------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
Radioactive waste leaking into Lake Ontario
Biological effects of embedded depleted uranium
Info on India's du capability
Iran Denies Seeking Nuclear Weapons
Assembly Audit Notes Cracks in Nuclear Power Plants
Biden: Missiles Could Trigger Race
Nuclear cities face uncertainty
New Models for Non-proliferation and Energy Security
Russia Open to ABM Treaty Change
MILITARY
EU: Macedonia Needs New NATO Force
Yugoslavia Arms Embargo Lifted
NATO Destroys Rebel Arms
U.S. Reassesses Colombia Aid
Cocaine - Producing Peru Names Anti - Drug 'Czar'
Iraq: Eight Killed in Airstrike
Arab attacks mark upsurge against Israel
U.S. troops would enforce peace under Army study
Russia-China Deal Makes NASA Uneasy
Rumsfeld Chides Pentagon Bureaucracy
OTHER
Wide-open states offer best conditions for wind power
Corps' chlorine dumps 'poisoning' park stream
Documents Show CIA Spy Ideas
ACTIVISTS
DOE is Extending the Public Scoping Period
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- canada
Radioactive waste leaking into Lake Ontario
Mon, 10 Sep 2001
From: Andrew Hund <axh69@po.cwru.edu>
A Canadian NGO has gathered evidence that elevated levels of aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, uranium and zinc are leaking into Lake Ontario from a hazardous waste facility in sufficient quantities to kill water fleas within 48 hours. According to the report, Port Granby: leaking radioactive hazardous waste site, by the NGO, Lake Ontario Keeper, in the past, researchers have found that as much as 10% of groundwater, and 25% of surface runoff leave the site where the waste is buried untreated and flows into the lake. The remainder of the water is collected in ponds before being treated to remove radium and arsenic and to have the pH adjusted, and then the water is released into the lake. However, the report notes that during the winter/spring period of 1993, there were three overflow events with further overflows over a two day period in 1994.
According to the 1993 annual report of the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB), during the summer of the previous year there had been four monthly periods during which the discharge exceeded the licence limit for radium. During 1994, researchers also found that discharges into the lake exceeded the guidelines for monthly average arsenic concentrations eleven times and for ammonia once. Research also revealed elevated arsenic levels in the soil below the discharge point, and elevated levels of uranium in soils and effluent escaping from the facility. During two separate sets of laboratory tests in 2000, water fleas were placed in samples of the treated effluent, one of which killed 63% of the flees in 48 hours, and the other killed 97% over the same time period.
Despite the apparent free-rein that has been allowed to this facility, the AECB has stressed concern about its operation, calling for its decommissioning in 1980 because of concerns regarding the stability of the bluffs and slopes. However, this was delayed in order to allow those involved to find alternative long-term storage facilities for the wastes, although no new waste has been admitted since 1988. Such a site was not found, and so the site is now being assessed for redesign as a permanent facility.
Officials from the Canadian environment ministry were unavailable for comment on the matter. Internet links: ··Port Granby: leaking radioactive hazardous waste site ··Lake Ontario Keeper ··Environment Canada
-------- depleted uranium
Biological effects of embedded depleted uranium (DU):
summary of armed forces radiobiology research institute research.
Follow up comments requested
From: DSNurse@aol.com
Mon, 10 Sep 2001 11:25:48 EDT
Sci Total Environ 2001 Jul 2;274(1-3):115-8
McClain DE, Benson KA, Dalton TK, Ejnik J, Emond CA, Hodge SJ, Kalinich JF, Landauer MA, Miller AC, Pellmar TC, Stewart MD, Villa V, Xu J.
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA. mcclain@mx.afrri.usuhs.mil
The Persian Gulf War resulted in injuries of US Coalition personnel by fragments of depleted uranium (DU). Fragments not immediately threatening the health of the individuals were allowed to remain in place, based on long-standing treatment protocols designed for other kinds of metal shrapnel injuries. However, questions were soon raised as to whether this approach is appropriate for a metal with the unique radiological and toxicological properties of DU.
