------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Bush Ponders Aid for Only Domestic Supplier of Reactor Fuel
N. Korea Demands Treaty With U.S.
Democrats Try to Work Up a Shield Plan of Their Own
A Day After Seeing Putin, a Harder-Line Bush Emerges
Putin denies defense change
Under the Missile Tow
Leader: Russia May Weigh ABM Changes
Russia will consider changes to ABM treaty
Bush to Issue IOUs to Ailing Miners
Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Augusta, S.C.
Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Richland, Wash.
Today in Congress
Russian, U.S. Arms Talks Face Hurdles
Dems. Amazed at Bush's Russia View

MILITARY
ASEAN: Reduce U.S.-China Tension
Battles rage as rebels move on Tetovo
U.S. Called Vulnerable To Biological Attack
Germ Warfare Talks Open in London; U.S. Is the Pariah
Experts Warn Germ Warfare Pact a High - Stakes Game
Lawmakers shrink from foreign drug war
House Votes for Antidrug Spending
U.N. Calls for Drug Crop Monitors
Vajpayee to Press Pakistan Efforts
Baghdad says "enemy" warplane hit in northern Iraq
It's Full Speed Ahead for Tech Transfer
Rising AWOL trend confounds military

OTHER
Shell blows into U.S. wind market in Wyoming
NEW YORK WRITES UPDATED ENERGY CONSERVATION BUILDING CODE
178 Nations Reach Climate Accord; U.S. Only Looks On
U.S. Left Out of Warming Treaty EU-Japan Bargain Saves Kyoto Pact
PENNSYLVANIA CHEMICALS FIRM FINED FOR REPORTING VIOLATIONS
EPA IN COURT OVER SMALL INCINERATOR EMISSIONS LIMITS
Bush Hears Pope Condemn Research in Human Embryos
Scientists Are Starting to Add Letters to Life's Alphabet
U.S. Tries to Resolve WTO Tax Dispute
U.S. House Votes for Carnivore Accountability
China Convicts Second U.S. Scholar of Spying
Japan Man Questioned in Possible U.S. Spy Case

ACTIVISTS
VICTORY! Kyoto and Price-Anderson
Thousands Across Italy Protest Police at G8
JUDGE BLOCKS ARMY LIVE-FIRE TRAINING IN MAKUA VALLEY
BROSNAN, COUSTEAU, TAYLOR OPPOSE U.S. NAVY SONAR


-------- NUCLEAR

-------- business

Bush Ponders Aid for Only Domestic Supplier of Reactor Fuel

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/politics/24URAN.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, July 23 - With Soviet-era nuclear weapons now providing more than half the uranium that powers American nuclear power plants, the Bush administration is weighing whether to provide support for the only American company that enriches uranium for reactor fuel.

The under secretary of energy, Robert G. Card, told Congress last week that the administration was evaluating whether it was "economically feasible or necessary" to produce fuel domestically for nuclear reactors, or whether the country could reliably import uranium from Russia and elsewhere. Another possibility is that other American companies will enter the business.

The only domestic company that carries out a crucial processing step that results in enriched uranium, the United States Enrichment Corporation, is plagued by high costs at its 49- year-old factory, and competition from Russia and Western Europe. The administration is facing a decision on whether it should subsidize development of new technology to ensure a domestic supply of the fuel.

The nuclear power industry, which supplies about 20 percent of the nation's electricity, had used self- sufficiency in uranium fuel as a major selling point for years.

The existence of a healthy domestic uranium industry was a premise of the 1993 agreement to buy highly enriched uranium from Russia for use in American power plants, and of a law that privatized the government's uranium processing plants. That law requires the president to certify annually that the domestic industry is "viable."

But the United States Enrichment Corporation has closed one of its two plants and is threatened by rising prices for electricity, flat demand for its services and competition from more efficient plants in Europe.

"We've already lost self-sufficiency," said Representative Ted Strickland, Democrat of Ohio, whose district includes the plant that was closed by the company. "We're in danger of losing the capacity even to maintain a domestic industry."

Mr. Strickland is seeking federal money to develop new enrichment technology, but industry experts say the price may be too high.

John R. Longenecker, a consultant and a former deputy assistant secretary of energy, offered a dim view of the company's future. "They're stuck with the highest cost of production," he said, "the oldest production capacity and no proven advanced technology, even if they could borrow the money to build it."

The United States has spent $7 billion on two advanced technologies that were deemed impractical. Company officials say they are exploring another advanced system.

Other experts suggest that the Bush energy plan, and public statements by Vice President Dick Cheney supporting construction of new reactors, will ring hollow if the fuel is imported. The domestic mining industry has been withering away for years, largely because of lower-cost producers in Canada, Australia and elsewhere, but the importance of mining has waned as prices of uranium ore have declined.

What is at stake is a processing step called enrichment. The two plants sold by the government in 1998 were built to accept uranium with the two most common forms, uranium-238 and uranium-235, and sort them to raise the proportion of uranium-235, which is most useful in nuclear reactors and bombs. The technology used at both plants, gaseous diffusion, was developed during World War II, to make the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Newer systems developed in Europe and the former Soviet Union are cheaper to operate; some use only one-fifth as much electricity.

One reason the market for enrichment is depressed is that the United States agreed in 1993 to buy highly enriched uranium from Russia, with a uranium-235 content of more than 90 percent, to be blended down to the 5 percent level used by nuclear reactors. The idea was to take weapons material out of circulation and give the Russian nuclear program hard currency to keep Russian scientists and the material itself out of the hands of other countries.

The company said that by the end of March it had received the equivalent of more than 4,500 warheads in the form of uranium for power plants.

But because of commercial disputes, Russia has interrupted shipments four times. Charles Yulish, a company spokesman, said he believed that Russia would be a stable supplier in coming years because the company's payments, about $500 million a year, were "a very big factor in Russian revenues." A long- term contract is awaiting approval by the White House, Mr. Yulish said.

-------- korea

N. Korea Demands Treaty With U.S.

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NKorea-US-Military.html?searchpv=aponline

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea renewed its long-standing demand Tuesday that the United States sign a peace treaty with it and withdraw its troops from South Korea.

The demand came in a commentary by the country's Foreign Ministry. Friday is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

``A danger of war still persists on the Korean peninsula, though 48 years have passed since the conclusion of the Korean armistice agreement,'' North Korea's foreign news outlet, KCNA, quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

``If the state of armistice on the Korean peninsula is to be converted into a durable peace, it is necessary, first of all, to sign a peace agreement between the DPRK (North Korea) and the United States and put and end ... to the presence of the U.S. forces in South Korea.''

The United States, which fought with South Korea during the three-year conflict, continues to station about 37,000 troops here as a deterrent against the North.

The Koreas are still in a state of conflict, since no peace treaty was signed at the end of the Korean conflict.

North Korea is demanding that the armistice be replaced with a peace treaty to be signed by it and the United States, excluding South Korea.

Washington and Seoul have rejected the North's demand.

Citing tensions with the United States, North Korea cut off all contact with Seoul this year.

After months of a policy review, the Bush administration in June said it wanted to reopen dialogue with North Korea for discussion on the communist country's missile capability as well as its mass deployment of troops near the border with South Korea.

North Korea has not officially responded.

-------- missile defense

Democrats Try to Work Up a Shield Plan of Their Own

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/international/24MISS.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, July 23 - With the Bush administration moving briskly toward a missile shield, a group of national security experts in the Democratic Party is pushing Congressional Democrats to unite around an alternative that they contend would be less costly and less threatening to arms control agreements.

Those experts say the agreement on Sunday between Mr. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to begin talks on offensive and defensive weapons has given Mr. Bush, at least temporarily, new momentum on missile defense. They say it has put new pressure on the Democrats to do something more than simply issue critiques of Mr. Bush's plan.

"I always say that you can't fight something with nothing," said Leon Fuerth, a national security adviser to Al Gore when he was vice president and now a visiting professor of international studies at George Washington University. "It's important for a creative party in opposition to take account of shifts in where the country is going. And if we don't like where it's going, we're still going to figure out how to navigate to some other destination."

The experts, who include former Clinton administration officials, said they were motivated by fears that the Democrats were losing an opportunity to shape the debate on a vital issue that could affect arms control agreements and Pentagon budgets for decades to come.

Politics is also clearly part of their equation. Many Democrats contend that the Republicans are successfully equating support for missile defense with support for the military in general, and, by extension, casting opponents of missile defense as weak on defense.

"This has become a political litmus test for whether you are good or bad on national security," said Ellen O. Tauscher, a Democrat of California who is on the House Armed Services Committee. "If you are not for missile defense, you are considered virtually a collaborator with the enemy. But there are many of us who support a limited national missile defense that doesn't abrogate the ABM treaty."

To seize control of the debate, the Democratic experts and a group of Democratic lawmakers are trying to devise a missile plan that could defend the country against very limited attacks from small nations like North Korea or Iran, but that would not be extensive enough to undermine the deterrent power of Russia or China's nuclear arsenals.

The Democrats argue that the administration's program, based on outlines provided by Pentagon officials, has the potential to grow into a major "layered" system of land-, sea-, air- and space-based weapons that could shoot down missiles at several points along their trajectories.

Such a system could seem threatening even to the Russians, who have 6,000 nuclear weapons, and certainly to China, with its 20 long-range ballistic missiles, Democrats argue. The administration denies that its plans are aimed at thwarting either Russia or China's forces.

With a far more limited system, the Democrats say, the United States would be more likely to win Russian support for amending the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 to allow development of some defenses. A system clearly focused on North Korea or Iran could prevent China from building up its offensive weapons.

"The vast majority of the party recognizes that there is a threat, and a role for missile defense to meet that threat, and they would happily move ahead with missile defense if it can be made to work in cooperation with the Russians," said Ivo Daalder, a national security aide in the Clinton White House who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Mr. Daalder is one of several Democratic experts who have advocated technology designed to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles just after they have been launched. Such technology, if not launched from space, would have limited effectiveness in case of nuclear attacks against the United States from Russia or China. It could, however, be used to defend Taiwan from Chinese attacks, a potential sticking point with Beijing.

The idea has won support from a few prominent Congressional Democrats, including Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Max Cleland of Georgia, a centrist on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"I think it is very possible that Democrats can outline an architecture that lays out how you could have a combination of offense and defensive systems without starting a massive new arms race," Mr. Biden said in an interview today.

The major obstacle to the Democrats developing a consensus position on a missile system is the Democrats themselves. Efforts in recent weeks to develop a unified party position have stalled because of sharp differences between liberals who oppose building any system and centrists who see the need for at least a limited system.

"The more they talk, the more fractures have come out," said a senior aide to a Democratic congressman involved in the talks.

--------

A Day After Seeing Putin, a Harder-Line Bush Emerges

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/international/24PREX.html?searchpv=nytToday

ROME, July 23 - President Bush said today that "time is of the essence" in his new arms talks with Moscow and warned that he would move ahead with testing missile shield technology even if he did not reach an agreement that would scrap the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.

Mr. Bush's comments came only a day after he and President Vladimir V. Putin agreed to begin "consultations" that would tie deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both nations to the discussions on new defensive technologies. They were much more toughly worded than anything he had said publicly in Mr. Putin's presence in Genoa, Italy.

Administration officials quickly reinforced the message, with Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, saying that while Mr. Putin had not been given a time limit, the Pentagon was speeding toward a series of missile defense tests that were clearly prohibited by the 29-year-old accord.

"We do not want to be in the position of being constantly accused of violating the treaty," she said.

Ms. Rice noted that "presidents only have a limited amount of time to leave a legacy to their successors." Mr. Bush, she said, "feels very strongly that we've lost a lot of time" as previous presidents struggled to conduct tests within the limits of the treaty.

In Moscow today, Mr. Putin's advisers argued that his agreeing to hold arms talks with Mr. Bush did not mean that he had dropped his adamant opposition to an antimissile system.

But many in the Russian press thought otherwise today, saying the keystone of Russian policy, a refusal to change the 1972 treaty to permit construction of an American missile shield, had crumbled during the weekend talks.

In remarks at his regular cabinet meeting today, Mr. Putin took pains to say that that was not so. "Of course there has been no basic breakthrough," he said. "We confirmed our commitment to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Nevertheless, there has been considerable progress."

He said Russian and American experts had agreed that questions about offensive and defense missile systems needed to be addressed jointly.

The warning to Mr. Putin came in the midst of a state visit here by Mr. Bush that has swirled with some of the most difficult issues confronting his six-month-old presidency: his effort to convince Russia and Europe of the need for a new nuclear strategy, his confrontation with Europe and Japan over a pact limiting greenhouse gases, violent protests on globalization, and, today, Pope John Paul II's entry into the debate on stem cell research.

After the tear gas clashes that surrounded the summit meeting of industrialized nations in Genoa, and after his position on global warming was roundly criticized by several of his allies, Mr. Bush looked relieved and delighted to arrive in Rome on Sunday night.

He immediately visited the Roman Forum to see where the Senate met and to stand, as all visiting presidents and prime ministers must, at the altar of Julius Caesar.

In a rather un-Caesar-like address, the president declared that Rome had a "fantastic history" and noted that "so many of the words we use in America have come from right here."

Today Mr. Bush moved from ancient politics to the modern day, meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, with whom he appears to have developed a good rapport.

Like Prime Minister Tony Blair in Britain last week, Mr. Berlusconi all but endorsed Mr. Bush's new framework for a post-cold-war security strategy. He chastised "certain European states" that have not "understood how the world has changed."

But the highlight of Mr. Bush's day was clearly his visit to Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence outside Rome.

Even that visit was tinged with domestic American politics after the Pope publicly condemned all major forms of embryonic stem cell research, fully aware that Mr. Bush is considering whether to allow financing of the research to go forward.

The president is not expected to make a decision on the research until next month at the earliest.

Meanwhile, his national security aides kept one eye on a drama playing out half a world away, in Indonesia. They were clearly relieved that the agonizingly slow removal of President Abdurrahman Wahid had come to an end, and that Megawati Sukarnoputri had been sworn in as Indonesia's president peacefully, even as Mr. Wahid stayed in his palace.

Mr. Bush interrupted his discussion of the American-Italian alliance during a news conference with Mr. Berlusconi to say that "we look forward to working with President Megawati and her team," but warned that she must find a "peaceful resolution" to the separatist movements in Aceh and elsewhere.

His aides hinted privately that they were looking for ways to resume economic assistance to Indonesia, which has effectively been frozen.

But the main drama of late has been the dynamic between Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin on missile defense. Both men have described their relationship as friendly and cooperative, even trusting.

But just as Mr. Putin left their first meeting, in Slovenia last month, and immediately declared that a violation of the ABM treaty by the United States would spark an arms race, Mr. Bush waited until Mr. Putin was out of Italian airspace to deliver the harder edge of his message.

"I have told President Putin that time matters, that I want to reach an accord sooner, rather than later, that I'm interested in getting something done with him," Mr. Bush said at Villa Doria Pamphili, a 15th-century residence that Italian prime ministers use for such visits.

