------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
RWE says Biblis fuel rod safely retrieved
Russians Warn of Nuclear Waste
Coup That Wasn't Stirs Russians' Mixed Emotions
Bush Calls Treaties Flawed
NRC to inspect Cooper plant

MILITARY
China: No Sign Companies Help Iraq
1st NATO Troops Head for Macedonia
Report Faults U.S. Planning in Burning Chemical Arms
U.S. Pilots Fight Coca in Colombia
Colombia Increases Military's Powers
Bush Faces New Dispute Over Payment of U.N. Dues
Defense Chief May Leave Size of Field Forces Up to Services
General accused in Osprey case

OTHER
Germany clears way for draft law on CHP generation
Patent Laws May Determine Shape of Stem Cell Research
Science group questions size of stem cell inventory
Deadly poison in NutraSweet, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi
Nepal Prohibits Bias Against Untouchable Caste
Apartheid on the Potomac
Riots at G-8 meeting spark special forces

ACTIVISTS
After 90 Days, Sharpton Is Released From Prison
Big Fence Planned To Curb Protests



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- germany

RWE says Biblis fuel rod safely retrieved

GERMANY: August 17, 2001
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12041/story.htm

FRANKFURT - A fuel element dropped last week at the RWE's Biblis B nuclear reactor in Hesse state was successfully retrieved this week, the company said in a statement late this week.

The element has been placed in a stable position next to a water storage pool in the presence of safety experts, it said.

It was dropped on August 6 after it became detached from its head while being transferred to a transport container destined for reprocessing at the French La Hague facility.

"We will decide on repair and disposal of the element after we have drawn up and assessed relevant plans," RWE said.

The company said it has developed measures aimed at preventing a repeat of such an incident, which could be implemented immediately if safety authorities approved.

RWE must submit a report to the industrial standards authority for southern Germany (TUeV-Sueddeutscdhland) to get the go-ahead for repair works.

Germany's Green Party has said that its information showed this was the first incident of its kind in the western world.

The German brand of the Friends of the Earth environmental lobby has called for the closure of the plant.

-------- russia

Russians Warn of Nuclear Waste

By Vladimir Isachenkov
Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 17, 2001; 4:10 PM
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26328-2001Aug17?language=printer

MOSCOW -- Liquid radioactive waste accumulated during the half-century of the Russian nuclear weapons program could drain into the Ural Mountains region's rivers with disastrous environmental consequences, a regional governor warned.

Artificial lakes containing more than 14 billion cubic feet of waste from the Mayak nuclear processing plant are filled to capacity and within a few years may leak into the region's rivers, Gov. Pyotr Sumin of the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

"The Techa cascade of lakes is a major potential source of radiation disasters and catastrophes," Sumin said in the letter, a copy of which was sent by environmentalists to The Associated Press on Friday. "There is a danger that the dam will burst, causing catastrophic consequences for the rivers Iset, Tobol and Ob."

Mayak, a major nuclear weapons plant during Soviet times, has been the site of several accidents, including a 1957 waste facility explosion that contaminated 9,200 square miles. The region has been called the most radioactive place on the planet due to accidents and Soviet-era nuclear waste dumping into lakes and rivers.

The vice governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Gennady Podtyosov, said in a telephone interview Friday that the water level in the lakes is just 12 inches below the limit. If action is not taken, contaminated water could burst the dam within three to four years, he said.

"It would be a major catastrophe," Podtyosov said. "Waste would pollute rivers and flow into the Arctic Ocean."

Besides nuclear weapons programs, Mayak is also expected to house and process nuclear waste imported from abroad under a recently passed law.

President Vladimir Putin signed the law last month despite protests by liberals and environmentalists, who insist it will turn the country into the world's nuclear dump. Proponents say it will create jobs and bring in money to state coffers.

Podtyosov said processing waste would require dumping more radioactive water into the overfilled lakes.

In his letter, Sumin urged the government to earmark funds to avert the threat of massive radioactive leaks.

Podtyosov said the problem could be solved by expanding the lakes, installing filters that would clean the contaminated water before letting it flow into rivers or by completing a partially built nuclear power plant that could use some of the water and lower the lakes' level.

Local officials believe the construction of the nuclear power plant, which was suspended in 1992, would be the most feasible way to deal with the problem. Besides dealing with the waste, the plant would also help solve the region's energy shortage, Podtyosov said.

He said Kasyanov had ordered the Nuclear Power Ministry to analyze the problem together with regional officials.

Russian environmentalists assailed the idea of building a nuclear power plant, saying it would exacerbate the region's problems.

"Sumin proposes to avert the disaster by building another potentially catastrophic facility," said Vladimir Slivyak of the Echo Protection group. "Nothing can be more absurd."

--------

Coup That Wasn't Stirs Russians' Mixed Emotions
Decade Later, Soviet Times Cast Shadow

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 17, 2001; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21187-2001Aug16?language=printer

MOSCOW, Aug. 16 --The hands that helped doom the Soviet Union no longer tremble. They grope for another pack of Yavas, as Gennady Yanayev lights up his seventh or eighth cigarette of the hour. But the hands are firm. So is the voice and the mind. And the convictions.

Ten years ago this weekend, Yanayev, then the vice president of the Soviet Union, seized the Kremlin from Mikhail Gorbachev, only to fumble away power with a hand-trembling performance on international television. It was the nervousness, not the alcohol, that made his hands shake like that, he says now. But he remains convinced that he did the right thing. And Russian society is not so sure he is wrong.

The men behind the failed hard-line coup of August 1991 that accelerated the collapse of the Soviet empire and ended the Cold War are not sitting in jail. They are not in exile or seclusion. They do not live a life of shame. They occupy well-appointed offices like Yanayev's, in a red-brick building in northern Moscow where he heads a foundation. One of the conspirators today leads a small political party. Another chairs a committee in parliament. Still another serves as his home region's governor.

"I haven't heard a single insult over the 10 years from ordinary people," Yanayev said in an interview this week. "Sometimes in the metro, or at the bus stop, people come up to me and we talk for an hour and they say, 'Why didn't you crush [Boris] Yeltsin? Why didn't you arrest Gorbachev? Look at what they've done to the country.' "

That the last of the commissars would still play a role in public life here suggests the depth of Russia's ambivalence about where it has been and where it is going since it threw off Soviet dictatorship. Just as Russia has not completely rejected the coup plotters, neither has it fully come to terms with its totalitarian past.

President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB secret police colonel, last year restored the Soviet national anthem, albeit with different lyrics, and invited one of the coup plotters, former KGB director Vladimir Kryuchkov, to his inauguration. Just last month, Putin rejected removing Vladimir Lenin's embalmed corpse from his granite tomb on Red Square on the grounds that it would upset Russians by implying "they had worshiped false values." Last week, the governor of Volgograd proposed reviving its Soviet-era name, Stalingrad.

Soviet tanks leave their positions in Moscow after the attempted putsch in 1991. Ten years later, poll results indicate that support for the coup has increased. AFP/File Photo

In this atmosphere, the coup plotters feel no need to proffer regrets. "I'm not ashamed of a single day of my life," Yanayev said, more serenely than defiantly. "Maybe I feel certain guilt" for the coup -- but only because it failed. "We never accepted the fact that we were guilty. We were acting in the interests of the country."

Anniversaries typically evoke a certain amount of historical revisionism, but recent days here have been filled with public symposiums, television documentaries and newspaper interviews that highlight the mixed feelings of many Russians. While most do not want to return to communism, the privations of Yeltsin's transition to an imperfect democracy and free market have lessened their ardor for the new order and generated nostalgia for the old.

The events over those three momentous days still play a powerful role in the national psyche. With Kryuchkov pulling the strings, Yanayev and other stalwart Communists tried to overthrow Gorbachev to prevent his perestroika reform program from breaking up the Soviet Union. Instead, they precipitated a revolution, led by Yeltsin, that ended seven decades of Communist rule.

At the time, only 4 percent of Muscovites expressed support for Yanayev's group, while 62 percent described themselves as supporters of Yeltsin's democrats. A poll released this week by the All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion found that 14 percent of those surveyed now believe the coup plotters were right, while just 24 percent said they were wrong; the rest were not certain. Moreover, only 10 percent today consider the coup's defeat a victory for democracy.

"We do feel support and this support is growing bigger and bigger," said Oleg Shenin, another putsch organizer, pounding his desk for emphasis. Shenin, who was a Politburo member in 1991 and part of the delegation sent to inform Gorbachev about the putsch, now heads a splinter Communist group and predicted the Soviet Union will rise again. "We consider it a temporary defeat," he said.

The measure of public acceptance enjoyed by the coup plotters has frustrated the democrats who stood up to them. "They're state criminals," said Yuri Chernichenko, who headed a peasants' party at the time. And yet they act as if "they're all superstars. They're all in the limelight. After 10 years, they're given all these rights. Can you imagine that?"

On August 21, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev appeared before reporters for the first time since the beginning of the putsch two days before. AFP/File Photo

"What would have happened if the coup happened in 1960? They would have been put in front of a firing squad," said Andrei Kosyakov, who served as one of Yeltsin's bodyguards during the '91 drama. While he says he does not think the plotters should have been put to death, Kosyakov said the leaders at least should have been banned from public life. "Since we didn't do it, they failed to understand their guilt," he said.

Gorbachev himself weighed in today, mocking the conspirators for trying to rewrite history by blaming him. "True, their hands do not tremble today any longer, so accustomed are they to telling lies," the former Soviet president said at a news conference. "Now they hide their hands; now they put on gloves when speaking."

"Don't believe them," he said. "They are liars, dyed-in-the-wool liars."