The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) is investigating health effects of embedded fragments of DU to determine whether current surgical fragment removal policies remain appropriate for this metal. These studies employ rodents implanted with DU pellets as well as cultured human cells exposed to DU compounds. Results indicate uranium from implanted DU fragments distributed to tissues far-removed from implantation sites, including bone, kidney, muscle, and liver. Despite levels of uranium in the kidney that were nephrotoxic after acute exposure, no histological or functional kidney toxicity was observed. However, results suggest the need for further studies of long-term health impact, since DU was found to be mutagenic, and it transformed human osteoblast cells to a tumorigenic phenotype. It also altered neurophysiological parameters in rat hippocampus, crossed the placental barrier, and entered fetal tissue. This report summarizes AFRRI's depleted uranium research to date.
PMID: 11453287 [PubMed - in process]
----
Info on India's du capability
From: "Laka Foundation" <laka@antenna.nl>
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001
As far as I know the Indian Navy hasn't DU ammunitions at one's disposal. There is no evidence about this from literature. However, it would be possible that India is producing Russian DU tank rounds. India manufactures Russian T-72 tanks and 125mm APFSDS ammunition under license.
Jane's Munitions Handbook 2000-2001 mentions: "It is known that 125mm tank gun ammuntion is produced in India but no information is available. A new muntions plant is being built at Bolangir in Eastern India which, when fully operational, will be able to produce 150,000 rounds of 125mm ammunition, presumably including APFSDS rounds, every year." (p.231).
It would be possible that this production line also includes the Russian 125mm 3VBM13 round (3BM32 projectile), the Russian Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) with a core of DU.
-------- iran
Iran Denies Seeking Nuclear Weapons
September 10, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iran-usa.html?searchpv=reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran Monday strongly rejected charges by the United States that it was seeking nuclear weapons and said Iran itself was a victim of weapons of mass destruction.
``The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has suffered from the use of chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction, has never embarked on production of such weapons,'' state television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.
``The effects of chemical weapons used against Iran (during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war) can still be seen,'' Asefi said.
The spokesman's comments followed a CIA report Friday which accused Iran of being one of the most active seekers of foreign technology for developing and delivering weapons of mass destruction.
``Iran's defensive and nuclear cooperation with other countries is in the framework of international laws and conventions...and Iran will use nuclear power for peaceful purposes only,'' Asefi said.
Tehran has repeatedly said its nuclear energy installations are under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
``U.S. and Israeli accusations come as Israel's clandestine nuclear programs pose an imminent threat to the peace and security of the region,'' Asefi said. ``Israel is not opening up its nuclear facilities to inspections under the IAEA safeguards system.''
-------- korea
Assembly Audit Notes Cracks in Nuclear Power Plants
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001
http://www.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200109/200109100189.html
Gori, Wolseong and Yeonggwang nuclear power plants have completed emergency repair work, including mending 1,087 cracks over their last two years of operation, it was announced at the National Assembly¡¯s government audit and inspection, which started Monday.
According to the nuclear power plant condition report submitted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), a total of 1,087 cracks, over 0.25mm in width, were discovered in the power plants over the last two years; 392 in Gori; 279 in Uljin; 232 in Yeonggwang; and 178 in Wolseong.
Lawmaker Kim Jin-jae of Grand National Party (GNP) questioned the cause of the cracks and demanded future measures at the National Assembly¡¯s Science, Technology, Information, and Telecommunications Committee¡¯s inspection of the ministry.
Choe Byung-ryul, also of the GNP noted that 39 cracks were very serious as their size exceeded 3m in length and 0.5 to 4mm in width.
Also, lawmaker Choe pointed out that managing staff of the Korea Plant Service and Engineering Department, who are responsible for the maintenance of the plants, were arrested on August 11 for embezzling W142 million, which is more than 10% of the total cost, and therefore, maintenance has not been thorough.
