------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Disabled people used as nuclear 'guinea pigs'
NATO, partners begin military exercise in Georgia
Theme for Europe
French nuke agency evicts Greenpeace from website
Germany seals nuclear shutdown
German Nuclear Shutdown Protested
Did Iraq Conduct a Clandestine Nuclear Test?
No evidence found of '89 Iraq N-test
Opposition To Missile Defenses Growing Vocal
Bush: Allies Have Say on Missile Shield Development
Missile Shield Point Man Does Not Shy From Tough Sell
Dark Side of U.S. Quest for Security: Squalor on an Atoll
Scientist defends use of dead babies
ACTIVISTS UNITE AGAINST YUCCA MOUNTAIN NUCLEAR DUMP
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository
OS man seeks change in DOE medical program
More Join Chorus for Nuke Power
UNDERGROUND REPOSITORIES NEEDED FOR NUCLEAR WASTES

MILITARY
Oil Money Is Fueling Sudan's War
Israel accepts U.S. cease-fire plan with reservations
Kennedy Goes to Court Over Vieques
STATE OF SIEGE AT THE PUERTO RICAN DAY PARADE
Swiss to arm peacekeepers
U.N. drug control program faulted
N.J. Fire Blamed on Practice Bomb
Army fights to keep 10 combat divisions

OTHER
American wind energy industry comes of age
Germany Substitutes Wind for Nuclear Power
EU green energy plan may be delayed after Dutch object
US senators want more renewable fuels in gasoline
Statement From McVeigh's Attorney
METHANE HYDRATES
Text of President Bush's Remarks on Global Climate
GLOBAL WARMING - The Press Gets It Wrong
Chinese Labor Organizer Indicted
China Adds To Curbs on Falun Gong
Let the North join IMF, official says
Sir David Spedding, Headed Britain's Secret Service
Congress Looks to Patch the Safety Net for Whistle-Blowers

ACTIVISTS
Indonesia Releases Activists
Chechnya Discounted
Greenpeace raids tanker in anti-Bush protest
Thousands march in Madrid, denounce Bush policies
In the Desert, A Drink of Mercy, Protest Water to Migrants Questioned
Activists Speak on McVeigh Execution
PSR to Present Petitions Urging Congress to Oppose NMD


-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Disabled people used as nuclear 'guinea pigs'

Irish Independent,
Independent News Service.
Kathy Marks in Sydney
June 11, 2001
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=32&si=450608

PROFOUNDLY disabled people were sent out from institutions in Britain to be used as guinea pigs during British atomic tests in the Australian desert in the 1950s, it was alleged yesterday.

They did not return home and are assumed to have died after witnessing nuclear explosions at Maralinga, in South Australia, at close quarters.

Claims that disabled people were deliberately exposed to radioactive fall-out in order to assess its effects on the human body were examined in 1985 by an Australian Royal Commission into the tests, but were dismissed as unsubstantiated.

Now The Independent has learned of the existence of a pilot who claims he flew them out from Britain.

The pilot related his story to respected Australian academic, Robert Jackson, director of the Centre for Disability Research and Development at Edith Cowan University in Perth.

The encounter took place after Dr Jackson gave a presentation to 300 staff in the late 1980s, during which he mentioned the allegations about radiation experiments.

Afterwards, he said, one staff member approached him and told him: "That was true. I was one of the pilots, and we didn't fly them out again."

Dr Jackson claimed he closely questioned the man, who had become a disabled care worker, and had no doubt he was telling the truth. "I was quite convinced," he added. The people who were used as guinea pigs had multiple disabilities, both physical and intellectual, the staff member told him. He is now trying to trace the man, who left the centre several years ago.

The disclosure follows revelations last week that bodies of stillborn and dead babies were shipped to the US in the 1950s from Britain, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong for use in research projects on the effects of radiation exposure. Thousands of human bone samples were also sent out.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency admitted bone samples were taken from dead babies and adults and sent abroad to be tested for Strontium 90, a key radioactive element, in a programme which continued until 1978. Chief Executive Dr John Loy said pathologists cremated bones and put ashes through a geiger counter.

-------- europe

NATO, partners begin military exercise in Georgia

06-11-01 08:40 ET
REUTERS NEWS
http://www.businessweek.com/reuters_stories/European/06_11_2001.reulb-story-bcarmsnatogeorgia.html

TBILISI, June 11 (Reuters) - Some 4,000 servicemen from 11 countries began a NATO training exercise near Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti on Monday aimed at deepening cooperation between the military alliance and countries to the east.

Soldiers from the United States, France, Italy, Turkey, Sweden and Greece were participating in the two-week exercise with others from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia.

International Red Cross officials were also taking part.

``The main purpose of the exercises is to carry out coordinated activities among military forces of NATO and its partner countries, deepening collaboration in the military sphere and also carrying out humanitarian operations,'' Georgian Defence Ministry spokesman Mirian Kiknadze told Reuters.

The exercises will take place onshore and aboard 40 vessels in the Black Sea, he said.

Romania and Bulgaria are among nine eastern European candidates for NATO membership. Alliance leaders will meet in Prague at the end of next year to decide whether to allow further expansion to the east after three countries -- Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic -- were admitted in 1999.

Former Soviet Ukraine, sandwiched between Russia and Europe, has made overtures to NATO but has been careful to avoid saying it wants to join it.

Azerbaijan has suggested that NATO bases be established on its soil to counterbalance a Russian military presence in neighbouring Armenia, with which Azerbaijan is locked in a grinding dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Western-oriented Georgia says it has aspirations to join, to the annoyance of its giant northern neighbour Russia.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said on Monday the NATO exercises marked a step toward bringing Georgian armed forces up to NATO standards.

``As to the political side, we could consider the NATO exercises as confirmation of the readiness of our country to move towards deeper Euro-Atlantic integration,'' Shevardnadze said in a regular radio broadcast.

Georgia has pressed for the closure of all four Russian military bases on its soil. Two bases will be closed down by July and the two sides are negotiating a timetable for closure of two other bases.

----

Theme for Europe

Washington Post
Monday, June 11, 2001; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48849-2001Jun10?language=printer

PRESIDENT BUSH leaves today for a tour of Europe that will do much to determine whether the relatively bumpy start his administration has had in transatlantic relations fades with growing familiarity or becomes an enduring problem. No doubt much of his discussions with European leaders will be dominated by the issues of missile defense and global warming, where European reaction to the administration's first steps has been prickly or even angry. It is unlikely those differences can be resolved this week, though if Mr. Bush can go further in explaining his vision of how missile defense fits within a larger "new strategic framework" for managing nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War world, he could make progress in winning over European opinion.

But there is another theme to the trip that offers Mr. Bush the chance to demonstrate continued U.S. commitment to positive engagement with Europe. As his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, described it, Mr. Bush wants to revitalize the goal of a "Europe whole, free and at peace" articulated by his father at the end of the Cold War. That slogan is far less rhetorical than it sounds. It encompasses a concrete and urgent piece of unfinished business that has not yet been the subject of adequate attention in U.S.-European discussions: the incorporation of 10 or more once-communist nations in Central and Eastern Europe into the continent's dominant institutions, which are the European Union and NATO.

Although Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were successfully brought into NATO four years ago, the European Union has yet to admit any of the states of the former Soviet Bloc. It now seems as though no Central or East European states will be allowed into the common market before 2004, and the date may slip still further as objections from existing members pile up. Meanwhile, states that will be vital to preserving peace and security in Europe, ranging from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the Baltic coast to Slovakia in Central Europe and Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia and Slovenia in the Balkans, remain outside of NATO. A NATO summit in Prague next year is due to consider expansion, but so far there is no consensus and not even much deliberation within the alliance on new members.

There may not be much the United States can do about the shameful slowness of European Union expansion, though Mr. Bush would be right to urge the process forward at his summit meeting with EU leaders in Sweden. But the president can use his visit with NATO leaders in Brussels and his major address several days later in Warsaw to put NATO expansion firmly at the center of the transatlantic agenda. He can do that by strongly stating U.S. support for the eventual admission of all the candidate states that meet clear military and political criteria and by focusing the discussion within NATO on taking action on at least some new members by the Prague summit. By doing so, Mr. Bush would make clear to Europeans, both west and east, that the United States will remain engaged in the continent and committed to its security. He also would provide candidate nations, particularly in the Balkans, with a clear set of incentives to strengthen their new democratic institutions and professionalize their militaries -- and an assurance that their future lies with the democratic nations of the West, led by the United States.

-------- france

French nuke agency evicts Greenpeace from website

SWITZERLAND: June 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11135

GENEVA - Nuclear processing agency Cogema has won a cybersquatting case against Greenpeace International, having the environmentalists evicted from a site bearing the French concern's name.

An arbitrator appointed by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) ruled that the domain name "cogema.org" should be transferred to the French agency, Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires.

Greenpeace registered the name last July, saying it was using the Internet for peaceful protest against the nuclear energy business.

The neutral arbitrator, Tony Willoughby, found that the domain name was confusingly similar to the French nuclear fuel agency's 68 trademarks held in 26 countries.

Greenpeace had no right or legitimate interest in the domain name which had been registered in bad faith, the Briton added in his ruling.

Cogema accused Greenpeace of trying to "tarnish" its name with "systematic denigrations, accusations and actions" performed while bearing the company's name, according to a statement issued by WIPO, a United Nations agency.

Greenpeace argues that Cogema's reprocessing plant at La Hague, on France's Channel coast, is responsible for high levels of radioactive discharge into the North Sea.

-------- germany

Germany seals nuclear shutdown

USA Today
06/11/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/world/june01/2001-06-11-germany.htm

BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies formally signed an agreement Monday to shut down Germany's 19 nuclear power plants, making it the world's largest industrialized nation to willingly forgo the technology.

Though it could take decades to complete, the plan underscores the divide between Europe and the United States on environmental policy. President Bush last month unveiled measures to promote the building of more nuclear plants, and many now operating are expected to apply to extend their operating license.

After the signing ceremony in Berlin, Schroeder said that while it was up to every country to design its own energy policy, "naturally we would hope that many follow our example."

The pact limits nuclear plants, which provide nearly a third of Germany's electricity, to an average 32 years of operation. That would likely see the most modern plants close around 2021 and see Germany join nations such as Italy and Austria in abandoning nuclear power.

Still, some environmentalists say that timetable is far too long while German conservatives argue that abandoning atomic power is a mistake. Power company executives say they haven't given up hope that a future government would scrap the plan.

The nuclear shutdown still must be approved by the Cabinet and parliament, where Schroeder's Social Democrats hold the majority along with the environmentalist Greens.

Eliminating nuclear power is a pet cause of the Greens, who for years backed protests focused on halting nuclear waste transports, which the pact will end by mid-2005.

Police deployed thousands of officers Monday to protect the latest shipment from demonstrators while the environmentalist group Greenpeace placed containers of contaminated soil from reprocessing plants in France and England outside the headquarters of the Social Democrats and Greens.

About 30 anti-nuclear activists beat drums and erected a model nuclear reactor that belched orange fumes during the signing ceremony at the new chancellery in Berlin.

The leading opposition party, the conservative Christian Democrats, argued that eliminating nuclear energy would force Germany to use dirtier power sources. That could make it more difficult to curb emissions as outlined by the landmark 1997 Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases.

"Abandoning atomic energy is a historic failure," said Ulrich Mueller, a Christian Democrat who is environment minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

But Schroeder said the Kyoto agreement meant Germany also had the responsibility to establish environmentally friendly power sources, a stance it will take to a U.N. climate conference next month in the former German capital Bonn.

"Germany truly will meet its responsibilities for climate protection," Schroeder pledged.

The U.S. administration opposes the Kyoto accord.

Monday's signing comes a full year after Schroeder hammered out a preliminary phase-out plan with industry leaders. E.On, the last of the four power companies involved to approve the deal, only did so Sunday.

But whether the German nuclear plan would survive a change in government remains open. Some conservatives, who hope to oust Schroeder in parliamentary elections next year, have said they will reverse the policy - a move that industry would welcome.

E.On chairman Ulrich Hartmann, speaking after Schroeder at Monday's ceremony, said the signing was "no reason to celebrate for us," arguing that the policy was misguided given limited energy resources and the need to cut emissions of carbon dioxide.

"Nothing in life is irreversible," he insisted in an interview published Monday in Die Welt newspaper, though adding that industry would "keep to the agreements with the government as long as it keeps to them."

----

German Nuclear Shutdown Protested

By Geir Moulson
Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 11, 2001; 8:34 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010611/aponline083441_000.htm

BERLIN -- Supporters and opponents of nuclear power on Monday protested a deal being signed by the German government and utilities to shut down the country's 19 nuclear power plants.

Hailed by its backers as a historic shift of energy policy in Europe's biggest economy, the deal could take decades to carry out. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and executives of four power companies were to sign the deal in Berlin later Monday.

The government and utilities approved the nuclear phaseout a year ago, but needed time to negotiate details of the legislation to be submitted to parliament. The last of the power companies, E.On, approved the deal Sunday.

Anti-nuclear activists oppose the deal, which sets no fixed date for the last plant to close, because they want a quicker shut down.

Pro-nuclear politicians do no want Germany to abandon nuclear power and warn that it could impede efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases in line with the international pact signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, by forcing Germany to switch to other fuels, such as oil.

Nuclear plants provide almost a third of German electricity. The government has said it plans to promote other energy sources, including wind power.

The accord says the nuclear plants should have a standard life span of 32 years, which would see Germany's newest nuclear plant shutting down in 2021. The first of the plants, at Stade in northern Germany, is to close in 2003.

However, the accord stipulates that the transport of nuclear fuel and waste - which has attracted massive protests from Germany's anti-nuclear lobby - should end in mid-2005.

The environmental group Greenpeace placed containers filled with contaminated soil from reprocessing plants in France and England outside the headquarters of the Social Democrats and Greens, the two parties in Germany's governing coalition.

"The government pretends it has resolved the end of nuclear energy once and for all," said the organization's energy expert, Susanne Ochse. "Anyone who knows the deal knows that is complete nonsense."

Utilities, in turn, have made plain that they would look to future governments to stop the phaseout.

E.On chairman Ulrich Hartmann insisted that "nothing in life is irreversible."

"I'm sure that nuclear energy will still play an important role in the future," he said in an interview with the daily Die Welt.

-------- iraq

Did Iraq Conduct a Clandestine Nuclear Test?

WIRE: 06/11/2001 7:02 am ET
By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20010611_60.html

UNITED NATIONS - The chief U.N. arms inspector and experts at a London think tank have concluded there was no evidence Iraq had carried out a successful nuclear test in 1989, as alleged in news reports earlier this year.

Hans Blix, the executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said he reported to the U.N. Security Council last week "the information is totally wrong" that Iraq conducted a nuclear test beneath Lake Rezazza, southwest of Baghdad on Sept. 19, 1989, before the Gulf War.

He told reporters his department and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had evidence in its files, from overhead flights and previous ground inspections "there had been no nuclear tests" nor a tunnel under the lake.

Purported evidence of a test, from two defecting former scientists in Iraq and an interpretation of satellite photographs of the test area, was reported in London's Sunday Times newspaper in February and received fairly wide coverage.

Terry Wallace, a professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, says that while it is far easier to prove something did happen than to prove it did not there was no reason to believe the story is "anything but a hoax."

An examination of global earthquake catalogs, produced by the International Seismic Center and U.S. Geological Survey, revealed no significant seismic activity in Iraq the day the test was alleged to have taken place, Wallace said.

Such an explosion he said, in an article for the London-based think tank, the Verification, Training and Information Center, would have been easily detectable by international or by regional monitoring in Iran, Israel or Jordan, which keep records of earthquakes.

None of them reported any seismic events of the magnitude necessary for a nuclear test in the region around Lake Rezazza, Wallace said.

U.N. arms inspectors have not been permitted to track down Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction since mid-December 1998, when they were withdrawn shortly before the United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign prompted by Iraq's failure to cooperate with the arms teams.

Blix's agency has now signed a contract with a private, satellite firm and is restarting overhead flights this month.

Earlier this year, Western intelligence agencies alleged that Iraq had reconstituted parts of its banned arms programs. The German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) in February told selected reporters Iraq could produce a nuclear device in three years and fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005.

U.S. and British officials alleged in January that Iraq had rebuilt three factories capable of producing chemical and biological weapons.

The IAEA, meanwhile, carried out its annual inspection of the Iraq's Tuwaitha nuclear power center in January and reported that low-grade nuclear material held there had not been moved since its last visit.

--------

No evidence found of '89 Iraq N-test

Monday, June 11, 2001
Reuters News Service
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,275011024,00.html?

UNITED NATIONS - The chief U.N. arms inspector and experts at a London think tank have concluded there was no evidence Iraq had carried out a successful nuclear test in 1989, as alleged in news reports earlier this year.

Hans Blix, the executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said he reported to the U.N. Security Council last week "the information is totally wrong" that Iraq conducted a nuclear test beneath Lake Rezazza, southwest of Baghdad on Sept. 19, 1989, before the Gulf War.

He told reporters his department and the International Atomic Energy Agency had evidence in its files, from overhead flights and previous ground inspections "there had been no nuclear tests" nor a tunnel under the lake.

Purported evidence of a test, from two defecting former scientists in Iraq and an interpretation of satellite photographs of the test area, was reported in February.

Terry Wallace, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, says that while it is far easier to prove something did happen than to prove it did not there was no reason to believe the story is "anything but a hoax."