Standing before a sweeping view of the city's ancient monuments, Mr. Bush spoke with far more passion about missile defense than he had on any of the other major topics of his visit.

He repeated that "America is no longer Russia's enemy," and said he believed that Mr. Putin and Europe's leaders were gradually coming to understand the need for what he called a "strategic framework."

"You saw the president yesterday," he said to reporters, referring to Mr. Putin. "I thought he was very forward-leaning, as they say in diplomatic nuanced circles."

"We signed an agreement," he said, apparently referring to a three- sentence statement that they would hold talks.

But he also made clear that he had already decided what to do if those talks should fail: move ahead with the missile shield tests, even if that requires giving notice that the United States is withdrawing from the ABM treaty.

"Since I feel it so strongly," he said, "if we can't reach an agreement, we're going to implement" the tests.

"It's the right thing to do." he said. "It's what I told the American people we're going to do. It's what I've explained to our allies we're going to do."

--------

Putin denies defense change

By Jim Heintz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/07/24/national/PUTIN24.htm?template=aprint.htm http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-abm24.html

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir V. Putin denied yesterday that the G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, had brought a breakthrough in the dispute over U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system, but he said that there had been progress on which negotiators could capitalize.

Putin's statement came a day after he and President Bush had unexpectedly announced in Genoa that Russia and the United States would link talks on missile defense with negotiations on cutting strategic nuclear weapons.

Russia has vehemently opposed the proposed U.S. missile-defense system, which would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a pact that Moscow says is the keystone of world strategic stability.

The Genoa announcement had fueled speculation that Russian was giving way in the face of Bush's determination to push the missile-defense system. Yesterday, Putin appeared to try to stifle that perception.

"Of course, there was no principal breakthrough," he told a meeting of top cabinet officials. "We confirmed our adherence to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty." Some Russian media saw it differently. "Russia gave up. The 1972 treaty has ceased to exist," the newspaper Kommersant said.

Bush, meanwhile, repeated his contention that the ABM Treaty was a Cold War relic.

"Make no mistake about it" he said yesterday. "I think it's important to move beyond the ABM Treaty."

While denying a breakthrough, Putin said: "At the same time, there is significant forward movement." Noting that Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, was to travel to Moscow this week to begin talks on the newly linked issues, Putin said the negotiations should "play their own positive role in resolving these difficult issues."

The ABM Treaty prohibits Russia and the United States from having nationwide missile-defense systems, on the premise that neither nation would launch a nuclear attack if it could not defend itself against retaliation.

----

Under the Missile Tow

EDITORIAL
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/07/24/p20s2.htm

Bill Clinton warned his fellow Democrats not to underestimate the political skills of George W. Bush. Now the new president has shown just how clever he can be.

He surprised Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Italy on Sunday with an offer to discuss sharp cuts in nuclear missiles on both sides along with Mr. Bush's plan to deploy a missile defense shield. Mr. Putin quickly accepted.

In fact, Putin was probably not that surprised by the offer from Bush, who's been linking missile defense and a reduction in nuclear warheads in speeches for over a year.

On the face of it, this potential deal on both offensive and defensive military systems would reshape - perhaps for the better - the global security structure that remains largely stuck in a cold-war "mind set," as Bush put it. It could launch a cooperative security system.

At the least, Bush's offer shows he may not be the "unilaterialist" that Europe and Senate majority leader Tom Daschle fear he is. By consulting with Russia on arms control, Bush treats the former superpower as an equal, relieving political pressure on Putin at home to keep Russia from being isolated in the geopolitical game.

A deal would also greatly help Moscow save money by needing to maintain only 1,500 to 2,000 deployed warheads instead of its present 6,000. It would also free up money for the US to build a defense shield.

That's all the good news. The potholes lie in actually working out the details and providing diplomatic cover for Putin to eventually condone the US shield.

Then, too, Bush is in a rush, with plans to start constructing the first elements of the shield in Alaska within months, a step that would be seen as violating the 1972 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

The two sides have already made mutual threats to get to this point of deciding to talk: Bush threatened to pull out of ABM with due notice, and Putin threatened to put multiple warheads on missiles and somehow work with China to oppose the US shield. Returning to such public threats should not be necessary now.

Still, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev tried to link talks on offensive and defensive systems in 1986, and failed. But those were cold-war days.

Now, however, Putin says the talks represent a "joint striving."

-------- russia

Leader: Russia May Weigh ABM Changes

The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010724/aponline084925_000.htm

MOSCOW -- In an apparent sign of Russia's softening stance on U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday that Moscow would consider making changes in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"If the experts come to the conclusion that some changes in the treaty won't harm the national security of Russia, then I will report that to the president. If not, the treaty will remain unchanged," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Previously, Russia had maintained that the ABM treaty was a cornerstone of international security and for that reason opposed Washington's missile defense plans. The U.S. proposal to build a nationwide missile-defense system violates the treaty.

The treaty is seen by the Kremlin as essential to global security, on the premise that neither country would launch a nuclear first strike if it cannot protect itself from retaliation. Russia says abandoning the treaty would spark a new nuclear arms race.

President Vladimir Putin and President Bush on Sunday announced that Russia and the United States would link talks on the missile defense plans with talks on reducing both sides' strategic weapons. Some observers interpreted that as a sign that the Kremlin was giving way on its longtime insistence that the ABM treaty be preserved, but Putin on Monday said both sides were committed to the treaty's fundamental principles.

-------- treaties

Russia will consider changes to ABM treaty

USA Today
07/24/2001
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001/07/24/russia-abm.htm

MOSCOW (AP) - In an apparent sign of Russia's softening stance on U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday that Moscow would consider making changes in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"If the experts come to the conclusion that some changes in the treaty won't harm the national security of Russia, then I will report that to the president. If not, the treaty will remain unchanged," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Previously, Russia had maintained that the ABM treaty was a cornerstone of international security and for that reason opposed Washington's missile defense plans. The U.S. proposal to build a nationwide missile-defense system violates the treaty.

The treaty is seen by the Kremlin as essential to global security, on the premise that neither country would launch a nuclear first strike if it cannot protect itself from retaliation. Russia says abandoning the treaty would spark a new nuclear arms race.

The United States argues that it needs national missile-defense to protect itself against possible attacks by small "rogue nations" that are believed to be developing nuclear weapons.

Russia had dismissed that argument, but Ivanov was quoted as saying Tuesday that Russia has developed its own list of "rogue countries."

"The United States knows about it. And our list is no less justified," he said according to Interfax. He did not specify the countries other than to say that they are "south of Russia."

President Vladimir Putin and President Bush on Sunday announced that Russia and the United States would link talks on the missile defense plans with talks on reducing both sides' strategic weapons. Some observers interpreted that as a sign that the Kremlin was giving way on its longtime insistence that the ABM treaty be preserved, but Putin on Monday said both sides were committed to the treaty's fundamental principles.

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

Bush to Issue IOUs to Ailing Miners

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/news/AP-Uranium-Workers.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forms were already in the mail as President Bush signed legislation Tuesday to make good on hundreds of IOUs issued to ailing uranium miners and others exposed to fallout from Cold War-era nuclear weapons tests.

The checks to the victims or their survivors could be received as early as next month.

``The presidents signature helps mitigate the embarrassment of Congress and the Justice Department for letting the trust fund run dry,'' Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who worked to secure the funding, said in a statement.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed in 1990 to compensate victims of the Cold War nuclear weapons program or their survivors for illnesses caused by radiation.

The act provides $100,000 to uranium miners and $50,000 to ``downwinders'' -- residents sickened by their exposure to radioactive fallout caused by nuclear weapons tests in Nevada.

Last year, the act was expanded to cover more people, but no new money was added. Since May 2000, qualifying claimants received letters informing them the program was out of money.

Many have died while awaiting payments.

The legislation signed by Bush will cover outstanding IOUs worth an estimated $84 million. The House had resisted the funding, but struck a deal with Senate negotiators last week to approve the money.

Senators and representatives from several southwestern states had lobbied aggressively for the funding.

The Justice Department, which administers the program, sent forms to the claimants who had been issued IOUs on Monday, in anticipation of Bush's action, said Charles Miller, a spokesman for the department.

A claimant requesting a direct deposit could receive the money two weeks after the Justice Department receives the completed form, Miller said. A check will take at least six weeks to process.

Bush signed the $6.5 billion spending bill at a rally before cheering American soldiers in Kosovo. The legislation includes $1.9 billion to boost pay, health care and benefits for American troops.

While Domenici said the spending solves the IOU problem, he is sponsoring legislation to make sure future claims are automatically funded and not subject to annual budget battles in Congress.

Through last week, there were 191 claimants -- either miners, downwinders or their survivors -- holding IOUs worth $10 million in Utah, alone, according to the Justice Department.

In Colorado, 71 claimants are owed $6.5 million. Sixty-eight claimants are owed $3.5 million in Nevada, 47 are owed $3 million in Arizona, 42 are owed $4 million in New Mexico, and 13 are owed $1 million in California.

Other claimants are scattered across the country.

-------- south carolina

Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Augusta, S.C.

U.S. Newswire
24 Jul 17:10
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0724-142.html

To: National Desk
Contact: Michael Shields, 202-693-4650
Web site: www.dol.gov

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C., July 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A resource center designed to help sick nuclear weapons industry workers and their families receive compensation from the federal government will open at 592 W. Martintown Rd., in North Augusta, South Carolina on July 26, 2001.

"Our goal is to take care of the men and women who were harmed as quickly as possible," said Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao. "These workers gave their labor -- and many of them gave their health - in the service and protection of our country during the Cold War."

The Augusta resource center is one of 10 or more such centers opening around the country that will offer personal assistance in filing claim forms for the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), passed by Congress in October 2000.

"I join Secretary Chao in supporting these centers that will help the workers who played a very important role in this country's defense mission," said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "The resource centers are a visible sign of our commitment to put words into action, and will help our workers get benefits as quickly as possible."

EEOICPA pays $150,000 lump-sum compensation and related medical expenses to workers who became seriously ill from exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica while working in the nuclear weapons industry for the Department of Energy, including its contractors and subcontractors. Compensation will also be available to some survivors and to uranium workers who are eligible for benefits under Section Five of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

DOE workers who have occupational illnesses due to toxic exposures will also receive assistance in applying for benefits that may be available through the state workers' compensation program.

The Departments of Labor and Energy, which jointly operate the centers, have opened or will open centers in Rocky Flats, Colo.; Paducah, Ky.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nev.; Richland, Wash.; Espanola, N.M.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Anchorage, Alaska; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. Claimants can also receive assistance at the Department of Labor District Offices in Seattle, Washington; Denver, Colorado; Cleveland, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Claimants can call 803-279-2728 to set up an appointment with a caseworker. Claimants or their families can also pick up claim forms at the Resource Center. More information about the EEOICPA is available on line at www.dol.gov or by calling the Department of Labor's toll-free call center at 866-888-3322.

--

U.S. Labor Department news releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this release will be made available in alternative format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when placing your request. Call 202-693-7773 or TTY 202-693-7755.

-------- tennessee

Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

U.S. Newswire
24 Jul 17:18
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0724-144.html

To: National Desk
Contact: Michael Shields, 202-693-4650
Web site: www.dol.gov

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., July 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A resource center designed to help sick nuclear weapons industry workers and their families receive compensation from the federal government will open in at 800 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, Tenn., on July 27, 2001.

"Our goal is to take care of the men and women who were harmed as quickly as possible," said Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao. "These workers gave their labor -- and many of them gave their health -- in the service and protection of our country during the Cold War."

The Oak Ridge resource center is one of 10 or more such centers opening around the country that will offer personal assistance in filing claim forms for the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), passed by Congress in October 2000.... (See <A HREF="#sc">South Carolina</A> for rest of message)

-------- washington

Resource Center for Energy Workers To Open in Richland, Wash.

U.S. Newswire
24 Jul 17:14
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0724-143.html

To: National Desk
Contact: Michael Shields, 202-693-4650
Web site: www.dol.gov

KENNEWICK, Wash., July 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A resource center designed to help sick nuclear weapons industry workers and their families receive compensation from the federal government will open at 7601 W. Clearwater, Suite 102 in Kennewick, Washington on July 25, 2001.

"Our goal is to take care of the men and women who were harmed as quickly as possible," said Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao. "These workers gave their labor -- and many of them gave their health - in the service and protection of our country during the Cold War."

The Richland resource center is one of 10 or more such centers opening around the country that will offer personal assistance in filing claim forms for the Energy Employees Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), passed by Congress in October 2000.... (See <A HREF="#sc">South Carolina</A> for rest of message)

-------- us nuc politics

Today in Congress

Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40734-2001Jul23?language=printer

SENATE

Foreign Relations -- 10 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. Missile defense. 419 DOB.

HOUSE

Governmental Reform -- 10 a.m. Natl. security, VA & intl. relations subc. Federal interagency data sharing's impact on natl. security. 2247 RHOB.

Small Business -- 10 a.m. Rural enterprises, ag & tech subc. Renewable fuels. 2360 RHOB.

----

Russian, U.S. Arms Talks Face Hurdles
Bush, Putin Must Overcome Hard-Line Critics at Home

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38926-2001Jul23?language=printer

MOSCOW, July 23 -- In agreeing to hold new talks on nuclear disarmament, Russia and the United States have settled on a possible compromise that was obvious even before President Bush took office. To bring Russia to the table on missile defense, the United States needed to offer the prospect of deep cuts in the nuclear arsenal that the Kremlin can no longer afford.

What is not so obvious is what happens now.

Bush's agreement with President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to begin new discussions linking the future of the planned U.S. antimissile program to further disarmament holds the promise of creating a new security framework between the two powers. But the trail from concept to concrete could be a difficult one, complicated by domestic politics on each side.

Today, just hours after Bush and Putin shook hands in Genoa, Italy, the glow of their summit agreement began to fade. The two sides could not agree on how long the talks would go, what kind of document they would aim to create, or even whether they would be holding "consultations" or "negotiations."

Bush and Putin both moved to dampen potential criticism from hard-line skeptics back home. Bush vowed to go forward with missile defense even if he failed to reach a pact with Russia, while Putin emphasized that he remained strongly in favor of keeping the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that bars the sort of system Bush wants to build.

"I have told President Putin that time matters; that I want to reach an accord sooner, rather than later; that I'm interested in getting something done with him," Bush told reporters in Rome. "That's my first priority. . . . But make no mistake about it, I think it's important to move beyond the ABM Treaty. I would rather others come with us, but I feel so strongly and passionately on the subject about how to keep the peace in the 21st century, that we'll move beyond, if need be."

In Moscow, Putin briefed his cabinet on his talks with Bush and played down the significance of their agreement in Genoa. "Of course, there has been no fundamental breakthrough," he said in televised remarks. "We confirmed our adherence to the 1972 ABM Treaty. . . . At the same time, there has been a substantial step forward."

Both presidents face military establishments that could be resistant to a deal. The Pentagon has opposed cutting strategic nuclear warheads to 1,500, as proposed by Putin, while the Russian military has bristled at the notion of acquiescing to a U.S. nuclear shield.