Minister Kim Young-hwan responded that any old structure could possibly have cracks as it ages, and the repairs have been completed.
(Baek Gang-nyeong, young100@chosun.com)
-------- missile defense
Biden: Missiles Could Trigger Race
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense.html?searchpv=aponline
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Joseph Biden said Monday the United States could trigger a new arms race by abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and forging ahead with a missile defense system despite allies' concerns.
``I don't believe our national interest can be furthered -- let alone achieved -- in splendid indifference to the rest of the world,'' the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told a National Press Club audience. ``Our European allies should never think that America ignores international opinion or that we're ready to go it alone.''
Biden, D-Del., considered a possible presidential candidate in 2004, denounced what he called ``the administration's almost theological allegiance to missile defense.'' It usurps money desperately needed to combat more realistic threats and could prompt a new arms race in Asia, he said.
``Missile defense has to be weighed carefully against all other spending and all other military priorities,'' Biden said, noting the tight budget situation created by President Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut and the declining economy.
``Our real security needs are much more earthbound and far less costly than missile defense,'' he said. ``We should be fully funding the military and defending ourselves at home and abroad against the more likely threats of short-range cruise missiles or biological terrorism.''
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said he will recommend that Bush veto Congress' defense authorization bill if it cuts the $8.3 billion he sought for missile defense, an increase of $3 billion. The Senate Armed Services Committee's Democratic majority cut it by $1.3 billion Friday, leaving $7 billion intact. The Republican-led House Armed Services Committee last month cut it by $135 million, leaving $8.2 billion.
The measure would provide $343 billion for the nation's defense -- including the Defense and Energy departments -- in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a $33 billion increase over this year.
The full House is to consider its defense authorization bill Tuesday.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., indicated Monday he would seek $6 billion more to make emergency improvements to bases and equipment and to purchase urgently needed spare parts. Weldon recently toured 20 bases over four days to call attention to the problems. The service chiefs have said they face more than $30 billion in unfunded needs.
Biden, meanwhile, expressed concern that by breaking an arms control agreement and making foreign nations feel vulnerable, the United States could ``raise a starting gun on a new arms race,'' prompting China to test its weapons, and India and then Pakistan to follow suit.
He also criticized cuts in efforts to safeguard and dismantle weapons of mass destruction held by former Soviet states and to find legitimate jobs for their nuclear scientists to prevent them from selling that expertise to rogue nations or terrorists.
The administration is seeking $1.2 billion for such programs, down nearly $140 million from this year. The request includes $100 million in cuts from Energy Department efforts to find jobs for the scientists. However, the Senate has voted to restore that $100 million, plus $7 million more. The House has voted to restore $72 million, representing a cut of $28 million.
Reflecting that he does not oppose all missile defense, Biden called for research and development of an intercept system that would target missiles as they launch, when they are slowest. At the same time, he estimated missile defense proposals would cost $60 billion to $500 billion over 20 years, but even the most expensive would leave America vulnerable to an incoming missile.
Biden praised Bush's trip to Europe, saying it ``quelled a lot of concerns and nerves on the part of our European friends, who are always upset and always nervous with any transition in power in the United States.''
And Bush ``did an extremely good job,'' Biden said, regarding China's detention of U.S. service members after the collision of an American surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet.
-------- russia
Nuclear cities face uncertainty
Monday September 10
By Andrea Widener,
Contra Costa Times
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/krcontracosta/20010910/lo/nuclear_cities_face_uncertainty_1.html
Still encircled by tall fences 10 years after the Cold War ended, Russia's 10 nuclear weapons cities have brand new names but an uncertain future.
These closed cities in Russia's most remote regions were once the heart of the nuclear weapons industry, with an elite status that made them sealed enclaves of science and culture.