An Unlikely Ending

The world woke up to the coup on Aug. 19, 1991, when a cabal that included the vice president, prime minister, defense minister, KGB director and Gorbachev's chief of staff announced they had formed a State of Emergency Committee to restore order. While they lied and said Gorbachev had fallen ill, in fact they had cut off his telephones, stripped his nuclear command codes and isolated him at his summer home in Crimea. But they failed to arrest Yeltsin, then president of the Russian republic, which was part of the Soviet Union.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, left, reads a statement from atop an armored personnel carrier during the abortive coup in Moscow in August 1991. AP/File Photo

Racing to the Russian White House, then the home of parliament, Yeltsin clambered on top of a tank and rallied the nation to his side. Eventually, more than 50,000 people surrounded the White House, some of them armed, determined to stand against an anticipated assault. Three men died in a skirmish with armored personnel carriers in front of the U.S. Embassy nearby.

One of the indelible images of that period was the ill-fated news conference at which Yanayev's shaking hands convinced Russians and Westerners alike that the coup plotters did not have the will or ability to succeed. After their misadventure collapsed on Aug. 21, Gorbachev returned to Moscow, but Yeltsin was the hero of the hour. Within four months he forced the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resignation of its president.

The gekechepists -- the nickname for the conspirators taken from the Cyrillic acronym of their committee -- were arrested and spent a year in jail awaiting trial. But they were eventually freed, and parliament gave them amnesty. Only one, Gen. Valentin Varennikov, refused and insisted on a trial, and he was acquitted.

It was a different ending than in many countries that have toppled tyranny. There was no truth-and-reconciliation committee as there was in South Africa after the end of apartheid. There were no real trials, as there were in other parts of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Indeed, Russia has never fully repudiated its Communist past. Soviet symbolism remains omnipresent, from the red stars that still light up at night over the Kremlin to the hammer-and-sickle decorations on the curtain at the Bolshoi Theater and the statues of Lenin in virtually every town square. Merchants on the Old Arbat, central Moscow's lively pedestrian street, sell vases emblazoned with the likeness of Joseph Stalin's face. Officials in the provinces often keep volumes of Marx and Lenin on their government bookcases.

Former tank commander Sergei Yevdokimov, who defended the Russian White House against the 1991 coup says he thinks the coup plotters were never sufficiently penalized for their acts. By Peter Baker--The Washington Post

"You can't help thinking that something has gone awry, something has gone wrong," said Sergei Yevdokimov, one of the heroes of the White House defense. "What was lacking? Why did it happen this way? It's hard to say whether there wasn't enough courage to bring things to the end."

Yevdokimov certainly demonstrated courage. He was commander of the first battalion ordered to the White House by the coup committee. When he arrived, he switched sides, and ordered his tanks to turn their guns around to protect the demonstrators from assault.

To Yevdokimov, the disappointments of the succeeding years have obscured the clarity of that moment. "We wanted more and envisioned more, especially in the economic field," he said. It turns out it was not enough to get rid of the conspirators at the top. "The main thing is that the same people remained in power -- the people who used to work in the party apparatus."

What They Imagined

Yanayev and his comrades look at the intervening decade and see a different message, one of vindication. "We foresaw that the country was going to disintegrate, that nationalists would separate it, that the country would turn into a mafia-type state," he said. "We envisioned that the people would grow poor and we envisioned that the nouveau riche would appear [and] steal natural wealth. Unfortunately, everything we warned the people about was implemented by the democrats 150 percent."

The most successful of the plotters in current-day politics is Vasily Starodubtsev, a former fighter pilot who was elected last spring to a second term as governor of the Tula region (defeating, among others, Leonid Brezhnev's grandson). Tula, 120 miles south of Moscow, is not the Soviet Union reborn under Starodubtsev; though his office faces Lenin Square just off Soviet Avenue, large, American-style suburban houses are emerging from the mud outside of town.

Like other conspirators, Starodubtsev has his own thoughts on the tactical mistakes his team made. While others now believe they should have arrested Yeltsin, Starodubtsev said the key was the media. "That was our grave mistake. Instead of broadcasting 'Swan Lake,' we should have been explaining what we were doing."

That's a mistake he hopes to rectify. Along with other plotters, he appeared at a news conference a month ago to announce that he was starting a committee to rehabilitate their reputations. "We wanted to protect the constitution and uphold the opinion of the people, to defend our people from monstrous experiments conducted on them," he said in an interview in his office today. "We cannot be condemned for that."

-------- treaties

Bush Calls Treaties Flawed

August 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Treaty-Turmoil.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats and Republicans agree on this much: Treaties, weighted by multiple interests, hammered into shape by committees, are by their nature flawed.

The agreement crumbles at the word favored by President Bush to explain why his administration seems never to have met a treaty it liked: They're ``fatally'' flawed.

Bush officials say the United States leads best by opting out of defective multilateral treaties, which they say clears the way to negotiate more favorable bilateral agreements from scratch.

Democrats argue the United States leads better by tweaking troubled treaties, and a superpower that scampers away from its obligations sets a poor example in leadership.

This polarization over multinational agreements arose at the dawn of the last century, took a break during the Cold War and seems to be back with a vengeance.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was in Russia this week, making that case to President Vladimir Putin for a new two-way agreement on missile defense. ``I am hopeful there can be a new day with Russia,'' National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

So far, the Bush administration has nixed two long-standing treaties and is killing three other Clinton-era initiatives already wounded by congressional Republicans.

Bush has opted out of negotiations to enforce the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. And he has said the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, signed and ratified that year by the United States and the Soviet Union and once a cornerstone of missile containment, is ripe for replacement.

He also has rejected the Kyoto climate control treaty and is pulling out of negotiations on establishing the International Criminal Court, a permanent war-crimes tribunal; President Clinton favored both initiatives over deep Republican objections. Bush also opposes the nuclear weapons test ban treaty signed by Clinton but left unratified.

In addition, it looks like the United States will not attend a U.N. convention on racism this month in South Africa and will stay out of the U.N. Convention on Rights of the Child. No other country except Somalia is doing that.

Hanging on to faulty treaties poses a greater risk than opting out, according to Bush and his allies. Some, they say, are Cold War dinosaurs that fail to consider modern rogue state armories or that inhibit American business; others invite foreign intrusions into how Americans govern themselves.

It's not a new American argument, or even a new Democrat-Republican one: Republican President Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, epitomized the same to-and-fro in last century's first decades.

Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle chose the Woodrow Wilson International Center to deliver his attack on Bush's foreign policy last week.

The devastation of World War II and the subsequent Cold War erased most of the early century differences. Republicans and Democrats alike found treaties and alliances useful to contain totalitarian threats.

Such threats are in abeyance now, and Republicans say it's time to start thinking outside the multilateral box and return to the America-first strategies of decades ago.

``Since when is leadership going along with everyone else?'' asked John Hulsman of the conservative Heritage Foundation. ``We will listen, we will note others' concerns, but ultimately, we will lead.''

Democrats stress that they too are wary of multilateralism, but if America is to have influence, it must stay at the table.

``Our allies will be forced to fill the void we leave, not necessarily with our interests uppermost in their minds,'' Daschle said.

Maintaining U.S. influence was the Clinton administration's strategy in signing the Kyoto and International Criminal Court agreements. Stiff congressional opposition meant little chance of ratification, but signing the treaties gave the United States a prominent voice in fashioning the treaties.

That voice was silent last month in Bonn, when climate talks reconvened based on Kyoto, as U.S. officials were barred from deliberations because of Bush's decision.

Critics say Bush's opt-out policy already is hobbling U.S. strategic interests, most prominently in efforts to contain Iraq and its president, Saddam Hussein.

``They're not looking at the cost of disengagement,'' said Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution. ``There are costs to not making friends.''

That represents a peculiarly American arrogance, Daalder said. ``A real suspicion exists among our allies that we are not interested in solving problems but in being unconstrained,'' he said.

Bush administration officials do not deny that they put America's interests first. As a counterpoint to allegations of an isolationist presidency, however, they point to Bush's expansive trade policy.

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

-------- nebraska

NRC to inspect Cooper plant

August 17, 2001
The Associated Press
Lincoln Journal Star
http://www.journalstar.com/nebraska?story_id=4063&date=20010817&past=

BROWNVILLE - Federal officials plan to increase inspections at the Cooper Nuclear Station because of problems during a simulated emergency.

Errors made in August last year had not been corrected, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday.

Increased inspections in the coming year will focus on problem solving in the plant's emergency preparedness program.

During a simulation exercise last August, radiation exposure to the public was calculated incorrectly, the commission said. As a result, incorrect protective measures were recommended to state and local authorities.

The Nebraska Public Power District revised its training, but the same errors were repeated during a drill in April, the commission said.

By June, the commission said, the power district had failed to correct the problem.

Power district spokesman Dave Simon said officials at Cooper Nuclear did perform the exercise correctly in June, but commission officials did not observe them doing it. The power district will let the commission know what steps were taken to correct the problem, Simon said.

The power district does not object to increased inspections by the commission, Simon said.


-------- MILITARY

-------- asia

China: No Sign Companies Help Iraq

August 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-China-Iraq.html?searchpv=aponline

BEIJING (AP) -- The Foreign Ministry said Friday it has found no evidence ``so far'' that Chinese companies are violating U.N. sanctions by helping upgrade Iraq's air defenses.

Government departments were reminded recently to ensure that Chinese companies do not break sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

Any violations ``will be seriously handled,'' ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

``The Chinese government has so far not discovered any trade activity between China and Iraq that runs against related resolutions of the U.N. Security Council,'' Sun was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, the Asian Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified U.S. administration official alleging that Chinese companies are helping Iraq link its long-range radars to missile batteries.

U.S. officials say improved Iraqi air defenses are threatening U.S. and British planes enforcing a no-fly zone over southern and northern Iraq. U.S. and British planes last week bombed an Iraqi fiber-optics communications base that the Journal said had been rebuilt with Chinese help following a raid in February.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it had no information about the allegations.