An examination of global earthquake catalogs revealed no significant seismic activity in Iraq the day the test was alleged to have taken place, Wallace said.

Such an explosion he said, in an article for the London-based think tank, the Verification, Training and Information Center, would have been easily detectable by international or by regional monitoring in Iran, Israel or Jordan, which keep records of earthquakes.

None of them reported any seismic events of the magnitude necessary for a nuclear test in the region around Lake Rezazza, Wallace said.

U.N. arms inspectors have not been permitted to track down Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction since mid-December 1998, when they were withdrawn shortly before the United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign prompted by Iraq's failure to cooperate with the arms teams.

Blix's agency has now signed a contract with a private, satellite firm and is restarting overhead flights this month.

Earlier this year, Western intelligence agencies alleged that Iraq had reconstituted parts of its banned arms programs. The German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) in February told selected reporters Iraq could produce a nuclear device in three years and fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005.

U.S. and British officials alleged in January that Iraq had rebuilt three factories capable of producing chemical and biological weapons.

The IAEA, meanwhile, carried out its annual inspection of the Iraq's Tuwaitha nuclear power center in January and reported that low-grade nuclear material held there had not been moved since its last visit.

-------- missile defense

Opposition To Missile Defenses Growing Vocal In Washington As Bush Departs For Meetings With European, Russian Leaders

U.S. Newswire 11 Jun 14:21
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0611-133.html

News Advisory:

WHAT: June 12 Capitol Hill press conference highlighting Congressional opposition to the Bush administration's push for missile defenses features members of Congress who oppose it, and have just heard from their constituents that they do, too. Part of a three-day series of events organized by national citizens' groups to voice broad-based public opposition to the Bush administration's missile defense plans, the press conference is the culmination of two days of meetings between constituents from 40 states opposing missile defenses and their representatives in Congress.

WHO: Participants available for interviews at the June 12 press conference include, among others:

Confirmed: -- Rep. Bob Filner, 50th district, California -- Rep. Barney Frank, 4th district, Massachusetts -- Rep. Rush Holt, 12th district, New Jersey -- Rep. Janice Shakowski, 9th district, Illinois -- Rep. John Tierney, 6th district, Massachusetts -- Jonathan Granoff, Arms Control Advisor, American Bar Association -- Tracy Moavero, program director, Peace Action -- Susan Shaer, executive director, Women's Action for New Directions -- Dr. Peter Wilk, former president of Physicians for Social Reponsibility -- Frank von Hippel, chairman of Federation of American Scientists, Princeton professor, former Assistant Director for National Security at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Unconfirmed: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

WHEN & WHERE: 12 noon, Tuesday, June 12, outdoors in the SE triangle, located behind the House side of the Capitol building.

BACKGROUND:

The press conference illustrates growing resolve in Congress and in the electorate not to allow the White House to ram through its missile defense agenda either at home or abroad, just at the moment Democrats who are skeptical of NMD assume leadership of key Senate committees.

Opponents say missile defenses would be monumentally costly, unworkable, and damaging to US national security and strategic relationships. Friday Senate majority leader Tom Daschle said, "every aspect of the debate and the consideration given to this whole program is troubling to me."

New legislation is pending in Congress to move ahead with nuclear weapons reductions and reaffirm U.S. commitment to the arms control treaty regime that missile defenses would abrogate.

In recent days some 40,000 e-mails, 6,000 signatures and over 10,000 snail-mailed messages opposing NMD have poured into Washington, and continue to arrive at the rate of over 1000 a day. The messages will be presented to members of Congress at the press conference.

Polls show the more Americans learn about NMD, the more strongly they oppose it. A new ABC/Washington Post poll also shows a slipping 55 percent approval rating for President as he departs for meetings with the EU, NATO and Russian President Putin, where he will confront strong NMD opposition, and where he cannot legitimately argue missile defenses have broad-based support from the majority of Americans.

The June 12 press conference takes place on the first day of Bush's trip. It is also the anniversary of the largest demonstration in U.S. history: a 1982 rally in Central Park where over a million protestors opposed the nuclear arms race and galvinized a national movement against Reagan's Star Wars intitiative.

For more information or interviews, call Kent Communications via DC cell phone: 914-589-5988.

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor, Contacts: Steve Kent, 845-424-8382, or 914-589-5988 (cell phone, in Washington) or Alistair Millar, 202-393-5201

----

Bush: Allies Have Say on Missile Shield Development

June 11, 2001
By REUTERS Filed at 4:43 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-bu.html?searchpv=reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Washington will consult allies on ``how fast we will move'' with development of a missile defense system that is currently barred by a key U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms treaty, President Bush said on Monday.

In an interview with Belgian television on the eve of his inaugural visit to Europe, Bush said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty no longer made sense.

``The safety guarantee must be developing a system which reflects the true threats of the 21st century. Russia is not the enemy of the United States and yet we still go to a treaty that assumes Russia is the enemy, a treaty that says the whole concept of peace is based on us blowing each other up,'' he said.

``I don't think that makes sense any more.''

Bush said the ABM treaty provisions were blocking testing and development of the elements of a multi-layered anti-missile shield. This would use land, air and seaborne weapons capable of destroying missiles at various stages of flight including in space.

``I believe strongly that what the United States is proposing makes sense for all freedom-loving peoples and we'll work with our friends in terms of how fast we will move,'' he said.

``A lot of it depends upon our ability to conduct the research and development necessary to develop systems that work and we will look forward to sharing technology with our friends.

``We've been testing some systems all along. But the current treaty prevents us from doing even more tests to determine what's effective and that's what we really want to know,'' the U.S. president added.

The next test of a ground-to-space missile interceptor, and the first under the Bush administration, is expected sometime next month, a year after the last one failed to hit its target.

Bush is now considering a fast-track option that could see a small number of such interceptors deployed by 2004, breaching the ABM treaty which Moscow says is the underpinning for over 30 nuclear arms pacts that reined in the Cold War arms race.

PLEDGE ON CLOSE CONSULTATIONS

Russia and some European NATO allies are opposed to the missile defense proposal, in part because they consider it to be a misdirected and expensive effort to counter hypothetical threats of attack by ``rogue states.''

Nuclear power China is strongly against the plan, which it sees as a bid to blunt its modest deterrent force.

``I look forward to working with friends like we have done -- close consultations -- as well as working with the Russians to make the case that freedom-loving people must work together to develop systems that reflect the true threats of the 21st century,'' Bush said.

He listed ``threats of terrorism, threats of weapons of mass destruction, threats that can interrupt our ability to communicate with each other, biological threats....''

Bush said he backed the European Union's plan to build up its own rapid reaction force for crisis management, provided it did not rival NATO, shut out non-EU allies or result in a net loss of military effectiveness.

``Within the framework I do (support it), so long as it doesn't undermine NATO, so long as there's transparency in the decision-making process and so long as the European nations are willing to put more defense dollars in so it doesn't affect NATO's capacity to keep the peace,'' he said.

Bush was due to visit the headquarters in Belgium of the Atlantic alliance on Wednesday and meet allied leaders, after spending the first day of his European tour in Spain.

He will meet European Union leaders on Thursday in Gothenburg, Sweden, and hold his first face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia on Saturday.

In an interview with Sweden's public-service SVT television Bush reiterated his views on missile defense and also defended his decision to pull out of the Kyoto climate treaty.

He said he would seek to assure European leaders that the United States remained committed to finding viable solutions to global warming.

``I haven't changed my mind on the Kyoto treaty, which was a flawed treaty,'' he said.

``I believe that the Kyoto treaty goals were unrealistic. We would not have been able to meet them. And had we tried it would have wrecked our economy,'' he added.

Bush defended his administration's position and said he was looking forward ``to assuring our friends in Europe that we take this issue very seriously.''

----

Missile Shield Point Man Does Not Shy From Tough Sell

Public Lives:
New York Times
June 11, 2001
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/politics/11LIVE.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON - IN his narrow office in the West Wing of the White House, Stephen J. Hadley keeps two small mementos. One is a cluster of models of every American intercontinental ballistic missile, from the Titan to the Peacekeeper, a reminder of his final days at the Defense Department in 1992, when he helped begin talks with Russia over sharing technology to build a missile defense system.

"It was going fine," Mr. Hadley recalled recently, "until the Russians figured out that George Herbert Walker Bush was not going to be re-elected."

Nearby is a figurine of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Mr. Hadley was one of that tight group of Vulcans, the name for the foreign policy brain trust set up to bring another Bush up to speed on the dynamics of a world quite different from the one his father dealt with.

Today Mr. Hadley, 54, is coordinating President Bush's efforts to convince the Atlantic allies and Russia that scrapping the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty for a shared missile defense makes sense for superpowers, former superpowers and skeptical allies. Mr. Hadley was sent to Europe and Moscow to make the first pitch last month. Today the lobbying kicks into full swing, as President Bush heads for Europe and a meeting with Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin.

At one level, this is a chance for Mr. Hadley and his fellow Vulcans to breathe new life into the project they began in 1992. But, he insists, it is much more than that.

"Back then we were talking about a `global protection system,' but it was really strictly missile defense," he said recently, interrupted by calls from Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, who estimates that the two speak 20 times or more a day.

"What's interesting about what this president is doing," Mr. Hadley said, "is that he's constructed a much more ambitious concept that picked up on the themes that the cold war is over, and that we need a completely different approach to security, of which missile defense is a piece - but only a piece."

Mr. Bush, he said, "is talking about a much broader framework, one that says you need nonproliferation strategies, counterproliferation strategies, traditional deterrence and much less reliance on nuclear weapons."

They have yet to convince anyone - not the Russians, not the Europeans and certainly not the Chinese.

Mr. Hadley's job as deputy national security adviser is among the most powerful and least visible in the White House - particularly when the national security adviser is a media star. "I like it that way," he said.

He presides at meetings of the "deputies committee," the subcabinet working group that has recently rewritten the administration's policies on how to restart talks with Korea, tilt America's China policy toward Taiwan and keep Macedonia from disintegrating. The group is dominated by fellow Vulcans, from the deputy secretary of state, Richard L. Armitage, to the deputy secretary of defense, Paul D. Wolfowitz, and their advice is usually taken by their bosses and the president, who will travel nowhere without Ms. Rice or Mr. Hadley.

That is the official description of his job.

A senior official who sits in on many of the meetings said Mr. Hadley's other task was "reining in some of the right-wing ideologues who can get the president in trouble."

"He's methodical," the official said. "He runs meetings like an orchestra conductor. But when they are over, he's quietly tossed some pretty extreme ideas overboard."

Mr. Hadley takes umbrage at being called a closet moderate, arguing that he is committed to "a conservative agenda - realistically achievable, in a way that otherwise it might not be."

Ms. Rice, calling Mr. Hadley her "alter ego," credits him with countering her excesses. "I can sometimes jump from A to F," she said. "He backs me up to B and C, makes me think through the implications."

He has learned the deputy's art of protecting the boss from her own temper, one that rarely shows itself in public. "He helps me contain my undiplomatic side," Ms. Rice said. "He tells me when I'm being unnecessarily blunt."

MR. HADLEY was born in Toledo, Ohio, the son of an electrical engineer for the old Reliance Electric Company and a mother who stayed home to raise the family. At Cornell University, under the tutelage of the diplomatic historian Walter Lefeber, Mr. Hadley (and several other Vulcans) acquired a love of foreign affairs. He went on to Yale Law School, where he befriended Hillary Rodham, a classmate.

"We were good friends, but we haven't talked much since," Mr. Hadley said. (He had little interaction with Bill Clinton.)

Shortly afterward, as a new staff member of the National Security Council in 1974, "I was in the East Room for Nixon's famous farewell speech," he recalled. He stayed during the Ford administration, then practiced law at the firm of Shea & Gardner, returning to the Pentagon in 1989 as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, the job in which he took part in those talks with Russia.

He met his wife, Ann Simon, in a failed subterfuge. "We were set up by friends who told her I was a tennis pro," said Mr. Hadley, who added that his large horned-rim glasses should have been a giveaway that "I'm really another Washington policy wonk." His wife is an assistant United States attorney, and they have two daughters, ages 14 and 12.

His time with them is limited these days as he tries to form and sell Mr. Bush's emerging vision of international security. "We have a lot of convincing to do," Mr. Hadley said. "But we never thought it was going to be easy. After all, we're talking about a whole new world."

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

Dark Side of U.S. Quest for Security: Squalor on an Atoll

June 11, 2001
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/world/11ISLA.html?searchpv=nytToday&pagewanted=print

KWAJALEIN ATOLL, Marshall Islands - Several times a year, these tiny Pacific islands witness a light show more spectacular than almost any offered by nature, when a gaggle of ballistic missiles, minus their warheads, streak in low, roaring through the night sky and hurtle into the nearby lagoon.

Such tests are no longer top secret, but the high-tech United States Army base here remains at the center of America's attempt to design missiles and missile defenses, right where it has been since the 1950's.

With the Bush administration vowing to develop a more expansive missile defense than ever, there is an atmosphere of excitement, at least among the Americans here, unrivaled since 1962, when a Nike Zeus rocket fired from here knocked out an incoming missile, the birth of the antimissile system era.

But the story of the Kwajalein range is more than a tale of triumphant technology. It is also an account of one of the closest things the United States has to a colonial relationship: one in which an almost idyllic small-town America sits on a sand-covered sliver of Micronesian coral, segregated from the overcrowded ghettos where native islanders have been displaced in America's pursuit of greater security.

The United States won control of the Marshall Islands' 29 atolls, comprising 1,225 low-lying coral islands, from Japan in 1944 during the bitterly fought Pacific campaign. And Washington has exercised broad control over the destiny of one of the world's smallest nations ever since.

After the war, the United States administered the territory under a United Nations mandate until 1986, when the country entered into a "free association" with Washington. Since then, the United States has secured use of its base here by a series of 15-year renewable agreements.

Those pacts make the United States responsible for the country's defense and give Washington final say over its foreign policy. The United States also provides disaster relief and many other services for the country's 50,000 people through programs like Head Start and the Job Corps as well as from the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Aviation Agency and the National Weather Service.

But from the very start, with the dropping of atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll, about 200 miles east of here, it has been a relationship laden with harsh consequences for the Marshallese people: sickness and death from radiation poisoning, the displacement of many people, and the destruction of a self-sufficient island way of life.

With its 839-square-mile lagoon, its missile-launching pads and clusters of huge, ultrahigh-performance tracking radars nested between the ruins of Japanese bunkers, today this atoll easily conjures up images of the island of Dr. No.

Because of its tiny population and distance from any continental land mass, the atoll and its surrounding seas offer weapons testers huge expanses that, almost unique in the world, are nearly free from traffic, whether human or radio.

"We think that all testing should come to Kwajalein Missile Range, because we've got the best capabilities in the world," said Lt. Col. Raymond Jones. "If you are living in New Mexico, the cities just get bigger and bigger, and begin to encroach on Los Alamos. Out here, they don't have cities to grow and encroach, and that's what makes this place an unduplicated national asset."

It also makes it something of a paradise, at least as far as the Americans are concerned. The Continental Airlines crew that flies an island- hopping route here from Guam announces the tone when it lands at Kwajalein, saying, "Welcome to the country club." Unlike the other stops along the way, here only American employees, their dependents and those with special permission are allowed to get off the plane.

The table-flat island of 1.2 square miles is home to about two dozen military personnel, along with 1,200 contractors and nearly as many family members in a closely knit community where people call one another by their first names, everyone pedals around on bicycles, and nine- hole golf, tennis, bowling and scuba diving provide recreation.

Church attendance is high, as are the test scores of the children who grow up here. Consumer goods are subsidized, keeping the cost of living down, and even recently released movies are shown for free at an open-air cinema. The result is that many of the people who come to work here for companies like Raytheon and Boeing often extend their tours as long as possible, some staying for 20 years or more.

"Every morning I walk out of my house and get on my bike to go to work, and expect to run into Beaver Cleaver," said Lt. Col. Steve Morris, a two-year resident, "because that's the kind of place we have here."

But the small-town-America feel has come at a high price for the Marshallese. Since 1946, when atomic testing began at Bikini Atoll, native islanders have been moved to make way for military programs.

Thirty-three years after the last of the 66 atomic and hydrogen weapons were exploded in the area, more than 350 displaced Bikini natives are still living on Kwajalein Atoll.

The American officer who persuaded Bikini's residents to evacuate during an impromptu meeting one Sunday in 1946, Commodore Ben Wyatt, told the villagers that their displacement was "for the good of mankind and to end all wars."

Today, the rationale for maintaining control of Kwajalein remains strikingly similar. "What has kept me here is the thought that missile defenses like this are really needed," said Dr. John Leeper, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology radar expert who has spent much of his career here. "Most Americans sleep soundly at night believing that we are already protected from attack, but that's just not so."

But in the place of the simple fishing and farming existence they once knew on their lightly inhabited atoll, Bikinians and many other displaced Marshallese have been relocated to badly overcrowded islands like Ebeye and Enniburr, where cholera outbreaks are common and malnutrition is frequently reported.

There, they live from month to month on the proceeds of the $1.1 billion paid by the United States under the latest 15-year agreement, which is up for renegotiation.

"We must respect the terms of our agreements with the United States, but the United States needs to recognize what has happened here, too," said Alvin Jacklick, the Marshall Islands' foreign minister. "Ebeye and Enniburr have become the worst ghettos of the Pacific, and the conditions there are barely humane."