On his arrival home, Putin was greeted by the front-page headline, "Russia Surrendered," in the newspaper Kommersant, owned by his nemesis, tycoon Boris Berezovsky.

But Putin in recent months has also asserted greater control over the independent-minded military, firing the defense minister and, more recently, the most outspoken hawk on missile defense, Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, who headed a small department in the Defense Ministry but was an aggressive critic of NATO and the United States.

In his maneuvering with Bush, Putin was playing from a position of weakness. He understands he cannot dissuade the United States from pursuing missile defense and so has decided to try to get what he can from it, according to analysts and political leaders.

"Putin is not in a position to give, or not to give, the Americans a free hand for the simple reason that the Americans, if they decide to go ahead with a national missile defense, can well do it without bothering to negotiate with us," Vladimir Lukin, former Russian ambassador to Washington, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Putin wants deeper cuts in strategic warheads because Russia cannot afford the more than 6,000 it now has in its arsenal. It would prefer to see commensurate U.S. reductions to match those it will have to make because of obsolescence, as well as financial constraints.

"The agreement is symptomatic of the understanding by Putin and the foreign policy elite that Russia simply cannot afford a new arms race," said Boris Makarenko, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow research organization. "Putin is starting a round of radical economic reforms at this time. Not only can't he afford to spend critical resources on armaments, but he needs all the support he can get from the West."

Analysts said Putin would prefer to find a pragmatic solution -- and be seen as an international player -- than to reveal Russia's impotence by complaining fruitlessly. "The best deal for Putin is to avoid serious disintegration of relations with the United States," said Yuri Fyodorov, deputy director of the PIR Center, another research group. "One of the very strong motivations of his behavior is to be among the most important leaders of world powers."

Bush's team today made clear it did not want to engage in long, drawn-out negotiations.

"We don't see the need for a treaty regime here," said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who arrives in Moscow this week to begin setting a schedule for talks. "We would really rather do something that looks more like defense planning talks." Rice added that she considers the talks "not arms control negotiations, but consultations and discussions."

The Russian side would prefer to have a treaty or some other formal, binding document, complete with the sort of verification measures built into the arms control pacts of the past. "We definitely need a treaty, I think, because it would be a very important sign for the entire international community," said Andrei Kokoshin, a former secretary of the Russian Security Council. "Without a treaty, I think it would be seen as a free-for-all."

Staff writer Mike Allen in Rome contributed to this report.

--------

Dems. Amazed at Bush's Russia View

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/news/AP-US-Russia.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration's apparent acceptance of Russia as a country that has put the Cold War behind it has left some Democratic senators expressing astonishment.

``It's amazing to me how secure we are about Russian intentions,'' Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., told Pentagon and State Department representatives Tuesday at a hearing on the administration's national missile defense plan.

The hearing came two days after President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in Genoa, Italy, that the two countries would link talks on missile defense with discussions on reducing both sides' strategic weapons. High-level discussions to work on details were starting in Moscow on Wednesday.

``The Cold War is over,'' John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, told the committee. ``We need to move away from the remnants of a relationship that was one of ideological conflict and hostility with the Soviet Union.''

Bolton and Douglas Feith, who was sworn in as undersecretary of defense for policy just last week, said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that would be violated by a national missile defense ``codifies a Cold War relationship that is no longer relevant to the 21st Century.''

``The Russians know ... that nothing we are doing in this program is going to be undermining Russian security,'' Feith said. Any doubts they have would be allayed through the Moscow discussions, he said.

In Russia, meanwhile, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Putin's right-hand man, said Tuesday that Moscow would consider making changes to the ABM Treaty, indicating a softening of Russian opposition to U.S. missile defense plans.

Russia has long maintained the treaty is a keystone of global security, but Ivanov said Tuesday that if experts conclude some treaty changes won't harm Russia's security, he would report that to Putin, the Interfax news agency reported.

``Nobody knows where these consultations are going to come out for sure,'' Bolton told the U.S. Senate, ``but we want to start out on the optimistic side, hoping that ... through these discussions, we can come to a more normal relationship with Russia.''

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., like Biden, questioned the rosy prognosis for the U.S.-Russia relationship.

``Times change. Things happen. Countries don't trust each other,'' Kerry said. ``I don't know what's going to happen in 20 years. I don't know what kind of Russia we'll have in 20 years.''

Kerry said he supports a limited missile defense system but said it could be far less expensive if it didn't have to counter accidental or unauthorized Russian launches as well as intentional attacks by rogue nations and terrorists.

``If our newfound relationship with Russia is indeed what you say it is ... could we not have a far more intrusive, joint protocol which would almost make it impossible to have an unauthorized launch -- a level of security with joint keys, or whatever?'' Kerry said.

As for an accidental launch, he said, ``A technician ought to be able to push a button on a panel and blow the thing up.''

Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., criticized Russia even as he stressed that the ABM Treaty should be scrapped as ``a relic of a bygone era.''

``While Russia's government is still autocratic and undemocratic, and its war on the Chechen people is an abomination, nevertheless the world is now a long way from the days when the Soviet Union wrapped its tentacles virtually around the globe,'' Helms said.

Helms insisted no one was bowled over by the Russians.

``We are short of Pollyannas in the Bush administration,'' Bolton assured him, adding later, ``We're a group of pretty hardheaded realists.''

Many missile defense critics, including allies, have worried that it might prompt a new arms race.

``The reason the Russians object to this, the reason the Chinese are apoplectic about their 23 missiles perhaps being completely rendered useless by a defensive system, is because they know it alters the balance,'' Kerry said.

``If you change a country's perception of its safety, ... aren't you also then inviting them to alter the balance of power in order to secure a greater level of safety?'' he asked.

``If their perception is inaccurate, ... it is our task to disabuse them of their misperception,'' Bolton replied.

Said Biden: ``The bottom line for me is: At the end of the day, are we more or less secure?''

The United States could violate the ABM Treaty with any of a variety of planned steps, and Feith said a group studying the treaty should make that determination Monday.

-------- MILITARY

-------- asia

ASEAN: Reduce U.S.-China Tension

By Peter Eng
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; 7:55 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010724/aponline075538_000.htm

HANOI, Vietnam -- Southeast Asian nations said the United States and China should ease their tensions to help ensure peace in the area, as Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived here Tuesday for a regional gathering.

Powell meets Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan during security talks between foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its 23 "dialogue partners" - including the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and the European Union.

The ASEAN ministers, meeting for two days before the wider talks that begin Wednesday, said stable relations among the major powers, "particularly the U.S. and China," were important to security in the region.

The United States and China have been sparring over issues including human right and U.S. plans for a missile defense system. Relations have also been strained by a series of arrests of U.S. citizens or U.S.-residents in China. A scholar from a U.S. university was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for espionage. The sentence cast a pall over Powell's scheduled visit to Beijing on Saturday.

The tensions have left the ASEAN nations grappling with how to balance relations with the two powers, both of which play key roles in the region's security and economic revival.

"We reiterated the important role played by the major powers and called on them to continue to make their contribution to strengthening peace, security, cooperation and development in the region and throughout the world," the ASEAN foreign ministers said in a statement.

The ministers hope to persuade Powell - who arrived Tuesday evening on his first visit to Vietnam since the war - that Washington should remain committed to the region's security and not be preoccupied with North Asia.

Powell, who served twice with the U.S. military in Vietnam, said it was "very emotional" to return.

"I'm very pleased to be back," he said.

ASEAN, formed in 1967, has 10 members still recovering from economic crisis, more than half a billion people and some of the world's most critical sea lanes.

The organization has been hosting wider security talks with the "dialogue partners," known as the ASEAN Regional Forum, since 1994.

South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo said the forum will call on North Korea to resume a dialogue with the rival South. The talks have stalled since early this year, when President Bush called for a re-examination of U.S. security policy toward the North.

Powell said he may meet a top North Korean official in Hanoi. North Korea participated in the security talks for the first time last year. Its talks with the United States during that meeting resulted in the most important breakthrough in years in their relations.

--------

Battles rage as rebels move on Tetovo

The Scotsman
July 24, 2001
Aleksandar Vasovic In Tetovo
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/world.cfm?id=92168

ETHNIC Albanian militants clashed with government forces in Macedonia's second-largest city yesterday, thrusting the troubled country back to the brink of civil war just days after the collapse of peace talks.

A senior police official in Tetovo, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rebels had taken the city's football stadium and were within 50 yards of government troops trying to keep them from the city centre.

An 11-year-old girl was killed and six members of the Macedonian security forces were wounded, a government spokesman, Antonio Milososki, said. At least nine civilians and five policemen were wounded, one of them seriously, Macedonian television reported.

Twenty-two Macedonian civilians were abducted by rebels in villages around Tetovo, a military spokesman said. He confirmed the death of a soldier in a separate clash near Mavrovo, 45 miles south-west of the capital, Skopje.

The fighting, which eased at nightfall, was by far the most serious violation of a cease-fire brokered by NATO and the European Union that took effect on 5 July. The militants launched their insurgency against government forces in February, saying they were fighting for greater rights and recognition for minority ethnic Albanians, who account for up to a third of Macedonia's population of 2 million.

"The situation in Tetovo is critical, and if the terrorists do not retreat to their previous positions ... we will have no other option but to dislodge them with our offensive. We cannot pull back when the security of people in Tetovo is endangered," the defence minister, Vlado Buckovski, told reporters. "We demand that NATO secure the cease-fire, because NATO and the international community provided us with guarantees."

A rebel commander from Tetovo, who demanded anonymity, said: "We were provoked by Macedonian forces. We're fighting back."

"Events in Tetovo are endangering political dialogue," the government spokesman, Mr Milososki, responded. "While we were preparing for peace and dialogue, Albanians were preparing for war."

Macedonia's president, Boris Trajkovski, yesterday had meetings with James Pardew, the US troubleshooter for the Balkans, and his French counterpart, François Leotard, to "discuss the agenda and modalities of future talks," said a senior western diplomat. - AP

-------- biological weapons

U.S. Called Vulnerable To Biological Attack
Smallpox Simulation Alarms Officials

Reuters
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40751-2001Jul23?language=printer

A simulation exercise in June to test the government's response to a biological weapons attack with smallpox virus showed U.S. authorities woefully unprepared, experts told Congress yesterday.

"This would cripple the United States if it were to occur," John Hamre of the Center for Strategic and International Studies testified before the House Committee on Government Reform.

"No city, no state is capable of dealing with an incident like this," added Hamre, who was deputy secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton.

The theoretical exercise, dubbed "Dark Winter," was based on a realistic scenario.

The exercise ended with more than 1,000 people dead and 15,000 reported smallpox cases -- all simulated -- less than two weeks after 24 "patients" first showed signs of an undiagnosed illness at an Oklahoma hospital. The simulation ended with no resolution to the "epidemic."

Current and former government officials convened at Andrews Air Force Base during the two-day exercise to respond to the crisis, playing the roles of National Security Council members.

Participants found that government officials at the federal and local levels, as well as the U.S. medical community, were ill-prepared.

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease last seen in the United States in 1949. U.S. vaccination ceased in 1972, leaving generations of Americans with no immunity to the disease, which was last seen in the world in 1978.

Supplies of the vaccine are far less than needed in a national catastrophe, and it would take weeks to make enough to deal with an emergency, the experts said. In the exercise, rioting and looting broke out when vaccine supplies ran out.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank A. Keating (R) told Congress a major problem arose from the unclear division of duties between federal officials and local emergency responders.

"I was really surprised by the level of ignorance, if not prejudice, against state and local responders," Keating said.

"To have a whole panoply of federal officials descend on a city won't work," he said.

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said the results concerned him more than the threat of a rogue missile attack. "I found myself feeling very uneasy," he said.

Shays said planning for a bioterrorist attack should take precedence over the national missile defense system widely promoted by the Bush administration.

"If you told me I only had the dollars for one, there's no question that I would put my dollars here," he said.

--------

Germ Warfare Talks Open in London; U.S. Is the Pariah

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/international/24WEAP.html?searchpv=nytToday

LONDON, July 23 - European nations and other major powers today urged the completion of a draft agreement to enforce the 1972 ban on biological weapons, a move that puts them at odds with the Bush administration.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Marc Baptist of Belgium told negotiators in Geneva that the draft accord, while not perfect, was still the best way to strengthen the ban on germ weapons.

The European endorsement, and support for the agreement by a raft of other nations, has left the Bush administration increasingly isolated on an important arms control issue.

After an extensive review this spring, the Bush administration has concluded that the draft accord is flawed beyond repair. And United States officials have traveled around the world to inform allies of the assessment.

Donald H. Mahley, the American representative to the talks, is not scheduled to address the negotiating session, which opened today, until Wednesday. But there is a widespread concern in Geneva that he will announce Washington's opposition to the monitoring accord.

In Washington today, a State Department spokesman said that more work needs to be done to strengthen the ban on germ weapons, but gave no indication of how it could be done.

The mounting debate comes at a particularly awkward time for the Bush administration. With President Bush visiting Europe, the White House has sought to counter criticism that it is relying too much on its plans for a missile shield and not enough on arms control to deal with the threat of a nuclear, chemical or germ weapon attack.

At the core of the dispute is the 1972 treaty, which 143 nations, including the United States, have ratified and which prohibits the development, production and possession of biological weapons.

When that treaty was negotiated, it had no provision for verification, a major limitation because most of the nations suspected of making biological weapons have signed the accord.

So six years ago, international negotiators began discussing a further protocol that would establish measures to monitor the ban, an effort backed by the Clinton administration. The goal was to conclude the agreement by November, and a new round of talks began today.

Throughout the talks, Washington has had conflicting objectives. While it has sought to discourage cheating it has also tried to limit foreign inspectors' access to American bio-defense installations and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in order to protect military and trade secrets.

Under the current draft, for example, a new executive council would be established and a majority vote of council members would be needed to investigate a suspicious plant.

Supporters of the accord insist that the protocol was never intended to provide an iron-clad verification but rather to increase the odds that cheaters would be caught.

But the White House review concluded that a nation that was determined to cheat would be able to find a way to do so. At the same time, the administration concluded, the draft accord would grant foreign inspectors too much access to American installations and companies.

As word of the administration's review spread, allies were quick to register their dissatisfaction. The European Union, whose members have their own pharmaceutical industries, said the draft accord, for all of its flaws, was the best way to combat the germ weapon threat..

To blunt the criticism that the United States was turning a blind eye to the problem, some American officials recommended that the White House develop an alternative approach to strengthen the protocol.

As a new round of negotiations began today, Bush administration officials said there would be many obstacles to an accord even if Washington went along. Russia and China, United States officials said, are reluctant to allow on-site inspections, while Iran has sought to use the negotiations to weaken controls on the export of biological materials.

But today, Russia, China and Iran were among the nations that called for the accord's completion, perhaps calculating that they had a rare chance to show up the Americans.

A senior United States official insisted that the administration had taken a principled, if unpopular, stance. A nation that was determined to cheat could elude detection under the accord, he said.

"There are some cases where a bad document is worse than no document," he said.