China's Foreign Ministry scorned earlier allegations that Chinese companies were helping Iraq, but the American ambassador said in March that Chinese officials assured him they would stop such assistance by three Chinese firms.

Since then, Beijing and Washington have tangled over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan -- the island that China considers a rebel province -- and a collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace off southern China.

U.N. Security Council resolutions state that sanctions imposed on Iraq cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that Baghdad has dismantled its weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles to deliver them.

China is among Iraq's closest allies on the Security Council and has repeatedly called for a negotiated end to sanctions.

-------- balkans

1st NATO Troops Head for Macedonia

August 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Macedonia.html

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) -- Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels clashed sporadically overnight in three areas, authorities said Friday, as NATO deferred a decision on whether to deploy 3,500 troops to the Balkans until next week.

Rebels attacked two police checkpoints with mortars in a suburb of Tetovo, the country's second-largest city, the Defense Ministry said. Mortars were also fired on Macedonian security positions near the northern town of Kumanovo and in a nearby mountain range, it said. There were no reports of casualties.

The attacks came shortly after a Macedonian police officer was shot in the head Thursday by a sniper at a checkpoint in a suburb of Tetovo. Macedonia's government blamed the shooting on the rebels and said security forces responded to the attack.

The clashes highlighted the potential problems awaiting NATO soldiers as they prepare to deploy troops to Macedonia to collect arms from the rebel forces, known as the National Liberation Army.

Meeting in Brussels, NATO's ruling council reviewed the situation and decided Friday it was too soon to make a final decision on the deployment of 3,500 troops.

NATO has said a lasting cease-fire must be in place before it can deploy troops. NATO has insisted that this is not a mission to disarm the Albanians, but to collect weapons voluntarily handed in.

A contingent of British troops -- about 50 members of the 16th Air Assault Brigade -- was expected to arrive Friday in the capital Skopje to study the military situation on the ground, said Maj. Barry Johnson, spokesman for NATO troops in Macedonia. About 350 more British troops are to follow over the weekend.

These initial troops, mostly headquarters and communications personnel, will help determine if conditions are in place for full deployment.

Almost daily sporadic cease-fire violations have been reported since ethnic Albanian and Macedonian political parties signed a peace accord on Monday aimed to end an insurgency the rebels launched in February, saying they were fighting for more rights for the country's minority ethnic Albanians.

The rebels were not involved in the talks but have signed a separate agreement with NATO to surrender their arms.

Just how many weapons the rebels hold remains unclear. The militants have declared they intend to hand in about 2,000 weapons -- a figure NATO is trying to persuade the Macedonian government to accept. But government estimates put the number at around 8,000.

The alliance also faces confusion over the interpretation by rival factions in Macedonia of how its mission is to unfold.

The rebels have said they want the peace plan to be fully implemented and an amnesty for all insurgents to be enacted before they start disarming. The government insists the peace plan and amnesty should come only after they give up their weapons, while NATO says the process should occur simultaneously.

-------- chemical weapons

Report Faults U.S. Planning in Burning Chemical Arms

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By DAVID FIRESTONE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/national/17CHEM.html

ATLANTA, Aug. 16 - As the Army begins to step up its effort to destroy its stockpiles of chemical weapons, a new Congressional report says thousands of people who live near three chemical depots face an unnecessarily high risk in case of an accident in incinerating the gases.

The report, issued this week by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, blamed poor planning and coordination by the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the problems, which it said were particularly acute in Alabama, Indiana and Kentucky. Construction of a $1 billion incinerator near Anniston, Ala., was finished earlier this year, and the plant is to begin burning 2,254 tons of deadly chemicals in April.

The accounting office criticized federal officials for failing to reach agreement with local emergency planners in the Anniston area, and said the problems could delay the start of incineration, costing the Army millions of dollars.

Late today, in fact, Gov. Donald Siegelman of Alabama released a letter he had written to President Bush. In it, Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, stated that after reading the accounting office report he would not permit the incineration until preparedness issues had been resolved. The incinerator requires a state permit to operate.

The accounting office report predicted that such delays were likely if the federal government did not begin to devote more money and effort to emergency planning.

"The Army may not be able to begin destroying its chemical agents at two of these sites on schedule unless further improvements are made in the emergency preparedness of those communities," the report read. "As a result, residents will face higher risks for a longer period, the Army may incur millions of additional dollars to maintain the program beyond its projected completion date; and the Army may not meet the Chemical Weapons Convention destruction deadline."

That deadline, as specified in an international treaty, is 2007, which the Army has already said may be impossible to meet.

The study did have some good news: three states - Maryland, Utah and Washington - are fully prepared for an accident, while Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois and Oregon are almost fully prepared. That is a substantial improvement from 1997, when the accounting office found that none of the 10 states containing a chemical weapons depot or near one were prepared for an accident.

The Army has already destroyed about 7,000 tons of chemical agents on Johnston Atoll, south of Hawaii, and at Tooele, Utah, complying with a 1985 law that spelled the end of the chemical weapons stockpile. There was a small leak of gas at the Tooele incinerator in May 2000, but there have been no serious injuries in the process.

But as the destruction program moves toward the far more populated area of Anniston next year, local officials and residents have been critical of the federal government's emergency planning. Emergency officials in Calhoun County, the site of the Anniston Army Depot, have refused to accept the government's recommendation that 35,000 residents who live too close to the depot to evacuate should plan to tape their houses with plastic sheeting if a major leak occurs.

The report said that if the federal government had worked more closely with local officials and helped spread better information about emergency planning, these kinds of conflicts might not occur.

"Communities in some states are openly hostile or suspicious of the overall aims and goals of the program and do not see it as their own," it concluded. "Furthermore, FEMA has not taken the lessons learned from some of the more successful states and applied them elsewhere to avoid public relations problems or to increase overall understanding and acceptance of the program."

In Alabama, the report found, the federal government had agreed to equip 28 schools and other buildings with overpressurization devices that would keep outside air from entering and allow the buildings to be used as shelters in case of an accident. But only eight of those buildings have received money for the devices. In Indiana and Kentucky, where plants to destroy the chemicals have not yet been built, devices like alert radios, protective devices and mobile highway signs have not been distributed, it said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a response saying that many issues in the report had already been addressed, though officials in the accounting office disagreed. The Army said it concurred with the report's findings and planned to work more closely with local officials in Alabama.

And the official in charge of the Alabama chemical depot urged Governor Siegelman not to delay the opening of the incinerator, noting that the rockets containing the deadly chemicals - sarin and VX nerve gas - had begun to deteriorate.

"It is the stockpile that poses the danger to the public, not the incinerator," said Lt. Col. Bruce E. Williams, commander of Anniston Chemical Activity. "The incinerator is the solution. Delaying the destruction of the rockets does not serve the community's interests - it just delays the removal of the problem."

-------- colombia

U.S. Pilots Fight Coca in Colombia

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By JUAN FORERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/international/17COLO.html

BOGOTÀ, Colombia, Aug. 16 -- He was flying just above the tree line, moments after spraying herbicide on a patch of coca, when the machine- gun fire hit. Eight bullets, probably fired by leftist rebels or drug traffickers, struck the fuselage and tail, knocking out the radio as the cockpit filled with smoke.

But the pilot, an American under contract in an anti-drug plan that has brought dozens of private citizens into Colombia's drug war, said he knew such attacks went with the job.

``Suddenly, you start managing the airplane like you have in the past and have trained for,'' said the pilot, a 44- year-old Southerner named Mark. ``The armor really kept the bullets away from me. There were armor plates under my seat that were damaged. That's where wire bundles were cut that caused the electronics to fail.''

In the first interviews among Americans working under a State Department contract in Colombia, a group of pilots spoke today of their experiences spraying fields of coca and heroin poppies that are often guarded by leftist rebels. The Americans, three pilots and a supervisor, agreed to be interviewed on the condition that their full names not be published, for fear of retaliation by traffickers or rebels.

The pilots, who have spent years flying commercial crop-dusters in the United States, played down the risks here. They view the danger as minimal, they said, because their missions here are well-planned operations using high-tech aircraft, advanced electronics systems and armed escorts, in case their planes are shot down or malfunction.

``There's always the possibility that something can go wrong at any minute,'' said Thomas, 50, a Texan who flies search-and-rescue helicopters that aid pilots who encounter trouble. ``The guys out there, they're trained professionals, and that's what they get paid to do - to be there should something go wrong.''

The comments, made during a casual roundtable with two American reporters in BogotÀa, the capital, came after harsh criticism among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill who feel the United States-financed antidrug program is too heavily reliant on private contractors, particularly pilots who fly spray planes and the helicopters serving as escorts. The four Americans work for Dyncorp, a Reston, Va., military contractor that is operating here under a five-year, $170 million contract. Dyncorp employs 335 civilians here, about half of them Americans.

Under the $1.3 billion anti-drug aid package that the United States approved last year to cut into Colombia's huge drug crop, no more than 300 American contractors can work here. As of late July, 194 American civilians were working in Colombia, as pilots, mechanics, radar operators, trainers and logistics experts.

The limit is likely to be reached by December, as helicopters and spray aircraft continue arriving, Ambassador Anne Patterson told reporters in July. The Americans will be needed to fly the planes and to serve as instructors for Colombian helicopter pilots, and as mechanics.

Some on Capitol Hill are considering whether to allow the number of contractors to increase beyond 300, as the Bush administration has requested. The House has so far placed strict limits on what the White House can do.

``The administration obviously wants to have maximum flexibility to implement their policy, and Congress clearly wants the administration policy in check,'' said Michael Shifter, a Colombia expert at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.

The prospect that the number of private contracters could rise has alarmed some American officials. Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, has proposed banning the practice of contracting private citizens for dangerous jobs in Colombia, saying secrecy makes it difficult to hold people accountable.

``You look at some of the individuals who are involved, you find that they have been involved in covert activities for years,'' said Ms. Schakowsky. ``I'm not comfortable with the lack of transparency, whether it is with the company or with the individuals with those companies.''