The lucky few on these islands commute daily by boat to the American bases on Kwajalein Island or other installations, at Roi-Namur, for salaried jobs as cooks, maintenance workers and groundskeepers. Often, their spouses make the same commute to collect drinking water. They would gladly shop on the American- controlled islands, too, where prices are far lower and the selection is wide, except that Marshallese are not allowed to.

The lure of jobs has reputedly made Ebeye - a scorching place with poor sanitation, inadequate water supply and few trees - one of the most densely inhabited places on earth. With 15,000 people, the three- square mile island is now home to nearly a third of the Marshall Islands' total population.

Speaking warily, a woman who works at the Cafe Pacific, a dining hall that serves hearty breakfasts of pancakes, grits, sausages and eggs to the American workers on Kwajalein, described the mood of the Marshallese natives who live on Ebeye and the other islands as one of hopelessness and defeat.

"There used to be protests about the situation here," said the cafeteria worker. "But the Americans control the biggest island in this atoll, and they decide who gets jobs, and how much we get paid, too. We know there is something wrong here, but we feel like a mouse up against an elephant. What can we do?"

Many Americans blame Marshallese outright for their plight, saying they have wasted large sums of aid and that they crowd together in substandard housing because of the islanders' communal culture.

"Everyone knows that Ebeye is horrible," said Michael J. Senko, the United States ambassador to the Marshall Islands. "But what we are working with is a culture in which everyone who is your relative moves into your home if you have a job. But we know we've got to do more on education, and that we have to do better on Ebeye."

But many Marshallese say such arguments fail to acknowledge the role the United States played in destroying a largely self-sufficient way of life here, and in failing to replace it with any sustainable alternative.

On Enniburr, a sparsely shaded island the size of a football field, where about 1,000 people have relocated, there is no electricity, no running water and no stores. A few of the residents make the five-minute motorboat ride to Roi-Namur, at the northern tip of the atoll, to work on the American base there.

The others, though, mostly sit around all day, dreaming of another life. Asked what people there use for toilets, one man in his 30's who gave his name only as Simon, answered: "That's a good question. I guess we mostly use the reef, or that big bunker over there left by the Japanese. Maybe the Americans could take that away for us one day, and give us some electricity."

--------

Scientist defends use of dead babies

June 11, 2001
Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/06/11/story/0000089509

NECESSARY EVIL: The former leader of a project that used the corpses of babies, including Taiwanese, has defended his work, saying it greatly benefited mankind

The former head of a top-secret US project which used the corpses of babies in Cold War nuclear experiments has defended his work as a benefit to mankind, a news report said yesterday.

In an interview with Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post, Lawrence Kulp, acknowledged Project Sunshine used bone samples of cremated babies from around the world between 1955 and 1963 to test nuclear fall-out.

"What's unethical about chemically analyzing ash? There was a huge benefit for mankind," he was quoted as saying.

A furore erupted last week after Britain's The Observer newspaper cited declassified US documents as showing around 6,000 corpses of babies from hospitals in Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, Canada and South America were shipped to the US for the experiments.

Officials have acknowledged that relatives did not always give their permission for the dead babies to be used.

Project Sunshine scientists focused on measuring Strontium 90, released into the atmosphere during nuclear tests, in the bones of dead babies, children and adults to see if the nuclear powers were poisoning the globe.

Kulp noted in the interview that their work eventually led to a 1963 world treaty banning nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

He said it was necessary for the scientists to get bodies from Asia because neither the British nor the Americans could obtain bodies from "Red" China to study irradiation.

"China was a big place. The data would have been representative of the diet of southeast China. We couldn't get samples from China. There was a Cold War going on," he said.

He said the project's British scientists used Hong Kong's former colonial status to gain access to corpses, while US scientists turned to Taiwan for similar purposes.

"Hong Kong and Taiwan bone samples were crucial to determining what levels of exposure there had been to the population of the region to this radiation. Hong Kong had the right rainfall, the right longitude and latitude," he said.

The results of the study reportedly showed more harmful effects from nuclear fall-out in North America and Europe because both the US and the former Soviet Union were conducting their nuclear tests around Siberia.

Kulp also said Project Sunshine was organized on a "doctor-to-doctor" rather than a governmental basis, and confirmed the role of British scientists, which has always been denied by the British government.

He dismissed allegations the project's scientists had been "baby-snatching" saying corpses of all ages were used in the testing.

Project Sunshine was started in 1955 after Willard Libby of the University of Chicago appealed for large numbers of bodies, preferably stillborn babies, for the experiments.

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

-------- nevada

ACTIVISTS UNITE AGAINST YUCCA MOUNTAIN NUCLEAR DUMP

June 11, 2001
ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-11-09.html

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Activists from across the country gathered Friday to voice solidarity with Nevada's struggle against the proposed permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

"We are here to assure Nevadans that they have our support," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst with Public Citizen in Washington, DC. "We will continue to actively oppose the industry-driven scheme to make Yucca Mountain into a high level nuclear waste dump."

Representatives of national groups were in Las Vegas at the meeting of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects to speak in support of Nevada Governor Ken Guinn's Nevada Protection Plan to defeat the Yucca Mountain proposal. National and Nevada activists emphasized the role of public interest groups in fostering informed citizen involvement at the grassroots.

"A broad based national effort is needed to defeat the Yucca Mountain Project and redirect nuclear waste policy to protect the health and safety of all Americans," said John Hadder, northern Nevada coordinator for Citizen Alert.

The presence of groups from outside of Nevada demonstrated the national significance of the Yucca Mountain Project, the groups said. The nuclear transportation network that would be launched if the repository proposal were approved would send high level waste shipments through 43 states and within one half mile of 50 million people.

"Across the country people are waking up to the dangers of transporting highly radioactive waste through their communities to a leaky dump in Nevada. Awareness is growing that Yucca Mountain is in everyone's back yard," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, DC.

Yucca Mountain, located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site now being studied for a permanent repository for the nation's nuclear wastes. Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released final standards for the amount of radiation that would be allowed to escape the site, bringing the proposal another step closer to a reality.

"After 14 years of study, we are at a critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain process," added Gue. "National groups are committed to working closely with Nevadans and concerned citizens across the country to defeat this dangerous and inherently flawed project."

-------

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository
Environmentalists back Nevada's fight against nuke waste

By Mary Manning manning@lasvegassun.com
LAS VEGAS SUN
June 11, 2001
http://www.lasvegassun.com/dossier/nuke/

Environmental activists from across the country told Nevada officials Friday in Las Vegas that they support the state's fight against a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

They added that the project may have been successfully delayed, but is long from dead.

Nevada's congressional delegation has stopped temporary nuclear waste storage and stalled permanent burial of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for more than 14 years, national grassroots representatives said.

In 1987 Yucca Mountain was designated in federal law as the only site to be studied as a high-level nuclear waste repository. A repository was originally supposed to open by 1998, but now will not open before 2010.

Since the Democrats gained control of the Senate last week, leaders have said legislation to further the Yucca Mountain Project will not be considered this year.

The environmentalists also told the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, meeting at Las Vegas City Hall, that new federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for how much radioactivity can escape from a proposed repository are encouraging, but not final.

The EPA standard would allow an average farmer 11 miles from the repository to be exposed to 15 millirems a year of radiation from Yucca Mountain, with a maximum of 4 millirems coming through the ground water. An average chest X-ray is 5 millirems.

That was lower than the limits suggested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would license the repository. The NRC advocated exposure of 25 millirems a year, with no separate ground water limit. NRC officials have said they will adopt the EPA standard when it becomes final next month.

"I was very pleased with the EPA regulations," said former governor and two-term U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, a vehement opponent of a Yucca Mountain repository, who was attending his first meeting as a commission member.

However, a clause tacked onto the law that can remove one or the other standard could be dangerous, he warned.

The language, called a severability clause, was put into the EPA standards during a Bush administration review of the radiation exposure limits, agency officials said.

"Severability means they can pick and choose what remains in the standard," Bryan, 63, said. "The severability clause cuts both ways."

Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, agreed with Bryan.

The nuclear industry filed two lawsuits within hours of EPA releasing the standards on Wednesday, Loux said. "That might give them another shot at going back to Congress and getting the standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," he said.

Grassroots activists said they can help stop the government from dumping nuclear waste in Nevada by raising national opposition to the plan.

"Yucca Mountain is flawed, that is the message to get out across the country," Scott Denman, executive director of the Safe Energy Communication Council, said. The council is a national energy policy group formed in 1980 to counteract "propaganda" from the Nuclear Energy Council, the former lobbying arm of the nuclear industry.

"You are not alone," Denman told Nevadans. "You share the same values of most Americans. A nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is not inevitable."

Representatives from Massachusetts, Georgia, Utah and Washington, D.C., activist groups echoed that sentiment.

Congressional action on Yucca Mountain could be as far away as 2003, after the next elections, Don Hancock, director of the Southwest Research and Information Center of Albuquerque, N.M., said.

No matter how much the public opposes a Yucca repository, it will take an act of Congress to stop it, Hancock said.

"Yucca Mountain is still in the law," Hancock said. "Until it is removed by Congress from the law, it could return as a solution after the congressional elections in 2002 or after the presidential election in 2004."

Glenn Carroll of Atlanta, who has fought nuclear utilities from expanding in the South for years, said it is time for a national dialogue on storing radioactive wastes, mainly spent fuel pellets, on site until a sound scientific solution is offered to handle the nuclear materials.

"But first, let's stop putting $1 million a day into the rat hole at Yucca Mountain," Carroll said.

Some Department of Energy laboratories have started research into methods to transform spent nuclear fuel into something less radioactive and with less bulk.

UNLV received $3 million this year to initiate studies on advanced accelerators, a method that would allow transforming the high-level nuclear waste near the 103 existing reactors around the nation. The accelerators would not eliminate a need for a repository, but it would have to store materials for about 300 years, instead of 10,000 years.

-------- tennessee

OS man seeks change in DOE medical program

June 11, 2001
by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/061101/new_0611010013.html

An Oliver Springs man is on a mission to get changes made to the Department of Energy's occupational medicine program.

Lester Raby's quest began shortly after his wife, Mary, died of cancer in 1994. She was a secretary in the Safeguards and Security Division at DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office.

Mary Raby's death, according to her husband, might have been prevented if she had received "adequate care" at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's medical clinic. He said that's where she received her annual physical examinations.

Lester Raby said lab reports show problems with his wife's blood cells as far back as 1987. Those problems were never mentioned at that time, he contends.

According to Lester Raby, his wife's platelet count dropped from 196,000 in 1989 to 122,000 in 1990. The normal value is 200,000 to 300,000 per cubic milliliter. Platelets are a component of the blood that play an important role in clotting.

It wasn't until 1991, according to Lester Raby, that an ORNL physician instructed his wife to get to the hospital because there was an "emergency." Mary Raby was admitted to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge where she was diagnosed with refractory multiple myeloma, a type of bone cancer.

Mary Raby died on Feb. 22, 1994.

While Lester Raby is dissatisfied with the care his wife got at the ORNL clinic, he said all of DOE's sites have problems with their occupational medicine programs, except for one -- the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. He says DOE should use that site as a model for its other occupational medicine programs.

So Lester Raby has drafted and sent to the federal agency and several elected officials a total of 14 recommendations for improvements in DOE's occupational medicine program.

"I'm trying to correct a serious problem," he said of the recommendations, which include:

To avoid all conflicts of interest, do not allow the same contractor to operate the plants and the medical program.

Remove the funding for occupational medicine from site operations and fund the program through the director of occupational medicine's office.

Transfer authority for the clinics from the site operations to the director of DOE's occupational medicine program. The program would be enforced by DOE's Office of Oversight.

All DOE sites should have access to specialists in the fields of toxicology, epidemiology, immunology, hematology, endocrinology and industrial hygiene as well as any other disciplines central to occupational medicine that would apply to the types of chemicals and hazardous materials with which the employees work.

Require all medical programs to be accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc., which is headquartered in Illinois.

Joe Davis, a spokesman for DOE headquarters, confirmed that the federal agency has received Lester Raby's recommendations. Davis added that DOE's Office of Environmental Safety and Health is in the process of conducting a review of occupational medicine programs within DOE, which could result in some improvements.

"It's not something that is going to happen immediately," Davis said.

He said DOE will continue to work with Lester Raby and that his recommendations could be taken into consideration during the review.

Also receiving a copy of the recommendations was U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., according to Harvey Valentine with the senator's Washington, D.C., office. Valentine said Thompson staff members have spoken to DOE about Lester Raby's recommendations.

"We are monitoring their response," Valentine said.

Locally, each of DOE's major contractors, including UT-Battelle and BWXT Y-12, have separate occupational medicine programs that are run through their operating budgets, according to Frank Juan of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. He said the programs have to meet "various accreditations through various organizations."

Regarding one of Lester Raby's recommendations, at least one DOE Oak Ridge clinic is already accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc., while another is in the process of becoming accredited.

Bill Wilburn, a spokesman for BWXT Y-12, said the occupational health clinic at the Y-12 National Security Complex underwent a survey by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc. this January.

"There were no adverse or deficiency findings," he said. " A full three-year accreditation was achieved. The date for the next accreditation survey is on or before Jan. 30, 2004."

James Phillips, a physician and the current medical director of ORNL's Health Division, said the lab's clinic is in the process of being accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc. A survey will be conducted during the second week of September.

-------- us nuc power

More Join Chorus for Nuke Power

Monday, June 11, 2001
Albuquerque Journal
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/357212news06-11-01.htm

Pete Domenici gets a glimmer in his eye when he talks about the possibility that someone might soon begin building the first new U.S. nuclear power plant in more than 20 years.

"That's not decades away," the Republican New Mexico senator said in a recent interview. "That's right around the corner."

Since the fall of 1997, Domenici has been a lone voice in Washington, enthusiastically talking up the future of nuclear power.

Suddenly, he has company.

Electricity shortages in California are a reminder that the nation's power consumption is rising faster than supplies, and nuclear power has its first serious presidential and congressional backing in years.

When the Bush administration released its national energy plan last month, nuclear power was given a prominent role.

Seventeen senators have signed on as co-sponsors of Domenici's "Nuclear Energy Electricity Supply Assurance Act of 2001," a bill aimed at smoothing the way for a resurgence of nuclear power in the United States.

Against that backdrop, the industry is talking seriously for the first time in decades about building new nuclear power plants.

But while Domenici and others work to smooth the regulatory road, the bottom line for the future of nuclear power in the country might be financial - can a new generation of nuclear power plants be cost-effective?

"I think the economics are the most important factor," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who took over last week as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Fear and funding

These are heady times for the scientists and engineers who have toiled for more than two decades on technologies for new nuclear power plants. There were times when it seemed there was little chance their ideas would ever be used.

No nuclear power plants were built during the past two decades as the electric power industry turned to other fuels, especially cheap natural gas.

While public fears about safety have dogged the industry, the biggest thing standing in the way of nuclear power plants was their cost, said Gary Rochau, a nuclear physicist at Sandia National Laboratories who works on next-generation nuclear power plant technology.

"It's a simple matter of economics," Rochau said.

"Once they are built, they produce power at a relatively low cost," Bingaman said.

According to a 1999 study by the Worldwatch Institute, the last nuclear power plants built in the United States cost an inflation-adjusted $3 billion to $4 billion each.

Building natural gas plants to supply a comparable amount of electricity cost $400 million to $600 million.

Nuclear engineers have developed designs for a new generation of nuclear power plants they believe will be cheaper and safer than past designs.

Their designs include the use of high-temperature gas instead of boiling water to turn heat to electricity, and Rochau noted they incorporate "passive" safety features, such as using gravity for emergency cooling water instead of requiring pumps.

The new designs are more efficient, Rochau said, extracting more electricity from their nuclear fuel.

"My opinion is that we will see a new nuclear power unit on line in 10 years," he said.

But critics say the new enthusiasm is misguided.

They raise arguments about nuclear waste disposal and reactor safety.

Nuclear power's most practical drawback might be that it remains more expensive than the alternatives, said Edwin Lyman, scientific director of the Nuclear Control Institute, an anti-nuclear group in Washington, D.C.

Nuclear crusader

Pete Domenici sounded like a voice in the Washington wilderness when he began what amounts to a nuclear crusade in the fall of 1997.

With his long-standing goal of a balanced federal budget met, the state's senior senator was looking for a new national issue to tackle, and the need for a rethinking of our nation's nuclear policies fit the bill.

In a speech at Harvard University in October 1997, Domenici talked about what he saw as irrational fears of radiation and a national discussion of our nuclear future that focused only on risks without considering benefits.

"That was, quite frankly, a call to arms," recalled Jim Lake, president of the American Nuclear Society.

In the years since, Domenici convened a series of meetings with leaders in government, industry and the U.S. nuclear research community to try to figure out how to revive nuclear power.

"What Domenici has done is he's restimulated everybody's thinking about these things," Lake said.

This spring, Domenici introduced a bill aimed at helping move nuclear power forward. It would:

- Renew a law that limits nuclear power plant operators' liability for accidents.

- Authorize spending on research into new power plant technology.

- Fund research into new nuclear waste disposal technologies.gulation of nuclear power plants.

At the time Domenici's crusade began, it might have seemed like he was tilting at windmills.

The nation's nuclear power plants were aging, and there was little enthusiasm for them in the utility industry.

That has changed.

Rather than shutting plants down when their licenses expire, utilities are asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to relicense them, extending the plants' lives.

"There are already five relicensed," Domenici said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects operators of another 40 nuclear reactors to apply over the next several years for operating license extensions, said Christopher Grimes, head of the commission's license renewal division.

