - a slender island off Puerto Rico's east coast with about 9,400 residents. Public outrage was renewed in 1999 when two errant bombs killed a civilian guard.
``We're all somewhat responsible for Vieques,'' Calderon said. ``We had been sensitized, or desensitized, after years of bombing. It took a very tragic accident for us to look toward Vieques.''
Since then, Vieques has become a rallying point for civil rights activists, environmentalists and mainland politicians who stand to gain a greater share of the Hispanic vote.
During the last exercises, April 27 to May 1, about 180 people were arrested for trespassing on Navy land in protests to thwart the maneuvers. More than 40 protesters have been sentenced to prison terms of up to four months, including the Rev. Al Sharpton. Robert Kennedy also was arrested but has not been given a court date.
A dozen witnesses testified Tuesday before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus alleging naval personally mistreat the protesters. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., accused the Navy of ``dehumanizing, degrading and punitive treatment.''
It isn't the first time Puerto Rico has faced off against the federal government. Puerto Rico won the right to use Spanish as the primary language in schools in 1948, and the Puerto Rican flag was allowed the hang alongside the American flag in 1952. Each case overcame rules established when the United States took the island after the Spanish American War
``The Puerto Rican people have struggled since 1898 to assert their rights, particularly with regard to identity and self,'' Calderon said. ``The Vieques issue, however, I see differently. We see the damage that is being done by the bombing. This a struggle for human rights.''
Since taking office last year, Calderon has focused mostly on getting Puerto Rico's ailing economy back on track. But she has also championed the Vieques cause. She cited several medical studies early this year that allege decades of Navy bombing have created health problems for residents. The Navy denies the claim and says the studies are unscientific.
Animosity between Calderon's administration and the Navy deepened in April when Puerto Rico sued the Navy and Department of Defense, saying the bombing violated noise control laws.
In May, Puerto Rico filed a Freedom of Information request for documents it said could prove the Navy lobbied Congress about Vieques. The Navy denied it broke the federal law that prohibits federal agencies from lobbying Congress.
``I never wanted to file a lawsuit because I have always seen myself as a partner and ally of the federal government,'' Calderon said. ``But the courts are the places to work this out if the principals aren't going to sit down and listen to the arguments.''
-------- russia
Kremlin acknowledges Chechen disappearances
World Scene
June 5, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010605-18813416.htm
MOSCOW -- A Kremlin human rights official conceded yesterday that hundreds of Chechens have disappeared during the war in Chechnya, and called for stronger oversight over civilians detained by the army.
Russian forces routinely seize Chechens from the streets during sweeps for suspected insurgents, and some of the detainees have later been found dead. Human rights groups accuse Russian forces of torture and summary executions of detained civilians.
President Vladimir Putinīs commissioner for human rights in Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, said 930 persons officially had been reported missing since the start of Russiaīs military campaign in August 1999.
Investigators have located 366 of the missing persons, most of them in Russian detention, and 18 more have been found dead, Mr. Kalamanov said.
-------- space
Satellite Industry Resists Helping Military Industry
Official Says Military Must Depend on Its Own Satellites and Technology Development
By Jeremy Singer
Space News Staff Writer
05 June 2001 http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacepolicy/thompson_military_010605.html
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon will have to continue building and developing its own satellites despite the military's desire to make greater use of commercial satellite services and technology development, according to Dave Thompson, president of satellite builder Spectrum Astro.
Thompson, whose company does most of its business with the Pentagon, said commercial satellite operators are not likely to modify their satellites and ground stations to military specifications such as hardening them against possible attack.
Commercial services also will not meet the military's needs for encrypted and jam-proof communications, Thompson said during a speech in Washington June 5 at the American Astronautical Society's 4th National Space Forum.
Thompson said the Pentagon should not leave technology development entirely to the private sector, because too many important breakthroughs were the result of the work of the military's own research labs. He cited as two examples the Internet and the Global Positioning System of Navigation satellites.
"Commercial users will not develop the technology or systems needed for our military space systems," Thompson said.
-------- ukraine
Kuchma Assures Rumsfeld on Democracy
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer,
JUNE 05, 06:21 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&PACKAGEID=defense
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma assured Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday that the former Soviet republic will continue its transition from communism to a Western-oreinted democracy
``He did personally assure us that this is his commitment and intention and asked me to convey that to the president of the United States,'' Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld spoke to reporters after meeting with Kuchma and other senior government leaders, including the new prime minister, Anatoly Kinakh.
``We recognize there is no book that has been written as to exactly how a country moves from communism to free political and free economic institutions, and that it can be a difficult path,'' said Rumsfeld. ``We understand.''
He had told reporters Monday en route to Kiev that Ukraine - once a launching pad for Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at America - ``is an important country, and it's in a difficult transition, as are most of the former Soviet republics. We wish them well and we hope they continue on a path toward free institutions.
``It is a difficult task to navigate from where the former Soviet republics were to where they're going, and it's not something that's been done repeatedly throughout history, and it is not an easy task and there are an enormous number of changes that need to be made,'' he said.
Kuchma's hold on power has been weakened by unproven allegations tying him and other government officials to the murder last fall of a journalist.
After his Kiev talks, Rumsfeld planned to fly to Macedonia to meet with government officials and visit with U.S. troops supporting the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in neighboring Kosovo. He also was scheduled to fly to Camp Bondsteel, the main U.S. Army encampment in Kosovo, to talk to U.S. troops.
It will be Rumsfeld's first visit to the Balkans as defense secretary. He has been pushing to reduce the U.S. role as peacekeeper in Bosnia and Kosovo, although he has said the United States will not pull out unilaterally.
In an indication of Ukraine's interest in strengthening its ties to the West, it will be an invited observer at Wednesday's meeting in Greece of defense ministers from the Balkan nations, Rumsfeld said.
Some observers believe Russia is trying to draw Ukraine back into its orbit as Ukrainian reforms have sputtered.
Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, wrote recently that Ukraine is in ``dangerous political water,'' making it vulnerable to Russian intrigues. ``Washington may be able to do little more than nudge Kiev back toward the West, but nudge Kiev it should do.''