Now the cities' 760,000 residents are underpaid -- at times, unpaid -- and must rely on backyard gardens for food because store shelves are often bare. Along with their counterparts in missile, biological and chemical weapons cities, these homes of nuclear know-how present the most daunting challenge facing governments and nuclear watchdog groups.
----
New Models for Non-proliferation and Energy Security
U.S. Newswire
10 Sep 13:58
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0910-125.html
New Models for Non-proliferation and Energy Security: Kazakhstan Begins Shutting Down Semipalatinsk Military-Industrial Complex To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Lindsay Howard of Howard Communications, 718-243-2200
News Advisory:
Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister for Nonproliferation and Energy, will address the National Press Club on Tuesday, Sept. 11, from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on his country's progress in ridding itself of nuclear weapons and will introduce a book on the subject by Kazakhstan's president.
The Russian-language edition of the book was launched Aug. 29, on the fifty-second anniversary of the first Soviet nuclear explosion in Kazakhstan Aug. 29, 1949, at an international conference conducted in the spirit of Geneva's Pugwash conferences and Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
Also speaking with Deputy Prime Minister Shkolnik will be a panel of senior level security, energy and scientific officials, including the Kazakhstan's Minister of National Security Altynbek Sersenbaev, Director General of Kazakhstan's Atomic Energy Agency Timur Zhantikin, and Director General of Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center Shamil Tukhvatulin and Olga.
Shkolnik will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and the decision of Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev to rid his national of nuclear weapons and become a strong voice for nonproliferation. In his book Epicenter of Peace, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev vividly presents the reasons for this historic decision to end the decades of suffering and devastation which nuclear testing brought to his country. Senator Sam Nunn, Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Institute, has written a foreward to the book and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Graham Allison of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has provided an introduction. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Proceeds from the book will be used to benefit the victims of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan.
Deputy Prime Minister Shkolnik has spent his entire career in the nuclear energy sphere and has worked closely with President Nazarbayev in helping to implement nuclear nonproliferation policies. Deputy Prime Minister Shkolnik was an instrumental figure in the November 1994 Project Sapphire initiative, in which nearly 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium were safely transported from Eastern Kazakhstan to the United States by two U.S. C-5 cargo planes. More recently, he has been involved in the establishment in Kazakhstan of a branch office of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies, as well as with the Nuclear Threat Initiative set up by Senator Nunn and Ted Turner to further strengthen international efforts to reduce the growing threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The challenges facing Kazakhstan today are great. Beyond the nuclear challenge, the United States and Kazakhstan are working together to destroy and decontaminate the world's largest anthrax production and weaponization facility. Yet to be resolved is the need to provide for the permanent and safe storage of the huge weapons-grade plutonium stockpile at BN-350 located in the very sensitive environment of the Caspian Sea's eastern shore.
-------- treaties
Russia Open to ABM Treaty Change
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-US-ABM.html?searchpv=aponline
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia might accept changes in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty but will reject wording that would allow national missile defenses like the one the Bush administration wants to build, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday.
``Theoretically, I do not exclude the possibility'' of modifying the 1972 ABM treaty, Ivanov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency. However, he said the treaty's prohibition on establishing a nationwide missile defense must still stand.
``When I say theoretically, I mean we must clearly understand what missile defense is being conceived by the United States and what technical possibilities in air, sea, ground and space fields are envisaged,'' Ivanov said.
At their first summit, in June, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to discuss the future of the Soviet-era ABM treaty in the context of potential cuts in nuclear arsenals, which cash strapped Russia has been pushing for.
Several rounds of talks have been held, but Russian officials have pressed the United States for more details about its missile defense plans.
``Along with thresholds of nuclear weapons cuts, those are exactly the questions for which we still cannot receive answers from the American side,'' Ivanov said.
The Bush administration has said it wants to complete a review of how many nuclear weapons the United States needs before discussing specific figures.
U.S. officials have also said that because work on the proposed missile defense could violate the ABM treaty within months, Washington will have to withdraw from the accord if amendments cannot be agreed on with Russia.