But Elisa Harris, a former specialist on biological weapons on President Bill Clinton's National Security Council and a research fellow at the University of Maryland, said the Bush administration had not presented a strategy to stop the spread of germ weapons.

"If the Bush administration does not support the protocol, how would it deter other nations from developing biological weapons?" she said. "What does this say to cheaters about the U.S. commitment to enforce the biological weapons convention?"

--------

Experts Warn Germ Warfare Pact a High - Stakes Game

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-ge.html

GENEVA (Reuters) - A group of international experts warned on Tuesday that countries were on dangerous ground if they failed to back a compromise deal giving teeth to a 30-year ban on using germs as a weapon of war.

As signs mount that the United States is preparing to row against the international tide and possibly block an accord, the experts said missing the chance to enforce the ban on biological weapons would be a ``grave error.''

While acknowledging that a proposed new protocol to the existing treaty was far from perfect, 10 non-governmental organizations from Europe and the United States said the plan offered the only real hope of making the 1972 pact on biological weapons enforceable.

``The Protocol will be an important tool to help prevent the spread of biological weapons and fill a gap in the network of international disarmament and non-proliferation treaties,'' they said in a statement.

Ending weeks of uncertainty, the United States will spell out on Wednesday just where it stands on the plan for legally binding regulations which has emerged as the result of years of tough international wrangling.

Diplomats said they expected the U.S. to give the thumbs down to the package of measures presented by chief negotiator Ambassador Tibor Toth of Hungary, but there were doubts as to just how complete Washington's rejection would be.

``It is not looking good but they could just leave the door slightly open (for discussions to continue),'' said one European diplomat close to the negotiations.

It would be the latest foreign policy issue on which the Bush administration has distanced itself from its traditional European allies.

Earlier this week, Washington was alone in rejecting the Kyoto treaty to contain global warming through the limiting of the emission of so-called greenhouse gasses.

While awaiting the U.S. decision, members of a special 54-state Ad Hoc group -- including the U.S. -- charged with negotiating the protocol to strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention have begun a final round of talks aimed at securing a deal by the time the full 140-state Convention meets in November.

TOO TOUGH AND NOT TOUGH ENOUGH

The existing treaty against biological weapons is the only international arms pact that contains no mechanism for checking whether its signatories are abiding by the rules.

The Toth plan would oblige member states to make public industrial and scientific establishments that could eventually be used in the manufacture of biological weapons. A future inspection body would have the right to make spot checks.

But Washington says the plan goes too far in giving access to sites, which it fears could lead to industrial espionage, while at the same time is not tough enough to prevent cheating.

Diplomats were divided on what happens if Washington announces its total withdrawal from the talks on Wednesday.

Some said that any attempt to press ahead with negotiations would only lead to other countries, which also had problems with the text, threatening to follow the U.S. as a bargaining ploy to further soften an already loose text.

``In the end, we could end up with just the European Union monitoring itself. And that would not be much use,'' one European diplomat said.

-------- drug war

Lawmakers shrink from foreign drug war

July 24, 2001
By Dave Boyer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010724-17162396.htm

Lawmakers in both parties today will try to limit U.S. anti-drug personnel and military funding in South America, part of President Bush's plan to fight heroin and cocaine producers in the region.

"A lot of members don't really understand the level of engagement down there," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican. "There are lots of folks who are very nervous."

For next year, the White House is proposing to increase counternarcotics aid by $676 million, mostly for Colombia and Peru. That amount would come on top of the Clinton administration's initial expenditure of $1.3 billion last year.

But the House today will consider several amendments to limit that effort. One of the leading proposals, by Mr. Hoekstra, would cut $65 million in military aid as a response to Peru's downing in April of a plane carrying Baptist missionaries, killing a woman and her infant daughter.

The mission used information supplied by U.S. radar and surveillance planes. President Bush later suspended U.S. involvement in the program.

"I'm not sure we've got the proper controls in place to protect our values," Mr. Hoekstra said. "This thing appears to have been thrown together."

The administration and House Republican leaders thought they had worked out a compromise with Mr. Hoekstra simply to suspend the aid until the State Department completes a report on the plane's downing. But that deal fell through late last week when, Mr. Hoekstra said, appropriations subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, Arizona Republican, announced his intention to block the compromise with a procedural maneuver.

Other amendments to be offered by Democratic lawmakers would stop the spraying of defoliant on crops of coca and poppies, the plants used to produce cocaine and heroin, respectively; limit the number of U.S. civilian contractors in the region to 300; and redirect another $100 million in military aid for health care programs.

Ninety percent of the cocaine and 60 percent of the heroin that reaches the United States is produced in Colombia.

Spraying began in December, but critics say it is harming poor coca farmers rather than wealthy drug lords.

"Colombia has been spraying for over 15 years and there's growing opposition to it," said Joanne Warwick, an aide to Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat. "The problem here is poverty. Spraying when they don't have any alternatives won't work."

Almost half of the proposed funding for the Andean nations is designed to increase legitimate business operations.

The aerial spraying is part of the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package. The United States is also paying to train Colombian troops for counternarcotics offensives in areas paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas profit from the cocaine trade.

The U.S. aid package begun under President Clinton has been criticized for focusing too much on military assistance. The administration says it will help to weaken the country's largest rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

--------

House Votes for Antidrug Spending

By Jim Abrams
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; 5:56 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010724/aponline175619_000.htm

WASHINGTON -- The House voted on Tuesday to protect money for fighting drugs in South America from lawmakers who argued that foreign aid dollars would be better spent against AIDS and other world health problems.

The defeat of amendments to shift money from the Andean antidrug initiative to health programs was a victory for the Bush administration, which said that any reductions below what the president wanted "would undermine the effort to develop healthy, licit economies and strong democratic governments in the Andes."

The $15.2 billion foreign aid spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 contains $676 million to fight drugs and advance economic and political stability in Colombia and its neighbors. That total is already $55 million lower than the president's budget request.

But many lawmakers, led by Democrats, questioned the wisdom of military aid to Colombia and said combating the ravages of AIDS and other disease should be a higher foreign aid priority.

By 2005, 100 million people around the world will be infected by HIV-AIDS, said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "How much more staggering would the numbers have to become for us to respond in a way that is commensurate with the leadership of our country?"

The bill provides $474 million for international AIDS programs. Included in that amount is the $100 million the president requested for an international HIV-AIDS trust fund.

The House, by a 240-188 vote, defeated an amendment proposed by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that would have shifted $60 million from the Andes initiative and military aid programs to the AIDS trust fund.

Then, by a 249-179 vote, it rejected an attempt by Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., that would have reduced military aid to Colombia by $100 million, moving half that money into programs to fight tuberculosis and the other half to child survival programs.

McGovern said he wanted to send a message to the Colombian military that it must sever all ties with paramilitary groups accused of human rights violations against Colombian civilians.

But opponents of the two amendments argued that the Andean anti-drug effort was a vital national security matter. "What we don't want to do here today in misguided compassion is to turn the clock back on our efforts to stem illegal narcotics," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.

The successor to President Clinton's $1.3 billion anti-drug plan, which concentrated on military aid to Colombia, the initiative provides support in such areas as coca crop eradication and crop replacement, judicial reform and bringing peace to Colombia. It aids Colombia's neighbors' suffering from spillover effects of illicit drugs and terrorism in that country.

House members close to the steel industry succeeded Tuesday in amending the bill to cut $18 million from the Export-Import Bank budget, the same amount the bank approved in a loan guarantee to a Chinese steel company to modernize its plant.

"The bank has financed the production of additional steel by a company that continues to dump steel products in our domestic market," said Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., before the 258-162 vote.

Opponents of the amendment contended that the Ex-Im Bank, funded originally at $805 million for the fiscal 2002 budget, provides a valuable service to small businesses trying to sell their products overseas.

But Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., said the steel loan was unwise because it helps the Chinese steel industry at a time that American steelworkers are losing work and there is a glut in world steel markets. The House vote would shift the $18 million to AIDS and children's programs.

The foreign aid bill also includes $768 million for Russia and former states of the Soviet Union, $2.7 billion in military and economic aid for Israel and $2 billion in aid for Egypt.

It requires the president to determine whether the Palestine Liberation Organization is complying with commitments to renounce terrorism and includes possible sanctions, including closing the PLO information office in Washington, if the PLO doesn't meet its promises.

The Senate has not yet taken up a version of the bill.

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U.N. Calls for Drug Crop Monitors

Tue, Jul 24 6:24 PM EDT
By CESAR GARCIA,
Associated Press Writer
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010724/18/int-colombia-un

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A top U.N. anti-drug official called Tuesday for international monitoring of a U.S.-backed aerial eradication campaign against drug crops and rejected claims that the program is not harming peasant farmers.

The statements by Klaus Nyholm, director of U.N. counternarcotics programs here, came amid growing domestic opposition to crop-spraying using chemicals and as the U.S. Congress considers additional drug-fighting aid for the South American country.

A $1.3 billion U.S. aid program is paying for combat helicopters, troops training and crop dusting planes to wipe out coca and opium plantations. Colombia is the world's main cocaine exporting nation and a growing supplier of heroin to the United States.

Nyholm said the United Nations has collected ample evidence that herbicides are being forcibly sprayed on small farmers food plots.

"We know that despite the government's policy, sometimes small farmers' plots are hit as well, and that legal crops such as bananas and beans are being fumigated by mistake," he told a news conference in Bogota.

Nyholm disputed recent comments by Colombian officials that the eradication effort is surgically targeting only large-scale coca and opium plantations run by drug traffickers.

Nyholm said many of the scientific studies dragged out by both proponents and opponents of the forced eradication program are biased. He urged an international monitoring mechanism be created to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the chemical being used.

Nyholm did not detail his proposal, however, saying only that the United Nations has asked the World Health Organization to get involved.

Nyholm urged that the government place more emphasis on funding alternative development programs, project offering farmers aid to switch to legal crops such as organic coffee.

-------- india / pakistan

Vajpayee to Press Pakistan Efforts

By Ashok Sharma
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; 8:20 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010724/aponline082052_000.htm

NEW DELHI, India -- India's prime minister said Tuesday that efforts to cooperate with Pakistan will continue, but no agreement is possible without addressing the issue of cross-border terrorism.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's comments were his first in public since a recent three-day summit in Agra with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that ended without an accord.

"Pakistan's refusal to end cross-border terrorism is the main hurdle in the creation of a conducive atmosphere," Vajpayee told Parliament. "Our bilateral engagement with Pakistan will continue."

The two nuclear rival both lay claim to the Himalayan region Kashmir, divided between the two countries after British rule of the subcontinent ended in 1947. The dispute has poisoned relations between India and Pakistan, and has resulted in two wars.

Musharraf has said that settlement of the Kashmir dispute was necessary to achieve agreement on other issues.

Vajpayee says he insisted that a final document address India's charge that the Pakistan government and military aids militants, who cross into India's portion of Kashmir to fight a 12-year separatist insurgency. India calls the militants terrorists.

Pakistan says it supports their cause, but denies it gives them aid or help.

"Though we could not conclude a joint document in Agra, we did achieve a degree of understanding," said Vajpayee. "We'll build on this to further increase the areas of agreement."

Vajpayee said both he and foreign minister Jaswant Singh had accepted invitations to visit Pakistan. No dates have been set.

-------- iraq

Baghdad says "enemy" warplane hit in northern Iraq

Agence France-Presse
Tuesday July 24, 5:55 AM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010723/1/19mpb.html

Iraqi anti-aircraft defences hit Monday an "enemy" US or British plane which was flying over the northern exclusion zone, an Iraqi military spokesman said. The Pentagon denied the claim.

Anti-aircraft defence "repulsed the enemy aircraft, which were raiding the Dohuk, Erbil and Niniv provinces", he said. "Indications are that one of the planes was hit."

The claim was denied by Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Abbott, a Pentagon spokeswoman, who said, "There is no truth to the report."

Almost daily clashes occur between Iraq and US and British planes patrolling northern and southern no-fly zones aimed at enforcing the military restrictions imposed on the regime of President Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq does not recognise the zones and claims that 353 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in Americans and British attacks since 1998, when they mounted a heavy punitive air raid on Baghdad.

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

[A sign of conversion? et]

It's Full Speed Ahead for Tech Transfer
Naval Research Center Open House in Charles Co. Follows First Civilian Deal

By Terence Chea
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page E05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40808-2001Jul23?language=printer

Scientists and engineers at the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center developed a high-tech device called a "flow sensor" that the Navy uses to measure the speed of torpedoes launched at sea.

Last week, the Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees the Indian Head facility, licensed that technology to a Baltimore company that plans to use it to design a device for civilian seafarers to gauge the speed of their racing yachts. The agreement marks the first time the naval research laboratory has transferred its technology to the private sector.

Today, Indian Head officials hope to sign more such deals when they open the center's doors to the Washington region's business community for an event called "An Explosion of Technology." Organizers expect about 80 business executives and entrepreneurs from various Washington technology industries to attend the open house.

"The ultimate goal for the showcase is to highlight the research and technology available for partnering with this laboratory," said J. Scott Deiter, who runs Indian Head's technology transfer office. "Through these technology transfer collaborations, the specialized knowledge and unique research and development work performed at Indian Head provides beneficial new applications in the business and private sectors."

In recent years, the naval laboratory in Charles County has embarked on a mission to forge closer ties with the business world, inviting companies to license its technology, use its research facilities and collaborate with its scientists. Officials hope today's event will give that effort a major boost.

At the showcase, Navy researchers will present more than 20 technologies such as shock-damage sensors, smokeless pyrotechnics and nano-material production -- fabrication of ultra-miniature devices measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Attendees will also have a chance to tour Indian Head's facilities, including its "clean room" for micro-electronic device development, chemistry laboratory and operation for producing explosive materials.

The showcase is part of a broader effort by the federal government and the State of Maryland to spur more collaboration between government laboratories and private business. Besides helping to create new jobs and businesses, government officials say, technology transfer is a way to generate revenue, attract top scientists and enhance the laboratory's prestige.

"It makes us a more viable and impressive entity to the state and the Department of Defense when we have all these connections to industry in the region," said Bob Kavetsky, Indian Head's program manager for workforce development. "The more connections we have to the community, the better it is for us."

During the past year, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, the Army's Adelphi Laboratory Center, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt have hosted similar open houses.

"What we ought to do as a state is leverage the resources in our own back yard," Kavetsky said. "It's trying to get the most bang for our tax dollars."

After Congress passed the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, the Defense Department and other federal agencies encouraged their research laboratories to transfer technology to private industry. But until recently, the idea had not caught on at most facilities.

"Tech transfer really wasn't understood," Deiter said. "No one knew what it was and what its values and utility was to the laboratory."

Indian Head develops the raw materials used to propel missiles and make bombs explode, conducting about $250 million of research each year. Its sprawling campus occupies 3,500 acres on a scenic peninsula that juts into the Potomac River about30 miles south of Washington.

During the past two decades, the laboratory has shifted its focus from manufacturing to research and development and downsized its staff from 3,500 to 1,800. More recently, the Navy has been pushing its laboratories to operate more like businesses, requiring them to be economically self-reliant.