-------- u.s.
U.S. Defense Chief Visits Balkans
By Robert Burns
AP Military Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; 1:16 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010605/aponline131635_000.htm
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Yugoslavia -- On his first visit to the Balkans as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld praised American troops Tuesday and suggested a need for continuing U.S. peacekeeping in Kosovo.
"Your willingness to answer the call to duty allows our country to contribute peace and stability in this still-dangerous and untidy world of ours," Rumsfeld told several hundred members of the U.S. peacekeeping contingent at this base in southeastern Kosovo.
Rumsfeld made no direct mention of the future U.S. role in Kosovo, though in the past the Pentagon chief has questioned the wisdom of keeping American troops in the Balkans and other hot spots for years on end.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and other U.S. officials have assured Europeans the United States won't pull out of missions abruptly, saying U.S. forces went in with Europeans and will go out with them.
Rumsfeld, offering support for the mission, praised the soldiers and their commanders for interdicting weapons and other supplies moving through this area into Macedonia, where rebels are operating.
Earlier, Rumsfeld flew by helicopter to a U.S. Army observation post atop a rugged hill on the Kosovo-Macedonia border. A 31-man Army platoon there in the village of Mijak keeps a lookout for mule trains hauling weapons and supplies across the Macedonian border, which is nearly within spitting distance of the foxholes where soldiers peer down the hillsides.
Rumsfeld ducked into the foxholes and spoke to several soldiers, thanking them for their efforts.
The defense secretary examined weapons U.S. forces had confiscated, including rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Brig. Gen. William Davis, commander of U.S. forces in Kosovo, said the peacekeepers in recent months had managed to limit the amount of arms crossing the border into the hands of Macedonian rebels.
"Truly we do not think there is a lot coming down the pike from Kosovo into Macedonia," Davis said. However, he qualified that by adding, "It might be a case of we don't know what we don't know."
Before traveling to Kosovo, Rumsfeld held talks with Ukraine leaders in Kiev.
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma assured Rumsfeld that the former Soviet republic will continue its transition from communism to a Western-oriented democracy.
"He did personally assure us that this is his commitment and intention and asked me to convey that to the president of the United States," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld spoke to reporters after meeting with Kuchma and other senior government leaders, including the new prime minister, Anatoly Kinakh.
"We recognize there is no book that has been written as to exactly how a country moves from communism to free political and free economic institutions, and that it can be a difficult path," said Rumsfeld. "We understand."
He had told reporters Monday en route to Kiev that Ukraine - once a launching pad for Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at America - "is an important country, and it's in a difficult transition, as are most of the former Soviet republics. We wish them well and we hope they continue on a path toward free institutions.
"It is a difficult task to navigate from where the former Soviet republics were to where they're going, and it's not something that's been done repeatedly throughout history, and it is not an easy task and there are an enormous number of changes that need to be made," he said.
Kuchma's hold on power has been weakened by unproven allegations tying him and other government officials to the murder last fall of a journalist.
In an indication of Ukraine's interest in strengthening its ties to the West, it will be an invited observer at Wednesday's meeting in Greece of defense ministers from the Balkan nations, Rumsfeld said.
Some observers believe Russia is trying to draw Ukraine back into its orbit as Ukrainian reforms have sputtered.
Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, wrote recently that Ukraine is in "dangerous political water," making it vulnerable to Russian intrigues. "Washington may be able to do little more than nudge Kiev back toward the West, but nudge Kiev it should do."
-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Glowing in the Wind
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2001
Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/05/p10s2.htm
The wind's up around the world - as far as converting it into electricity goes. The amount generated has tripled in four years. That alone creates a sense of possibility for new ways to meet rising energy demands.
Take, for instance, a proposed wind farm to be called "Rolling Thunder," which would generate 3,000 megawatts of power in South Dakota for the Chicago region. It would be one of the world's largest energy projects.
Why the progress? More efficient technology has lowered the cost of wind power, so it's close to that of traditional power plants. And a few big energy companies, trying to develop a "green" strategy, are pursuing investments in wind power.
Wind generators, of course, have their own environmental problems - noise and signal interference - but those pale against the pollutants from oil- and coal-powered plants.
"Wind rich" states such as Kansas, North Dakota, and Texas could someday supply most of US energy, particularly if hydrogen produced by wind-derived electricity could be stored and used to generate electricity as needed. That would help overcome wind power's limitation of not always being available for consumers.
And if hydrogen-powered fuel cells could be safely substituted for today's gasoline-driven vehicles, the internal combustion engine would become a thing of the past.
The federal assistance historically given to traditional power industries should not be denied to renewable energies such as wind. Congress should extend a wind-power tax credit.
-------- energy
Survey Finds Support for Electricity Price Caps
56% Say Federal Government Should Set Limits, Which Bush Ruled Out for Calif.
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20960-2001Jun4?language=printer
Most respondents to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll agree with California Gov. Gray Davis (D) that the federal government should set limits on the wholesale price of electricity, which President Bush has said he opposes despite the likelihood of rolling blackouts this summer in the largest state.
Of those polled, 56 percent said they favored price limits, even though it was pointed out that such a measure could discourage development of new supplies. Forty percent said they opposed price caps, which Davis said he will seek in federal court after Bush ruled out the idea during a face-to-face meeting last week.
The poll found support, however, for many of the ideas in Bush's long-range energy plan. A majority of respondents said they support the power plant construction that is the linchpin of Bush's policy, although even more said they favored increased conservation by consumers and businesses.
Fred Yang, who has polled on energy issues for the Democratic National Committee, said the Post-ABC results point to a major vulnerability in Bush's plan. "People feel we have an immediate problem, but that he is not doing anything immediate to help them," Yang said.
Bush's energy plan, which he announced last month and has been promoting with a series of road trips, emphasizes the use of technology for conservation but makes no demands on consumers to carpool or otherwise cut back, as President Jimmy Carter asked in 1979.