Criticism of the contractors prompted American officials to permit the four Americans to talk about their backgrounds, their reason for flying in Colombia and the dangers they face.

The Americans said the chance at year-round work with benefits - as opposed to seasonal flying in the United States - prompted them to look into help-wanted advertisements in trade journals that sought pilots for Colombia.

Indeed, Bob, 47, a Texan who is married and has three children, said the chance to come to Colombia has given him career stability. In the United States, aerial application, as the pilots call their job, often means weeks of constant travel in search of work, he explained.

Working in Colombia, he said, is ``guaranteed employment for as long as you're here, and it's not commission work.'' Bob, who has been here six years, said the pilots are paid ``flat salaries and benefits, so there is that element of security that we don't typically have as contractors in the U.S.''

The Dyncorp pilots are also well paid, earning at least $75,000 a year; some make over $90,000, and are able to rotate out of Colombia for weeks at a time to be with their families. In the United States, in contrast, spray pilots earn as little as $40,000 (though some earn much more).

The Americans said they were angered by a report in Semana, a respected weekly here, that quoted an unnamed Colombian police official as saying ``the majority of them are high consumers of drugs'' and ``inject themselves before flying.'' The report painted them as mercenaries and called them ``godless Rambos.''

``We associate mercenaries with something out of the Congo in the early 1960's,'' said Keith, 44, the supervisor. ``We find the mercenary comment quite out of context.''

He explained that the pilots are subject to random drug tests and must pass stringent physical and psychological tests to work in the program. For them, working here under contract is not much different than working under contract to spray insecticides in American national parks or laying seeds over Texas fields.

The pilots went to great pains to play down the danger inherent in a job that requires long flights into sparsely populated regions controlled by rebels.

Bob noted that he had been shot at once while flying in the United States, by an irate farmer who was awakened by the sound of the plane. Mark said his wife understood because ``she knew I enjoyed flying.'' The pilots also noted that they do not have search-and-rescue teams accompanying them in the United States.

Of course, in the United States there is no need for search-and-rescue teams because rebels with AK-47 assault rifles are not shooting at them. Indeed two pilots have been shot down here in recent years, both Colombians; one died. And three Americans have been killed when they crashed, once in 1997 and two the following year.

For the pilots, the deaths are sobering. But they say they try not to think of the danger.

``For me the adventure has long wore off,'' said Mark, who is married and has a child. ``It is a back-and- forth business, as we call it. It really just becomes like it is at home: you're out there applying a chemical to a crop. You're concentrating on doing the work that you know how to do.''

--------

Colombia Increases Military's Powers
Law Could Threaten U.S. Aid Disbursement

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 17, 2001; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21130-2001Aug16?language=printer

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 16 -- The Colombian government announced today that President Andres Pastrana had signed legislation giving the military broad new powers to wage war with less scrutiny from government investigators, a measure some U.S. lawmakers have warned could threaten a key American aid package.

The measure, originated in large part by the Defense Ministry, is designed to give the military more latitude in fighting a growing guerrilla insurgency that dominates large parts of Colombia's rural landscape. But human rights groups condemned Pastrana for signing a law they say will lead to fresh abuses by the Colombian military, which is already criticized at home and abroad for having the hemisphere's worst human rights record.

The United States, through its $1.3 billion aid package, has been a strong supporter of the Colombian military even as it has imposed human rights training on the units receiving U.S. assistance. Most of the aid package will arrive in the form of transport helicopters and military trainers, designed to help the military attack a drug trade that helps finance two leftist guerrilla armies and a right-wing paramilitary force that battles them, often with tacit support from the army.

Pastrana, who has staked his presidency on achieving peace with the guerrillas, signed the measure under pressure from senior military commanders eager for a freer hand in prosecuting a worsening civil war. The measure is the first substantive reform of Colombia's national security law since 1965, when the two major leftist guerrilla groups were forming.

"Without a doubt, there needed to be a clarification of the hierarchy of the command, of the roles of the armed forces and the civilian population," said Sen. German Vargas, who introduced the bill in the Colombian Senate. "This is going to allow us a variety of ways to combat terrorism. We can't [ignore] any longer what much of the country is experiencing."

The measure allows the military to supercede civilian rule in areas declared by the president to be "theaters of operation" and reduces the chance that army troops could be subjected to thorough human rights investigations by civilian government agencies.

Although the measure, in its original form, would have allowed the military to investigate all human rights charges against it, the final version gives the government's ombudsman a role in such cases. However, human rights advocates said the ombudsman's role has been curtailed to such a degree that military crimes will not be adequately addressed.

Until now, government human rights investigators were given as long as a year to conclude a preliminary investigation against military officials. The new law cuts that time to a maximum of two months.

"There can't possibly be an investigation into such crimes within this amount of time," said Gustavo Gallon, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a noted human rights group. "This will permit even greater impunity for soldiers and police who violate human rights."

Many of the law's most controversial provisions, approved by the Senate but watered down in the House, were dropped from the final version. But the measure does give the military judicial authority to make arrests and conduct criminal investigations, duties normally carried out by the attorney general's office, if a prosecutor from that office is not available.

In addition, a provision was dropped that would have specifically allowed the Colombian military to create government-regulated civilian militias, an idea recently endorsed by the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based research organization.

Since Colombia's Congress passed the law in July, U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for Foreign Operations, have told Pastrana that further disbursements from the aid package could be threatened if he signed the bill. About 75 percent of the aid package, a major part of Pastrana's Plan Colombia that is intended to stop drug trafficking and end the war, has been disbursed.

Pastrana signed the measure Monday without the slightest hint he had done so. His government announced it only today, and made it the 14th and final item on its daily news briefing.

But the final version was apparently watered down enough to satisfy the State Department. "As far as we're concerned, this legislation is much improved over the original version," a State Department official said. "We're confident that [Pastrana] will interpret it to maximize the safeguarding of human rights."

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

Bush Faces New Dispute Over Payment of U.N. Dues

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/international/17NATI.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - With President Bush's first visit to the United Nations just one month away, administration officials and House Republican leaders are working to resolve a new dispute over the United States' payment of millions of dollars in back dues to the organization.

The dispute, first reported by The Washington Post, is no longer over whether the United States should pay money it owes the United Nations; that was worked out by the House and Senate earlier this year, after years of contentious debate. Instead, it centers on legislation that seeks to exempt Americans from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the first permanent tribunal now being created at The Hague to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The exemption passed the House in May with broad bipartisan support as an amendment to a bill to operate State Department programs, which included repayment of $826 million in back dues to the United Nations. At the time, many lawmakers expressed suspicion of a permanent tribunal, fearing its power could be easily misused to make capricious arrests of American officials or military personnel abroad. Just before this, the United States had been voted off the United National Human Rights Commission, a move that infuriated House members.

The White House has stressed the need to resolve the thorny issue of back dues before Mr. Bush goes to the United Nations in late September. Mr. Bush has already angered several allies with his plan to create a national missile defense system and his stance on global warming, and is not eager to exacerbate tensions with other United Nations members.

"The administration does not support the attachment of any additional conditions to the payment of these arrears," Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman, said today.

Republican leaders are working on a compromise to help release the money, House Republican leadership aides said today.

"No one wants to embarrass the president," said one aide. "We are just looking at all options and working with the administration."

Another aide added, "There is no question this will be resolved before the president goes to the United Nations."

While the Bush administration opposes the creation of a permanent court at The Hague, it is reluctant to relinquish control over foreign policy matters to Congress, an administration official said.

Still, the official added, "we understand that the servicemen and women need some protection."

Earlier this year, the Senate passed a stand-alone bill, called Helms-Biden, that frees up $582 million in back dues, with no conditions regarding the tribunal. This sum, unlike the House figure, excludes peacekeeping costs. Now the House and the Senate must reconcile their differences.

In doing this, however, Republican leaders face their own quandary, aides say. If they ignore the House vote for the amendment, which was written by Representative Tom DeLay, the powerful majority whip from Texas, they risk losing support from conservatives for the entire bill, including for the repayment of dues.

Mr. DeLay's provision would cut off military aid to any non-NATO countries that ratify the International Criminal Court treaty. In addition, it would bar American soldiers from participating in United Nations peacekeeping efforts unless the soldiers first received immunity from the court's jurisdiction.

The United States has long supported individual tribunals, like the ones created to deal with crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, but the idea of a permanent court is problematic to many House members.

"The problem wth the International Criminal Court is that it is so subject to being hijacked," said one Republican leadership aide. "It is a court without a mandate, without a specific mission. It's like an independent counsel for the world."

President Bill Clinton signed the treaty to create the court on Dec. 31, even while acknowledging that he found aspects of it problematic. The Bush administration has said it will not submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification.

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

Defense Chief May Leave Size of Field Forces Up to Services

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By THOM SHANKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/politics/17MILI.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is moving away from issuing specific orders to the armed services on how large or small their forces should be as the Pentagon works to complete guidelines for its next budget, a senior defense official said today.

Instead, Mr. Rumsfeld may describe only missions, military requirements and budget limits, and leave to the services the hard and contentious task of deciding how many people to put in uniform, how many weapons to field and what kind of weapons those should be.

Some military officers and Pentagon analysts said the action illustrated Mr. Rumsfeld's indecisiveness, which they already blame for bogging down parallel reviews of military strategy and budgets under way at the Pentagon.

But should Mr. Rumsfeld remove language calling for reducing forces that was in this week's earlier drafts of his budget guidelines, the Defense Planning Guidance, the onus for these painful decisions would then shift from him to the military.

Civilian officials and top military officers agree that the nation's forces are overworked, so it is clear to them, they say, that the Bush administration inherited either too much strategy or too little military.