That's made Indian Head and other laboratories take technology transfer more seriously. The center has increased funding for its technology transfer office, hired a patent attorney and created incentives for scientists to commercialize their inventions. Indian Head researchers can now receive 20 percent of royalties collected, up to $150,000, when they license their technology for commercial development.

The transfer of the Navy's flow sensor technology from torpedoes to yachts "is an example of how an advanced technology developed for military applications was introduced into the commercial marketplace for public purposes," Deiter said.

More stories on GOVERNMENT ITonline at Washtech.com

--------

Rising AWOL trend confounds military
Services scramble to find reasons why personnel are leaving

The Baltimore Sun
By Tom Bowman
Sun National Staff
July 23, 2001
http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.desert23jul23.story?coll=bal-news-nation

WASHINGTON - Like thousands of recruits, Kendra Loving joined the Army last summer for the promise of a better future and generous college benefits.

But as an 18-year-old private based at Fort Campbell, Ky., Loving soon found that the military life wasn't for her. The hours in the motor pool were long, she said, and the barracks were old and hot. Though she'd signed up for a four-year hitch, she decided to desert in April, just 10 months after putting on her uniform.

"I just left, got on a plane and went on home," said Loving, who lives with her mother in Capitol Heights. "I didn't care what would happen. I thought I would go to jail."

Loving, who returned to Fort Campbell this month at her mother's insistence and was immediately given an "other-than-honorable" discharge, reflects a growing trend that troubles military officials. During the past five years, the services have seen as much as a threefold increase in the number of military personnel who deserted or were Absent Without Leave (AWOL).

In 1996, 1,821 Army soldiers went AWOL or deserted. Last year, the last full year for which information is available, the number reached 4,042. Over the same period, the Navy saw an increase from 1,023 to 3,255.

In the Marine Corps, desertions increased to 2,019 last year from 1,297 in 1996. Unauthorized absences in the Air Force increased from 245 in 1997 to 330 last year; desertions rose from 26 to 46.

In all military branches, the vast majority of those who go AWOL or desert are in their first four years of service.

"When you see the numbers going up, you have to ask why," said William Peck, director of corrections and programs with the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn. "We're determined to find out. We don't know what it is."

Under Defense Department regulations, military personnel who are absent for less than 30 days are absent without leave. After 30 days they are classified as deserters.

During wartime, desertion is punishable by death, according to the Army's court-martial manual. These days, military officers say, only deserters who commit other crimes are prosecuted. In most cases, deserters return voluntarily to service.

While some officers in the Pentagon privately grumble that the new generation of recruits is not as good as its predecessors and can't withstand the rigors of military life, the services are beginning to search for a more scientific explanation. The Army and Navy have undertaken studies of the problem.

"We've asked the Army Research Institute to look at the reasons soldiers go AWOL as a result of the increases we've seen," said Col. John Osweiler, chief of the enlisted division under the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel.

One reason for the increase in desertions, Osweiler said, may stem from the Army's efforts to tighten other avenues for discharge. Until 1998, the Army was conducting post-Cold War troop reductions and could afford to lose marginal soldiers. The service facilitated discharges for those who didn't measure up. Now, with the drawdown over and faced with a tight recruiting market, the Army has curtailed separations in such areas as misconduct or "failure to adapt" to Army life.

The increases in desertions, Osweiler said, show that "soldiers were looking for other ways out."

Osweiler said the Army is trying to come up with a profile of the typical deserter to assist officers in pinpointing at-risk soldiers so they can take pre-emptive action.

"If we can identify these soldiers, then the commander and chain of command can eliminate some of the problems," he said. "What caused him to do that? He may have personal problems. Even good soldiers get overwhelmed with problems."

There is a financial cost as well, Osweiler said. For each soldier that leaves, the Army has to spend $31,000 to train a new one.

Last month, the Navy began to hand out surveys to deserters who have returned to find out why they left, said Lt. Doug Spencer, a Navy spokesman.

The Navy is also trying to determine how far into a sailor's hitch he or she decides to desert.

"This statistic will help us identify a career point trend if one exists," Spencer said.

The jump in desertion rates in the Marine Corps "is something that concerns us," said Maj. Tim Keefe, a spokesman. But the Marines don't track reasons for desertion and are not planning any studies, he said.

Still, spokesmen for all the services say that despite an increased rate of desertions and illegal absences, they are heartened that the overall attrition rate for those in the first three or four years of service has been relatively steady at roughly one-third. Other reasons for attrition range from health problems and injury to bad conduct or criminal charges.

David Segal, a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and director of the Center for the Study of Military Organization, said the increased number of unauthorized absences and desertions is not surprising.

More than two decades after the end of the draft, the volunteer military is increasingly being viewed in society as a "form of employment, rather than a special status," Segal said. "One of the norms of employment is, if you don't like your job, you leave."

Moreover, the military loosened its standards as it struggled to fill its ranks in a booming economy, Segal said. The Army is taking in more recruits with General Educational Development diplomas rather than selecting only high school graduates. The Army

at one time noted a "quality difference" between the two groups, Segal said.

And while a deserter is forced from the service with an other-than-honorable discharge, this is not the same bar to employment it once was, Segal said. "Now, employers don't bother asking."

Osweiler, the Army colonel, agreed that it "doesn't seem to carry the weight it used to."

In the officer corps, desertion is not a problem, but younger officers are leaving the Army in ever-greater numbers rather than re-enlisting. As with deserting enlisted men and women, generational factors may be at work, experts say.

Last fall, the Army War College published a paper comparing officers born between 1943 and 1960 and those from Generation X, born between 1960 and 1980.

Officers from the earlier generation were more likely to be the product of two-parent families, more idealistic and willing to work long hours, the study found. Those from Generation X were more often the offspring of divorced parents, and these younger officers tended to be more skeptical, not intimidated by rank, and wanted a balance between work and personal life, meaning they wanted to work shorter hours.

The Army says that 95 percent of deserters return in the first 60 to 90 days. They are immediately discharged with an other-than-honorable discharge.

One of them was Kendra Loving, a 2000 graduate of Suitland High School who saw the Army as a way to get money to go to college and study business administration. She trained at Fort Sill, Okla., as a "petroleum supply specialist," gassing up helicopters.

But Loving said she quickly became disillusioned with the Army after moving on to Fort Campbell, where she was assigned to the 102nd Quartermasters Battalion. Her 9-to-5 job in the motor pool would at times stretch to 7 or 8 o'clock, while the barracks were "nasty and old."

She talked with her sergeant about her complaints and her hopes of picking up some college credits while on active duty.

"He told me he would talk to me about it, but he never did," she recalled. "No one talked to me about courses to take."

Loving finally explained that she knew little military life. "I just joined."

On an April afternoon, Loving left the motor pool, went back to her barracks and changed into civilian clothes. She hopped an Army shuttle bus to the airport and flew away from Fort Campbell, only to return 76 days later, on July 2. She was sent to Fort Knox, where deserters are processed and discharged. There she met others who had fled and returned.

"Some other people had family problems, and they wanted to go home and take care of them," she said. "Mostly, they were tired of the Army."

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

[Another conversion? et]

Shell blows into U.S. wind market in Wyoming

USA: July 24, 2001
Story by Jonathan Landreth
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11729

NEW YORK - Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell announced yesterday an agreement to buy its first commercial wind farm, a 50-megawatt project in Wyoming, the company said.

Amsterdam-based Shell Renewables' U.S. wind energy operation, Shell WindEnergy Inc., has signed an agreement with San Diego wind farm developer SeaWest WindPower Inc. to buy the Rock River I wind farm, the company said.

SeaWest is privately held.

All the wind energy produced at the wind farm will be sold to PacifiCorp, a unit of Scottish Power , under a single 20-year power purchase agreement. Scottish Power will also buy the wind farm's emissions reduction credits, which can either be traded or used to offset pollution from the company's other generating facilities.

"The role we're taking in this project is fairly low-risk, and commensurately it's not as high a return as you'd expect from a project where we manage the market risk and retail the power," said David Jones, Director of Shell WindEnergy Inc.

Current data shows the cost of tax-subsidzed wind energy at good sites ranges from 3 cents to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Without the tax subsidies, wind generated electricity still sells at a low cost between 4 cents and 6 cents per kWh, comparable with the 4.8 cent to 5.5 cent per kWh cost of coal and the 3.9 cent to 4.4 cent per kWh cost of gas.

Would Shell have invested in Rock River without the subsidies?

"Definately not," Jones said.

BUILT-IN MARKET

The buyer of Rock River's energy, PacifiCorp, provides energy services to 1.5 million customers in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California, Utah and Idaho. When Pacificorp merged with Scottish Power in 1999, it agreed to develop an additional 50 megawatts of renewable resources - a commitment fulfilled by this project.

Rock River I, made up of 50 one-MW Mitsubishi wind turbines, will be constructed over the summer and is scheduled to begin generating electricity in October, sources said.

The Rock River I project is the first Shell Renewables' project in its strategy to move from experimental to commercial-scale renewable energy, sources said.

The 50 MW wind farm will produce enough clean energy for nearly 27,000 average homes in the region, and offset about 164,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually.

STEPPING STONES

Shell currently has two very small experimental wind farms, 4MW offshore in Britain and 4MW onshore in Germany.

"We're interested in development, ownership, operation and selling green power," said Jones.

Currently, about 60 percent of American consumers polled would be willing to pay nearly $10 more a month for energy generated by renewable energy producers, according to research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Shell also hopes to develop three other commercial-scale wind farms. One is a 60 MW offshore project in Britain, for which regulators have granted the company a site. The second is a 100 MW offshore farm in the Netherlands in partnership with the Dutch utility Nuon, which Shell hopes to announce in September.

Shell's third pending commercial wind project is a pair of onshore farms in Morocco totalling 200 MW developed in parntership with the Morrocan state utility.

WIND'S POTENTIAL

Wind is the fastest growing area of energy generation world-wide, with year-on-year growth of 25 percent. Windpower still only provides the United States with less than 1 percent of its energy, and the U.S. market will see 1,500 MW of new capacity installed this year, analysts say.

Wyoming alone has the potential for 50,000 MW, according to The American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C.

Long-term forecasts in the early 1990s by Pacific Gas & Electric and the Electric Power Research Institute said wind would ultimately become the least expensive electricity source.

-------- energy

NEW YORK WRITES UPDATED ENERGY CONSERVATION BUILDING CODE

July 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-24-09.html

ALBANY, New York, New York energy consumers are expected to save up to $80 million per year in energy costs as a result of a new building code. A notice of proposed rule making for the 2002 Energy Conservation Code was published in the New York State Register earlier this month, beginning the 45 day public comment period in which written comments will be accepted.

The 2002 Energy Conservation Construction Code will include updated technologies and provide enhanced energy conservation requirements for residential and commercial buildings to ensure energy efficient construction practices.

The code mandates energy efficiency standards for commercial and residential buildings. The New York State enhancements to the code include new technologies such as more efficient thermostats, power transformers, and fireplaces. Flexibility is written in so that consumers are able to choose from different methods of compliance.

Governor George Pataki called it one of the most progressive building energy codes in the nation. "This smart, environmentally sound and energy efficient new code will help us keep the air we breathe clean and will continue our fight to protect our lakes and forests from acid rain," Pataki said. "The code also will help keep the lights on by reducing energy use, while saving New Yorkers money on their electric bills."

The proposal would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 517,000 tons per year, roughly the equivalent of removing 104,000 cars from the state's roads. The plan would reduce acid rain causing sulphur dioxide by 493 tons per year, roughly the equivalent of sulfur emissions generated by 6,700 oil heated homes, state officials estimate.

The governor also called on the Bush administration to take action on emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury.

The proposal follows the Governor's decision last month to sign an Executive Order to encourage alternative energy production by mandating that state agencies purchase no less than 10 percent of the overall state facility energy requirements from renewable power sources such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal or fuel cells by 2005. The requirement increases to 20 percent by 2010.

The Executive Order, mandating state agencies to follow green building standards during new construction or major renovation projects, was signed together with the governor's creation of a State Greenhouse Gas Task Force to develop policy recommendations for greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

The proposed building code revisions were recommended to Governor Pataki by the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Codes Council, a group including building and fire code officials and local governments. Funding for development of the code revisions comes from nearly $1 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The new code has the support of the construction industry. New York State Builders Association Executive Vice President Philip LaRocque said, "The New York State Builders Association endorses the adoption of the International Energy Conservation Code with a few modifications that are unique to New York State."

The Department of State's Codes Division training staff are delivering advanced training on the International Energy Conservation Code platform for building and fire officials throughout the state. The Department of State also recently launched an Energy Code website to further explain these updates at: http://www.dos.state.ny.us/code/energycode/nyenergycode.htm.

Secretary of State Randy Daniels said his department will fund projects at colleges since education of future designers and engineers offers the best opportunity to effect long term changes in design practices.

Public hearings will be held August 20 in eight locations around the state. The new Energy Conservation Construction Code would not be effective until the rulemaking process has been completed in early 2002.

-------- environment

178 Nations Reach Climate Accord; U.S. Only Looks On

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/science/24CLIM.html?searchpv=nytToday

BONN, July 23 - With the Bush administration on the sidelines, the world's leading countries hammered out a compromise agreement today finishing a treaty that for the first time would formally require industrialized countries to cut emissions of gases linked to global warming.

The agreement, which was announced here today after three days of marathon bargaining, rescued the Kyoto Protocol, the preliminary accord framed in Japan in 1997, that was the first step toward requiring cuts in such gases. That agreement has been repudiated by President Bush, who has called it "fatally flawed," saying it places too much of the cleanup burden on industrial countries and would be too costly to the American economy.

Today, his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said in Rome, where the president met with the pope, "I don't believe that it is a surprise to anyone that the United States believes that this particular protocol is not in its interests, nor do we believe that it really addresses the problem of global climate change." She reiterated that the president had created a task force to come up with alternatives.

The agreement by 178 countries was largely the product of give and take involving Japan, Australia, Canada and the European Union. But Japan's role was crucial because it is the largest economy after the United States and its opposition would have killed any agreement.

Largely as a result of concessions to Japan, the product is a significantly softened version of the Kyoto accord, allowing industrial nations with the greatest emissions of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, to achieve their cuts with greater flexibility. For example, Japan won a provision to receive credits for reducing the gases by protecting forests that absorb carbon dioxide.

Still, the agreement is a binding contract among nations - excluding the United States - under which 38 industrialized countries must reduce those emissions by 2012 or face tougher emissions goals. Those countries now account for close to half of the emissions. The agreement now moves to a complex ratification process that calls for approval from the biggest polluting countries, which can be achieved even with United States opposition.

Officials from the European Union exulted over the compromise. Olivier Deleuze, the energy and sustainability secretary of Belgium, said there were easily 10 things in the final texts that he could criticize. "But," he said, "I prefer an imperfect agreement that is living than a perfect agreement that doesn't exist."