Bush's plan is weighted toward increasing production of oil, coal and natural gas, as well as nuclear power. Democrats, who are scheduled to take control of the Senate this week, contend that the plan would benefit the energy industry without lowering prices for consumers.
In the poll, 62 percent of respondents said they favored government action to encourage the building of more power plants that burn oil, coal or natural gas, while 31 percent opposed the idea.
Jim Owen, communications director of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group for utilities, said people are beginning to realize that some of the power problems the nation has had, particularly in California, "stem partially, if not significantly, from the fact that power plant construction has lagged the growth in demand."
Of eight choices for policies to address the nation's energy needs, the respondents' top three choices involved conservation: 90 percent of those polled said they supported increased energy conservation by consumers, more conservation by business and the development of more solar and wind power.
An overwhelming 89 percent of respondents said they would require vehicle manufacturers to improve the fuel efficiency of their products. Bush's energy task force asked the Energy Department to examine the possibility of stricter vehicle efficiency standards, but only if changing them would not make cars so expensive that it would discourage purchasers or manufacturers.
In the poll, 67 percent favored increased oil and gas drilling, 54 percent favored increased coal mining and 46 percent supported construction of nuclear power plants.
Steve Kerekes of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, said nuclear energy was "so far off the radar" until recently that many polls had not asked about it in 15 years. Kerekes said support has been building as people have had to "think more consciously about electricity issues than they've had to in a long time."
----
OPEC Will Make Up for Oil Shortage
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer,
JUNE 05, 06:22 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=BUSINESS&PACKAGEID=BIZoil
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - OPEC will make up for any shortage in crude oil supplies resulting from Iraq's suspension of exports, the oil minister for Saudi Arabia, the cartel's largest producer, said Tuesday.
One day after Iraq halted most of its crude shipments, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi gave his first public reassurance to oil markets and importers.
``I can assure you there will be no shortage in the market,'' Naimi said.
Delegates of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries were meeting later in the day in Vienna to assess demand for oil and to set output targets. OPEC officials are expected to maintain production at current levels, but Iraq's move had cast some doubt on the meeting's outcome.
Naimi gave no details about how OPEC members might replace the daily shipments of some 2 million barrels that Iraq began withholding Monday. However, he suggested that OPEC would not intervene by boosting production right away, due to uncertainty about the duration of the Iraqi suspension.
``The market is stable and everybody is happy,'' Naimi said.
OPEC has an official output target of 24.2 million barrels a day, and its members pump about two-fifths of the world's crude. Although Iraq belongs to OPEC, it doesn't participate in production agreements with the group's other 10 members. Saudi Arabia is OPEC's No. 1 producer and the only cartel member able to quickly make up for the loss of Iraq's oil. Most of the other members are pumping at or near their limits.
Delegates have started discussing the possibility of holding an emergency meeting in July, depending on the status of the Iraqi export suspension, a senior OPEC source said.
Crude prices initially shot higher Monday on Iraq's announcement, then lost those gains as it became apparent from other OPEC ministers that the group was unlikely to allow a shortfall to occur.
``OPEC will manage the market, and I'm not concerned (about) any shortage,'' Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said Monday.
Non-OPEC member Russia said Tuesday it will not boost oil exports in response to Iraq's cut, saying OPEC can pick up the slack.
The cartel's members meet as motorists in the United States are facing stiff prices at the pump, with motorists in some places paying more than $2 a gallon for gasoline. OPEC says bottlenecks at U.S. refineries are the cause of the high prices.
Some analysts said the worst of the summer's high gas prices may already have passed.
``I personally think we're over the top,'' said Leo Drollas, chief economist of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London. He noted that U.S. refineries were operating at 96 percent of capacity and that gasoline imports were flooding into the United States.
Still, Iraq's move triggered a wave of panic buying of crude on Monday. July contracts of North Sea Brent crude leapt to a six-month high of $29.71 on the International Petroleum Exchange in London, before they falling back. July Brent rose to $29.28 in early trading Tuesday.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil took the lead in trying to reassure markets.
``We're going to make sure that demand is met. ... I'm not worried,'' he told reporters. He added that crude supplies were ``good and sufficient'' to meet global demand.
Obaid bin Saif Al-Nasseri, oil minister for the United Arab Emirates, said OPEC hasn't ruled out increasing output if the situation warrants it.
``But we still have to study further - it's too early to give a clear response,'' he said.
Bill Edwards, a Houston-based energy consultant, said OPEC probably would respond to Iraq's halt in exports by doing nothing.
``They don't know what Iraq's going to do,'' he said.
Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Taha Hmoud Mousa dispelled some of that uncertainty, telling reporters on Monday that his government has suspended exports for one month. The halt was made as a protest against the U.N. Security Council's decision to extend by one month instead of the usual six months the program under which Iraq can sell oil.
The Iraqi government is desperate to shake off economic controls imposed by the United Nations after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It has disrupted crude exports before, and its shipments have been somewhat sporadic since December.
On the Net: http://www.opec.org
----
California Residents Answer State's Call To Cut Power Use
Consumption Fell 11 Percent in May
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2001; Page A08
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21399-2001Jun4?language=printer
LOS ANGELES, June 4 -- Fearful of blackouts and expensive utility bills, Californians have begun conserving electricity at a rate the state has rarely seen.
New figures show that in May, California residents and businesses reduced power consumption by 11 percent, the largest decline since the state's energy crisis erupted earlier this year.
For state officials, who for months have been pleading with California's 34 million residents to conserve electricity, the figures are a heartening sign on the eve of what could be a long struggle this summer to avoid recurring power outages.
"It's extraordinary," said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis (D). "People are getting the message that we are in a serious crisis, and they're responding."
The statewide drop in electricity use last month exceeded the target set by energy officials and occurred before residents and businesses were eligible for state financial incentives for demonstrating energy efficiency -- and before they were hit with steep utility rate increases designed, in part, to reduce electricity use.
The data also reveal that Californians are cutting power consumption at just the right times: the late afternoon and early evening peak periods of electricity demand that most strain the state's power grid.