The reason? Economics, according to Grimes. With the plants' construction costs now paid for, utilities believe they can economically continue to run nuclear plants for another 20 years.

One factor contributing to the economic renaissance of existing U.S. power plants is increasing productivity.

The 103 U.S. nuclear power reactors operating last year were generating power an average of 89 percent of the total possible operating time, according to the NRC, up from 60 percent in 1990.

Nuclear energy generates 23 percent of the United States' electricity, according to U.S. Energy Department data.

"What has happened to the industry is incredible," Domenici said.

Balance is shifting

What happens next, though, is unclear.

While the economics of operating a nuclear power plant once you've paid for its construction have become attractive, it is still unclear whether the same can be said for a new power plant.

Between now and 2020, according to a federal study published last December, 27 percent of the current U.S. nuclear generating capacity will be retired.

During that time, according to the study, U.S. electricity needs will grow by 1.8 percent a year, meaning 1,300 new power plants of some sort could be needed in this country - more than one new plant a week.

Until recently, said Sandia's Rochau, natural gas-burning power plants, the low-cost darling of the utility industry, seemed to leave little economic opportunity for new nuclear power plants.

With rising natural gas prices and new, more efficient designs for nuclear power plants, Rochau believes that balance is shifting.

The key, according to Rochau, is a new way to build nuclear power plants.

Gone are the days when each plant was a unique design, requiring its own lengthy Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process.

New designs on the drawing boards would be smaller and modular, using components built in a factory and assembled on site. Most of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's safety reviews for the design would only need to be done once, Rochau explained.

"You build plants on a cookie cutter approach, rather than every one being unique," Rochau said.

And the most likely home for new plants would be on the site of existing plants, where utility companies have the infrastructure in place to manage them, and also where local communities have become comfortable with nuclear power in their back yards.

Lyman, of the Nuclear Control Institute, believes the only way the new plants will be made economically competitive is by doing away with important safety features like the massive concrete containment buildings that surround existing reactors.

Without cutting corners like that, Lyman argued, the new generation of nuclear reactors will not be economically competitive.

Rochau does not give Lyman's argument much credence. Any new plant designs must meet strict safety standards to meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, he said. If they don't, he said, "We'll never get them built."

-------- us nuc waste

UNDERGROUND REPOSITORIES NEEDED FOR NUCLEAR WASTES

June 11, 2001
ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-11-09.html

WASHINGTON, DC, A report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) says that countries should move forward with the development of deep underground repositories for the safe storage and disposal of spent fuel from nuclear reactors and other high level radioactive waste.

The new report by an international committee of the academy's National Research Council says four decades of study have determined that the geological repository option is the only "scientifically credible, long term solution for safely isolating waste" without having to rely on active management.

"Although there are still some significant technical challenges, the broad consensus within the scientific and technical communities is that enough is known for countries to move forward with geological disposal," the committee said.

The committee noted that the U.S., Finland and Sweden have plans to begin placing waste in geological repositories early in this century, but that other countries, such as Russia, have no timetable set for the construction and use of deep repositories.

"Difficulties in garnering public support have been seriously underestimated, and opportunities to increase public involvement and to gain trust have been missed," said committee chair D. Warner North, president of NorthWorks Inc. in Belmont, California. "Waste management programs around the globe should direct their efforts beyond technical development to emphasize public participation in the decision making process."

The committee noted that spent nuclear fuel and high level waste have been kept at storage facilities on or near the Earth's surface since the nuclear age began more than 50 years ago. But it said the amount of waste, particularly spent fuel, is exceeding the current capacity of existing facilities in many countries, and some storage sites have not performed up to acceptable standards.

The full committee report is available at: http://lab.nap.edu/catalog/10119.html

-------- MILITARY

-------- africa

Oil Money Is Fueling Sudan's War New Arms Used to Drive Southerners From Land

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 11, 2001; Page A01
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49118-2001Jun10?language=printer

BENTIU, Sudan -- Oil built the airport at Heglig, the lavishly outfitted hospital next door and the new school at Debap. Oil built the electricity towers stippling the horizon and the tightly packed, all-weather road that runs across the broad savanna to Bentiu, where a thatched roof keeps the sun off Veronica Nyabiele. She is 12 months old, but malnutrition has held her weight to nine pounds. Oil has a role in that, too.

In a civil war that seems to be fueled by so much -- religion, for example, because one side is Muslim and the other side is not, and race, because one side is Arab and the other African -- nothing has supercharged the fighting in southern Sudan quite like Nile Blend crude.

Large quantities of oil were discovered under south-central Sudan in the 1970s. Before it was drawn to the surface and piped north two years ago, the slightly waxy, light-grade petroleum was merely one more token of the schism between Sudan's ruling north and neglected south, something for the north to claim and the south to contest.

Today, four oil companies are producing more than 200,000 barrels a day -- and more firms are exploring other reserves. Export revenue has doubled the government's defense budget over two years. And a multitude of eyewitness reports say the new guns are being used to drive tens of thousands of southerners -- like Veronica and her family -- off their land to secure the oil underneath.

"The fighting follows the oil," said John Ryle, an independent investigator who recently released a report that documented a broad government effort to clear the petroleum concessions, sometimes using helicopter gunships stationed at oil-field airports.

"I wouldn't use the term 'scorched earth,' which implies a kind of systematic campaign," Ryle said. "But they are burning and attacking villages."

Such tactics are nothing new in Sudan's civil war, which has raged for 18 years. Government troops and allied militias have been fighting rebel groups seeking autonomy for the country's southern provinces. Human rights groups and aid workers say the government has razed villages, bombed hospitals and churches and supported the militias' abduction of southerners as slaves. The rebels have been accused of similar atrocities on a lesser scale.

But the presence of oil has brought the fighting to new areas, where it drives local people out of the countryside and into government-held garrisons such as Bentiu. Once it was a town of 15,000; now its population can triple or quadruple depending on the intensity of fighting nearby. A handful of U.N. and private agencies stand by with food and medical care. The worst cases end up, like Veronica, as stick figures in the therapeutic feeding center run by Action Against Hunger, an international charity.

"They all say the same thing," an aid worker said. "People came and destroyed their homes and they had to flee."

The situation has further stoked Western outrage over the Sudanese government's human rights record. While no American companies are involved -- U.S. law prohibits them from doing business in Sudan -- the involvement of Canadian and European firms in extracting Sudanese oil has prompted "disinvestment" campaigns like those directed against firms that did business with apartheid-era South Africa.

"These are war crimes," said Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor who works against companies doing business in Sudan.

The criticism has fallen hardest on Talisman Energy Inc., a Calgary-based firm that was little known outside Canada until it bought a 25 percent stake in Sudan's most promising oil field. The Muglad basin is classic geography for oil, a sedimentary plain exposed by two plates being pulled apart. Unfortunately, the same area roughly defines the boundary between Sudan's north and south.

Except on maps, the country's two halves have never become one. The Muslim Arabs of the arid north historically preyed on the Africans who live in the wetter south and practice Christianity or traditional beliefs. British colonialists actually separated the two. National independence in 1956 was quickly followed by a sporadic war for southern secession. And although the fighting was in abeyance when Chevron Corp., the U.S. oil company, sank wells north of Bentiu in 1978, the discovery of oil helped renew the conflict in 1983.

"It is a problem of uneven distribution of resources and power," said Alfred Taban, a southerner who publishes the independent Khartoum Monitor. "The northerners have taken up all the ground."

Chevron pulled out in 1984, after rebels killed three of its employees. The oil fields stood largely idle until 1997, when the Sudanese government made peace with some of the rebel factions and formed a consortium to renew exploration. The partners included the China National Petroleum Corp., the Malaysian national oil company Petronas and Sudan's own Sudapet Ltd. But Talisman was the show horse.

Not only did the company bring technical expertise to build a 900-mile pipeline from the Heglig oil field to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, it also carried the stature of a Western oil firm, credentials craved by the government, which spent much of the 1990s under U.N. and U.S. sanctions because of its support of terrorism.

"My ultimate goal is to be the biggest oil exporter in the world," said Awad Jaz, Sudan's energy minister. Jaz has said any U.S. oil company could expect favorable terms if the sanctions were lifted.

But Western diplomats say U.S. firms are not lobbying hard to join Talisman and share its image problem. Reeves boasts that the divestment campaign has cost the company every one of its public institutional investors, from the City of New York to the Texas teachers' pension fund.

Campaigners are now pressing Fidelity Investments to divest, as well as pushing to ban oil concerns doing business in Sudan from being listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

Talisman has hired a Sudanese seminary student to buff its image and formed an office of corporate responsibility that points out that the oil areas have an infrastructure unique in this strikingly poor country of 30 million people: new water wells, schools, clinics and the Heglig hospital, extraordinarily well-equipped for rural Africa, complete with operating room and neonatal unit.

"It's kinda neat," said Helmut Gutsche, Talisman's field production manager at Heglig, where foreign employees fly in for 28-day shifts, eating and sleeping in a tidy camp of steel trailers. "There's poverty, on the downside. On the upside, we're trying to improve things."

Talisman also bought satellite photos to try to prove that its oil fields have always been largely vacant, but students of the Sudan war have long watched the fighting overlap with the oil concessions. And, though Talisman's lightly populated operation areas were first cleared perhaps two decades ago, Ryle and a Canadian researcher documented recent helicopter attacks near its fields. They also found deserting soldiers who said their mission was to drive people away from the oil fields.

"It's kind of a raggedy system of harassment, but it does seem to be classic counterinsurgency," Ryle said. "You're trying to get people to come into the towns so you can keep an eye on them, or drive them farther into the swamps."

Today, however, most of the fighting is farther south, nearer a concession leased to Lundin Oil, a Swedish company. Local residents were driven out over the past two years, largely through surrogates: The Sudanese government arms one southern militia, which raids the area, looting along the way.

Still farther south, a much larger bloc has long been held by the French giant TotalFinaElf. In fact, the Sudanese government has chopped much of the south into oil concessions reaching nearly to the Ugandan border. Critics see each bloc as another potential battlefield in a war that has already killed 2 million people.

Sudan's annual take from oil -- perhaps $500 million, a figure that will climb steeply after investors recover their risk -- has clearly tipped a stalemated war in the government's favor. The oil fields are new government garrisons, with soldiers camped every three miles on the main road, and tanks and helicopters in plain sight around airfields.

And the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, the principal southern rebel force that declared oil installations a target, has managed only scattered raids. In January, rebels hit a drilling derrick operated by China's Great Wall Drilling Co., killing three soldiers in a raid that killed 15 rebels.

"You don't want to be flying around here at night if you don't have to," said a Canadian pilot who flies the Bell 212 helicopter that ferries oil workers around the concession.

Whatever it does to the military equation, however, oil shows no signs of easing the political question at the heart of the war.

"I will say one example," said Thomas Kume, a former governor of the province adjoining the oil fields and a nominal government ally. "The fact that the refinery is moved to Khartoum and there's not even a small refinery in the south -- southerners are bitter about it."

-------- israel

Israel accepts U.S. cease-fire plan with reservations

USA Today
06/12/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/june01/2001-06-12-mideast.htm

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel said Tuesday that despite some concerns it has accepted a cease-fire proposal made by CIA chief George Tenet, but the Palestinians objected to a key provision to arrest militants. "I don't say we are enthusiastic about everything there, but ... we decided to accept his plan to see if it can bring about a reduction in incidents," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Tel Aviv.

The main problems have been working out a timeline for each side to carry out the commitments it would make. Israel wants a cooling-off period during which there must be no violence, while the Palestinians insist security and confidence-building measures proceed together.

Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian security chief of the West Bank, described the four-hour meeting Monday night as "stormy." The Americans, he said, had not dealt positively with Palestinian concerns about setting a timetable for ending Israel's closure of the Palestinian areas.

"The American suggestions could be summarized in one point, which is that the Palestinian Authority has to arrest a number of wanted people for Israel," Rajoub said. The Palestinians, he said, refused to agree to carry out such arrests before the closure is lifted.

A statement from the Palestinian Authority's media center in Gaza said the Palestinians approved Tenet's recommendations, but found Israeli-proposed amendments included in Tenet's paper to be unacceptable.

It also said Israel's demand that they conduct widespread arrests against Palestinian civilians "is not on the agenda and is entirely unacceptable."

According to the statement, Israel proposed setting up a buffer zone to separate Palestinian and Israeli territory, which the Palestinian leadership found unacceptable because it was not part of the Mitchell proposal. A commission led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell laid out security and other measures needed for the two sides to get the peace process back on track.

Sharon's office declined to comment on whether the Israeli team had made such a proposal.

The Palestinian statement also said Palestinians were disappointed Israel wouldn't agree to immediately lifting a closure on the their territories.

Soon after the latest violence began in September, Israel imposed a security closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Most Palestinians are confined to the territories and, at times, their hometowns. The closure has devastated the already struggling Palestinian economy; many Palestinians depend on jobs inside Israel.

"We are still working very hard," U.S. envoy William Burns said as he left a meeting with Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Quriea. "We just finished discussing (how) to find a way to implement the Mitchell report as a package of sequenced steps - and that's what the United States is committed to doing."

Quriea said the Palestinians declared "honestly, explicitly, that we accept the Mitchell report as a whole, but not as one step to be separated from another."

Raanan Gissin, a close aide to Sharon, warned that any violence after a cease-fire would mean a cooling off period, an Israeli requirement before progressing further, would have to begin again.

"If there is another incident, like a baby being killed by a rock, then it will all start from the beginning again," Gissin said, alluding to the death Monday of a five-month-old Israeli baby struck by a stone thrown by a Palestinian on a West Bank road last week.

Rajoub said Israel was seeking conditions that would "delay any possible settlement for the current conflict so that they will not have to reach any advanced stages like freezing settlement activities."

Tenet's schedule is kept secret. But Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof said violence would worsen if he leaves without a deal.

"No doubt we can expect a serious escalation of shooting and battle between the sides - and a battle situation between the two will not allow any progress ... in the diplomatic arena," Rabin-Pelossof told Israel radio.

Also Tuesday, for the first time in more than a week, Israeli F-16 warplanes carried out maneuvers Tuesday in skies over Gaza, flying high, then dipping low and breaking the sound barrier with sonic booms a Palestinian security described as a "mock air raid."

The last overflight in the area was a week ago. An Israeli army spokesperson said such flights are part of routine maneuvers and refused to discuss details.

The Israeli army spokesman's office also said three mortar shells fell near the Israeli settlement of Morag in the Gaza Strip. No injuries or damage was reported.

In more than eight months of violence, 489 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 109 on the Israeli side.

-------- puerto rico

Kennedy Goes to Court Over Vieques

JUNE 11, 23:19 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=CSA&STORYID=APIS7CIOKAO0

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Robert Kennedy Jr. is set to appear in federal court July 6 on trespassing charges stemming from protests on Vieques island, an attorney for the environmentalist said Monday.

Kennedy and Rivera were among some 180 people arrested in late April and early May during protests against naval bombings on Vieques, a small island east of Puerto Rico.

The Rev. Al Sharpton is serving a 90-day sentence in a New York prison in connection with the protests.

Puerto Rico Sen. Norma Burgos and Myrta Sanes, sister of a civilian guard killed by off-target bombs on the Vieques range in 1999, are to appear in U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico on July 6.

The former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Benito Romano, will be the lead attorney for Kennedy and Rivera in court, said former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who works with Romano at the New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Kennedy's spokesman had earlier said Cuomo himself would represent Kennedy and Rivera in court.

Protests opposing the U.S. Navy's use of a firing range on the island's eastern tip say the bombings harm islanders' health and the environment. The Navy has insisted the training causes no harm.

Bombing exercises are scheduled to resume as soon as Wednesday.

Vieques residents are to decide in a Nov. 6 referendum whether they want the Navy to stay or leave in 2003.

Gov. Sila Calderon also has announced a nonbinding locally administered referendum on July 29 that would include the option of an immediate halt to the exercises.

It is not clear how the Navy would respond to that vote.

----

STATE OF SIEGE AT THE PUERTO RICAN DAY PARADE

Vieques Support Campaign
http://palfrente.tripod.com
E-mail viequessc@hotmail.com

The June 10, 2001 National Puerto Rican Day Parade which marched up New York City's 5th Avenue will surely be remembered by many as having the semblance of a military occupation. According to official sources, 2500 more cops were assigned duty to this year's parade, the largest ever police presence at this annual event.

Despite denials by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the police that they were placing blame on this traditional celebration for last year's Central Park sexual abuse of women, the heavy police presence, along with unnecessary new restrictions on marching participants and spectators, prove the opposite to be the case. The hypocritical overtures of Giuliani and police officials can not disguise the fact that the Puerto Rican masses were the target of a military exercise.

The requirement of a color-coded wristband that was necessary for admission to the designated area of contingents, is quite similar to prison identification wristbands ­ quite indicative of the thinking of government official eager to increase the authority of the police state. The control of pedestrian movement was accompanied by the bullying arrogance and intimidation of the police, especially directed at many of the Puerto Rican masses and their allies wishing to enter the area where the pro-Vieques, anti-Navy Contingent was gathering.

It was at the checkpoints leading to the Vieques Contingent on 45th Street where the police were quite hostile for obvious reasons. The Vieques Contingent had delegations from various struggles and political left. Among the participants in this contingent were representatives of the Palestine Right To Return Coalition - AL-AWDA who came with a banner that read, "U.S. BOMBS TESTED IN VIEQUES, DROPPED ON PALESTINE!"