Since Mr. Rumsfeld came to the Pentagon, reports of his closed-door discussions about sharp cuts in forces have been condemned by many people in uniform - who say forces should not be reduced without a reduction in military commitments - as well as Congressional advocates of bases and weapons programs.

Just this week, recommendations in three drafts of the 30-page classified budget guidelines have gone from pulling 15,000 troops from Europe and cutting two Army National Guard divisions to the newest version, which says little about the structure of forces except to call for reducing personnel in headquarters units by 15 percent and raising the ratio of fighting troops to support personnel, officials said.

The secretary's budget planning guidelines, which were to be completed Friday, are unlikely to be done before next week, officials said.

"I think the secretary strongly believes in the whole idea of freedom to manage, of giving people the responsibility for managing their organizations to certain goals," said Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense. "Rather than telling them exactly how they should run them, tell them what it is you want them to achieve and then let them figure out how to do it."

At a Pentagon briefing, Mr. Wolfowitz said: "You could say, `I want you to have X divisions and Y air wings, no matter what else you do.' Or alternatively you could say, `I want you to have certain capabilities; you pay for them any way you have to, and if you feel you need to pay for them by cutting an air wing or cutting a division, that's a decision you make within your budget process.' "

Three parallel reviews are under way: The national security strategy review, in which the White House sets the overall goals in military affairs and foreign policy; the Quadrennial Defense Review, in which the Pentagon sets its strategy; and the budget review, which will result in a fiscal proposal for 2003, the first true Bush budget.

Mr. Wolfowitz conceded the difficulty of drafting a Pentagon budget while the military strategy remained a subject of intense debate.

"Hopefully, if we've done our work right, and if the budgets are right, these two requirements will converge," he said. "If there's a problem, we will end up with having to identify a gap between strategy and resources."

If that gap emerges, Mr. Wolfowitz said, "then obviously we either have to increase the resources to do the strategy or adjust the strategy in some way to be less ambitious."

But given the Bush tax cut and domestic spending priorities, there is little expectation of a major infusion of money to the Pentagon, leaving planners few options beyond reducing forces and seeking efficiencies in its business practices.

One defense analyst criticized the outlines of the budget planning guidelines as "a failure to make decisions."

"This is an absence of choices, not a strategy," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a research group. "From the Pentagon's perspective, we are seeing an extraordinary degree of continuity between the Clinton administration and the Bush administration. Whether you talk funding levels or force structure or strategic goals, this all seems very similar to what came before."

A senior defense official rejected assertions that Mr. Rumsfeld was postponing hard decisions or passing them back to the military, saying that the military requirements guiding the budget process had been a consensus among Mr. Rumsfeld and his senior civilian staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders around the world.

--------

General accused in Osprey case

USA TODAY
08/17/2001 - Updated 06:21 PM ET
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/august01/2001-08-17-osprey-general.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A two-star general, five colonels and two lower-ranking Marine Corps officers have been charged with misconduct in the alleged falsification of maintenance records for the MV-22 Osprey aircraft, officials said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Dennis T. Krupp, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Cherry Point, N.C., is charged with dereliction of duty on grounds that he knew or should have known of the falsification.

The announcement was made by Marine Forces Atlantic headquarters in Norfolk, Va. The commanding general there, Lt. Gen. Raymond P. Ayres, Jr., notified the eight officers of the charges last week, but their identities were not made public until Friday.

Marine officials said they did not know whether any of the eight would comment publicly on the charges.

Ayres gave the eight until Friday to decide whether to appear before him for administrative hearings to answer the charges or to ask to move ahead with the first step in court-martial proceedings to challenge the allegations.

All eight chose to attend the hearings, although they could choose to seek a court martial after they appear before Ayres, Marine spokesman Maj. Bryan Salas said. Ayres said the date of the hearings has not been set.

Each of the eight will be given a chance to present evidence and to rebut the charges. Ayres will then decide whether to dismiss all or part of the charges or impose punishments, such as a written reprimand. He also has the option of referring all charges to a court martial.

The Osprey program - regarded as a key to the future of Marine Corps aviation - was in trouble even before the allegations arose in January. Two Osprey crashes last year killed 23 Marines and stirred speculation that the program might be killed.

The aircraft is designed to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers to a horizontal position and cruise like an airplane.

The charges stem from allegations received last January by senior Marine Corps leaders that officers in the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron, based at New River, N.C., had ordered the doctoring of maintenance records for the Osprey to exaggerate its performance record.

At the time, the Pentagon was on the verge of deciding whether to go ahead with full-rate production of the Osprey.

Two crashes in 2000 had raised serious questions about the reliability of the aircraft, although the Pentagon's inspector general later concluded that the alleged falsification of records at New River had nothing to do with either crash.

Ayres' office announced charges against the following officers, in addition to Krupp:

Col. Laurin P. Eck, former assistant program manager at Naval Air Systems Command, charged with violating a lawful order by failing to report falsification that he observed.

Three officers charged with dereliction of duty. They knew or should have known of the false reports, according to Ayres. They also are accused of violating a lawful order by failing to report the falsification. The three are Col. James E. Schleining, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26; Col. Phillip L. Newman, assistant chief of staff for the aviation logistics division at the 2nd Marine Air Wing, and Lt. Col. Demetrice M. Babb, an aviation maintenance officer in the aviation logistics division of the 2nd Marine Air Wing.

Two officers are charged with dereliction of duty: Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, who was commanding officer of the Osprey training squadron at New River at the time, and who has since been relieved of command, and Capt. Christopher Ramsey, an assistant aviation maintenance officer in Leberman's squadron. Ayres said they knew or should have known of the suspected false maintenance reports.

Leberman and Ramsey also face two other charges: making false official statements and conduct unbecoming an officer. "They allegedly wrongfully, and with the intent to deceive, forwarded up the chain of command false MV-22 maintenance reports," Ayres' office said in a statement announcing the charges.

With regard to the charge of conduct unbecoming an officer, the statement said Leberman and Ramsey "allegedly wrongfully and dishonorably ordered the Marines under their command to falsify" the Osprey records.

The eighth officer facing charges in this case is Chief Warrant Officer Matthew W. Smith, the maintenance material control officer in Leberman's former squadron at New River.

Smith is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. Ayres' office said he knew or should have known of the false reports and passed them up the chain of command "with the intent to deceive."


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Germany clears way for draft law on CHP generation

GERMANY: August 17, 2001
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12048/story.htm

BERLIN - Germany's Economic and Environment ministers this week reached agreement on the final details of a draft law designed to promote the use of combined heat and power (CHP) generation, government sources said.

The Cabinet had agreed in principle to the draft legislation last month.

"The way is free for the Cabinet's agreement on the draft law this week and the ensuing discussion in the Bundestag (lower house)," government sources told Reuters.

Environment Minister Juergen Trittin (Green Party) and Economics Minister Werner Mueller (independent) agreed this week that support for CHP should be limited to a timeframe ending in 2010, with the exception of CHP plants that generate electricity from fuel cells.

Trittin had opposed a time limit on support for CHP, but Mueller argued that without a limit existing CHP power producers would have no incentive to modernise their plants.

The ministers also agreed that the the Bundesrat (upper house) should not be able to veto the draft legislation, thus speeding up its passing into law.

The CHP law is expected to come into force in 2002.

CHP uses excess energy from power generation to heat buildings, thereby increasing overall energy efficiency. The technology produces fewer emissions than do conventional power stations.

Germany's climate programme aims for a 23 million tonne annual cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 through CHP production, as part of the total 45 million tonnes per year reduction target.

The scheme entails extra payments to CHP operators of initially three pfennigs per kilowatt hour (pf/kWh), which will be borne by all consumers across the supply chain.

Consumers will pay around 0.2 pf/kWh more for their electricity.

The law will also provide respective sums of five pf/kWh and 10 pf/kWh in support for CHP plants used for decentralised power supply and those that use fuel cells.

Total investment in CHP is expected to total around eight billion marks ($3.67 billion).

-------- genetics

Patent Laws May Determine Shape of Stem Cell Research

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/health/genetics/17CELL.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - As they carry out President Bush's plan for government financing of embryonic stem cell studies, federal health officials confront a daunting challenge: United States patent 6,200,806, a claim to the human embryonic stem cell.

The patent, held by a foundation at the University of Wisconsin, is apparently the only one of its kind in the world, leaving the university in such a powerful position that next week the health officials will begin negotiations in hopes of reaching an agreement to allow federally financed scientists broad access to the cells.

The patent, which covers both the method of isolating the cells and the cells themselves, gives the Wisconsin foundation control over who may work in the United States with stem cells, and for what purpose. In turn, the foundation has granted important rights to a biotechnology company, the Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, Calif., giving that company considerable say over who ultimately profits from stem cell therapies.

This complex tangle of intellectual-property rights and contracts is now a pressing concern at the National Institutes of Health, the agency charged with putting President Bush's plan into effect. Next week, representatives from the foundation, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, are to meet with officials at the institutes to take the first steps toward negotiating access to stem cells.

"I don't want people to see us as an 800-pound gorilla," Carl Gulbrandsen, the foundation's managing director, said. "We will work very hard with the government to make sure that there is access to this technology and that our patents are not an impediment to researchers."

But many scientists fear that the foundation's restrictions might hinder research on cells that hold promise for treating and curing some of mankind's most devastating diseases. And though legal experts say it could be challenged in court, the Wisconsin patent could help push stem cell science overseas.

Mr. Bush said that 60 lines, or self- sustaining colonies, of stem cells exist in laboratories around the world, and said that under his program, government scientists would be free to work with any of them.

But the government does not have control over whether those cell lines get to researchers, according to Mr. Gulbrandsen, federal health officials and patent law experts. If the cell lines match the description in the broadly worded Wisconsin patent, these experts say, their owners must obtain approval from the foundation before distributing them.

That has scientists worried.