"We still have a ways to go," said Claudia Chandler, a director of the California Energy Commission, "but this is absolutely significant. When the governor called for cutting consumption by 10 percent, a lot of people said that it could not be done."
After blackouts first struck California in January, power consumption in the state dropped about 6 percent over the previous year. It dropped by 9 percent in April.
The 11 percent decline in power use last month saved enough electricity to power several million homes, energy officials said. If the state shows similar or greater rates of conservation between now and the end of the summer, the risk of rolling blackouts could be diminished. The state's energy supply and demand problems are so dire, however, that it is still bracing for what could be weeks of rolling blackouts.
Despite their elation with the May conservation results, state officials cautioned that California's most serious tests lie ahead, when hotter weather may make many residents and businesses more reluctant to set their thermostats higher or turn off air conditioners.
California uses less energy per capita than virtually any other state, but unless residents take additional conservation measures, state officials say, more rounds of blackouts are inevitable -- and they threaten to disrupt the state's giant economy.
The state already has spent $20 million on radio and television ads to promote conservation. It also is beginning to spend another $800 million on an array of rebates and grants to residents and businesses using energy-efficient appliances and lighting. One program offers residents a 20 percent rebate on utility bills if they cut power consumption by 20 percent.
In March, Davis ordered large retailers around the state to reduce outdoor lighting by at least 50 percent, or face fines.
Residents or businesses that do not heed the urgent statewide call to conserve electricity could soon face monthly utility bills nearly 50 percent higher than they were only a few months ago.
"Last summer, people weren't thinking about this at all," Chandler said. "But now they really seem to be stepping up to the plate on this problem and doing their part."
-------- environment
China Warns of Environmental Dangers
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer,
JUNE 05, 08:05 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7CECM500
BEIJING (AP) - China's top environmental official warned that degradation of its air, water and soil is progressing faster than efforts to stop the ruin.
Deserts are spreading and nearly half of Chinese river water supplies don't meet safety standards, Xie Zhenhua, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said Tuesday.
``The damage is occurring much faster than our actions to help prevent damage and help the environment recover,'' Xie said at a news conference.
Waste-water recycling, the closure of polluting factories and a switch to unleaded gasoline have helped. But ``the absolute amount of pollutants remains very high,'' and is much greater than what the environment is capable of handling, he said.
A report issued by Xie's agency said only 57 percent of river water met basic standards for purity and ground water is heavily polluted. Underground water supplies are being depleted by pumping to supply booming demand by cities and farming.
Xie's annual assessment is aimed at raising public awareness after years of indifference to environmental damage in the haste to industrialize.
Some 90 percent of grasslands, which cover about 40 percent of China's territory, have been degraded, leading to worsening desertification and salting of the land, the report said. Deserts in the northwest are gradually encroaching on populated areas, worsening sand storms that strike cities.
A lack of environmental awareness among Chinese contributes to the problem, Xie said.
``People have to get the sense that protecting the environment is directly linked to their own personal well-being,'' he said.
The report did point to some successes, especially improvements in air quality from closing older, heavily polluting state factories.
Between 1995 and 2000, levels of sulfur dioxide from coal burning fell by 15 percent, while gas and dust in the air fell by 33 percent, it said.
Beijing's environment has improved markedly under a 10-year, $12 billion program to improve air and water quality in hopes of being picked to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Xie also noted China's planting of forests and grasslands, improvements in energy efficiency and exploitation of alternative power sources such as hydropower and nuclear power.
He said such steps will reduce outputs of carbon dioxide, the gas blamed for global warming, by the equivalent of 550 million tons over five to 10 years.
``We're a developing country, but we also try to make a contribution,'' Xie said.
Xie repeated Chinese China criticism President Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on global warning, calling that action ``irresponsible.''
The agreement committed industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5.2 percent by 2012 from 1990 levels. Developing countries such as China had no obligations under the treaty.
``We appeal to the United States to return to the correct path, take real action to reduce emissions and carry out its commitments,'' Xie said.
-------- health
3 Fake Drugs Are Found in Pharmacies
By MELODY PETERSEN,
June 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/business/05DRUG.html
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating four cases of counterfeit prescription drugs making their way to pharmacy shelves, and, in some cases, being given to patients.
No one is known to have been seriously injured, although some patients have had adverse reactions. But F.D.A. officials say they are worried about the four cases and have made the investigation a high priority.
"This little spate of cases is highly unusual," William K. Hubbard, a senior associate commissioner at the F.D.A., said. In the last decade, he said, there have been only a handful of similar instances.
The recent cases involve three injectable drugs: Serostim, a growth hormone sold by Serono and used by AIDS patients; Nutropin, a growth hormone sold by Genentech; and Neupogen, a cancer drug sold by Amgen. All three drugs are expensive, which could be why the counterfeiters selected them. A 12-week course of Serostim, for instance, costs $21,000.
The counterfeiters may have been able to find an easy market for their drugs since Serostim and Nutropin are sought by people who believe the drugs will help them lose weight, build muscle and smooth wrinkles. Some Web sites promote the drugs for such uses, and, in some cases, offer to sell them without a prescription.
F.D.A. officials and the drug companies have sent letters to pharmacies, doctors and distributors all over the country to warn them about the counterfeit drugs.
Serono first realized that someone was counterfeiting Serostim late last year when patients began to call to complain that they had suffered a slight swelling or a skin rash after being injected. Counterfeit versions of Serostim have been found in at least seven states.
Last month, F.D.A. officials reported three more cases of counterfeit drugs, this time involving Neupogen, Nutropin and a second fake batch of Serostim. Genentech, which makes Nutropin, said pharmacies in Florida, California and Indiana had found fake copies of the drug on their shelves.
F.D.A. officials say they cannot discuss many aspects of the recent cases because of the ongoing investigation.
And it is not clear whether the counterfeit drugs were produced in the United States or came from overseas. Counterfeiters are drawn to prescription drugs, in part, because their small size makes them easy to smuggle.
But either way, the drugs appear to be coming through networks that operate largely beyond the reach of regulators.