A delegation from the Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation was also present, which the police attempted to provoke numerous times in order to disrupt the pro-Vieques, anti-Navy contingent.

Throughout the past year Giuliani and the police have continued to associate the Puerto Rican Day Parade of June 11, 2000 with the violence in Central Park on that day, by calling for a greater police presence at this year's parade. With the help of the media, these officials have insidiously demonized the parade and have continued to persecute the Puerto Rican people with racist stigma despite the fact that the violent incident in Central Park occurred three hours after the parade had ended.

Although police claimed to be carrying out the wishes of the Puerto Rican Day Parade Coordinating Committee, the methods used to control this parade were precisely what Giuliani and top police officials had been calling for all along.

Members of the Puerto Rican Day Parade Coordinating Committee were playing "good cop, bad cop" with the NYPD in order to hide their lack of dignity and courage to challenge the orders given by City Hall and implemented by NYPD. Instead, these Committee members representing the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Inc. chose to prioritize protecting profits by catering to the sponsoring giant corporations at the expense of the political rights of the Puerto Rican community.

In the early morning hours the police department and representatives of the Parade Coordinating Committee attempted to remove people already inside the gathering area that did not have their wristbands issued to them yet. Vieques Contingent organizers held their ground and refused to allow the police and Parade Committee representatives to have their way. In the end they proved willing to compromise the interest of the Puerto Rican masses by helping racist cops to discourage as many people as possible from uniting in the pro-Vieques, anti-Navy contingent.

Despite the efforts of Giuliani, the police and Parade officials to suppress the issue of Vieques, including placing the Vieques Contingent towards the end of the parade, the message calling for the removal of the U.S. Navy could not be prevented from being a major theme at this event. There were signs proudly displayed by many spectators that expressed disapproval for the U.S. Navy bombing and occupation of Vieques.

If there is any doubt how the memory of the Central Park incident was used by racist officials to demonize the Puerto Rican community, just ask why the East Harlem Festival on Saturday, June 9, (three miles away from the Central Park incident location) was turned into a virtual military base by the NYPD?

The day before the big 5th Avenue parade, Puerto Ricans were subjected to harassment and disrespect in their own community. It is significant that at this festival, for the first time ever, the NYPD had cops sitting on watchtowers overlooking everyone partaking in the event. Cops searched residents as well as the property of venders at random to enforce a ban on beer while police helicopters hovered over the area, proving that a state of siege was in effect.

At both events, the police were obviously not interested in the sentiments of the public nor the benefits of well-coordinated festivals but rather, to exert their authority and be prepared to repress the rebelliousness of the Puerto Rican masses, if necessary.

The increased persecution of the Puerto Rican community is not coincidental. Police repression in the Puerto Rican community is no different in nature to the brutality inflicted on Puerto Ricans in Vieques by U.S. Marshals and military police.

And because the Puerto Rican community is going through a process of rapid politicization due to their affinities to the struggle for Vieques, it makes law enforcement officials feel increasingly leery of the rebellious potential the Puerto Rican community in the U.S. has proven to have. It should not surprise us that in law enforcement circles, military and other racist entities, that there is a backlash currently directed at Puerto Ricans.

After a year of insidiously blaming the Puerto Rican community for the Central Park incident, projecting it with racist depiction as the call for increased police presence continued to be made, Giuliani attempted to build a political justification for diminishing further the civil liberties of the Puerto Rican and other communities of color. It should not surprise us that the police were ready in riot gear on the streets of the Bronx before they brutally beat Puerto Rican residents.

In this latest attack by police, residents were celebrating on the streets after returning from the 5th Avenue event, which is not an unusual occurrence. It seems that to the racist oppressors, whenever Puerto Ricans congregate, automatically they become "unruly" and need to be beaten and arrested in order to preserve "control."

The police immediately began exerting their brutal force. Police used pepper spray on a young man in the crowd before beating him. His sister responded by coming to his aid, the police then grabbed and beat her. The crowd immediately reacted by coming to her defense ­ an absolute right of the people. By the time the incident ended, forty-two people were arrested and many suffered injuries inflicted by cops.

Boricua weekend is a time of pride that is celebrated by the Puerto Rican community every year. The heavy show of police in this year's celebrations, and the arrogance that they demonstrated at these events, demands all of us to take the example of the people in Vieques and engage in struggle to change our reality. The onslaught of police repression can be repelled. Guiliani, the police and the U.S. Navy are not invincible ­ with the unity of a peoples' movement, racists can be stopped as well as getting the U.S. Navy out of Vieques.

-------- switzerland

Swiss to arm peacekeepers

Washington Times`
June 11, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
World Scene -
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010611-32563245.htm

BERN, Switzerland -- Swiss voters yesterday gave razor-thin approval to a government proposal to arm peacekeepers, rejecting nationalist claims it will wreck Switzerlandīs 200-year record of staying out of world conflicts.

The defense minister acknowledged the strong opposition to the measure and underlined that the countryīs troops on foreign missions would be armed only to defend themselves.

"In no case will Swiss soldiers in U.N. or OSCE peacekeeping forces take part in combat," Defense Minister Samuel Schmid said.

Unarmed Swiss forces are currently deployed with both the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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

U.N. drug control program faulted

June 11, 2001
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010611-26608024.htm

NEW YORK - A new internal evaluation of the U.N. Drug Control Program faults the troubled agency's persistent inability to communicate with its own offices in the field and other U.N. programs engaged in similar work.

This failure to share program planning and information has led to a duplication of the efforts of other agencies and compromised the efficiency of donor-funded operations, according to the assessment.

The report also harshly criticizes the U.N. Drug Control Programīs year-late "World Drug Report" for 2000, saying the narrowly focused project contradicts itself and has jeopardized the agency's credibility.

Recommendations made in 1998 "had not been implemented in a manner that addressed underlying problems," said the report, one of three recent evaluations of the Vienna-based organized crime and drug control agency by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services.

A separate OIOS investigation, which could be released as early as today, examines charges by former UNDCP officials of mismanagement and fraud by Executive Director Pino Arlacchi.

Concerns about poor management and inefficiency have troubled donor nations, whose voluntary contributions make up nearly all of the drug program's roughly $100 million budget.

In an effort to shore up confidence, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has requested funding for a new deputy director to handle day-to-day management independent of Mr. Arlacchi. That post has not yet been filled.

The Dutch government, meanwhile, has suspended funding until it has digested the OIOS reports, and several other nations are either postponing their funding decisions or earmarking more of their contributions to specific programs, such as crop eradication in a specific nation.

The United States, by far the organization's largest contributor, has expressed concern about the management of the drug and crime program. However, U.S. officials praise Mr. Arlacchi's overall drug philosophy, which closely mirrors the American emphasis on interdiction and supply reduction.

The UNDCP is a bureaucratic cousin of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which publishes its own highly regarded biennial report on the illicit drug trade. The United States lost its seat on the INCB two months ago, a defeat that will have little impact on the running of UNDCP.

U.N. inspectors, following up on recommendations made in 1998, were dismayed to find lingering communication and coordination problems between UNDCP and other U.N. agencies and programs.

They also found the program should have done more to strengthen its role as an international clearinghouse for information on the drug trade.

The OIOS report also said the Vienna-based agency should work more closely with U.N. agencies in the field and headquarters, coordinating with legal, scientific and technical experts throughout the organization.

"There is no evidence of increased collaboration in the form envisioned," said the report, which was signed by Dileep Nair, the undersecretary-general for internal oversight services.

The inspectors were especially critical of the World Drug Report, which was issued in February, more than a year behind schedule and only a few weeks before a more comprehensive assessment was issued by the INCB.

"UNDCP was not able to maintain an approprate balance between advocacy and credibility," they said of the perfectly bound volume, singling out Mr. Arlacchi's "lengthy" 21-page introduction that highlights the program's successes and urges increased financial support.

The World Drug Report fails to mention relevent issues such as the surge in synthetic drugs or the link between illicit drugs and organized crime, law enforcement and corruption, according to OIOS.

Similar complaints have been made by one of the World Drug Report editors, Francisco Thoumi, who resigned complaining of repeated interference from Mr. Arlacchi.

OIOS inspectors also examined the data supporting the World Drug Report's sunny conclusions, and found that damaging trends, such as the rise of amphetamine-related abuse in the United States and Europe, were omitted.

The agency claims credit for successes more likely attributable to weather conditions, OIOS said. UNDCP officials in Vienna could not be reached for comment, and New York representative Zach Messitte declined to comment.

A draft of the inspector-general's report was submitted to UNDCP for comment and correction, and excerpts of those responses are included in the final version.

Mr. Arlacchi, a former Italian senator and noted Mafia foe, rejected many of the complaints.

There was some bright news in the OIOS evaluation. The $10 million Afghanistan pilot program to monitor poppy cultivation and reduce demand is entering its third year despite difficult circumstances.

"In view of the prevailing political and working circumstances in Afghanistan, to have sustained donor interest and funding ... is a remarkable achievement by all standards," wrote Mr. Nair, the head of OIOS.

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

N.J. Fire Blamed on Practice Bomb

JUNE 11, 17:04 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7CIJ4NG0

LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - An errant Air National Guard practice bomb caused a fire that burned more than 1,600 acres of woods, officials said Monday.

The dummy bomb, dropped by an F-16 fighter, landed about 100 yards outside the 2,400-acre Warren Grove bombing range area Sunday. The 25-pound dummy bomb contained no explosives, but had a small charge in its base designed to send up a plume of smoke so the pilot could see where it fell.

``Evidently, it was enough to start a fire,'' said Col. John Dwyer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Air National Guard. ``Why it fell into an area that was not cleared of debris and brush is under investigation.''

The fire at the Pinelands National Reserve forced the closing of State Route 539 for several hours. No evacuations were necessary and no buildings were damaged, state Forest Fire Service officials said.

No disciplinary action was expected against the pilot, whose name was not released, said Dwyer. ``There's no malice here. It's pure accident.''

----

Army fights to keep 10 combat divisions

June 11, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010611-32580263.htm

The Army is fighting to maintain its 10 active combat divisions in the face of suggestions from some Pentagon officials that trimming soldiers would help pay for the next generation of warplanes, ships and armored vehicles.

Pentagon officials said in interviews that no senior aide has yet recommended Army troop cuts to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who is overseeing a thorough review of military strategy and the force structure needed to carry it out.

But the officials said the option is being discussed at lower levels as the Pentagon last month began writing a new Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) mandated by Congress and due Sept. 30.

A senior Army officer said his service has prepared arguments to dissuade Mr. Rumsfeldīs top aides from agreeing to a smaller Army. The Air Force, for one, has spent the post-Cold War era arguing that air power can blunt enemy invasions, an indirect way of saying fewer ground troops are needed.

"The thing about cutting force structure is that you get a cut within a cut within a cut," said a senior Army officer. "You cut personnel, recruiting, retention and salary expenses. These cuts are much more significant to the long-term budget than, say, the decision to not field the Armyīs Crusader artillery system, which just saves a few billion dollars over a few years."

But a senior Pentagon official said that while various options have been discussed, no one in the QDR process has yet proposed cutting the armed forcesī 1.36 million active-duty roster.

"Thereīs nothing Iīve heard yet that the administration is seriously looking at reducing anybodyīs force structure," said this official, who asked not to be named.

"That doesnīt mean [Mr. Rumsfeld] wonīt be doing that later this summer."

The official said it would be difficult to trade Army formations for more weapons as long as the United States has a need to keep 200,000 troops in the Pacific region and in Europe.

Mr. Rumsfeld, while in Europe last week meeting with NATO officials, did not rule out a shift in Europe-based forces.

"We are of course looking at how forces are arranged, and force structures -- apart from size -- in addition to the question of structure, and what might come out of it, I donīt know," he told reporters. "Weīre not at that stage. . . .

There has been no discussion of troop adjustments in Europe and it would be wrong to inject that into discussion and cause tremors unnecessarily and inaccurately, so please donīt."

Four years ago, the service was one QDR draft away from losing two divisions.

The Army top brass mounted a full-court press to convince Defense Secretary William S. Cohen that abolishing two divisions put the country at risk of not having a national military capability of fighting two regional wars simultaneously.

This time around, however, the stars are aligned differently.

Mr. Rumsfeld openly muses about changing the two-war strategy.

Pentagon officials say one option is a "one-war-plus" declaration. This would mean sizing the force to fight one regional war, while carrying out a multitude of smaller missions such as peacekeeping and "coercive" bombing to gain a diplomatic objective.

If the two-war goal is amended, the Pentagon could try to justify troops cuts.

Mr. Rumsfeld has said repeatedly in recent interviews that he has not decided whether to keep the two-war goal or amend it.

The Air Force has good reason to argue for a smaller Army. Two of its top priorities, the F-22 stealth fighter and the multi-service Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), carry long-term costs of $62 billion and $300 billion, respectively.

There is not enough money to fund these and other high-priced systems unless President Bush is willing to support huge increases in defense spending.

So far, the White House is willing to approve no more than $30 billion in additional money for next yearīs defense budget, meaning something, troops or systems, will have to be scaled back.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the Pentagon needs $30 billion more in procurement accounts alone to replace aging weapons and equipment.

Pentagon analysts say a cut of two divisions could mean elimination of as many as 100,000 soldiers from the Armyīs authorized end strength of 480,000.

This could also lead to reduction in Guard and Reserve units.

At that juncture, political sparks would fly.

Under the current QDR, the Pentagon was supposed to trim 45,000 Guardsmen and Reserves from a total force of just under 900,000.

But after imposing the first 20,000 cuts, the Pentagon ran up against stiff opposition from Congress and canceled further trims in the forces.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

American wind energy industry comes of age

Monday, June 11, 2001,
Environmental News Network
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/06/06112001/wind_43919.asp

The European wind energy industry has outpaced the world for years with Germany, Denmark and Britain leading the pack, but the maturity of the American wind power industry was demonstrated this month.

American wind energy producers responded powerfully to a request for proposals to build new generating facilities from the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in Portland, Oregon.

Seeking 1,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) asked for construction proposals in February from wind energy companies. Twenty-five proposals, totaling about 2,600 MW, were submitted, enough to serve 500,000 to 750,000 average U.S. households.

George Darr, BPA's renewable power resource program manager, said the wind industry response "blew us away." Currently, BPA sells electricity generated by hydropower dams, but the normally wet Pacific Northwest has been unusually dry this year. BPA acting administrator Steve Wright says wind power can help. "Harvesting the strong, steady winds of the Columbia River Basin works especially well with our hydropower base. When the winds blow, we can save more water in reservoirs. When the winds are still, we can release the river's power. Wind farms add to our local renewable resources."

The first wind power plants to be built for BPA will be installed by the end of next year, more quickly than most other power plants could be built. And its performance for BPA is just the beginning, according to the American Wind Energy Association which represents the industry.

Using figures from two federal government agencies, analysts at the wind energy association calculated that the wind resource of the Western and Midwestern states is bigger in energy terms than the oil resources of Saudi Arabia.

The federal Energy Information Administration estimates Saudi Arabia's remaining oil reserves at 261 billion barrels, or enough for about 90 years at the current production rate of eight million barrels a day. If burned to produce electricity, that amount of oil would generate about 153 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), the wind industry group calculated.

The Pacific Northwest Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy lab, has estimated the U.S. wind resource as being capable of producing 10.8 trillion kWh annually. So, the wind industry group says, in 15 years, U.S. winds could generate more electricity than all of Saudi Arabia's oil, without being depleted.

"If wind is compared directly with oil in raw energy terms, the comparison is less advantageous because two-thirds of the energy in a barrel of oil is lost when it is burned to generate electricity," the American Wind Energy Association acknowledges. Even so, in 45 years, U.S. winds could produce more energy than Saudi oil reserves, without being depleted.

American Wind Energy Association executive director Randall Swisher says, "Hundreds of thousands of megawatts of wind power plants could be installed in the western U.S., vastly increasing electricity supplies and providing an abundance of clean, domestic energy."

Swisher called for expansion of President George W. Bush's National Energy Policy to include a "serious renewable energy agenda for the nation." He approved the policy's extension of the existing federal production tax credit for wind, which will expire at the end of this year unless it is renewed by Congress. But Swisher wants more.

A Renewables Portfolio Standard which would require that a minimum of 10 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. be produced by new renewable energy power plants, is desireable, Swisher said. He also wants a requirement that federal government agencies purchase an increasing percentage of their energy needs from renewable energy suppliers.

The wind industry needs increased research and development funding to continue driving down the price of wind generated electricity, Swisher says. And to make it less costly for households or businesses to install their own wind turbines, Swisher wants the Bush administration to grant a 30 percent investment tax credit for small wind systems below 75 kilowatts in capacity.

"Wind energy is the great success story of the last energy crisis - a brand-new technology developed over the last 20 years with enormous potential," Swisher said. "It's time to put it to work to deal with the energy problems we have today."

----

Germany Substitutes Wind for Nuclear Power

June 11, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-11-03.html

BERLIN, Germany, The German government has unveiled plans for massive development of offshore wind power to help the country reconcile its climate protection goals with its nuclear phaseout policy.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (Photo courtesy IISD/Linkages)

A deal between the German government and German utilities to shut down the country's 19 nuclear power plants has been in the works for years. It was finally sealed today as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and executives of four power companies signed an agreement in Berlin.

Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin, a Green member of the German Social Democrat/Green coalition government has been pushing for the nuclear phaseout since he took office in October 1998.

Trittin told journalists in Berlin that the wind power plan could see between 75 and 80 terrawatt hours of electricity annually from offshore wind parks by 2030. This is equivalent to nearly 60 percent of the nuclear electricity produced last year in Germany.