The Kyoto accord calls for the 38 industrialized countries by 2012 to reduce their combined annual gas emissions to 5.2 percent below levels measured in 1990. It set a different, negotiated target for each, with Japan, for example, accepting a target of cutting gas emissions back to 6 percent below 1990 emissions. Those targets were included in the Kyoto agreement and were untouched by the compromise today. Developing countries do not have to do anything to reduce emissions.

The biggest sticking point was how much to penalize countries that miss their targets. Japan held out for a fairly painless system. Europe wanted countries that missed targets in the first commitment period, from 2008 to 2012, to pledge to reduce more carbon dioxide in the next period, with the equivalent of penalties plus interest.

On that point, Europe got its way.

The talks also clarified the design of the first global system for buying and selling credits earned by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Such a system tends to focus investment in pollution cleanups where the job can be done effectively and cheaply.

In general, Japan was in the driver's seat. After Mr. Bush rejected the treaty, Japan became a pivotal player. It sought, and received, extra credits toward its emissions goals for protecting its forests.

Forest experts calculated that the credits for forests essentially would drop Japan's target from 6 percent below 1990 levels to just 2 percent below. Canada and Russia would gain large forest credits as well.

But climate scientists said that in most cases the forest credits were not as big a gift as they seemed, and that economic growth - if continued as projected - would put all the industrialized countries listed under the treaty 15 or 20 percent above their 1990 levels. So a drop even close to 1990 figures would be a big change, they said, essentially lessening the benefit of the forest credits.

Still, some participants grumbled about countries getting credit for gas reductions "by watching trees grow," as one environmentalist put it. The compromise was laced with of something for just about everyone.

The European Union pledged $410 million a year through the first years of the treaty to help developing countries adapt to climate change and build the technological ability to avoid adding to the problem.

That was something demanded by, among others, Saudi Arabia, among the group of developing countries that are not required to reduce their emissions.

The difficulties in moving ahead on the Kyoto Protocol far exceeded those surrounding other environmental treaties, experts said, because the treaty, by controlling carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, would limit something released by almost every act of daily living.

That this was an economic as well as environmental treaty was evident at every turn.

"This protocol is about the climate, but it is also about the interests of each country," explained Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister.

Indeed, he said, Saudi Arabia's interest lay not so much in curtailing gases, but in preventing economic disruption should the treaty lead the world to curtail its use of oil.

Much of the momentum appeared to be maintained personally by Jan Pronk, the indefatigable Dutch environment minister and chairman of the talks here. Mr. Pronk often locked himself in a room with clusters of delegates. By dawn today, dozens of delegates were sprawled asleep on every spare cushion and couch in the meeting rooms of the Maritim Hotel.

In the end, the diverse array of countries at the table, faced with the possibility of an embarrassing collapse of the entire treaty, overcame their differences.

The compromise caps a six-year struggle between a group of industries and countries that claimed mandatory emissions caps would harm economies, and environmental groups and other nations that saw such limits as the only way to stave off potentially disruptive climate shifts.

At the meeting, there were unusual combinations of interests, with companies that build nuclear power plants eager to jump into the climate fight because nuclear power produces electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. Japan, Canada, China and other countries supported credits toward emission targets by substituting nuclear power.

But the European Union, despite wide use of nuclear power in some large European countries, insisted there be no nuclear option in the agreement.

To some of the participants here, the achievement was a bit hollow given that the United States, which by some measurements accounts for about 25 percent of greenhouse gases, chose not to participate.

Others noted that, among them, the three dozen industrialized countries that supported the treaty language accounted for far more emissions than the United States.

Environmental campaigners said Europe had proved it could lead despite its sometimes fragmented appearance.

"There's really a new force on the world stage," said Philip Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust, a lobbying group based in Washington. "If the United States will not lead, Europe can and will."

Many of the negotiators from other countries held out hope that, eventually, the United States would rejoin the pact.

Chances of that happening in the short run are slim. During the session celebrating the accord, Paula Dobrianksy, the under secretary of state for global affairs, congratulated the parties to the protocol but reiterated a common theme of the Bush administration - that it was "not sound policy." She did not come to Bonn with any alternative ideas.

Japan's environment minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, in a clear reference to the United States, said it was important to try to build a bridge between the Kyoto process and countries waiting on the sidelines.

"In order to achieve the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, we need to have the widest possible participation of countries," Ms. Kawaguchi said. "We should try to encourage all our friends to join us in our common effort to address global warming."

---

U.S. Left Out of Warming Treaty EU-Japan Bargain Saves Kyoto Pact

By William Drozdiak
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38938-2001Jul23?language=printer

BRUSSELS, July 23 -- In an agreement that left the United States isolated, negotiators from 180 countries adopted rules to reduce "greenhouse gas" emissions under the world's first treaty on global warming.

Negotiators at the world conference on climate change in Bonn clapped and cheered following an all-night bargaining session when Japan and the European Union struck a compromise resolving the final terms for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and clearing the way for the ratification process. The United States was alone among major nations opposing the rules.

The euphoria that greeted the rescue of the Kyoto treaty, which seemed close to death after President Bush renounced it in March, reflects the determination of many countries to act swiftly in curbing greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. Many scientists believe the earth's rising temperatures could eventually melt polar ice caps, cause sea levels to rise and increase the devastation from floods and hurricanes.

Diplomats and environmental activists described the breakthrough as a major diplomatic setback for the Bush administration. At the weekend summit conference of Group of Eight nations in Genoa, Italy, Bush joined other leaders in vowing to take urgent action to reverse global warming, but he refused to back the Kyoto process.

"It's a geopolitical earthquake," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Campaign. "Other countries have demonstrated their independence from the Bush administration on the world's most critical environmental problem."

In an illustration of the unpopular American position, the chief U.S. delegate at the Bonn conference, Paula Dobriansky, drew boos from the gallery when she insisted that the United States was committed to taking remedial measures on climate change. The United States, which represents four percent of the world's population but has the largest single economy, produces about 25 percent of the planet's greenhouse gases.

The White House reacted by saying the United States had not opposed other nations' efforts to ratify the accord. "We have always said that the ratification of Kyoto is up to various countries," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said. "We do continue to believe that any solution to the global climate change problem will have to be a truly global solution, and that developing countries will have to be a part of that solution. So we continue to work with our friends and allies and the rest of the world."

The treaty calls for the world's developed nations to curtail their greenhouse gas emissions below levels they were producing in 1990. Bush claims this binding goal would cause massive dislocations in the U.S. economy because of its dependency on fossil fuels such as oil and coal. He also complains the treaty is "fatally flawed" because it does not require action by developing nations, such as China and India.

The Bush administration says it is conducting an intensive Cabinet-level review of global warming and has promised to come up with an alternative strategy to the Kyoto process. But Dobriansky arrived in Bonn empty-handed, and U.S. officials now say they are trying to get something ready for the next global warming conference in October in Marrakesh, Morocco.

In the absence of U.S. support, Japan became the critical player as the world's second biggest polluter. The treaty must be ratified by 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions to enter into force -- and that threshold can only be crossed with Japan's backing.

The compromise was a victory for Japan, which was at the center of the marathon negotiations in Bonn. Japan scored twice in the final agreement: It won a significant reduction of the tough requirements of the protocol, which will appeal to Japanese industry, and Japan also appears to have "saved" the global environment treaty first drafted in 1997 in its historic capital.

Japan signaled it will now support ratification, having achieved most of what it wanted in the negotiations.

Under the compromise reached today, the reductions in harmful emissions will not be as deep as originally envisioned. One major reason is a provision on which Japan insisted allowing nations to take increased credit for so-called "sinks," forested areas that absorb the carbon dioxide gas, seen as a chief culprit of global warming. This also benefits Canada and Russia.

Emissions trading, in which developed countries cut their compliance costs by buying and selling pollution credits, was also crucial for Russia, which stands to gain as much as $10 billion per year because it expects to have a large amount of its quota to trade away. Massive closures of Soviet-era factories have already slashed its pollution levels since 1990.

With the Bonn compromise, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to have escaped a dilemma he had created for himself over whether to support the protocol. When he met Bush at Camp David June 30, he said that "presently" he did not intend on pushing ahead with the Kyoto Protocol if the United States remained opposed. But now, with a crucial parliamentary election looming in Japan on Sunday, Koizumi has made a decision that will be politically popular at home.

After seeing the previous session last November in The Hague collapse in a dispute between the United States and the EU, many delegates arrived in Bonn prepared to make significant concessions in order to salvage the Kyoto treaty.

"We felt we could not fail twice," said Jan Pronk, the Dutch environment minister who served as chairman of the conference. "We had made a promise. Citizens, the electorate, people did expect us to reach a result."

Throughout the Kyoto talks, the EU countries pressed for strong commitments that would sharply reduce emissions, while other countries such as the United States, Japan, Russia and Canada argued in favor of flexible mechanisms, such as counting carbon-absorbing forests, as ways to offset the economic sacrifices involved in curbing pollution from cars and factories.

After the failure in The Hague, EU delegates offered many more concessions in this round in order to clinch a deal. The final compromise was struck when Japan was satisfied that penalties against countries that fail to meet the Kyoto targets would not be legally binding.

Developing countries secured new funding to help them cope with the rising seas, devastating storms and diminished harvests that are anticipated in coming decades because of climate change. While the fund was supposed to reach $1 billion, it will only amount to about $550 million because the United States has refused to pay its previously allocated share.

Correspondent Doug Struck in Tokyo and staff writer Dana Milbank in Washington contributed to this report.

------

PENNSYLVANIA CHEMICALS FIRM FINED FOR REPORTING VIOLATIONS

July 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-24-09.html

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, The chemicals manufacturer Croda, Inc. has settled violations of federal toxic chemical reporting regulations at its manufacturing plant in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania. In a consent agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company has agreed to pay a $225,000 penalty for failing to file required annual reports on releases of toxic chemicals at its organic chemicals manufacturing plant.

This case involves alleged reporting violations, and not unlawful releases of toxic chemicals. Croda voluntarily disclosed these violations to EPA in 1999.

The EPA cited the company for violating the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The law requires companies that use or process more than a threshold amount of listed toxic chemicals to file an annual toxic chemical release form with EPA and the state.

Companies must report both routine and accidental releases of toxic chemicals, as well as the maximum amount of any listed chemicals at the facility and the amount of those chemicals contained in wastes transferred off-site.

The reports provide the basis for EPA's annual Toxic Release Inventory, which is provided to the public and regulatory authorities to track pollution trends and identify pollution prevention opportunities.

In June 1999, the company reported to EPA officials that it had failed to file required reports for 12 chemicals manufactured, processed or used at its plant in the 1995, 1996 and 1997. The chemicals included benzyl chloride, chloracetic acid, diethyl sulfate, epichlorohydrin, phosphoric acid, chloromethane, ethylene oxide, n-hexane, propylene oxide, diemethyl sulfate, diethanolamine, and methanol.

Because Croda reported these violations over six months after discovering the noncompliance in late 1998, the company did not qualify for a penalty waiver under the EPA's self-audit and disclosure policies. But the settlement penalty reflects the company's voluntary disclosure of the violation and its cooperation with the EPA's investigation of this matter. The company has certified that it is now in compliance with reporting requirements.

---

EPA IN COURT OVER SMALL INCINERATOR EMISSIONS LIMITS

July 24, 2001 ()
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-24-09.html

WASHINGTON, DC, The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to set any emissions standards for small waste incinerators.

Filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia the case is an attempt to force the EPA to set standards as the agency was required to do by November 2000.

The Sierra Club claims that the EPA has not set emissions standards for sewage sludge incinerators, municipal waste combustors with capacities of less than 39 tons per day, wood waste incinerators, construction and demolition waste incinerators, agricultural waste incinerators, residential waste incinerators, and petroleum contaminated waste treatment facilities.

"Because EPA has done so little to prepare its regulations for these incinerators, information about their numbers, location and emissions are incomplete," says Jane Williams, chair of Sierra Club's Waste Committee.

"Sewage sludge incinerators alone, however, are believed to number more than 130 and to emit significant quantities of dioxins and metals," said Williams.

The other categories of incinerators that EPA has failed to regulate also are likely to emit significant amounts of toxic pollution, given the contaminants in the waste they accept.

Because of their small size and specialized function, these incinerators tend to be located in or near the residential areas where the waste that they combust is generated. "They may be small," Williams warns, "but they pose a big threat to public health in the communities where they're located."

"Under a binding deadline," said Earthjustice attorney Jim Pew, who represents the Sierra Club, "EPA was required to establish controls for all of these incinerator categories by November 2000. Instead, the agency ignored its obligation for years, and then tried to write itself a five year extension."

"EPA now claims that it will promulgate the required regulations by November 2005, but has offered no guarantees that it will not write itself another extension when that date rolls around," says Pew.

"Sidestepping deadlines does no good for the people who are exposed to these incinerators' toxic pollution," says Williams. Right now, these incinerators are completely uncontrolled, and they're pumping out highly toxic persistent pollutants that can cause cancer, birth defects, respiratory disease, and other serious health damage. There is no reason whatsoever to allow this kind of pollution to continue."

-------- genetics

Bush Hears Pope Condemn Research in Human Embryos

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/international/24POPE.html

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, July 23 - President Bush, facing a decision whether to allow federal financing for research using human embryo cells, heard an appeal today from Pope John Paul II to "reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death."

The pope made his statement after meeting Mr. Bush at the papal summer residence here outside Rome, declaring that this path was the obligation of "a free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be." He specifically declared that the creation of human embryos for research purposes, which some American scientists have begun doing, was an evil akin to euthanasia and infanticide

Though the pope did not specifically address the decision that Mr. Bush is facing, the president said at a news conference that he would take the pope's words into "consideration," but stressed that he had no intention of being rushed into a decision.

Whether he should allow federal financing for some forms of embryonic stem cell research, a pledge Mr. Bush made during the campaign, is one of the most politically delicate decisions facing the president.

"I take this issue very seriously," Mr. Bush said, "because it is an issue that, on the one hand, deals with so much hope, hope that perhaps through research and development we'll be able to save lives. It's also an issue that has got serious moral implications, and our nation must think carefully before we proceed."

He added: "And, therefore, my process has been, frankly, unusually deliberative for my administration. I'm taking my time."

While research on embryonic stem cells usually involves the use of frozen embryos, some American scientists created a stir this month when they disclosed that they had mixed eggs and sperm for the express purpose of extracting stem cells from the resulting embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are primordial cells that have the potential to grow into any cell or tissue in the body. They hold promise for repairing and replacing damaged organs and also combating, among other things, Parkinson's disease, from which the pope himself suffers. But the research is opposed by religious conservatives, as well as the Roman Catholic Church, because it results in the destruction of embryos.

A senior administration official said today that Mr. Bush, who had initially been expected to make his decision on stem cell research in late June or early July, would now probably push the decision off until August. He wants to let Congress recess, the official said, and consult with more experts. Already, he has talked to religious groups, conservatives, scientists, and in one meeting at the White House that went on several hours beyond schedule, bioethicists.

Other officials say the politics of the decision have been changed by the rising number of senators who have called on Mr. Bush to allow some types of the research to go forward, even if the senators have split into at least two groups on the question of where the line should be drawn.