At least some of the counterfeit Serostim ended up in pharmacies after it was quickly bought and resold by a handful of small drug distributors doing business in a gray market for medicines that has repeatedly raised concerns among government officials.
According to the distributors and government officials, a small Florida distributor sold some counterfeit Serostim to Dutchess Business Services Inc., a small distributor in Las Vegas, which then sold it to Quality King Distributors Inc., a distributor in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Quality King officials said they then sold it to other distributors.
Prescription drugs are often diverted into this gray market by individuals or small businesses who say they are buying the medicines for nursing homes or other institutions that are offered steep price discounts by many pharmaceutical companies. Instead, these buyers sell the discounted drugs into a network of hundreds of small distributors who resell the drugs any number of times, marking up the price in the process. The origin of a drug can quickly become unclear as it passes from warehouse to warehouse.
"Counterfeiting and diversion go hand in hand," said Stephen J. Haynes, who retired last year from his job as a special agent in charge of the investigative division of the office of criminal investigation at the F.D.A.
Congress has also recently become concerned about whether inspectors at the F.D.A. and the United States Customs Service have enough resources to stop illicit medicines from coming from overseas.
In a March letter to the F.D.A., Representative Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he was concerned that the government's system of inspecting packages of prescription drugs mailed into the United States from overseas "was inadequate and incapable of protecting the public from potentially adulterated and unsafe medicines."
Customs officials said their seizures of counterfeit and other prescription drugs had risen sharply in recent years. The service seized 9,725 parcels of prescription drugs in 1999, compared with 2,145 the year before. Most of the seizures were drugs purchased by Americans from Web sites operating in foreign countries. But some of the seizures were commercial shipments that were intended for resale, customs officials said.
The committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on imported prescription drugs on Thursday.
Representative James C. Greenwood, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is chairman of the subcommittee, said he had recently visited an airport mail center where customs officials showed him some parcels they had seized.
"There were unidentifiable pills coming in in plastic bags," Representative Greenwood said. "This is a big problem, and it has a potential to kill people."
Paul K. Schwartz, director of trade enforcement at the Customs Service, said he did not believe prescription drug counterfeiting was on the rise.
"But," he added, "there is no way of knowing what we are not catching."
All three companies with drugs that have been recently counterfeited said they immediately told the F.D.A. when they found the fake drugs.
In each case, the counterfeit drug looked nearly identical to the real product. For Serostim, even the lot number, which is used to trace drugs, was a real number. The expiration date, however, had been changed from August 2001 to August 2002.
Some of the counterfeit vials were found to contain cheap, generic versions of the drugs, while others had been filled with clear liquid that contained no active drug ingredient. At least one vial of Nutropin contained human insulin.
Two earlier cases provide a glimpse of how illegal drugs can enter the system.
From 1991 to 1993, Moshe Milstein, operated a drug wholesaling business out of his Brooklyn home and repackaged drugs from overseas with labels made to look like those on the brand-name drug, according to court records. Mr. Milstein then sold the drugs to other wholesalers and to pharmacies and doctors in the New York area. Prosecutors said laboratory tests showed that some of the counterfeit drugs contained bacteria and endotoxins, which are powerful poisons produced by bacteria.
Mr. Milstein was convicted last year of five felonies, including distribution of misbranded drugs, and is expected to be sentenced on Thursday. The counterfeit drugs that he had sold through his company, Gem Distributors, included Serono's Pergonal and Metrodin, which are fertility drugs, and Eldepryl, a drug for Parkinson's disease made by Somerset Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Mr. Milstein's lawyer declined to comment.
In another case in 1997, Medical Sales Inc., a small company in San Diego County, Calif., bought millions of doses of drugs made by an Indian manufacturer and repackaged them under the name "American Pharmaceutical," according to court documents. The company planned to sell the drugs, which included antibiotics, painkillers and diet drugs, to pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico, where they could be purchased by American tourists.
Christopher Kirkman, the company's president, was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of selling misbranded drugs in 1999 and was given six months' probation.
Robert S. Brewer Jr., Mr. Kirkman's lawyer, said his client never sold any of the repackaged drugs because they were seized by the F.D.A.
The drug distributors that bought and sold the counterfeit Serostim late last year said they did not know the drug was illegitimate until they heard about a warning Serono sent out. Dutchess Business Services in Las Vegas said it immediately contacted authorities when it discovered it had bought and sold the counterfeit drug.
Quality King said it had voluntarily offered to repurchase Serostim from any of the wholesalers it had sold it to.
The distributors say they play an important role in getting drugs to consumers.
"You can't anticipate all the ways that people are going to corrupt the system," said Patricia L. Kantor, a lawyer in the New York office of Edwards & Angell who represents Quality King.
A man answering the phone at Dutchess, who refused to give his name, said Dutchess had lost $70,000 when Quality King refused to pay for the counterfeit Serostim it bought. "We are entrepreneurs," he said. "We're just trying to make a living."
-------- spying
Audit: Defense Sites Track Visitors
By D. IAN HOPPER,
AP Technology Writer
Tuesday June 5
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010605/tc/defense_privacy_1.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - One in four Web sites run by the Defense Department have no privacy statement posted, according to an oversight report released Tuesday. An even larger number collect information about the public despite a White House directive barring the practice.
The audit found it possible that commercial companies might secretly have collected and sold personal information about visitors to Defense Web sites.
Many employees responsible for the Web sites said they didn't know about the government's policies on tracking technology or that privacy policy statements are required, even though Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz updated and reiterated the rules two months ago.
Since July, the Defense Department has required display on Web sites of a privacy notice at each major entry point and wherever identifying information is collected from visitors. Defense and all other departments and agencies already were bound by similar rules under a June 1999 order of the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., called the new report disturbing. The two were responsible for an amendment that requires each agency's inspector general to conduct a privacy audit and report to Congress.
``Americans should not have to worry about federal agencies monitoring their Internet activity, yet this audit found seven examples of invisible Web bugs on Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Web sites,'' Inslee said. A Web bug is a tiny invisible image on a Web page used to track users.