"The whole point of this, surely, is to get good cells into the hands of researchers," said Dr. Ron D. McKay, who has conducted promising research on mouse embryonic stem cells at the National Institutes of Health and is eager to work with the human cells. "I think that it is unclear, in practice, how easy it will be to get these cells."

As far as experts know, the United States is the only nation to have issued a patent on human embryonic stem cells. The patent is valid only in this country; the foundation has also applied for patents in Europe. And at least two foreign biotechnology companies say their cell lines may fall outside Wisconsin's claim and have applied for patents of their own in the United States and elsewhere.

A patent gives its owner the right to exclude other people from making, using, selling or importing their invention. So "researchers in other countries have a double advantage," said Rebecca S. Eisenberg, an expert in biotechnology and patent law at the University of Michigan. Other nations, notably Britain, have fewer restrictions on studies of human embryos. And scientists in other countries may still derive stem cell lines without fear of patent infringement.

President Bush's decision may have strengthened the hands of the Wisconsin group and Geron. By refusing to allow taxpayer money to finance creation of new cell lines in this country, Mr. Bush reduced the chances that scientists would derive and patent cells that might challenge Wisconsin's dominance in the field.

"What constrains the monopoly power of a patent holder is the prospect of new technology being developed that will make it unnecessary to deal with them," Ms. Eisenberg said. "The president's decision limits that threat."

Embryonic stem cells, extracted from human embryos when they are still tiny enough to fit on the tip of a sewing needle, are regarded by scientists as the foundation of a new era of regenerative medicine, one in which doctors might be able to use the cells to create replacement tissue grown to order.

Theoretically, the cells can be coaxed in the laboratory to grow into any cell or tissue - insulin-producing cells to use against diabetes, for example, or nerve cells that might treat Parkinson's disease.

Studies of embryonic stem cells in mice have been conducted for two decades, but in 1998, Dr. James A. Thomson, a developmental biologist at the University of Wisconsin, shook up the stem cell world by reporting that he had isolated human embryonic stem cells.

As is customary at his university, Dr. Thomson assigned the patent for his discovery to the research foundation, which had already obtained a patent on the primate embryonic stem cell, after Dr. Thomson derived those cells from rhesus monkeys.

In theory, because humans are primates, the patent covered human cells as well. But the foundation applied for a second patent to make its claim on human cells explicit. The patent was issued on March 13.

Shortly after Dr. Thomson's discovery, the foundation began negotiating with Geron, which has contributed roughly $1 million to Dr. Thomson's research and wanted to commercialize it.

"They wanted all rights," Mr. Gulbrandsen recalled. "We felt it was too much to expect a small company to develop this technology fully, and giving them all rights would not be fair to them or the public."

Ultimately, the foundation granted Geron exclusive rights to develop stem cells into six cell types that are of great medical importance: liver, muscle, nerve, pancreas, blood and bone. Ms. Eisenberg and other patent law experts said that those rights, coupled with the Wisconsin patent, might mean that anyone seeking to develop commercial applications of stem cells in these six areas must negotiate with Geron first.

The relationship between the foundation and Geron, however, has become contentious. On Monday, the foundation sued the company to block Geron's efforts to extend its commercial rights to another 12 derivative cell types. Geron has not commented on the suit, other than to say it is prepared to meet with foundation officials to resolve it.

Last week, Geron's chief executive, Thomas Okarma, said he was eager to begin collaborating with government-financed researchers.

Dr. Okarma said that academic scientists would be free to convert stem cells into derivative cells of the types its agreement with the foundation covers. "We would only prevent them from trying to commercialize them," he added.

So far, Dr. Thomson has developed five stem cell lines, and the foundation has set up a nonprofit subsidiary, the WiCell Research Institute, to distribute them. The cells are given to academic researchers under a "materials transfer agreement"; scientists must pay WiCell $5,000 and agree to certain restrictions.

The agreements give the foundation - and, by extension, Geron - control over the derivative cells. One prominent stem cell scientist, Dr. Douglas Melton of Harvard University, said he would not agree to such terms. "Those conditions would mean that I am the ideal employee of Geron," he said. "They don't pay my salary, they don't pay my benefits, but anything I discover they own."

Now the health institutes will negotiate their own materials transfer agreement with Wisconsin.. This agreement would cover only those scientists who actually work at the institutes. Once negotiated, though, the agreement's terms will become public, and universities may demand the same terms for their researchers. "Our role, albeit limited, is very important," said Maria Freire, who directs the institutes' office that handles such agreements. "We would like to be able to craft an agreement that allows our scientists to use the WiCell cells and other cells without being in violation of the patent. We think that can be done."

Meanwhile, companies in other countries are concerned that, if they distribute their stem cells in the United States, the foundation might charge them with patent infringement. Legal experts suggest that the Wisconsin patent is one reason researchers have said little about many of the 60 stem cell lines that President Bush said exist around the world; the owners of those cell lines are probably afraid to come forward.

Those who have come forward say they have developed stem cell lines that avoid the patent. Alan Robins, chief scientific officer of Bresagen, in Adelaide, Australia, said his company had derived four stem cell lines at a slightly later stage in the embryo's development than Dr. Thomson's cells. They are different enough, Dr. Robins contended, for his company to win a separate patent.

Another company, ES Cell International in Singapore, said it had six stem cell lines in its possession. Robert J. Klupacs, the company's chief executive, said it was evaluating its lines "to see if they fall within the Wisconsin claim."

He added: "I'd like to think that sanity will prevail and this will work out in the best interest of all stakeholders. But I imagine it will take some time to work through."

---------

Science group questions size of stem cell inventory

USA TODAY
08/17/2001
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/august01/2001-08-17-stem-cell.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The world's largest federation of scientists questioned whether there really are 60 embryonic stem cell lines available for federally funded research and challenged the Bush administration to immediately identify them. President Bush, in an announcement last week, said that federally funded researchers could use any of more than 60 embryonic cell lines that he said existed, but the American Association for the Advancement of Science said in a statement Friday that there is doubt about the number and origins of those cell lines.

"Many of our scientific colleagues have questioned that number, believing it to be much smaller," said the AAAS statement. It urged the Bush administration to immediately make public the sources and identities of the cell lines.

"Until leading scientists in the field can assess their quality, it is not possible to determine whether the existing collection of those lines will be sufficient" for research, the statement said.

Dr. Lana Skirboll, the NIH researcher who surprised the research community by finding 60 cell lines at the request of the White House, said that she cannot identify all of the researchers that have developed cell lines because some of the labs "are not quite ready to announce."

"We will in the not-too-distant future make sure that everybody knows exactly where the 60 lines are," she said. "We don't intend to keep this hidden forever."

Skirboll said there are five labs with stem cell lines that have not been announced publicly because of "commercial confidential and other security issues."

The AAAS statement was issued as federal health officials prepared to meet later this month with officers of a University of Wisconsin foundation. The officials will be working out the legal details to allow government-funded researchers to use cell lines developed at the university.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, controls the absolute rights to the five best-known and most widely studied embryonic stem cells, which were created by Dr. James Thomson of the university. But the foundation also holds patents that may affect all 60 of the cell lines touted by President Bush.

Officials said details of the meeting are still being sorted out, but the parties are expected to negotiate ways to satisfy any patent claims WARF has against embryonic cell lines created by laboratories outside the United States.

WARF officials said they believe that those foreign cell lines must be licensed under WARF's patent rights before they can be imported for use by American scientists.

Just how this claim will be resolved is one of the sticky issues to be negotiated with the National Institutes of Health, said Andy Cohn of WARF.

The AAAS statement said that scientists do not know the origins or genetic diversity of the stem cell lines announced by Bush in his speech last week.

"The genetic diversity of the available cell lines is an important consideration in determining their value in research," the statement said.

Scientists believe that embryonic stem cells can be coaxed to grow into any kind of cell in the body. It's the cells can be transformed into cells that will energize ailing hearts, treat brain disorders such as Parkinson's disease, or perhaps even cure diabetes with new insulin-producing islets.

Thomson, who developed the first human embryonic stem cell line in 1998, assigned the cell patents to WARF, a university foundation.

Patents held by WARF include not only the five cell lines (endlessly growing colonies of identical cells) developed by Thomson, but also the laboratory methods that used to produce those lines.

As a result, Cohn said, WARF believes that virtually all of the other embryonic cell lines now in existence come under the Thomson patent and cannot be imported into the United States for use by NIH researchers unless they are licensed by WARF.

Cohn said exactly how it will all be sorted out in negotiations with NIH is far from clear. "That's what this process will determine," he said.

Another complication is an agreement between WARF and Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif., biotechnology company.

Geron financed much of Thomson's work, and WARF granted the firm research rights to the five cell lines and to six tissue cell types that might be derived from those cell lines.

But Cohn said that is not an issue in the NIH discussions about basic laboratory research.

-------- health

Deadly poison in NutraSweet, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi
FDA IS SUING FOR COLLUSION WITH MONSANTO

Article written by Nancy Markle (1120197)
Friday, August 17, 2001 8:57 AM

[From: "Mary Ellen Marucci" marucci@mindspring.com - This article was sent to me today. I think the author is Nancy Markle but need to know where the article was published. If you would also like to know respond to this and put in the subject line...Aspartame. As soon as I find out I will let you know.]

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on "ASPARTAME marketed as 'NutraSweet', 'Equal', and 'Spoonful"'.

In the keynote address by the EPA, they announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant across the United States. I explained that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject. When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F., the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants). The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis; thus people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error.