The German nuclear plants have a standard life span of 32 years, which means Germany's newest nuclear plant would close in 2021. The first of the plants, at Stade in northern Germany, will shut down in 2003.

A ministry spokesperson said the plan is a "cornerstone of changing Germany's energy production system, to stop nuclear power, reduce fossil fuels and increase renewables."

German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin is a proponent of the nuclear phaseout. (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)

The spokesman said that the spectacular growth in offshore wind energy envisaged under the government's plan would be achieved entirely through private capital investment. The country's renewable energy support law guarantees the price for wind energy at euros 0.09 (DM 0.178) per kilowatt hour. This brings the industry to "near economic" status, the ministry says.

Trittin said that two areas of the North Sea have been identified as appropriate for the construction of wind turbines which could total 4,000 by 2030. He said that the areas avoid all marine and bird conservation areas.

Offshore wind power is contentious among Germany environmentalists who are deeply divided about its environmental impact. The ministry does not expect its plan to get an easy ride so it has invited ecologists to a two-day congress this week to debate the "integration of climate protection, nature protection, marine protection and energy policy fit for the future."

Antinuclear activists from Greenpeace Germany protest nuclear waste transport in front the Social Democratic Party office in Berlin today. (Photo courtesy Domenic Butzmann/Greenpeace Germany)

Environmentalists are also displeased about the nuclear power plant phaseout schedule, which they view as too slow.

Pro-nuclear industrialists and politicians do not want Germany to back away from nuclear power, and some have expressed the intention to reverse this move under future governments. They warn it could slow efforts to limit global warming in line with the international pact signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, by forcing Germany to burn more fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases.

A May 2000 study by the German Flensburg University conducted at the request of Greenpeace Germany concluded that a rapid phaseout of nuclear energy would result in huge financial benefits estimated at DM 83, the equivalent of US$35.8 billion.

Employment does not have to decrease in case of a rapid closure of nuclear plants, the Flensburg study said. About 24,500 new jobs are to be created if a change is made towards renewable energy by 2025. Although the emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the scenario would increase until 2005, after that year they would be reduced.

----

EU green energy plan may be delayed after Dutch object

SWEDEN: June 11, 2001
Story by Eva Sohlman
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11120

VISPY, Sweden - A European Union plan to double the use of green energy by 2010 to fight global warming may be delayed after the Netherlands blocked a deal in final negotiations, officials said on Friday.

The Netherlands blocked the EU renewables directive, which covers wind, wave, solar and biomass, on Thursday because it wants power generated by burning municipal waste also to be classified as green energy.

"The directive could be delayed by six months or more," Guilio Volpi, climate policy officer at the World Wildlife Fund told an EU conference on renewable energy held on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

The Netherlands, which is backed by Italy and the United Kingdom, takes 50 percent of its green electricity from incineration of waste and would have difficulty complying with the directive without counting incineration as a renewable energy source.

Opponents say incineration should not be viewed as green energy because half of the waste contains plastics which emit poisonous gases when burning.

The other half is organic matter which uses rather than produces energy in the burning process.

Despite the split, Sweden hosting the rotating EU presidency, was optimistic the EU would reach an agreement on the issue in the next weeks.

"We are positive the directive will be agreed upon at July 6 at the latest," Lars Rekke, state secretary at the Swedish industry ministry, told a news conference on the island.

The directive states the share of green energy should rise from six percent of the EU's energy demand at present to 12 percent by 2010.

Next week, U.S. President George W. Bush will visit an EU summit in Gothenburg in Sweden, where heads of state are expected to tackle issues such as climate change and missile defence.

Volpi said it could be embarrassing for the EU, which heavily criticised the U.S. rejection of the Kyoto protocol to curb global warming and cut greenhouse gas emissions, should it fail to agree on the directive which would help the EU to meet its own emissions targets.

"This is the first challenge for the EU to show the Bush administration to cut emissions," he said.

Claude Turnes, vice president of EUFORES, the European forum for renewable energy resources, agreed.

"In the face of the weakened Kyoto process, it is important we reach an agreement on increased use of renewable energy as soon as possible."

----

US senators want more renewable fuels in gasoline

USA: June 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11133&newsDate=11-Jun-2001

WASHINGTON - In a move to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil imports, legislation was introduced in the Senate on Friday that would require gasoline to contain a small portion of renewable fuels.

The renewable fuel standard would be phased in over time, required to be in 2 percent of each gallon of gasoline by 2008 and in 5 percent by 2016.

The bill would require all motor fuels sold in the United States to contain either biodiesel or ethanol from corn or biomass. Biodiesel is a diesel engine fuel made from vegetable oil, animal fat or algae. Biomass is made from crops, trees or even landfill gases.

A co-sponsor of the legislation, Democrat Tim Johnson of South Dakota, said the Bush administration's new national energy plan does not rely heavily enough on renewable fuels as part of the solution to America's energy problems.

While the Bush administration's plan suggests ways to spur development and use of renewable fuels, it set no targets for their future contribution to the U.S. energy mix.

"I believe renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel should be the centerpiece of our energy strategy, because these fuels are home-grown solutions that benefit our farmers, provide cleaner air and reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Johnson said.

The bill's other co-sponsor is Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

Ethanol is the most widely used biofuel and its production has increased sharply since 1980, rising from 200 million gallons a year to 1.9 billion gallons.

As an inducement to develop the home-grown fuel, ethanol already has an excise tax exemption worth 5.3 cents a gallon at the pump. Ethanol is distilled from corn and used in a 9-to-1 blend with gasoline.

Ethanol production could reach a record 2 billion gallons this year, according to the industry's trade group. The Renewable Fuels Association said two dozen ethanol plants went into production in the past two years and 40 more were scheduled for construction over the next two years.

-------- death penalty

Statement From McVeigh's Attorney

JUNE 11, 17:15 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7CIJ9PG0

A statement from attorney Robert Nigh upon the June 11 execution of his client, Timothy McVeigh:

At 7 a.m. this morning, we killed Tim McVeigh, the person responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. But we did much more than that. We also killed Sergeant McVeigh, the young man who joined the Army because he wanted to serve his country; the young soldier that was so dedicated to his duty that he became the top gunner in this battalion of 100.

He was the young man who took up arms on his country's behalf and traveled half-way across the world to meet and engage our enemy. He placed his own life in jeopardy because we asked him to and because he thought it was his duty to do so.

His actions were of such character that he was awarded the Bronze Star with designation of valor.

But much more importantly than any of that, what we did this morning was to kill Tim McVeigh, friend to Bob Popovic, Allen Smith and Elizabeth McDermott. We killed Bill and Mickey's son this morning. And we killed Jennifer McVeigh's big brother.

Of course, we can say that it was Tim himself that caused their pain.

And we would be half-right. But it would be a lie to say that we did not double their pain and that we are not responsible, because there is a reasonable way to deal with crime that doesn't involve killing another human being.

Although we might not express it in these terms because we know better, we might say that these people are simply collateral damage, but we know too well that there is no such thing as collateral damage. There are only real people with faces and names and loved ones who may never heal because of our actions, and that is true whether their grief was inflicted by Tim McVeigh or by federal law enforcement or by us collectively.

To the survivors in Oklahoma City who have had the courage to come out against capital punishment in spite of the tremendous pain that they have suffered, I say thank you. To the victims in Oklahoma City, I say that I am sorry that I could not successfully help Tim to express words of reconciliation that he did not perceive to be dishonest. I do not fault them at all for looking forward to this day or for taking some sense of relief from it. But if killing Tim McVeigh does not bring peace or closure to them, I suggest to you that it is our fault. We have told them that we would help them heal their wounds in this way.

We have taken it upon ourselves to promise to extract vengeance for them. We have made killing a part of the healing process. In order to do that we use such terms as reasoned moral response, but I submit there's nothing reasonable or moral about what we have done today. That is true when killing a human being even means killing Tim McVeigh.

There was a time when we recognized this in our country. In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the death penalty as it existed at the time. In its concurring opinion in Furman v. Georgia, Justice Marshall wrote, ``The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

``This is a country that stands tallest in troubled times; a country that clings to fundamental principles, cherishes its constitutional heritage and rejects simple solutions that compromise the values that lie at the roots of our democratic system. In striking down capital punishment, this court does not malign our system of government; on the contrary, it pays homage to it. In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. We achieve a major milestone in the long road from barbarism and join the approximately 70 other jurisdictions in the world which celebrate their regard for civilization and humanity by shunning capital punishment.''

There has been a movement in the states to celebrate the dignity of human life and to start a moratorium on executions. It did not come soon enough for Tim McVeigh, but it can come soon enough for others.

Where we go from here is a question of critical importance. I have told you, honestly, that Tim cared for people. And some of the people he cared deepest about were his brothers on the federal death row. Even Tim recognized that our claims that we are not racially biased are false. If we believe that, then we ignore the reality that 18 of the 20 men behind me on the federal death row in Terre Haute are persons of color. Fully 90 percent belong to a minority. If we do not acknowledge that, we are lying to ourselves about what we are doing. We are killing the poor and the minority and people that we believe to be different and lesser than ourselves.

Even in Tim McVeigh's case, to which the racial disparity doesn't apply, we were incapable of inflicting the death penalty in a fair manner.

The FBI could not participate in the prosecution without breaching its obligation to turn over the witness statements. This must make us realize that we are too fallible, we are simply too human to extract so final and irreversible a punishment.

If there is anything good that can come from the execution of Tim McVeigh, it may be to help us realize sooner that we simply cannot do this anymore. I am firmly convinced that it is not a question of if we will stop, it is simply a question of when.

Thank you all very much.

-------- energy

Re: METHANE HYDRATES

From: "Sidney J. Goodman" <sjgdesin@mindspring.com>
Mon, 11 Jun 2001

Methane can be produced simply by fermenting vegetation in biogas digesters.There are millions of biogas units in China and India. Many years ago, we could have exploited the resouce of using alcohol, and methane fuels. Oil companies held back the technique.

A friend of mine, patented a way to convert seawater into freshwater using solar energy. California nixed it because they were being subsidized to use a non-solar method. The non-solar method was twice as expensive as the solar way but it was cheaper to California because of the subsidy.

Sid Goodman

-------- environment

Text of President Bush's Remarks on Global Climate

New York Times
June 11, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/world/11CLIM-TEXT.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, June 11 - Following are excerpts from remarks by President Bush today on global climate, as recorded by the White House:

Climate change, with its potential to impact every corner of the world, is an issue that must be addressed by the world.

The Kyoto Protocol was fatally flawed in fundamental ways. But the process used to bring nations together to discuss our joint response to climate change is an important one. That is why I am today committing the United States of America to work within the United Nations framework and elsewhere to develop with our friends and allies and nations throughout the world an effective and science-based response to the issue of global warming.

My cabinet-level working group has met regularly for the last 10 weeks to review the most recent, most accurate and most comprehensive science. They have heard from scientists offering a wide spectrum of views. They have reviewed the facts, and they have listened to many theories and suppositions. The working group asked the highly respected National Academy of Sciences to provide us the most up-to-date information about what is known and about what is not known on the science of climate change.

First, we know the surface temperature of the earth is warming. It has risen by six-tenths of 1 degree Celsius over the past 100 years. There was a warming trend from the 1890's to the 1940's, cooling from the 1940's to the 1970's, and then sharply rising temperatures from the 1970's to today.

There is a natural greenhouse effect that contributes to warming. Greenhouse gases trap heat, and thus warm the earth, because they prevent a significant proportion of infrared radiation from escaping into space. Concentration of greenhouse gases, especially COgfsubscr2 , have increased substantially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. And the National Academy of Sciences indicates that the increase is due in large part to human activity.

Yet the academy's report tells us that we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming. We do not know how much our climate could or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur or even how some of our actions could impact it.

For example, our useful efforts to reduce sulfur emissions may have actually increased warming, because sulfate particles reflect sunlight, bouncing it back into space. And finally, no one can say with any certainty what constitutes a dangerous level of warming and, therefore, what level must be avoided.

The policy challenge is to act in a serious and sensible way, given the limits of our knowledge. While scientific uncertainties remain, we can begin now to address the factors that contribute to climate change.

There are only two ways to stabilize concentration of greenhouse gases. One is to avoid emitting them in the first place. The other is to try to capture them after they're created. And there are problems with both approaches.

We're making great progress through technology, but have not yet developed cost-effective ways to capture carbon emissions at their source, although there is some promising work that is being done.

And a growing population requires more energy to heat and cool our homes, more gas to drive our cars, even though we're making progress on conservation and energy efficiency and have significantly reduced the amount of carbon emissions per unit of G.D.P.

Our country, the United States, is the world's largest emitter of man- made greenhouse gases. We account for almost 20 percent of the world's man-made greenhouse emissions. We also account for about one-quarter of the world's economic output. We recognize the responsibility to reduce our emissions. We also recognize the other part of the story - that the rest of the world emits 80 percent of all greenhouse gases. And many of those emissions come from developing countries.

This is a challenge that requires a 100 percent effort, ours and the rest of the world's. The world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China. Yet China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India and Germany are among the top emitters. Yet India was also exempt from Kyoto.

These and other developing countries that are experiencing rapid growth face challenges in reducing their emissions without harming their economies. We want to work cooperatively with these countries in their efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and maintain economic growth.

Kyoto also failed to address two major pollutants that have an impact on warming, black soot and tropospheric ozone. Both are proven health hazards. Reducing both would not only address climate change, but also dramatically improve people's health.

Kyoto is, in many ways, unrealistic. Many countries cannot meet their Kyoto targets. The targets themselves were arbitrary and not based upon science. For America, complying with those mandates would have a negative economic impact, with layoffs of workers and price increases for consumers. And when you evaluate all these flaws, most reasonable people will understand that it's not sound public policy.

That's why 95 members of the United States Senate expressed a reluctance to endorse such an approach. Yet America's unwillingness to embrace a flawed treaty should not be read by our friends and allies as any abdication of responsibility. To the contrary, my administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change.

We recognize our responsibility and will meet it - at home, in our hemisphere and in the world.

My cabinet-level working group on climate change is recommending a number of initial steps, and will continue to work on additional ideas. ... I also call on Congress to work with my administration to achieve the significant emission reductions made possible by implementing the clean-energy technologies proposed in our energy plan. Our working group study has made it clear that we need to know a lot more.

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change commences to stabilizing concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate. But no one knows what that level is. The United States has spent $18 billion on climate research since 1990, three times as much as any other country, and more than Japan and all 15 nations of the E.U. combined.

Today, I make our investment in science even greater. My administration will establish the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative to study areas of uncertainty and identify priority areas where investments can make a difference.

I'm directing my secretary of commerce, working with other agencies, to set priorities for additional investments in climate change research, review such investments, and to improve coordination amongst federal agencies. We will fully fund high-priority areas for climate change science over the next five years. We'll also provide resources to build climate observation systems in developing countries and encourage other developed nations to match our American commitment.

And we propose a joint venture with the E.U., Japan and others to develop state-of-the-art climate modeling that will help us better understand the causes and impacts of climate change. America's the leader in technology and innovation. We all believe technology offers great promise to significantly reduce emissions, especially carbon-capture, -storage and -sequestration technologies.

So we're creating the National Climate Change Technology Initiative to strengthen research at universities and national labs, to enhance partnerships in applied research, to develop improved technology for measuring and monitoring gross and net greenhouse gas emissions and to fund demonstration projects for cutting-edge technologies such as bio-reactors and fuel cells. ...

Yet even that isn't enough.

I've asked my advisers to consider approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including those that tap the power of markets, help realize the promise of technology and ensure the widest possible global participation. As we analyze the possibilities, we will be guided by several basic principles.

Our approach must be consistent with the long-term goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Our actions should be measured as we learn more from science and build on it.

Our approach must be flexible to adjust to new information and take advantage of new technology. We must always act to ensure continued economic growth and prosperity for our citizens and for citizens throughout the world. We should pursue market-based incentives and spur technological innovation.

And finally, our approach must be based on global participation, including that of developing countries, whose net greenhouse gas emissions now exceed those in the developed countries.

--------

GLOBAL WARMING - The Press Gets It Wrong
Our report doesn't support the Kyoto treaty.

BY RICHARD S. LINDZEN,
Monday, June 11, 2001
Wall Street Journal Opinion
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95000606

Last week the National Academy of Sciences released a report on climate change, prepared in response to a request from the White House, that was depicted in the press as an implicit endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol. CNN's Michelle Mitchell was typical of the coverage when she declared that the report represented "a unanimous decision that global warming is real, is getting worse, and is due to man. There is no wiggle room."

As one of 11 scientists who prepared the report, I can state that this is simply untrue. For starters, the NAS never asks that all participants agree to all elements of a report, but rather that the report represent the span of views. This the full report did, making clear that there is no consensus, unanimous or otherwise, about long-term climate trends and what causes them.

As usual, far too much public attention was paid to the hastily prepared summary rather than to the body of the report. The summary began with a zinger--that greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise, etc., before following with the necessary qualifications. For example, the full text noted that 20 years was too short a period for estimating long-term trends, but the summary forgot to mention this.

Our primary conclusion was that despite some knowledge and agreement, the science is by no means settled. We are quite confident (1) that global mean temperature is about 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than it was a century ago; (2) that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have risen over the past two centuries; and (3) that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas whose increase is likely to warm the earth (one of many, the most important being water vapor and clouds).