The report checked a sample of 400 Defense sites; 100 had no privacy notices.
``This 25 percent failure rate is astronomical, given how late we are into the privacy discussion,'' Inslee said.
In a response to the auditors, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary J. William Leonard said the sites were not necessarily collecting personal information but admitted that the prohibited Internet text files, called ``persistent cookies,'' were present.
Leonard said the auditor's recommendations - to remove the tracking software, post privacy notices and make sure officials know the policies - would be completed by Aug. 31.
The director of the Defense Privacy Office noted that since Web masters were not aware of the tracking rules, ``the proscribed activity results from acts of nonfeasance rather than malfeasance on the part of the Web masters.''
Thirty-six Defense Web masters had tracking code on their sites. Ten knew about them, of which seven said they didn't know that the Defense department forbids them.
``Web masters complained that they were not provided guidance on the DoD (Department of Defense (news - web sites)) policy or instructions to identify persistent cookies or Web bugs,'' the auditors say.
The Clinton administration restricted use of cookies on federal Web sites last summer after investigators found widespread use in several agencies. Thirty-two percent of sites checked by the auditors had cookies that can track people as they travel through different sites.
Since many of the cookies originated with commercial companies, the auditors worry that consumer privacy may be at risk.
``DoD has inadequate assurance that the involuntary collection of personal information by commercial companies at DoD Web sites is safeguarded and not sold or given away after it is collected,'' the report states.
The auditors told Defense officials to remove the cookies, although the survey sample was a small fraction of the 2,608 registered Defense sites.
Government agencies have had a long string of Internet privacy and security breaches in the last year. On several occasions investigators discovered the use of tracking software on their sites.
Federal investigators also have found significant security lapses at many agencies - including the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), Veterans Affairs and the office that controls Medicare - that could lead to hackers stealing or altering sensitive data.
-------- activists
Bill Moyers Reports: Earth On Edge Tuesday, June 19 at 8:00pm
(Check local listings for time)
From: globalvisionary@cybernaute.com (jean hudon)
http://www.aptv.org/MainPage/earthonedge.html
Acclaimed journalist Bill Moyers and an award-winning team of producers reveal recent scientific evidence that Earth is approaching a key environmental threshold. Bill Moyers Reports: Earth On Edge showcases new data depicting the scale of human impact on the planet's life-support systems. The two-hour program explores one of the most important questions of the new century: What is happening to Earth's capacity to support nature and civilization?
The documentary coincides with the launch of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an international effort to gauge the health of the world's forests, grasslands, coastal and freshwater areas. Preliminary findings were featured in the World Resources Institute's (WRI) World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life. The statistics from their preliminary findings are staggering: half the world's wetlands lost in one century, half the world's forests chopped down, 70 percent of the world's major marine fisheries depleted, the world's reefs at risk.
But Earth On Edge pushes well past the numbers. Moyers and his team also take viewers on a journey of hope to meet people from the American Midwest to Mongolia who are pioneering sustainable solutions to ecological problems. Each story takes place in one of five major ecosystems: forest, agriculture, coastal, grassland, and fresh water. Reports from Kansas, British Columbia, Brazil, South Africa, and Mongolia illuminate the ways in which human demands over the past century have been wearing holes in the fabric of life. The program profiles individuals who are confronting the challenge head on, people who understand how their lives depend on Earth's ecosystems, and how their own energy and dedication might help restore them.
In South Africa, Moyers visits Working for Water, an innovative government program that has trained 40,000 unemployed people to cut down thousands of invasive trees and restore the precious water that flows from the mountains to the rivers. Traveling to Vancouver, British Columbia, Moyers' team tells the story of an experimental collaboration with one of Canada's biggest timber companies. Viewers join loggers as they fly in and out of the forest by helicopter to harvest trees in a way that mimics the natural process and allows the ancient rainforests and the wildlife they support to survive. In Mongolia, where the size of the herd determines wealth, Moyers spotlights the need to train new herders in the ancient techniques of migration to restore the overgrazed and parched landscape. From the coral reefs and mangroves of Brazil, the program examines a $4 million government project to close off some areas of an endangered reef in hopes that the coral and marine life will recover and allow fishermen and tourists to use and enjoy the coast in a sustainable way. And, finally, Moyers returns to America's Kansas prairies, where one farmer is bucking the tide against excessive herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that sap the soil of nutrients and pollute drinking water.
Moyers tells individual stories, in far-flung locations, but in the end it is strikingly clear that the program is about what has been done to the Earth and what can still be done to turn things around. Bill Moyers Reports: Earth On Edge will be augmented by an extensive web site, as well as an education and outreach campaign directed by WRI. The site will provide in-depth information about ecosystems as well as updates on their status and instructions for taking action. WRI is also organizing a series of live events and panel discussions promoting public dialogue around the issues raised by Earth On Edge and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
----
WEAPONS IN SPACE
For those of you in the New York area on June 28th, please come
From: Karl Grossman <kgrossman@hamptons.com>
Open Media Pamphlet Series / Seven Stories Press and Westside Peace Action present a free public talk / book release / video screening with KARL GROSSMAN celebrating the publication of his new book, WEAPONS IN SPACE -
7:00 P.M. Thursday, June 28, 2001, West Park Presbyterian Church, 165 Amsterdam Avenue, Corner of W. 86th St., New York, New York
More info: 212. 222. 3232
Karl Grossman cuts through George W. Bush's schtick about "missile defense," and confronts how the United States is moving forward--in violation of international treaties--to militarize space. Basing his research on government documents, Grossman outlines the U.S. military's space doctrine; its similarity with the original Star Wars scheme of Ronald Reagan and Edward Teller; and the space-based lasers it plans to deploy in its mission to "dominate" earth.