The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is. In the case of systemic lupus, we are finding it has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. Also, with methanol toxicity, the victims usually drink three to four 12-oz. cans of them per day, some even more. In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by ASPARTAME, the victim usually does not know that the aspartame is the culprit. The victim continues its use aggravating the lupus to such a degree, that sometimes it becomes life threatening. When we get people off the aspartame, those with systemic lupus usually become symptomatic. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse this disease. On the other hand, in the case of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We have seen cases where their vision has returned and even their hearing has returned. This also applies to cases of tinnitus. During a lecture I said, "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numb- ness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss-you probably have AS-PARTAME DISEASE!" People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I've got this, is it reversible?" It is rampant. Some of the speakers at my lecture even were suffering from these symptoms. In one lecture attended by the Ambassador of Uganda, he told us that their sugar industry is adding aspartame! He continued by saying that one of the industry leader's son could no longer walk due in part by product usage! We have a very serious problem. Even a stranger came up to Dr. Espisto (one of my speakers) and myself and said, 'could you tell me why so many people seem to be coming down with MS? During a visit to a hospice, a nurse said that six other friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence. Here is the problem. There were Congressional Hearings when aspartame was included in lOO different products. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, but to no avail. Nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now there are over 5,000 products containing this chemical, and the PATENT HAS EXPIRED! ! ! ! ! At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic -DEADLY POISONS!!! Unfortunately, it just takes longer to quietly kill, but it is killing people and causing all kinds of neurological problems. Aspartame changes the brain's chemistry. It is the reason for severe seizures. This drug changes the dopamine level in the brain. Imagine what this drug does to patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. This drug also causes birth defects. There is absolutely no reason to take this product. It is NOT A DIET PRODUCT!!!!! The Congressional record said, "It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT". Dr. Roberts stated that when he got patients off aspartame, their average weight loss was 19 pounds per person. The formaldehyde stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. All physicians know what wood alcohol will do to a diabetic. We find that physicians believe that they have patients with retinopathy, when in fact; it is caused by the aspartame. The aspartame keeps the blood sugar level out of control, causing many patients to go into a coma. Unfortunately, many have died. People were telling us at the Conference of the American College of Physicians, that they had relatives that switched from saccharin to an aspartame product and how that relative had eventually gone into a coma. Their physicians could not get the blood sugar levels under control. Thus, the patients suffered acute memory loss and eventually coma and death.

Memory loss is due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxic without the other amino acids found in protein. Thus it goes past the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain. Dr. Russell Blaylock, Neurosurgeon, said, "The ingredients stimulate the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Dr. Blaylock has written a book entitled EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS (Health Press 1-800-643-2665). Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic specialist and world expert on aspartame poisoning, has also written a book entitled DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER 'S DISEASE (1-800-814-9800). Dr. Roberts tells how aspartame poisoning is escalating Alzheimer's disease, and indeed it is. As the hospice nurse told me, women are being admitted at 30 years of age with Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Roberts will be writing a position paper with some case histories and will post it on the Internet. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "we are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison". Dr. Roberts realized what was happening when aspartame was first marketed. He said, "his diabetic patients presented memory loss, confusion, and severe vision loss". At the Conference of the American College of Physicians, doctors admitted that they did not know. They had wondered why seizures were rampant (the phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence). Just before the Conference, I received a FAX from Norway, asking for a possible antidote for this poison because they are experiencing so many problems in their country. This "poison" is now available in 90 PLUS countries worldwide. Fortunately, we had speakers and ambassadors at the Conference from different nations who have pledged their help. We ask that you help too. Print this article out and warn everyone you know. Take anything that contains aspartame back to the store. Take the "NO ASPARTAME TEST" and send us your case history." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of aspartame, knows how deadly it is. They fund the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, Congress, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians. The New York Times, on November 15, 1996, ran an article on how the American Dietetic Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products. Therefore, they cannot criticize any additives or tell about their link to MONSANTO. How bad is this? We told a mother who had a child on NutraSweet to get off the product. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off the NutraSweet. We are still trying to convince the mother that the aspartame is causing the seizures. Every time we get someone off of aspartame, the seizures stop. If the baby dies, you know whose fault it is, and what we are up against. There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame, from coma to death. The majority of them are all neurological, because the aspartame destroys the nervous system. Aspartame Disease is partially the cause to what is behind some of the mystery of the Desert Storm health problems (Gulf War Syndrome). The burning tongue and other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of an aspartame product. Several thou- sand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to the Desert Storm troops. (Remember heat can liberate the methanol from the aspartame at 86 degrees F). Diet drinks sat in the I20-degree F. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. The service men and women drank them all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to aspartame poisoning. Dr. Roberts says "consuming aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects". The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation, according to Dr. Louis EIsas, Pediatrician Professor -Genetics, at Emory University in his testimony before Congress. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors (phenylalanine breaks down into DXP, a brain tumor agent). When Dr. Espisto was lecturing on aspartame, one physician in the audience, a neurosurgeon, said, "when they remove brain tumors, they have found high levels of Aspartame in them".

Stevia, a sweet herb, NOT AN ADDITIVE, helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics, has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA. For years, the FDA has outlawed this sweet food because of their loyalty to MONSANTO. If it says "SUGAR FREE" on the label DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!! Senator Howard Hetzenbaum wrote a bill that would have warned all infants, pregnant mothers and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also instituted independent studies ON THE problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). It was killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting public. Since the Conference of the American College of Physicians, we hope to have the help of some world leaders.

Again, please help us too. There are a lot of people out there who must be warned, *please* let them know this information. Young people drink a lot of diet coke. Stevia A dietary supplement that has been used as a sweetener in South America for over 1,500 years. It is 30 times sweeter than sugar and contains virtually no calories. When used topically, Stevia inhibits the growth of some bacteria. It is also softening and beautifying to the skin.

-------- human rights

Nepal Prohibits Bias Against Untouchable Caste

August 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/international/asia/17NEPA.html

KATMANDU, Nepal, Aug. 16 - Challenging the Hindu practice of untouchability, Nepal outlawed discrimination against the lowest caste today, saying that it would move to end the caste system altogether.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who came to power last month after the resignation of an unpopular prime minister and the massacre of the royal family, said his cabinet had reached the decision as part of a package of changes.

"Effective from this day, the practice of untouchability and any discrimination based on it will be considered a crime punishable by a severe sentence," Mr. Deuba told Parliament in announcing the policy. He did not specify the punishment.

The lowest rank, Dalits, will be free to enter any temple or religious structure, Mr. Deuba said.

The surprise ban on deeming certain people untouchable was hailed by the opposition as a powerful step to push Nepal further out of its global isolation and choking poverty.

"This is a remarkable and daring decision by the government," said Bharat Mohan Adhikari of the main opposition party. "This would end the feeling of insult these people have been facing through the years."

The kingdom remains strongly tied to the caste system and believes its king is an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. The caste hierarchy is also a powerful force in neighboring India, where a constitutional ban on caste-based discrimination continues to be flouted since it went into effect in 1950.

In Bihar, which borders Nepal, 600 Dalits complained to the top elected official today that feudal landlords had barred them from entering a famous temple. The Dalits had threatened to convert to another religion if the persecution continued, said Rameshwar Ram, a cobbler in Lahang-Dumaria.

Many Hindus, especially in rural villages, do not eat food prepared or touched by untouchables. The Nepal Constitution of 1990 bars discrimination based on sex, religion and race. But laws and regulations to enforce that have not been put into effect, and none cover discrimination based on caste.

Mr. Deuba said the government would soon present a bill in Parliament to ensure an end to the caste system. The prime minister announced the formation of a commission for the Dalits' welfare. "It is our duty and responsibility to end this system that is discriminatory to our brothers and sisters," he said.

Last year, Nepal outlawed bonded labor, under which Dalits had been forced to work for generations on large farms owned by upper-caste landowners as they tried to pay off their fathers or grandfathers' debts.

--------

Apartheid on the Potomac

August 17, 2001
The Washington Times
Deborah Simmons
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010817-29228120.htm

The D.C. Council recently passed a resolution that will likely take effect next week because there is no one to block it. Now ordinarily, there probably would be no cause for alarm. But this instance is different. Correction: Make that way different.

What Council Chairman Linda Cropp has done, at the behest of the mayor, is given the nod to PR14-0262, or the Youth Identification Card Resolution. The resolution amends regulations so that D.C. officials can begin what should be called a branding program, like the ID jobs the nasty Nazis did on the Jews. Or perhaps officials should call them Apartheid passcards.

You remember hearing or reading about passcards, don't you? Remember South Africa's? Officially such records were called a computerized population registry, and what that registry did was keep track of South Africans. For example, while South Africa's Department of the Interior maintained the Book of Life files on nonblacks, the Plural Affairs Department maintained the passbook system on millions and millions of black citizens. Data included name and sex, date of birth and a photo - what Americans deem basic, but very personal, vital information. But Pretoria's Big Brother didn't stop there. The other data included race, address, marital status, school or place or employment, drivers license info and fingerprints.

"The main purpose of the population registry was administration of the influx control system, a system which channeled needed black workers into the labor force to be exploited, and confined others to the desolate homelands, according to a study, 'Computers and the Apartheid Regime in South Africa,' by Stanford University's computer science department. The passbooks, which every black person was automatically given at the age of 16, coupled with the computer database, guaranteed one's instant identification and one's history of government opposition. If these passbooks were properly endorsed, the owner had the right to work or live in "white areas," and lack of these endorsements or failure to produce the passbook resulted in arrest and jail. Many were detained for months at a time without a trial, and their families were not given notification of their whereabouts."

Now, while South Africa didn't start booking its youths until they were 16, the District wants to start at 2 years old. And while failure to produce a passbook could have landed you in jail in South Africa, D.C. officials want us to believe that maintaining a central computerized database will somehow improve the searches for missing and exploited children.

Now maybe, just maybe, you could fall for that hoax. Because sure, if 8-year-old Joel has his passcard slung around his neck, then everybody would know who he is if he gets lost. But the missing-children thing can be too easily dismissed by two sheer facts of life. For one, the kidnapper would probably snatch the ID and toss it. Also, no mother, except perhaps one on crack, would let her child run around all day with an ID card containing all that vital and valuable information.