"If this were just a political issue, it would be easy," one official said. "You just pick one side or the other. But it's not going to work that way. It's a lot more shaded, and the results of our decision may not play out for 10 years."

For religious conservatives, as well as many of the Catholic voters Mr. Bush is wooing, there are no shadings, and the decision is a kind of litmus test of the president's loyalty to their cause.

Before his election, Mr. Bush, a born-again Christian, said he would reverse or revise President Clinton's decision to approve federal financing for embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Clinton specified that only embryos already created for use through in-vitro fertilization, and later destined for disposal, could be used.

The Vatican, which does not approve of artificial fertilization, views any destruction of embryos as sinful. It is currently lobbying widely for the development of stem cell research based on other sources, like umbilical cord or adult stem cells.

"Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb," the pope warned, "leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils, such as euthanasia, infanticide, and most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process."

The pope has known five American presidents, including Mr. Bush's father, and usually stays removed from partisan dispute or personal affinities.

But the Vatican sees Mr. Bush's focus on religious values as useful, and the welcome here today was noticeably warm.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, pumped Mr. Bush's hand up and down 10 times after their 15-minute meeting and later told Italian television that Mr. Bush's attention to "ethical concerns," was a sign that the United States was maturing.

As the official visit began, Mr. Bush looked awed, calling the 81- year-old pope "sir" in one of their first exchanges, an American term of respect that falls a bit short of "your holiness."

The pope held Mr. Bush's hand as he escorted him into the palace's throne room for their private meeting. When he was later introduced to the president's 19-year-old daughter, Barbara, the pope exclaimed, "She is so young!" Mr. Bush, who by then had spent 30 minutes with the pope, regained some of his jauntiness, replying, "It's a young family," and pointing to his wife, added, "A young wife."

Mother and daughter wore sober black suits and black mantillas. Mrs. Bush was at ease, chatting with Vatican aides about Texas summer heat while her husband and the pope met, but she kept her profile low in the pope's presence.

Mr. Bush walked slowly and solemnly down a marble corridor to the pope's throne room, like a nervous groom walking up the aisle. When the pope explained that he comes to Castel Gandolfo, a huge palace and estate set on Lake Albano, every summer, Mr. Bush replied: "Yes sir. I understood that and I can see why. It is so beautiful." Later, a Vatican spokesman said, the president remembered to call the pope "your holiness."

Mr. Bush said he was moved by the visit, but declined to elaborate. "I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in his presence," he told reporters.

The pope raised other subjects where he feels the United States needs a more moral approach, including what he described as a "tragic fault-line" between rich and poor nations as globalization spreads.

At his news conference, Mr. Bush said that in private, he and the pope spoke mostly of foreign affairs, and that his host did not raise the issue of embryonic stem cell research then. The pope's public declaration may have been a more effective way to influence his guest.

--------

Scientists Are Starting to Add Letters to Life's Alphabet

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By ANDREW POLLACK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/24/health/genetics/24DNA.html?pagewanted=all

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Scientists are taking the first steps toward creating alternative life forms - organisms that use a genetic code different from the one used by all other creatures on earth.

Such organisms, bacteria to start with, would have novel chemical units in their DNA and synthetic building blocks in their proteins. Scientists hope that such organisms can be used to study biochemical processes in new ways and to produce new medical or electronic materials that cannot now be made by living things.

The research goes well beyond current genetic engineering, which involves reshuffling the ordinary components of DNA or proteins into new combinations or moving DNA from one organism to another. Adding completely new elements to DNA and proteins is essentially rewriting the genetic code, the fundamental language of life. As such, it is likely to raise new ethical and safety issues, though there has been no controversy yet because the work is still 5 to 10 years from any practical use.

"We're not trying to imitate nature; we're trying to supplement nature," said Dr. Floyd E. Romesburg, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute here. "We're trying to expand the genetic code."

So far, scientists are nowhere near creating truly novel life forms. They have been able to get only one unnatural protein building block at a time substituted for a natural one. And no one has been able to get unnatural DNA to function in living cells, although progress has been made in test tubes.

Despite life's vast diversity, all creatures - from yeast to humans, from microbes that live in near-boiling water to those that tolerate freezing temperatures - spell out their genetic instructions using the same four DNA chemical units, known as bases, which are represented by the letters A, C, G and T. Different three-letter combinations specify amino acids, which are strung together like beads to make the proteins that carry out most functions in a cell. With rare exceptions, all living things use the same 20 amino acids.

The genetic code, then, is a language of four letters used to make 20 words. Despite the limited vocabulary, those words can be used to make the huge variety of sentences and paragraphs that characterize life.

But what if there could be additional genetic letters and words? That, scientists say, would allow organisms to be even more versatile, just as some languages have sounds or express concepts not found in English.

Dr. David A. Tirrell, chairman of chemistry and chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, has gotten bacteria to make a protein with the nonstick properties of Teflon by having the microbes substitute an unnatural amino acid for one of the 20 natural ones. He said such a protein might one day be used to make artificial blood vessels. Teflon now is used to make them.

Dr. Tirrell and others also imagine incorporating fluorescent amino acids into proteins. That would allow proteins to be studied in finer detail. And synthetic DNA units are already being used in at least one genetic test.

Scientists say creatures with a truly different genetic code would essentially be alien life forms. Indeed, one of the aims of the research is to see what kinds of life may be possible outside earth.

"We can't think of any transparent reason that these four bases are used on earth," said Dr. Steven A. Benner, a professor of chemistry at the University of Florida, "and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if life on Mars used different letters."

The scientists working on the creation of novel organisms say that for now at least, there is no chance that the microbes will run amok. The bacteria created so far that use an unnatural amino acid have to pick up the synthetic component from the medium in which they grow. If they escaped into the wild, they would die or revert to using a natural amino acid.

Still, safety questions will no doubt be raised. "It's a powerful technology," said Dr. Jonathan King, a professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "and like all powerful technologies it needs appropriate oversight and regulation." Dr. King said, for instance, that proteins with artificial amino acids might elicit allergic reactions if they were used as drugs or in food.

While proteins rarely contain amino acids beyond the normal 20, it is not hard to come up with more. Chemists can synthesize dozens of amino acids. And some organisms create such amino acids for purposes other than making proteins. But these other amino acids are not incorporated into proteins - except when the cell makes a mistake.

So most efforts to have bacteria use synthetic amino acids have hinged on encouraging such mistakes. When bacteria are fed a diet rich in an unnatural amino acid that closely resembles a natural one, they may evolve to prefer the new amino acid, even to the extent that they cannot live without it.

Dr. Andrew Ellington, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Texas, has used such forced evolution, completely substituting an unnatural amino acid for one of the 20 natural ones.

Efforts to expand the genetic code have drawn new attention with the publication of two papers in the journal Science on April 20. Both are from scientists at the Scripps Research Institute.

Dr. August Böck, chairman of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Munich in Germany, commented in Science that the two papers pointed to "a new realm of biology, bordering the world of chemistry, which will allow experimenters to explore ideas about completely new proteins that were once inconceivable."

One of the papers presented a variation of the error-causing theme.

Scientists introduced a genetic change that crippled an enzyme involved in correcting errors in protein formation. That allowed an unnatural amino acid to be taken up at 24 percent of the locations in all the bacteria's proteins where the amino acid called valine was supposed to go. The work was led by Dr. Paul Schimmel at Scripps and Dr. Philippe Marlière of Genoscope, a French research institute, and Evologic, a biotech company.

The second Scripps paper took a different approach. Instead of substituting a new amino acid for one of the 20, the scientists introduced a 21st amino acid. And instead of widespread substitution, they put the new amino acid in a specific spot of their choosing. They did this by creating special molecules to deliver this amino acid to the cell's protein-making machinery.

This work was led by Dr. Peter G. Schultz, a chemistry professor who is also director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation.

Some experts said the work paved the way for introducing more than one new amino acid into bacteria and doing so with a precision previously unobtainable. "I would say it's a major, major advance," said Dr. Uttam RajBhandary, a molecular biologist at M.I.T., who is doing similar work.

But if scientists are going to add new amino acids this way, they have to specify where in the proteins these new amino acids should go. So they must put the genetic code for the new amino acids into the bacteria's DNA at the right spots.

There is only one problem: there is no sequence of DNA letters that encode for amino acids that nature has not encountered before. With four DNA bases, there are 64 possible three-letter combinations, called codons, which can specify an amino acid. But 61 of them are already used for the 20 natural amino acids. (There are duplications; for instance, six different codons specify leucine.)

When the cell encounters one of three remaining codons that do not specify an amino acid, it stops building the protein. Dr. Schultz picked one of those codons as the code for his new amino acid.

But this approach has an obvious problem. What if the bacteria's DNA naturally contains this codon at spots where protein formation really is supposed to stop? If the 21st amino acid were inserted instead at such spots, erroneous proteins would be made that could kill the organisms.

Dr. Schultz said the codon he chose was rarely used by this bacterium, so this would not be a significant problem. Still, there are only three codons that do not already code for an ordinary amino acid, limiting the number of new amino acids that can be introduced this way.

So if scientists want to introduce many new amino acids, new codons will be needed. That is why they are trying to add letters to the genetic alphabet. If DNA consisted of six bases - say, A, C, G, T, X and Y - there could be 216 codons instead of 64.

Such artificial DNA bases have been made by Dr. Benner in Florida, Dr. Romesburg at Scripps and Dr. Eric T. Kool, a chemistry professor at Stanford. Besides fitting into the double helix of DNA, each artificial base must pair with only one artificial counterpart, just as A always pairs with T, and C with G. Such pairing is essential for accurate DNA replication.

Dr. Benner in one case managed to use an artificial DNA base to produce a protein with an unnatural amino acid - but only in a test tube. It has been extremely difficult to use natural enzymes to replicate DNA that contains artificial bases, even in the test tube. And when artificial DNA is introduced into organisms, the organisms invariably die.

But Dr. Kool is confident that he will achieve replication, at least in the test tube. "In 5 to 10 years, we'll have an alien replicating system," he said. Dr. Romesburg of Scripps said he had achieved test-tube replication of DNA containing one extra base that pairs with itself.

Still, while they cannot yet be used in living cells, Dr. Benner's artificial bases are already being used in tests that read DNA sequences. The tests are sold by EraGen Biosciences of Madison, Wis., which calls the technology Aegis, for "an expanded genetic information system."

Besides answering questions about how life could have evolved elsewhere in space, the research might shed light on evolution on earth. Dr. Schimmel at Scripps said there might have been a stage in evolution when the genetic code was not as precise as it is now. His work, in which the protein proofreading enzyme was disabled, was an attempt to recreate that earlier, sloppier stage.

Dr. Schultz wants to subject bacteria with extra synthetic amino acids to stresses like heat or poison to see if they evolve and adapt faster than natural bacteria. "Will those forms of life with a bigger building-block set be superior to the ones who have 20?" he asked.

Dr. Schultz often says that living things have only 20 amino acids because God rested on the seventh day. "If he worked on Sunday," he said, "what would we look like?"

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

U.S. Tries to Resolve WTO Tax Dispute

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-EU-US-Trade-Tax-Breaks.html?searchpv=aponline

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The United States has signaled it is ``working hard'' to resolve a dispute over tax breaks for American exporters that violate global trade rules, a European Union spokesman said Tuesday.

The World Trade Organization ruled against the United States in a June 22 interim report on the tax credit, which is worth $4 billion a year to U.S. exporters like Boeing Co. (news/quote) and Microsoft Corp. (news/quote)

The WTO confirmed that ruling in a final confidential report late Monday, finding the credits amounted to ``prohibited export subsidies,'' according to European officials.

EU spokesman Anthony Gooch refused to comment on the content of the report, noting it is to be publicly released Aug. 13.

However, he said the ``key point'' for the EU in such WTO cases is ``to bring oneself into line with the WTO's rules.''

``The signals that we have heard from the U.S. side have gone in that direction,'' he said. ``The contacts between us and the U.S. side indicate that the United States is working hard on various options.''

The EU calls the U.S. tax credits an illegal subsidy and has threatened to impose an equivalent $4 billion in sanctions on American firms. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has said that would be like setting off a nuclear bomb in the trading system.

The EU won its case last year at the WTO, prompting the U.S. Congress to amend the law in hopes of avoiding a trade war.

But the EU complained that the new law was no better and the WTO agreed, rejecting U.S. arguments that the law was not an export subsidy but a measure to avoid U.S. firms being taxed twice on foreign-sourced income.

After the report's release in August, Washington will have a chance to appeal. The EU has agreed to postpone any request for sanctions until after an appeals panel makes a decision.

-------- police / prisoners

U.S. House Votes for Carnivore Accountability

Tuesday July 24 01:10 PM EDT
By Ed Sutherland, www.NewsFactor.com
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nf/20010724/tc/12228_1.html

A measure requiring U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials to provide detailed reports on its use of the controversial Internet wiretap technique formerly known as Carnivore was passed Monday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The U.S. attorney general and FBI director would have to give lawmakers a yearly report showing how many times Carnivore (now renamed DCS1000) was used, for what crimes, where it was installed, and what information was gathered that was had not been okayed by court order.

The surveillance system created by the FBI to monitor suspects' e-mail and Web use has been loudly criticized by privacy advocates for possibly including innocent citizens in an electronic dragnet.

Good First Steps

"Although this is not the end of the story, these are two steps in the right direction," said Representative Dick Armey (R-Texas) of the legislation, which now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Chris Hoofnagle, legislative liaison for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told NewsFactor Network that he is pleased with Monday's action, but says "greater protection will be needed to protect individual privacy."

Kevin Noonan, a privacy analyst at the Yankee Group, told NewsFactor that increasing the reporting required is a fine idea.

"Basically, [the legislation] keeps the animals at bay," Noonan told NewsFactor. "It gets the government into protecting the Internet backbone."

Used 25 Times

The FBI claims Carnivore had been used around 25 times in counterterrorism, drug trafficking and hacking cases up to September 2000. The agency says the surveillance system has been used in only 10 percent of court-ordered wiretaps, claiming that most of the time Internet service providers (ISPs) comply and use their own equipment.

The FBI would not comment on the proposed legislation. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in Silicon Valley to announce a new cybercrime-fighting initiative Friday, brushed aside questions about Carnivore, saying only that any snooping technology would have to be privacy neutral, according to reports.

"I'm pleased that Attorney General Ashcroft is performing a thorough legal review of Carnivore," Armey said Monday. Armey said the legislation "will provide additional accountability."

Advocates Find Openness

Last fall, a federal judge said the FBI must comply with EPIC's request for documents surrounding Carnivore. In April, David Sobel, general counsel for EPIC, met with Ashcroft.

Hoofnagle told NewsFactor that Ashcroft's appointment of a privacy officer, an internal investigation of Carnivore and his openness with advocacy groups "is contrary to our experience with previous attorneys general."

In November, material sent to EPIC included a letter showing that the FBI asked that Carnivore be tested to see whether the software could intercept and archive unfiltered electronic traffic through an ISP -- and if so, how such a capability could be legitimately used.