"The consequences of the proposed National Missile Defense, designed to enhance the United States 'first strike' capability, are alarming enough: nuclear conflict, more likely, a new nuclear arms race, the destruction of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Yet it is just the precursor to the even more frightening scenario that Karl Grossman sets before us: an all powerful United States using space to dominate a unipolar world to further its own interests. Real security is mutual and will be based on trust and equality in a mulitpolar world. None of us will be free until we are all free." Dave Knight, chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, United Kingdom
KARL GROSSMAN has specialized in investigative reporting for more than 35 years. Honors he has received include the George Polk, the James Aronson, and the John Peter Zenger awards. His reporting on the use of nuclear power and plans to deploy weapons in space has been cited six times by Project Censored. Grossman is the author of many books, including "The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to Our Planet" and "Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power." Grossman is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York, Old Westbury, where he teaches investigative reporting. He lives in tranquil Sag Harbor, New York.
----
UK CANDIDATE REFUSED ACCESS TO OFFICIAL VOTE COUNT
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5 June 2001
From: "Cat" <Cat@freewomen.freeserve.co.uk>
A peace activist running as an Independent candidate in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency has been refused access to the vote count on 7 June by Prison Service authorities, even though they have it in their power to allow her to go. After Helen John, a retired midwife, announced her candidacy, she was given an unusually long gaol sentence for damage to the fence at a Star Wars/Echelon base in North Yorkshire, Menwith Hill, so that she is now unexpectedly detained on election day. It is her democratic right under the Representation of the People Act to attend and examine any votes that may be in dispute, as she is her own election agent.
The Rt. Hon. Tony Benn, a constitutional expert, one of the longest serving members of the House of Commons and an elder statesman of the Labour movement in the UK, has lodged formal complaints on constitutional grounds with Tony Blair and with Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, on Ms John's behalf. Mr Benn said he supported the right of any Independent candidate to be treated fairly in democratic elections. Mr Straw's private secretary, Stephen Harrison, told Mr Benn that Mr Straw upheld the decision of the governor of Askham Grange not to "release her on temporary license" from the open prison where Helen and another peace activist, Anne Lee, are being held. However, Frances Taylor, Ms John's solicitor, said a temporary license was not being asked for; rather, an escort to the count had been requested. Ms Taylor said she would continue to make representations to both the prison Service and the Home Office until the last possible minute before the count commences.
On Friday, the governor of Askham Grange had told Ms Taylor that every effort would be made to get Ms John escorted to the vote count. However, after consulting with higher authorities the governor now says transporting John to the count would be disruptive to the "running of the establishment." Ms John said she has "not waived her right to attend the count," nor had she transferred it to anyone else. She is now unable to appoint an election agent to act in her stead as the deadline has past. She said that "if one candidate has an impediment, this must affect the others negatively as well."
Ms Taylor, John's solicitor, said the refusal of the prison authorities to arrange for an escort to the count was a breach of human rights and of the democratic process. In practice, Ms John is at a disadvantage, even though she is unlikely to win. Only the candidate or her agent can make representations to the Returning Officer in cases of spoiled or unclear votes. All the other candidates retain the ability to do this, but not Ms John.
Ms John canvassed in several Sedgefield towns and villages before her imprisonment, and her campaign team has since visited ten of the most populous areas. Everywhere they have been people have said they will vote for Ms John because they too are opposed to an new arms race in space; they believe women should play a greater role in defence decision-making and they think enough money is wasted on the defence budget that should be going into public services. There are large areas in Mr Blair's constituency which appear to be economically depressed, and many constituents expressed dissatisfaction with Mr Blair's posture of subservience to the United States.
Ms John's election address, which has been sent to 38,000 constituents, can be read at: http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/mhs/wpc/helenjohn.htm <http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/mhs/wpc/helenjohn.htm>
Ms Frances Taylor, Ms John's solicitor, can be reached for comment on Tel. 0113-237-4047 or 01943-466256.
URGENT ACTION Messages of protest must be sent before 5 pm on Thursday, 7 June. Please fax letters of protest about Jack Straw's decision to his private secretary's office on: Fax 0207-217-6961. If faxing from overseas please add 44 at the beginning and leave off the first 0.
You may also telephone the office of the Director General of the Prison Service to lodge a complaint on. tel. no. 0207-217-6720. Please also ring and leave a message of protest for the governor of Askham Grange Prison, Mr. Simmons, on 01904-704236.
Further information about Helen John and Anne Lee's imprisonment and Ms John's candidacy can be obtained from: Cat Euler Tel. 01943-468593 or cat@freewomen.freeserve.co.uk
----
In Hong Kong, Tiananmen Square memories fade
Protests are allowed here, but yesterday the number of people observing the 12th anniversary dwindled.
By Paul Belden
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
June 5, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/05/p7s2.htm
HONG KONG
Club 64's inconspicuous black-and-white neon sign never dims. Never, that is, except for one day a year: June 4.
Not that Grace Ma, who co-owns this storefront bar, would expect tourists in this part of Hong Kong to know what that means.
"Of course, I don't blame them," Ms. Ma says of those whose bulging wallets provide her livelihood. "Only the regulars know. But still, on this day I cannot stand to have them here. So on this day I close."
Opened in 1991, Club 64 stands as Ma's way of thumbing her nose at the Beijing regime, which sent troops and tanks to crush the pro-democracy demonstrations that filled Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. The number killed in what is called in China the "6/4 incident" and the suppression of a "counterrevolutionary rebellion" is unknown, although most estimates begin at 2,000.
In Beijing yesterday, police guarded the main streets leading to Tiananmen Square and carefully watched the area to prevent public protest. And although the incident is still commemorated in Hong Kong in a few semi-tolerated demonstrations, including a yearly candlelight vigil in Victoria Park that was expected to draw as many as 30,000 attendees, interest is dwindling.
A student-organized march from Hong Kong Baptist University to the Beijing Interests Section on Sunday drew a paltry 20 participants. The only Tiananmen-related headline in the local English paper Monday spoke of the dilapidated state of a statue on the Hong Kong University campus that was dedicated to memory of Tiananmen.
"I can see interest is waning," says Martin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party. "Many young people today are too young to remember the events of 1989, and unfortunately I don't see too many of them attending our functions."
Activists blame a combination of pressure from the pro-Beijing government of Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hua, and a local ethos that ranks politics well below the need to earn a living.