But--and I cannot stress this enough--we are not in a position to confidently attribute past climate change to carbon dioxide or to forecast what the climate will be in the future. That is to say, contrary to media impressions, agreement with the three basic statements tells us almost nothing relevant to policy discussions.

One reason for this uncertainty is that, as the report states, the climate is always changing; change is the norm. Two centuries ago, much of the Northern Hemisphere was emerging from a little ice age. A millennium ago, during the Middle Ages, the same region was in a warm period. Thirty years ago, we were concerned with global cooling.

Distinguishing the small recent changes in global mean temperature from the natural variability, which is unknown, is not a trivial task. All attempts so far make the assumption that existing computer climate models simulate natural variability, but I doubt that anyone really believes this assumption.

We simply do not know what relation, if any, exists between global climate changes and water vapor, clouds, storms, hurricanes, and other factors, including regional climate changes, which are generally much larger than global changes and not correlated with them. Nor do we know how to predict changes in greenhouse gases. This is because we cannot forecast economic and technological change over the next century, and also because there are many man-made substances whose properties and levels are not well known, but which could be comparable in importance to carbon dioxide.

What we do is know that a doubling of carbon dioxide by itself would produce only a modest temperature increase of one degree Celsius. Larger projected increases depend on "amplification" of the carbon dioxide by more important, but poorly modeled, greenhouse gases, clouds and water vapor.

The press has frequently tied the existence of climate change to a need for Kyoto. The NAS panel did not address this question. My own view, consistent with the panel's work, is that the Kyoto Protocol would not result in a substantial reduction in global warming. Given the difficulties in significantly limiting levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a more effective policy might well focus on other greenhouse substances whose potential for reducing global warming in a short time may be greater.

The panel was finally asked to evaluate the work of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, focusing on the Summary for Policymakers, the only part ever read or quoted. The Summary for Policymakers, which is seen as endorsing Kyoto, is commonly presented as the consensus of thousands of the world's foremost climate scientists. Within the confines of professional courtesy, the NAS panel essentially concluded that the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers does not provide suitable guidance for the U.S. government.

The full IPCC report is an admirable description of research activities in climate science, but it is not specifically directed at policy. The Summary for Policymakers is, but it is also a very different document. It represents a consensus of government representatives (many of whom are also their nations' Kyoto representatives), rather than of scientists. The resulting document has a strong tendency to disguise uncertainty, and conjures up some scary scenarios for which there is no evidence.

Science, in the public arena, is commonly used as a source of authority with which to bludgeon political opponents and propagandize uninformed citizens. This is what has been done with both the reports of the IPCC and the NAS. It is a reprehensible practice that corrodes our ability to make rational decisions. A fairer view of the science will show that there is still a vast amount of uncertainty--far more than advocates of Kyoto would like to acknowledge--and that the NAS report has hardly ended the debate. Nor was it meant to.

Mr. Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences panel on climate change.

-------- human rights

Chinese Labor Organizer Indicted

The Associated Press
Monday, June 11, 2001; 6:59 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010611/aponline065933_000.htm

BEIJING -- Authorities in south China have charged a veteran labor organizer with subversion, one year after he was released from 11 years in prison, a rights group said Monday.

Police took Li Wangyang away last month from a hospital where he was being treated for heart and lung problems caused by beatings and physical neglect in prison, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

He was formally arrested and indicted Monday in Shaoyang, a city 930 miles south of Beijing in Hunan province, the Hong Kong-based center said. It was not clear what prompted Li's arrest, but such charges often result in lengthy prison sentences.

In another case, three men detained in late May on suspicion of organizing a large protest by steel workers in southwestern Sichuan province have also been formally arrested on subversion charges, the center said.

The arrests come ahead of the International Olympic Committee's July 13 vote on the host city for the 2008 Summer Games, a crucial test in China's quest for international acceptance. Beijing is a front-runner to host the games along with Paris and Toronto.

Li formed an independent trade union and advocated a strike during pro-democracy protests across China in 1989 that the government crushed. He was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on charges of "counterrevolutionary activity" and released in June 2000, two years early and ahead of a vote in the U.S. Congress on whether to grant China low-tariff trade rights.

His health ruined by his treatment in prison, Li went on a 22-day hunger strike in February to demand the prison pay his medical bills.

----

China Adds To Curbs on Falun Gong

Associated Press
Monday, June 11, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49271-2001Jun10?language=printer

BEIJING, June 10 -- China has again tightened its laws against the Falun Gong spiritual movement, highlighting the government's difficulties in stamping out the group after banning it nearly two years ago.

A legal directive issued by Chinese judicial authorities and announced today by the official New China News Agency marked a further hardening in the crackdown on Falun Gong, which the government considers a dangerous cult.

Under the directive, which goes into effect Monday, courts can prosecute Falun Gong practitioners for intentional wounding or murder, or for organizing, encouraging or helping other followers commit suicide or injure themselves. That clause was designed to prevent incidents like the one in which five people set themselves on fire at Tiananmen Square in January, the news agency said. The government said the five -- two of whom died -- were Falun Gong adherents, a claim the group disputed.

The new legal directive also targeted Falun Gong practitioners who have defied the government by distributing pamphlets and information about the group and the crackdown. Followers can be prosecuted under subversion laws if they produce or distribute anti-government materials, the news agency said.

Public protests by Falun Gong practitioners have declined in recent months, but adherents continue to surreptitiously distribute Falun Gong materials. Followers have also scrawled Falun Gong graffiti and hung banners in public places and posted information on the Internet, including the names and phone numbers of police and prison officers they accuse of beating or killing detained practitioners.

Falun Gong, which claims millions of adherents, says that it is a peaceful spiritual cultivation movement with no political agenda and that its teachings forbid killing, including suicide.

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

Let the North join IMF, official says

June 11, 2001
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
By Willis Witter
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010611-82174153.htm

The South Korean official who negotiated his nationīs 1997 bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the international community yesterday to extend similar assistance to North Koreaīs shattered economy.

"To encourage North Korea to open its door, we should seriously think about letting them join multinational financial institutions," said Lim Chang-yuel, governor of Kyonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul and extends to the border with North Korea.

As deputy prime minister in 1997, Mr. Lim negotiated a $55 billion bailout with the IMF in the weeks before the election of South Koreaīs current president, Kim Dae-jung.

An economist at the time with no party affiliation, he joined Mr. Kimīs Millennium Democratic Party and served as finance minister for a year and a half before running for governor.

For North Korea, Mr. Lim envisions something far more modest than the massive infusion of credit that helped the South escape bankruptcy and begin growing again.

Just allowing the North to join the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the IMF would mark a huge step toward ending the communist stateīs self-imposed isolation, he said.

It would require them to open their books, welcome international delegations and move toward a market-oriented system, and become more friendly with other nations, Mr. Lim said in an interview.

Last week, the Bush administration announced it would reopen talks with Pyongyang, resuming a process that had gained speed, though to an uncertain end, in the final weeks of the Clinton administration.

That decision was welcomed by Mr. Lim and other South Korean officials, who seek to continue exchanges, trade, tourism and other contacts begun in the past three years.

As a governor, Mr. Limīs primary focus is bringing foreign investment to the outer suburbs of Seoul a task that brought him to the United States with 35 South Korean businessmen.

He calls his province, the home of one in five South Koreans, the "engine of growth" for South Korea and boasts that it has attracted $8.1 billion in foreign investment in the past three years.

Outside investment is often a dicey topic in South Korea, especially given its history of labor unrest. Militant union leaders at a Daewoo plant east of Seoul now threaten to hurl Molotov cocktails through auto showrooms if General Motors successfully concludes negotiations to buy the bankrupt company.

But Mr. Kim bristled at suggestions the South Koreans are hostile to foreign investment, noting that one-third of the investment in the nationīs stock market comes from abroad, and that several of the nationīs top banks have been purchased by foreign companies.

"In every society you have radical groups, but [they] should not be generalized as a majority," he said of Daewooīs militant unionists.

"Thousands of Daewoo workers have signed a petition [saying] please take over our factory," Mr. Lim said.

Workers at a plant in Pupyong continue to churn out cars and hand out surveys showing that a majority favor the proposed GM takeover.

Since the December 1997 crisis, the economy has resumed growth, and unemployment, which peaked at more than 8 percent, has fallen to 3.8 percent.

-------- spying

Sir David Spedding, 58, Dies; Headed Britain's Secret Service

By Richard Pearson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2001; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4915-2001Jun15?language=printer

Sir David Spedding, 58, a Middle East authority who served as head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, for five years before retiring in 1999, died of lung cancer June 13. The place of his death was not reported.

Sir David became head, or "C," of Secret Service in 1994. He was the youngest man appointed to the job and the 11th to hold the post since SIS was founded in 1909. He also was the first officer to lead the service since the 1920s who had not made his mark as a Soviet specialist and only the second to be publicly named by the government as SIS chief.

His years as "C" saw the service turning its gaze from the Cold War to devoting its attentions to fighting international terrorism and drug smuggling, and in preventing the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Sir David also was part of the effort to bring SIS into modern times despite controversy. He helped organize and execute the move of the service's headquarters from Century House to a new, $500 million facility on the Thames River south bank at Vauxhall Cross that drew criticism as being too high profile for a clandestine service.

David Rolland Spedding's father had been a lieutenant colonel in the Border Regiment. Sir David went to a private British secondary school where, it was later learned, he took part in anti-nuclear weapons marches and wrote an anti-nuclear piece for a magazine called Sixth Form Opinion. According to The Times of London, in its obituary of Sir David, this "caused some merriment" when it was circulated by Secret Service colleagues years later.

After receiving a degree in medieval history from Oxford University's Hertford College, where one of his tutors was a "talent-spotter" for SIS according to Britain's Guardian newspaper, he went to Chile as a press officer at the British Embassy. In 1967, he was recruited by SIS and sent to Lebanon, where he studied Arabic at the Foreign Office's Middle East Center for Arabic Studies -- which was widely regarded as a spy school. He then became a Middle East specialist, or what some British officials referred to as a member of the Camel Corps.

He then joined the Beirut Embassy as a second secretary, where he became familiar with various Palestinian figures and organizations. From 1972 to 1974, he served in Chile. It was during this time that Socialist President Salvador Allende was overthrown by right-wing military forces. Sir David then served in Britain before returning to the Middle East in 1978 as embassy first secretary and SIS station chief in Abu Dhabi.

In the 1980s, he held senior posts in London and also in Amman, Jordan, where he was embassy counselor and station chief. It was in those posts that he was credited, with Jordanian security forces in mysterious circumstances, with saving the life of Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to Jordan.

He then became a leading British player in forming Middle East policy during the Iraq-Iran war and the Persian Gulf War. His later posts included tours as head of the Middle East section during the Gulf War, and finally as director of requirements and production and assistant SIS chief, the official deputy of "C."

Sir David managed to contain public damage and established a working relationship with parliamentary committees. He also managed to maintain a degree of mystery about himself. His home address was listed as a post office box, and he avoided having his picture published in the press until after he left office.

His opposite number was Stella Rimington, then-chief of the MI5, the Security Service (comparable to the FBI, while SIS is comparable to the CIA). She had her pictures splashed in the press, gave interviews about her life and thoughts and became a very public businesswoman after retiring from government service.

Sir David also maintained some traditions as old as the service itself. He continued to write his official memos in green ink (the only member of SIS allowed to use that color) and to sign them "C," as had every chief of the service.

The use of a single initial to indicate the Secret Service chief was made famous by Ian Fleming in his novels about his British spy, James "007" Bond, whose chief was always identified as "M." This was because the service and its former officers (of which Fleming was one) guarded the "C" usage. Fleming may have chosen "M" as his label because during Fleming's years in SIS, his chief, or "C," was Sir Stuart Menzies.

In the late 1990s, Sir David invited Dame Judi Dench, the actress who played "M" in recent James Bond films, to lunch at SIS headquarters after the actress voiced her curiosity about Sir David.

Upon learning of the death of Sir David, who was knighted in 1996, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called him a "determined and effective leader of a service whose contribution to Britain's security and well-being has to be unsung, but is nonetheless substantial."

-------- whistleblowers

Congress Looks to Patch the Safety Net for Whistle-Blowers

By Stephen Barr
Monday, June 11, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49286-2001Jun10?language=printer

Under the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act, federal employees are supposed to be safe from workplace reprisals when blowing the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. But Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) and others say decisions in federal court cases have eroded the statutory protections provided employees.

Last week, Akaka introduced amendments to strengthen the whistle-blower law and give independent litigating authority to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistle-blower cases. Akaka, who oversees civil service issues as a member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, was joined by Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) in sponsoring the amendments.

"The right of federal employees to be free from workplace retaliation," Akaka said, "has been diminished by a pattern of court rulings that have narrowly defined who qualifies as a whistle-blower . . . and what statements are considered protected disclosures. These rulings are inconsistent with congressional intent. There is little incentive for federal employees to come forward, because doing so could put their careers at substantial risk."

Akaka said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that disclosures made to alleged wrongdoers or to supervisors as part of an employee's normal job duties are not protected.

The rulings have created significant loopholes that undermine the law, in the view of whistle-blower advocates. In many cases, after all, employees stumble across improper activities while carrying out their job duties. Employees who suspect wrongdoing in the workplace usually turn to their bosses to ask what is going on.

Akaka said his bill would cover any disclosure of information "without restriction to time, place, form, motive or context, or prior disclosure made to any person by an employee or applicant, including a disclosure made in the ordinary course of an employee's duties that the employee . . . reasonably believes is credible evidence" of a violation of a law or regulation or other misconduct.

Grassley said the whistle-blower law "has become a Trojan horse that may well be creating more reprisal victims than it protects. The impact for taxpayers could be to increase silent observers who passively conceal fraud, waste and abuse. That is unacceptable."

Akaka said Reps. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) and Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) would be introducing similar legislation in the House.

Streamlining Whistle-Blower Work

Just days before Akaka introduced his legislation, the Office of Special Counsel announced it had reorganized to merge investigations and prosecutions of Whistleblower Protection Act cases into three parallel divisions.

In the past, if the OSC staff determined that an improper personnel action may have taken place, the matter was referred to its investigation division. After an investigation, the findings were sent to the prosecution division for legal analysis.

Under the reorganization, investigators and lawyers will work together in teams, reporting to the same associate special counsel. "We are trying to shed some bureaucratic mechanisms that don't necessarily help us get to the best, quickest resolution to people's cases," Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan said.

Heading up the new divisions are associate special counsels William E. Reukauf, Ruth Robinson Ertel and Cary P. Sklar.

-------- activists

Indonesia Releases Activists

By Irwan Firdaus
Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 11, 2001; 6:38 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010611/aponline063844_000.htm

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian authorities on Monday released 29 foreign activists, including an American, arrested at a labor rights conference last week.

Police raided the seminar on Friday, claiming the foreigners entered the country without the proper visas.

"After checking their documents, we found they had violated no immigration laws," immigration officer Abdul Gani said Monday. All but one of the 30 activists arrest were free to return home or stay in Indonesia if they wished, Gani said. A Pakistani citizen was likely to be deported because he lacked the correct visa, he said.

The 22 men and eight women were released from custody on Saturday and ordered to report to immigration officials on Monday. They include 18 Australians, an American, a New Zealander, a Thai, a Canadian, a Briton, a French citizen, two Belgians, a German, a Dutch citizen, a Pakistani and a Japanese.

"We are very pleased with the outcome," said seminar participant Allen Myers, 59, from Columbus, Wisconsin. "We did nothing wrong."

After the raid, witnesses said a right-wing religious gang attacked and injured some of the participants.

Rights organizations criticized the detentions, saying they are undemocratic and reminiscent of state crackdowns on dissent common under the regime of ex-dictator Suharto.

The Jakarta Post newspaper also condemned the arrests in an editorial Monday entitled "Democracy in Peril."

Eight local activists were also arrested in the raid and later released.

----

Chechnya Discounted

By Jackson Diehl,
Monday, June 11, 2001; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48848-2001Jun10?language=printer

A group of Russian human rights activists, intellectuals and artists opposed to the war in Chechnya held a press conference 10 days ago in Moscow in an effort to call attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the republic and to a statement they had obtained from Chechnya's fugitive president, Aslan Maskhadov, agreeing to unconditional negotiations with the Russian government. Not surprisingly, they were almost ignored by Moscow's increasingly docile media.

Then a couple of members of the organization traveled to Washington, seeking to spread the same message. They were in for a depressing surprise. Yelena Bonner, the widow of Soviet human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov, managed one appearance before an obscure congressional committee, the U.S. Helsinki Commission. But overall there was no more interest in the latest horrors of Chechnya here than there was in Moscow. "We have the impression that few people here know that an antiwar movement in Russia exists," said Lev Ponomarev, one of the leaders of the group.

What officialdom in Moscow and Washington alike don't want to hear is that the campaign by the Russian military and police against Chechnya's separatists has degenerated into a full-fledged dirty war, complete with disappearances, mass graves, systematic torture and summary execution of civilians. In its scale and ferocity, it far exceeds the campaign Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic waged against the Albanians of Kosovo before NATO intervention; in the stunning impunity of its state-sponsored brutality, it is like the Latin American dirty wars of the 1970s.

In the past month, any one of three major developments in Chechnya ought to have galvanized Western opinion about the war. First, Human Rights Watch and the Russian group Memorial released meticulously documented reports showing that a body dump found across a highway from Russia's principal military base in Chechnya contained the remains of civilians who had been tortured and shot with their hands bound behind them -- and who had been seen last in Russian custody. Faced with this powerful evidence of atrocities that, in the Balkans or Africa, surely would get the attention of a war crimes tribunal, Western governments were silent. Russian spokesmen sneeringly stonewalled, improbably claiming that the Chechens themselves were responsible.