The revelation prompted the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to call for more details from the FBI.

Earlier, the FBI attempted to shake off the Carnivore moniker by renaming the system "DCS1000." FBI spokesperson Paul Bresson in February said the new name had no real meaning.

A review of Carnivore by the Illinois Institute of Technology, commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department and completed last November, said the system was not a privacy concern.

-------- spying

China Convicts Second U.S. Scholar of Spying

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-China-Scholar-Trial.html

BEIJING (AP) -- A U.S.-based Chinese sociologist was convicted Tuesday of spying and sentenced to 10 years, her defense lawyer said.

Gao Zhan's conviction in a case closely watched by Washington came four days before an official visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Gao immediately applied for medical parole, said her lawyer, Bai Xuebiao. He has previously said she suffers from heart ailments.

In court, Gao spoke in her own defense at least eight times, Bai said. He had said before the one-day trial that she would argue that prosecutors had failed to prove the spying charges.

Bai said the sentence imposed by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court was more severe than he had expected.

``For me to be disappointed is useless,'' he said.

Gao is one of five Chinese-born academics or writers with U.S. ties detained in the past year in an anti-spying crackdown.

The detentions have strained relations with Washington and unsettled China scholars abroad.

The U.S. embassy said it had no immediate reaction to Gao's sentence. An embassy spokesman said Tuesday that Chinese officials had refused a request to let a U.S. diplomat attend the trial, saying that because Gao was a Chinese citizen, the American government had no right to send an observer.

Gao, 39, is a researcher at the American University in Washington who holds permanent U.S. resident status.

She was accused of helping an American business professor, Li Shaomin, who was convicted July 14 of spying for Taiwan.

Gao's husband, Xue Donghua, expressed surprise at the verdict. He said that because of U.S. diplomatic pressure and the impending Powell visit, he had expected his wife to be cleared and released.

``I think they decided to do this to show their hard part to the U.S. government. I think they want to tell the U.S. government that they are not listening to what they're saying,'' Xue said by telephone from the family's home in Virginia.

Gao was detained Feb. 11 during a family visit to China.

Her detention caused a diplomatic uproar because Chinese officials also temporarily held her 5-year-old son, who is an American citizen, without notifying the U.S. Embassy as required by treaty.

The Chinese-born Xue also was detained with Gao but later released. He returned to the United States with their son and was later sworn in as an American citizen.

Gao's lawyers have said she gave Li photocopied book and magazine articles about Taiwan and its relations with China. They said Gao knew some were not meant for widespread distribution, but said she had no reason to know they were secret. They described the exchanges as normal scholarly cooperation.

--------

Japan Man Questioned in Possible U.S. Spy Case

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-japan-u.html

TOKYO (Reuters) - Police on Tuesday questioned a Japanese employee at a U.S. military air base outside of Tokyo for allegedly stealing classified documents, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Japan said.

A spokesman at U.S. Yokota air base, about 25 miles west of central Tokyo, citing information provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan police, said the employee was suspected of taking photocopies of faxed secret documents and stealing them while he worked as a military hotel clerk.

``I don't know what kind of documents they were or any other details since the police have not identified his name to us,'' the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan police department declined comment.

Earlier, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, said the 33-year-old employee told investigators that he was planning to hand over the documents to the Russian embassy, but that police could not confirm that such a transaction had actually taken place.

The alleged theft comes less than a year Japan's biggest spy scandal in two decades, in which a former Japanese naval officer was handed a 10-month jail sentence in March for passing military secrets to Russia.

Shigehiro Hagisaki, a 38-year-old former lieutenant commander in the Maritime Self-Defense Force, was arrested in September on suspicion of giving classified documents to a Russian attache.

Hagisaki was given a dishonorable discharge in October and 51 other Defense Agency and military officials received disciplinary punishments, such as pay cuts.

-------- activists

VICTORY! Kyoto and Price-Anderson

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001
From: michael mariotte <nirsnet@nirs.org>

The nations of the world (except the U.S.!) agreed late Sunday on implementation language for the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change. We're happy to report that use of nuclear power to combat climate change (under the "clean development mechanism") is excluded! That's right, there are no nukes in the Kyoto Protocol. Thanks to everyone who wrote and signed letters and worked on this issue.

Smaller victory! Reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act was NOT included in the comprehensive Bush-Cheney energy bill completed by the House Commerce Committee last week. House floor action on the bill is likely to begin next week. There is a possibility that an amendment will be offered to add Price-Anderson to the bill, but the leadership seems to want to take it up as a standalone bill in September. We'll keep watching this, and will do our best to let you know what we learn (including the bill number...) Thanks for all your help.

Michael Mariotte NIRS

----

Thousands Across Italy Protest Police at G8

New York Times
July 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-italy-p.html

ROME (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people, many shouting ''killers, killers,'' protested throughout Italy on Tuesday against the use of police force that left one person dead and more than 230 injured at the G8 summit in Genoa.

There were no immediate reports of serious violence as the anti-globalization marches were still in progress in Rome, Genoa, Florence, Bologna, Palermo and a host of other smaller cities across Italy.

Demonstrators threw eggs at police headquarters in the southern city of Taranto and bags of red paint at police headquarters in Naples.

The largest crowd was in Rome, more than 40,000 people marched along central streets holding banners and led by a number of leftists politicians.

``Killers, killers,'' the protesters shouted as police in riot gear and with teargas canisters at the ready kept watch near the central Via del Corso.

The crowd in Rome was bigger than expected and spilled out of a small square that had been slated for a closing rally.

The protesters in Rome locked arms and symbolically circled the grassy roundabout in central Piazza Venezia, bringing traffic to a halt.

Some 10,000 people protested peacefully in Genoa, where last weekend about 200,000 people took the streets during the Group of Eight (G8) summit of world leaders and a core of anti-capitalist activists bent on violence clashed with police and caused millions of dollars of damage.

One protester, Carlo Giuliani, 23, was killed by a police bullet when he and other demonstrators assaulted a police van.

TRIBUTE

Police and government figures said the officer who fired the shot was acting in self-defense to escape what they called a lynching attempt.

Last weekend's demonstration in Genoa began with a huge banner reading ``You: G8, Us: 6 million.''

In a tribute to the dead protester, the banner that led the demonstration in Rome read ``You G8, Us: 5,999,999.''

The protesters demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Claudio Scajola, a senior figure in the conservative Forza Italia party led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The opposition center-left Olive Tree bloc, which lost a general election to Berlusconi last May, has put forward a formal no-confidence motion against Scajola in parliament.

During the summit in Genoa, police arrested 280 protesters, many of them foreign nationals.

Amnesty International has urged Italy to respect the rights of protesters detained and allow them access to lawyers and relatives.

The London-based international human rights organization said some foreign nationals arrested in Genoa had not yet been allowed to contact their consulates, lawyers or families.

----

JUDGE BLOCKS ARMY LIVE-FIRE TRAINING IN MAKUA VALLEY

July 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-24-09.html

HONOLULU, Hawaii, A federal judge in Honolulu has ordered the U.S. Army to suspend plans for live-fire training exercises at Makua Military Reservation (MMR) on Oahu pending a final decision on whether the Army must prepare a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Judge Susan Oki Mollway Friday granted the preliminary injunction requested by the community group Malama Makua at a hearing July 9. Represented by Earthjustice, Malama Makua filed suit in December 2000, challenging the Army's refusal to prepare an environmental impact statement for proposed live-fire training at MMR. The suit took issue with the Army's claim that training would not significantly affect neighboring communities or the 45 endangered and threatened species and dozens of sacred and cultural sites found at Makua.

"The court agreed with what we've been saying all along, that the Army's own studies reveal the potential for significant impacts on the environment, which is all the law requires before an EIS is necessary," said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin.

"We're pleased Judge Mollway looked beyond the Army's rhetoric about national security and based her decision on the evidence before her. That evidence shows that there will be no significant harm to military preparedness from barring training at Makua for a few more months, but that letting the Army conduct live-fire training before Malama Makua has its day in court would threaten irreparable environmental harm to irreplaceable biological and cultural treasures."

Judge Mollway found that "the scientific evidence presented in the Army's own studies reveals the potential for adverse environmental effects. Uncertainty exists, not over whether the environment will be affected, as that is certain, but over the intensity and nature of those effects."

"Because the court affords first priority to the declared national policy of saving endangered species, an injunction is warranted to prevent potential harm to, or extinction of, endangered species in Makua Valley," she found.

The judge pointed to "risks of an adverse environmental impact on Native Hawaiian cultural resources and Native Hawaiian rights," which she said "compels the issuance of an injunction on live-fire training exercises at MMR pending resolution of this action on the merits."

"The potential threat of wildfires and live-fire training may cause the extinction of endangered species, the loss of cultural resources, the denial of Native Hawaiian rights, and adverse effects on the environment. Malama Makua deserves the chance to be heard on the merits of this case before the Army begins live-fire training exercises that may threaten the environment," she ruled.

The court's order sets an accelerated schedule for final resolution of the case. The next hearing before Judge Mollway is set for October 29.

No training has taken place at MMR since September 1998 when, in response to a letter from Malama Makua indicating its intent to sue, the Army resumed consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the federal Endangered Species Act.

----

BROSNAN, COUSTEAU, TAYLOR OPPOSE U.S. NAVY SONAR

July 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-24-09.html

NEW YORK, New York, Actor Pierce Brosnan, ocean conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau, and musician James Taylor have joined forces to oppose the U.S. Navy's Low-Frequency Active (LFA) sonar program. The three celebrities are publicizing an email protest website jointly established by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society.

"The three of us have never teamed up like this before," the three celebrities wrote in an appeal for action. "But we all share something in common: a deep love of the ocean and marine mammals. That's why we're very disturbed by a U.S. military program that, if approved, will soon be bombarding millions of whales and dolphins around the world with intense noise."

Congress is now deciding the Navy's funding for next year. Brosnan, Cousteau and Taylor are urging voters to email their Congressional representatives and tell them to "turn off LFA sonar" by cutting off its funding.

"LFA noise is billions of times more intense than that known to disturb whale migration and communication," the three men point out. "Whales and dolphins depend on their sensitive hearing for survival. To put it simply, a deaf whale is a dead whale. Deafening noise from the LFA system will interfere with the vital biological activities of marine mammals. Scientists fear that long-term exposure to LFA could push entire populations over the brink into extinction."

The Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) Low Frequency Active Sonar is a powerful system the Navy seeks to deploy in 80 percent of the world's oceans. SURTASS is used to listen for noises produced by submarines, so it is called a passive sonar.

The Low Frequency Active (LFA) enhancement to SURTASS adds the ability to broadcast sounds, so the hydrophone array can listen for reflections of the sounds off of submarines. This technique is called active sonar, and it can detect submarines too quiet to be found with passive sonar. The SURTASS LFA sonar system uses specialized sounds and echo detection methods to maximize the range at which at which submarines can be detected and tracked.

In 1997, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission said the possible effects on marine mammals of the LFA sonar could include: death from lung hemorrhage or other tissue trauma; temporary or permanent hearing loss or impairment; disruption of feeding, breeding, nursing, acoustic communication and sensing, and, if the disruption is severe, frequent, or long lasting, possible decreases in individual survival and productivity and corresponding decreases in population size and productivity.

Brosnan, Cousteau and Taylor say, "We've already seen a glimpse of the resulting carnage. Last year, whales from four different species stranded themselves and died on beaches across the northern Bahamas during a Navy military exercise. All but one of the dead animals examined by researchers had suffered hemorrhaging around the inner ear - the telltale sign of acoustic trauma. The U.S. Navy's own report concluded that it is "highly likely" that the stranding was caused by the use of mid-frequency active sonar."

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Ocean Futures Society web page to communicate with U.S. Senators and Representatives is: http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=518

--

From: James Taylor, Pierce Brosnan, Jean-Michel Cousteau.

We wanted to pass along to you our message about the Navy's plans to blast the world's oceans with a dangerous new sonar system, and the urgent need for us to fight back. As an NRDC Member you've already taken action on behalf of the whales and marine mammals threatened by this perilous new technology -- and we thank you. Now, please do us the great favor of forwarding our message to everyone you know -- your friends, family, co-workers, discussion groups -- encouraging them to join us in this critical battle.

Sincerely yours, James Taylor, Pierce Brosnan, Jean-Michel Cousteau

-

Dear Friend,

The three of us have never teamed up like this before. But we all share something in common: a deep love of the ocean and marine mammals. That's why we're very disturbed by a U.S. military program that, if approved, will soon be bombarding millions of whales and dolphins around the world with intense noise. You may have read about the U.S. Navy's "Low-Frequency Active" (LFA) sonar program. The military has been testing this new, high-powered system in secret for years. Now, the Navy wants to deploy it across 80 percent of our planet's oceans. LFA sonar is designed to detect enemy submarines by flooding vast expanses of the oceans with sound. Leaving aside the military wisdom of this sonar -- which is still in dispute -- the environmental dangers are becoming increasingly clear.

Here's the problem: LFA noise is billions of times more intense than that known to disturb whale migration and communication. Whales and dolphins depend on their sensitive hearing for survival. To put it simply, a deaf whale is a dead whale. Deafening noise from the LFA system will interfere with the vital biological activities of marine mammals. Scientists fear that long-term exposure to LFA could push entire populations over the brink into extinction.

Inevitably, there will also be marine mammals unlucky enough to swim too close to LFA loudspeakers. Imagine an acoustic wave so powerful that, even at substantial distances, it can destroy your hearing, cause your lungs or ears to hemorrhage, or even kill you.

We've already seen a glimpse of the resulting carnage. Last year, whales from four different species stranded themselves and died on beaches across the northern Bahamas during a Navy military exercise. All but one of the dead animals examined by researchers had suffered hemorrhaging around the inner ear -- the telltale sign of acoustic trauma. The U.S. Navy's own report concluded that it is "highly likely" that the stranding was caused by the use of mid-frequency active sonar. But despite this tragic event, the Navy now wants to deploy LFA, the most extensive active sonar system ever devised.

We know that different frequencies will affect different marine mammals and that the lower the frequency, the farther it penetrates the ocean. We believe it is unconscionable to expose marine mammals around the world to more high intensity sonar. If you agree, then please join us in taking immediate action; it will take you only a few seconds.

Just go to http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=518. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Ocean Futures Society (OFS) have set up this web page to make it easy for you to send electronic messages of protest to your U.S. senators and representative. Congress is now deciding the Navy's funding for next year -- tell them to "Turn Off LFA Sonar" by cutting off its funding.

And please forward this message to your family, friends and colleagues. NRDC used web activism to help generate a million messages of protest to Mitsubishi and, just last year, stopped the company from destroying the last unspoiled birthing ground of the Pacific gray whale.

Congress cannot ignore millions of us. Together, we can keep whales and dolphins safe from high-powered sonar.

Thank you for your time and your concern.

Sincerely yours,

James Taylor, Pierce Brosnan, Jean-Michel Cousteau

If you have any questions about this message or NRDC's campaign to keep marine life safe from LFA sonar please write to us at membership@nrdc.org


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