For all the apathy, memories of Tiananmen do linger. On Sunday, a band of performance artists astonished pedestrians in beautiful downtown Chater Garden by unfurling a large oil painting depicting the Imperial Palace in Tiananmen morphing into a tank. Yesterday a band of Hong Kong University students took part in the ritual repainting of the slogan "Never Forget" in large Chinese characters on a bridge within the august HKU campus. Over the years, campus authorities have repeatedly painted over the graffiti, only to have the students repaint it the next day.
Perhaps the most striking permanent commemoration of Tiananmen in Hong Kong takes the form of a statue that dominates the square in front of the HKU student union. This statue, dubbed the "Pillar of Shame," portrays an amalgam of groaning and weeping faces emerging from a muddy background. Sculpted and donated by Danish artist Jens Galschiotm, it stood for years in a central location in Victoria Park until police tried to dismantle it overnight in the aftermath of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China. They were thwarted by a band of students, who rescued the statue and brought it onto campus, where they have guarded it jealously since. Yesterday it was the scene of a student political seminar and teach-in.
But if memories are fading, it is not without the approval of the government. Beijing appointee Mr. Tung has never made a secret of his distaste for the democratic activist camp, and over the past year there have been more incidents in which his government's pro-Beijing leanings have become clear. Most recently, the Tung administration moved to study the banning of "evil cults" in what analysts call an obvious threat to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which until recently has practiced openly in Hong Kong.
Mr. Lee, for years the most outspoken proponent of democracy here, and as such the chief nemesis of the pro-Beijing factions that dominate the government, is not allowed to cross the border to the north. "In this day and age, I can travel to any country in the world - even to Russia. But I cannot travel within my own country. I think that is very sad, and I think it speaks to the state of nervousness within the Beijing regime."
Politically active young people in Hong Kong have not escaped the increasing pressure. Twenty-year-old Gloria Chang has been arrested twice this year, both times for participating in protests without a police permit. And just last week, two students, Christopher Fung and Walker Fung (no relation) were arrested for taking part in a protest against genetically engineered food.
"I think it is sad when they arrest someone," says Grace Ma, standing behind the bar in Club 64 amid Amnesty International posters and protest poems that dot the walls. "Some people may say those students were stupid, that they should just be concentrating on making a living. But every arrest sparks conversation and debate, and every arrest makes people question the world around them and the government."
At Club 64, Frances Huang doesn't profess to know much about the Tiananmen incident and says she has little interest in learning more. "I think it is overwhelming for someone like me," says the young university-educated woman. "It is such a big issue that I don't know the answers. Maybe in 50 years, people will understand better. But I think it is all too close right now. So I just concentrate on my business life."
When Ms. Huang speaks of the historical perspective, she has a point. China historically has had a fear of instability. While America was losing 600,000 people killed on both sides of its own Civil War in the mid-19th century, China lost 20 million, or some two-thirds of the entire population of the United States at the time. The Taiping Rebellion was sparked by protests over corruption and graft, which were two of the major complaints lodged by the students at Tiananmen 12 years ago.
"Tell me again how many were killed in Tiananmen?" Huang asks. "I forgot."
Still, Grace Ma thinks she has an answer. "Too many,"she says.
-------
Protesters kept at a distance; three arrested
Protesters from several groups, including the Sierra Club and the Florida Consumer Action Network, hold signs along Dale Mabry Highway prior to the arrival of President Bush at Legends Field.
By KEVIN GRAHAM and ANGELA MOORE,
St. Petersburg Times,
June 5, 2001
http://www.sptimes.com/News/060501/TampaBay/Protesters_kept_at_a_.shtml
[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe]
http://www.sptimes.com/News/060501/photos/tb-banner.jpg
TAMPA -- People who parked in the assigned lots and walked to Legends Field to see President Bush probably didn't see many protest signs.
That's because the 150 or so protesters were kept in a cordoned-off "First Amendment zone" about a half-mile away, at the corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Tampa Bay Boulevard. The boisterous group waved signs that read "SAVE OUR GULF" and "Bush oil and our water don't mix."
Inside the ballpark, three demonstrators carrying anti-Bush signs were arrested after they refused to leave, Tampa police spokeswoman Katie Hughes said.
Janis Marie Lentz, 55, of New Port Richey, Mauricio Rosas, 37, of Tampa, and Sonja Haught, 59, of Clearwater, were each charged with trespassing after warning, police said. Haught also was charged with disorderly conduct because police say she tried to resist arrest.
Walter Sorenson, 81, of New Port Richey was knocked down after police shoved one of the arrested women, he said. He suffered a cut on his head.
Sorenson said he was carrying an anti-Bush sign too, but put it in his pocket when told to.
"I asked them (security) how come everyone else could wave Bush signs and we couldn't have our signs," Sorenson said. "They said, "You don't make the rules. We make the rules.' "
Hughes said police were only enforcing Secret Service policy.
"They said that you can't be within eyeshot of the president with those signs because it's a security issue," Hughes said. "Most of this is bigger than us. ... We work within their parameters."
A half-mile away, demonstrators shared disgust for the Bush administration and plenty of non-sanctioned signs. They included Florida Democrats, the Sierra Club and other environmentalists, the National Organization for Women, gay and lesbian alliances, and student groups.
A 2,000-pound oil derrick display with a postcard-like background of Florida's coastline sent a message: "Oil derricks can destroy a pretty picture," said Bob Poe, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party.
"The Democrats are out here to ask (President) Bush to keep his promises," Poe said. "He promised not to drill off the shore of Florida. This administration seems to be hellbent on breaking that promise."
Beth Connor, conservation organizer for the Sierra Club of Florida, said, "I think (the Bush administration) is going to realize they picked the wrong fight. The people of Florida are united on this issue. They have kicked over an ant pile -- and we are fire ants."
Protester Matt Sullivan said he disagreed with the idea of keeping the dissenting voices out of the president's earshot.
"We're all American citizens," Sullivan said. "We shouldn't allow our voices to be segregated."
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!