Next, Russian commanders announced that President Vladimir Putin's promise last January to reduce Russian forces from 80,000 to 20,000 had been canceled -- that the drawdown had been stopped after 5,000 troops and that these had been mostly replaced. There was no reaction. So several emboldened Russian officials disclosed another startling change, this time in the official timetable: Instead of the months Putin had promised the campaign would last, Chechnya is now defined as a war that will drag on for many years, or even decades -- a conflict comparable, the spokesmen said, to Soviet campaigns against partisans in Eastern Europe, which stretched from 1945 well into the 1950s.

Some officials in Washington seem to understand what all this means. John Beyrle, the State Department's special adviser for the states of the former Soviet Union, framed the issue well at the hearing Bonner addressed last week. "What kind of long-term relationship can we pursue," he asked, "with a government that wages a brutal and seemingly endless war against its own people on its own territory?"

Yet two days later, Condoleezza Rice supplied the Bush administration's answer. "This is now becoming a normal relationship with Russia," the national security adviser told reporters. First on the agenda of this week's Bush-Putin summit at Ljubljana, she explained, was "the new security framework" Bush would like to retail to the Russians -- also known as missile defense. Next, U.S.-Russian cooperation on regional conflicts. Next, U.S. support for the Russian economy, including Moscow's acceptance into the World Trade Organization. Next, a problem the administration cares about: Russian weapons sales to Iran.

Then -- if they get to it -- Chechnya. "It's on the agenda," said one senior official. "But I can't absolutely predict what [Bush] will do."

How is it that a Republican administration that started by expelling 50 of Moscow's spies and promising a tough realism about Russia now assigns so little value to its "brutal and seemingly endless war against its own people"? Because in the past four months, the White House has realized that without Putin's acquiescence to "the new security framework" -- whatever that turns out to mean -- missile defense may never be accepted by NATO governments or a Democratic-led Senate. The politics of missile defense demand that Putin's government be recognized as worthy of a long-term partnership with the United States -- and not a regime that leaves heaps of tortured bodies outside its military bases.

President Bush probably will say again this week, as he did last month, that he wants to break with "the legacy of the Cold War" in relations with Russia. In fact, by making nuclear security and weapons deals, rather than Chechnya, the center of the summit, he will be doing just the opposite. During the past decade the United States judged Russia mostly by its success, or lack of it, in building free markets and democracy. This week Bush will restore the central tenet of Cold War diplomacy: that it is Moscow's strategic cooperation, and not its treatment of its own people, that really matters.

----

Greenpeace raids tanker in anti-Bush protest

FRANCE: June 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11129

PARIS - Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace boarded an oil tanker off the French coast on Sunday, preventing it from delivering a cargo of U.S. oil to the nearby port of Le Havre, maritime authorities said.

A Greenpeace spokesman said the protest was mainly aimed against U.S. President George Bush, who has infuriated many Europeans by rejecting the Kyoto global warming pact and is due to begin his first official visit to the continent this week.

Eight Greenpeace protesters boarded the Norwegian-owned tanker "Anna Knutsen" at around 11:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) and prevented a pilot from boarding the ship to guide it to port.

They draped a huge banner over the side of the tanker reading "Bush + Chevron + Conoco = Climate Killers".

A spokesman at a local French maritime office said the tanker's captain had anchored some 10 nautical miles off Le Havre and had radioed saying the protesters were endangering his vessel. A police patrol boat was heading to the area.

"Our aim is to send a very clear message to Bush and U.S. companies that they cannot continue with business as normal while they continue to ruin the environment," Greenpeace spokesman Paul Horsman said by telephone from a Greenpeace boat near the tanker.

Greenpeace's main grievance against Bush is his decision to pull out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty that calls for industrialised nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that many blame for global warming.

Famed for its rubber dinghy raids on ships and nuclear test sites, Greenpeace has warned that it plans a series of high-profile protests this week to coincide with the Bush visit.

----

Thousands march in Madrid, denounce Bush policies

SPAIN: June 11, 2001
Story by Eric Bovim,
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11142

MADRID - Thousands of Spaniards marched through central Madrid on Sunday in protest against a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, who kicks off his first European tour with a day-long visit to the capital on Tuesday.

Security was tight as protestors, carrying banners reading "Bush Go Home" and some wearing stickers equating the president with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, blocked the streets.

The march passed off peacefully.

Police estimated more than 3,000 showed up ahead of the president's arrival. During his six-day-long European trip Bush he is expected to face European leaders' questions on issues such as global warming, trade and NATO enlargement.

As a police helicopter hovered overhead, demonstrators shouted "Bush assassin!" and a spokesman read a speech blasting Bush on globalisation, embargoes against Iraq and Cuba, plans for a missile defence shield, the death penalty as well as a decision to reject the Kyoto global warming treaty.

He also pointed the finger at Spain's centre-right Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for seeking stronger ties with the United States and for hosting Bush.

Gaspar Llamazares, leader of Spain's Communist-lead United Left Coalition, said it was time for Bush to acknowledge the concerns abroad about the direction of his presidency.

"This is a good moment for us to let Bush know there is another culture outside of his country and that his brand of politics is harmful to the world," he told Reuters.

He also stressed his opposition to the death penalty a day before Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection.

Organised by a coalition of several dozen leftist and environmentalist groups, the demonstrators were peaceful despite their angry rhetoric.

On Tuesday night they will hold a second protest in front of the U.S. embassy, although smaller demonstrations appear set for Monday to oppose the McVeigh execution.

The World Bank recently cancelled a conference on poverty in Barcelona, fearing confrontation from anti-globalisation groups.

Spanish officials said security would be tight during the presidential visit but that no "extraordinary" measures were being taken.

----

In the Desert, A Drink of Mercy, Protest Water to Migrants Questioned

By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 11, 2001; Page A01
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49115-2001Jun10?language=printer

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. -- Beneath a furnace sun, a group of middle-age parishioners from Tucson is lugging five-gallon jugs of life into this beautiful but deadly land of stone and thorn.

It is a work of Christian charity in a desert not that different from the one where Jesus wandered. "This is just something I need to do," says Tracy Carroll, struggling across the heat-blasted rock. She cradled the water in her arms, declining an offer to help with her load.

But it is also a political act of protest against the federal government.

For the water these Good Samaritans leave scattered around the desert floor is intended to be drunk by the illegal migrants who are traversing, and dying, in some of the most treacherous terrain on the planet.

"We're holding up a mirror to society," says the Rev. Robin Hoover, the leader of Humane Borders, a loose federation of volunteers from churches and immigrant rights groups that has begun to erect water stations around the Arizona desert. "We're saying that we are all, all of us, responsible for what is happening out here."

David Aguilar, the chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which now employs 1,600 agents here, says he applauds the humanitarian efforts of Humane Borders. "We share the same mission," Aguilar says, "which is saving lives."

But Aguilar adds that he has real concerns about the water stations and their tenders. He has warned members of Humane Borders that they will be prosecuted if they cross the line from humanitarian aid to assisting and abetting illegal immigration. It is good and legal to offer a thirsty migrant a drink of water, he says; it is illegal to give him a ride to the nearest freeway.

Also, Aguilar worries about offering false hope. The water stations, he says, "have the potential of creating an additional draw" for migrants, and for inspiring a mirage that the desert floor is lined with water fountains.

The Border Patrol chief estimates that during the extreme heat of the day, when temperatures can reach 120 degrees, a human on foot could need as much as one or two gallons of water an hour to survive. A gallon jug of water weighs about 7 1/2 pounds. "They're walking sometimes 45, 50, 60 miles. For days. And so even if they are lucky enough to reach one water station, it does not mean they are out of trouble. Their trip has just begun."

Aguilar worries that many Mexican migrants from central and south Mexico are so uninformed about the risks of desert travel that rumors could be spread -- even by smugglers -- that all they need to do is follow the blue flags put out by Humane Borders to mark water stations. He is concerned that humanitarian groups may never be able to put enough water offerings in the desert to make it safe.

The easy routes around the border towns are mostly closed, as the Border Patrol has poured agents into the breach and erected miles of fence, lights, sensors, checkpoints. So the human traffic is steered toward the empty deserts of southern California and Arizona, where the treks are measured now not in hours, but days.

Since 1998, 1,113 migrants are known to have died attempting to enter the United States from Mexico -- killed by cold or heat, from drownings and vehicle accidents and causes unknown. Since a group of 14 died of exposure in the desert west of here last month, another five have perished in Arizona alone.

One of them, Buenaventura Ayala Zamora, 45, of the Mexican state of Morelos, was found dead last week by a hiker, a few miles away from a water station erected by Humane Borders here in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The partially decomposed body was half eaten by coyotes. A ranger at the park showed Hoover pictures. "I can't get it out of my mind," he says.

Unlike other groups -- many religious-based -- that have protested U.S. immigration policies, by erecting crosses, for example, to symbolize the dead, or by staging volleyball games straddling the border, Humane Borders and another group in California called Water Station have pursued a more direct approach.

John Hunter, a leader of Water Station, said that in the beginning, he simply went out into the desert around El Centro and placed flags and water jugs.

"It's in my backyard, and you read in the newspapers about all these deaths, and apparently nothing much was being done," says Hunter, a physicist who is now a sporting-goods inventor and the brother of Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif). "I'm not a do-gooder, believe me. But it's unconscionable to continue to let these people just die. It's our job as Americans to treat these people better. They are not the bad guys."

After plotting deaths on a map, Hunter and his fellow volunteers have placed 100 watering stations in the California desert and hope to set up another 300 in the next few weeks. At each site, they erect a steel pole with a flag of plastic tarp; at its base is a cardboard box and three or four gallons of water from the local supermarket.

Each week, they drive and hike out to the sites and refill the water caches. "They're using them," Hunter says of the illegal crossers, "because we're always refilling them."

Their humanitarian actions are controversial. Most of the empty desert lands used by smugglers and migrants are owned by the federal government -- as wildlife refuges, national monuments, Air Force bombing ranges and Bureau of Land Management holdings. The groups are meeting with mixed success in persuading federal land managers to allow them to erect water depots.

"The idea is new," says Hoover, a minister who mixes his Jesus parables with the occasional salty language. "And new always takes a while when you're dealing with bureaucrats."

In California, Hunter has been trying to persuade the Imperial Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversee the All American Canal, to string lifelines across the irrigation ditch. Dozens of illegal migrants have drowned trying to cross the swift waters of the canal.

"They've been fiddling around doing their safety study for the past four months, and while they're studying, people are dying, when we could have put up the lifelines in two weekends," Hunter says. "You know Ted Bundy, the serial killer? Well, the All American Canal is the biggest serial killer ever."

In Arizona, Hoover's group has only erected four water stations, two on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and two on private ranches. Their stations hold hundreds of gallons of water each and are also refilled every week.

In March, Hoover sought to erect water stations in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge; he was turned down in April. In May, 14 migrants died on the refuge. Now, Tom Bauer, assistant regional director with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said they hope to accommodate Humane Borders: "We are exploring ways to work with them to provide additional water sources" on the Cabeza Prieta and Buenos Aires refuges.

Bauer said that there are 22 water sources on Cabeza. Some are wells with spigots, some are natural water sources and others are tanks of water. Bauer said Border Patrol agents have discovered that some illegal immigrants carry maps accurately documenting the Cabeza water sources.

But even if migrants find the Cabeza water supplies and make it through the refuge, they must cross the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range. Air Force spokesmen said the military may not have the authority to allow Humane Borders access to the range, and that it may be dangerous to do so.

While Hoover says that the Border Patrol officials have promised that they will not "target" water stations on their patrols, Aguilar, the Tucson sector chief, states firmly, "We are not going to give up any part of the border. It is our responsibility."

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector annually apprehends and returns to Mexico hundreds of thousands of illegal entrants. But the agents also rescued 1,245 people in extreme distress last year. Indeed, when crossers get in trouble, they often go looking for la migra -- Spanish slang for immigration officers.

"We are, basically, the only ones out there," Aguilar says.

Hoover pledges that his group will secure permission to place water in the desert in wildlife refuges, bombing ranges, Indian lands, national parks and private ranches.

"They can't say no," Hoover says.

He and others in Humane Borders, such as the Rev. John Fife of Tucson, are veterans of the Sanctuary Movement from the 1980s, which harbored refugees from the wars in Central America, and they are tearing a page from those times, when religion and activism combined into a potent force. Last week, the Pima County Board of Supervisors, the county that includes Tucson, voted to contribute $25,000 to their cause.

The endgame? Many activists, and their elected officials, have begun to push for a new guest-worker program to legitimize the immigration that is now illegal.

In the short term? "If offering a cup of water in Jesus's name is forbidden," says Hoover, "then this country has a bigger problem than immigration."

Special correspondent Jeff Adler in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

----

Activists Speak on McVeigh Execution

By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 11, 2001; 9:12 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010611/aponline091233_000.htm

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Death penalty supporters held signs saying "Remember the Victims" and "Thou shalt not kill and live" as they gathered Monday outside the federal prison for the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Some signs bore the simple footnote "168."

On the other side of orange snow fencing, about 400 yards away, a larger contingent of 120 death penalty opponents sat on straw bales, some holding flickering candles in milk carton holders.

At 5:12 a.m. EDT, more than half of opponents formed a circle and began 168 minutes of silence - one minute for each of the victims. The end of the silence was to coincide with the scheduled 8 a.m. EDT execution.

McVeigh was pronounced dead at 8:14 a.m.

Only about 20 death penalty supporters took the early buses from a city park to the makeshift protest grounds. Opponents were bused in from another city park. Uniformed prison guards patrolled the grassy space between the two groups.

Prison officials had prepared for thousands of demonstrators to show up.

Ajamu Baraka of Amnesty International attributed the small turnout to the fact that McVeigh's execution was being carried out by the federal government - and that death penalty opponents were urged to demonstrate in their own hometowns.

Russell Braun, 21, of Terre Haute, holding a sign reading "Bye Bye Baby Killer," was among those demonstrating in support of the execution.

"I'm here to make sure the survivors are remembered. It has nothing to do with McVeigh," Braun said. "The kids could have grown up and made a difference in this world and they weren't even given a chance."

A couple from Oklahoma City, Jon Prough, 29, and his wife, Carrie Prough, 26, drove 10 hours to be in Terre Haute for the execution of the man who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.

"We can give 10 hours of our lives to show people support and believe in them," John Prough said.

On the other side of the orange fence, a social worker at a state mental hospital questioned what good McVeigh's death would achieve.

"What have we accomplished by executing Timothy McVeigh now that there are 169 people dead?" asked 49-year-old Bert Fitzgerald of Madison, Ind.

Some people who oppose the death penalty make an exception for McVeigh, noted 21-year-old Eric Sears, a student at St. Louis University who came with a group from Chicago. But there should be no exception, he said.

"The death penalty is vengeance. It's not justice," he said.

About 75 death penalty opponents marched to the prison Sunday. During their three-mile march, the demonstrators carried 14-foot-high puppets of Uncle Sam and Jesus and banners that read "Stop the Killing." When they reached the prison, they sang "We Shall Overcome."

Later Sunday, about 50 abolitionists laid out signs on the lawn of St. Mary Margaret Church, tucked in a normally quiet residential neighborhood.

Unitarian minister Bill Breeden, sporting a red T-shirt with white lettering reading "Stop Executions Now," said he believes the government is wrong to kill McVeigh.

"He's not afraid of death, he's afraid of insignificance. And here we are, giving him tremendous significance - the first federal execution since 1963," said Breeden, a member of the Bloomington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, based in Bloomington, Ind.

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PSR to Present Petitions Urging Congress to Oppose National Missile Defense

U.S. Newswire
11 Jun 15:47
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0611-138.html

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Tarek Rizk of Physicians for Social Responsibility, 202-667-4260, ext. 215

News Advisory:

What: Press Conference Presenting 50,000 Voices Urging Congress to Oppose National Missile Defense

When: 12 Noon, Tuesday, June 12th

Where: House Triangle

Who: Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), represented by Past President Dr. Peter Wilk, will be presenting members of Congress with a petition representing the 10,000 signatures gathered by PSR in opposition to the wasteful, dangerous National Missile Defense. Wilk will present a blow-up of the petition, which calls the NMD system 'a prescription for disaster.' Expected to attend are Wilk's own member of Congress Tom Allen (D-ME), as well as US Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

The petition continues, "(NMD) is costly, technologically unproven and would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Rather than addressing an existing threat, it will increase tensions with other nuclear powers."

PSR gathered the signatures from members and others in response to the Bush Administration's plans to forge ahead with NMD despite countless failed tests and opposition from allies and adversaries alike. PSR is a member of Project Abolition and the Nuclear Disarmament Partnership, whose other members will be presenting 40,000 more signatures opposing the National Missile Defense program. Also presented at the press conference will be a letter signed by more than 600 non-governmental organizations from around the world opposing the system and calling on President Bush and other world leaders to turn away from the Missile Defense boondoggle.

The press conference represents the culmination of three days of action, kicked off Sunday with a rally in Lafayette Park and continuing Monday and Tuesday with Congressional Education meetings featuring activists from around the country.

Interviews are available.

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PSR represents more than 20,000 physicians and other health professionals and is dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons, the safety of our environment and the end of violence and its causes. PSR is the US affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and shares in IPPNW's 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace.



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