I mean really. Real moms and dads don't even give children their own insurance cards, or large sums of money for fear of who knows what. We ship them off to day care or camp and find ourselves using magic markers to label such easily replaceable things as their underwear and socks. And when it comes to house keys we use safety pins, chains and everything else to help ensure careless children don't lose them.

Only maggots and morons would consider otherwise.

Morever, there is a far more profound concern with these passcards. And that concern is privacy.

Isn't it enough that we have cameras watching us at the 7-Eleven, ATM and Neiman-Marcus because of the bad guys? Isn't it enough that Big Brother has cameras perched on traffic lights and streets lights - and inside police patrol cars - because of the bad guys?

Indeed, at best the District's plan is a presage to racial profiling, granting license to police to suspect a white guy in, say, a black neighborhood. At its worst, it portends to be the ultimate peeping Tom.

To be sure, this proposal must be stopped dead in its wicked tracks.

Besides, you don't really and truly think the D.C. government, which can't even maintain accurate records on such fundamentals as school enrollment or worker payroll, missing-persons cases, or fleet management, is capable of handling and securing such complex technology and vital and very personal information?

It's as if the mayor and the legislature want to relive the ugliest parts of history: American slavery, when our ancestors were branded, shackled and hunted like dogs; the Holocaust and the horrors that led up to it, when our ancestors were branded, shackled and hunted like dogs. Or perhaps they want us to taste a more modern-day slice of racism: South Africa's Apartheid.

Which is it? Which do you prefer? Call D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp (202-724-8000) and Mayor Williams (202-727-2980) and let them know.

Let them know that instead of spending precious dollars trying to turn democracy on its head on the Potomac that they need to spend that money on our schools. Tell them that instead of buying new cameras and more technology to create a police state, they need to teach our children how to build and use that technology. Tell them that our charter schools need more money, and our libraries need more money and better facilities. Tell them if they would teach our young people history the way it's supposed to be taught, even our young would be revolting against such a frightening idea.

In short, tell them this ain't Nazi Germany and this ain't South Africa.

Deborah Simmons is an editorial writer and columnist for The Washington Times.

-------- police / prisoners

Riots at G-8 meeting spark special forces

August 17, 2001
By Andrew Borowiec
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010817-11608154.htm

GENEVA -- European countries, shaken by the brutal handling of anti-globalization protests by Italian police, are proposing to create a specially trained anti-riot corps.

Germany and Italy are sponsoring the plan and are seeking support from other European countries.

More than 200 people were injured in clashes with Italian police during the July 20-22 meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations in Genoa, Italy. Among the 300 protesters arrested were about 70 Germans.

In the wake of the riots, during which Italian policemen were filmed beating and clubbing demonstrators, German Interior Minister Otto Schily called for a "new and stronger cooperation" in security matters among European countries.

He was backed by his Italian counterpart, Claudio Scajola, who narrowly escaped losing his post over the behavior of the Italian police.

"We need a different formation of men to confront the problem," Mr. Scajola said later.

He and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are concerned about more rioting when the 180 member nations of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization meet in Rome in November. The logistics and security preparations for the meeting are well under way, although Mr. Berlusconi has been quoted by the Italian media as saying "with Genoa we have already done enough."

Well-organized mass protests against the spread of globalization have erupted in riots, marring most major international meetings during the past two years.

Germany's suggestion for a special police force is the latest move in its increasing assertiveness in European matters -- despite opinion polls indicating a waning interest in tightening all forms of European cooperation.

According to the latest opinion poll, 54 percent of Germans are hostile to the euro, the joint European currency that will replace the mark in January.

An opinion poll in 15 European Union countries shows that 48 percent of Europeans, compared with 70 percent 10 years ago, feel that belonging to the EU is "a good thing."

European institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, Germany, have suffered a marked lack of confidence, particularly in the large number of unelected and highly paid "eurocrats" dictating economic coordination and other measures across the continent.

Apparently disregarding such signs, Germany has continued to urge greater integration of the shaky EU while stressing its role as a major power.

Germany has asserted its role in various Balkan crises and now is planning to revamp its armed forces.

The planned "riot police corps" would be in addition to the European "rapid reaction force," which would consist of 60,000 military personnel capable of being deployed in crisis areas within three months.

Critics of the latter plan, including the United States, claim such a force would duplicate the tasks of NATO at a time when it plans further expansion in Eastern Europe.

On the other hand, countries such as France feel that NATO should reduce U.S. influence in Europe as well as Europe's hitherto dominant reliance on U.S. logistical backup and electronic intelligence.


-------- activists

After 90 Days, Sharpton Is Released From Prison

New York Times
August 17, 2001
By TERENCE NEILAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/17/nyregion/17CND-SHARP.html

A lighter and bearded Rev. Al Sharpton was released from a federal prison in Brooklyn today after serving 90 days for trespassing on Navy property in protests over bombing exercises on Vieques, Puerto Rico.

With a flag of Vieques draped over his shoulders he made his way through a crowd of several hundred supporters and television cameras, mounted a podium and said he would continue to fight what he called racial profiling against the people of Vieques.

"We'll come again if we have to, to stop the bombing," he said. "We went in this jail struggling and we're going to come out struggling."

He made a point of criticizing President Bush's decision not to halt the bombing of the island before 2003.

"You can't just talk in Spanish, President Bush, and say nothing to the Hispanic people," he said.

"We need to talk straight to the people of Puerto Rico. We need to talk straight to the people of Vieques."

He thanked others who were jailed for protesting the bombing policy. They included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., City Councilman Adolfo Carrion and the chairman of the Bronx County Democratic Party, Roberto Ramirez.

Right after his release Mr. Sharpton, who lost 30 pounds during a 43-day hunger strike in jail, hugged is wife, Kathy, and spoke with Representative Charles E. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat.

He said his 90 days in jail for civil disobedience had helped him recharge his batteries. "I just took a 90-day catch of breath for the next lap," he said, adding if necessary he would be willing to serve another 90 days.

"I would not give up my dignity," he said. "I would not give up my beliefs.'

After the rally he returned to the kind of activity that his marked his career: leading protests over events that have aroused public anger.

Together with about 200 supporters he marched a short distance to Third Avenue and 46th Street, the site where a pregnant woman, her son and her sister were run down and killed Aug. 4 by a police officer who has been accused of drunken driving and manslaughter.

In an interview with a Times reporter just before his release Mr. Sharpton said that within a week he would plunge right into the city's mayoral election. But he said he would not accept an invitation from Congressman Rangel to join a coalition of black Democrats who are to endorse Fernando Ferrer, the Bronx borough president.

--------

Big Fence Planned To Curb Protests
Area Around IMF to Get 9-Foot-High Protection

By Arthur Santana
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2001; Page B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22987-2001Aug16?language=printer

D.C. police plan to use nine-foot-high fencing to cordon off most of the area around the White House, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to restrict protesters on the final weekend of September.

Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer yesterday outlined what he described as one of the main strategies authorities have devised for containing demonstrations during IMF and World Bank meetings. He said another strategy was to ask protesters to monitor their own ranks.

His comments came on the eve of a briefing by city officials to outline preparations for the fall meetings of the two world financial bodies and for the nearly 50,000 protesters authorities anticipate. Other city officials said they were unaware of plans for a buffer zone. Meetings such as today's are intended to brief the public on the progress of preparations, officials said.

Protest organizers and their supporters reacted angrily to the fencing plan. "We believe [police] should not be turning Washington, D.C., into a police state," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer for protesters. "If we pride ourselves on having a democracy and having democratic freedoms, we should not carve out sections of the city."

Protesters want to draw attention to problems of globalization, which they see as benefiting rich nations at the expense of poor nations.

Gainer said police and other city officials have met with White House officials twice this week to discuss plans and funding to underwrite them. Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman, said a decision on funding has not been made. "We are committed to ensuring the safety of those who live and work here, as well as the visitors to Washington," Buchan said.

Gainer said the plan, although not complete, was to enclose a section of the city with higher fencing than ever used before in the capital. The steel hurricane fencing, set in Jersey barriers, would cost about $1.8 million of the $30 million that officials have requested from the White House.

Gainer said police hoped to allow protesters in Edward R. Murrow Park, across from the World Bank, and on the Ellipse, but that was uncertain. Murrow Park, favored by World Bank protesters as a gathering place, could hold about 7,000 people -- those who arrive first, he said.

The fencing could encompass an area of Northwest Washington roughly between H Street on the north, 15th Street on the east, Constitution Avenue on the south and 21st or 22nd Street on the west. Gainer said the enclosed area would be about the same as for the IMF-World Bank protests in April 2000, but the fencing would be much higher and only police and people attending the meetings could pass.

He said waist-high bicycle fencing likely would be set up around the immediate area of the IMF and World Bank buildings as an additional precaution.

Protesters decried police plans as a waste of taxpayer money and a ploy to paint protesters as violent hooligans. "It's unfortunate that the police are trying to escalate antagonism," said Fred Azcarate, executive director of Jobs with Justice, a national workers' rights group. "Any outside observer would think the police are preparing for war."

At previous protests of world economic bodies, police have employed various tactics. High fencing was first used against anti-globalization protesters in April in Quebec; police erected 10-foot fences that protesters dubbed the Wall of Shame. Although it was breached, Quebec police said, the fencing did its job.

Protests in Genoa, Italy, last month were marred by violence and by the shooting of one protester by a police officer. Officials have since said that some other incidents there involved police brutality.

Gainer said that police realize that only a small faction of protesters might resort of violence or vandalism.

"We would hope that the larger group . . . would . . . suppress that type of activity," Gainer said. He said that idea was presented to protest organizers and that they said they couldn't be responsible for everyone.

Verheyden-Hilliard said, "We have not seen protesters being violent at demonstrations in Washington, D.C."

Staff writers Mike Allen, Sewell Chan, Manny Fernandez and Avram Goldstein contributed to this report.

--------



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