Some U.S. officials have recently voiced hope that Moscow might soften its rigid stance on missile defense by November, when Bush and Putin are scheduled to meet in Texas.
Before their summit at Bush's ranch, the presidents are to meet next month during an Asia-Pacific economic summit in Shanghai, China. Bush and Putin discussed preparations for the meeting in a telephone conversation Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
``It was underlined that the meeting in Shanghai would become an important stage of preparation to the full-fledged Russian-American summit,'' it said.
Ivanov, during a trip to Astrakhan in southern Russia, said he expects U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith to spell out American defense plans in talks with Russian military officials in Moscow on Tuesday.
Ivanov said discussions will continue when he meets later this month with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and in talks between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
On Sunday, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said Washington would make Moscow an offer and that ``we hope it's an offer they can't refuse.''
Ivanov, tongue-in-cheek, said that reminded him of a line attributed to Al Capone. ``You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun,'' he said.
Russia says the U.S. intention to build a national defense against ballistic missiles would tilt the global strategic balance in Washington's favor and trigger a new arms race.
Russia has rejected U.S. arguments that the missile defense is meant to avert threats from such nations as North Korea and Iran and would not be capable of deterring a massive strike of the kind Russia is capable of launching.
U.S. officials say Russian companies have helped create a need for missile defense by helping Iran obtain nuclear and missile technologies.
Ivanov reiterated Monday that Moscow has only supplied Tehran with conventional weapons and is abiding by international agreements banning proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
He said he plans to sign an agreement with his Iranian counterpart next month that would open the way to new Russian arms sales to Iran -- a deal certain to anger the United States.
-------- MILITARY
-------- balkans
EU: Macedonia Needs New NATO Force
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 10, 2001; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2293-2001Sep10?language=printer
PARIS, Sept. 9 -- European Union foreign ministers agreed today on the need for a new international military force to provide security in Macedonia after a NATO weapons-collection mission ends later this month.
But the ministers remained undecided on the exact makeup of the force, other than to say it should be led by NATO because the European Union itself is not ready to lead it.
The current NATO mission in Macedonia, called Operation Essential Harvest, entered its third week today, with ethnic Albanian insurgents arriving in trucks and cars to turn in their weapons at a depot in the mountain village of Brodec, near the border with Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian majority province of Serbia in Yugoslavia.
The rebels have agreed to turn in 3,300 weapons and end a six-month insurgency in exchange for amendments to the Macedonian constitution guaranteeing more rights for the country's ethnic Albanian minority. NATO officials said that when they finish collecting weapons at Brodec, the mission should have reached the halfway point.
But there have been fears, voiced more loudly in recent days, that Macedonia's fragile peace accord could unravel and the Balkan country could be plunged into civil war if NATO ends its operation as scheduled on Sept. 26.
Today, the European ministers meeting near Brussels acknowledged the pending "security vacuum," but there was no consensus on the nature of the new force, which must be approved by the Macedonian government. While the ministers broadly agreed to a German proposal for a new NATO force that would include non-NATO countries such as Russia, Finland, Sweden and Ukraine, there was division over whether the force should have a mandate from the U.N. Security Council.
"We all insisted on the need to avoid a security vacuum when NATO withdraws," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told reporters. "The option considered most realistic would be to deploy a NATO-plus force based on the troops already on the ground."
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had been pushing for a new NATO mission that would operate under a U.N. mandate after Operation Essential Harvest was completed. Finland, for one, said such a U.N. mandate was essential before it would participate. But others, such as Britain, said there was no time to obtain a U.N. vote; some EU members recalled how China used its Security Council seat to veto a U.N. peacekeeping force for Macedonia in 1999.
Having a U.N. mandate is seen as critical to ensuring the agreement of Macedonia's government, which includes a number of hard-liners opposed to concessions to the ethnic Albanians. Macedonia's president, Boris Trajkovski, told the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, that he would prefer to see any post-NATO force operating under a U.N. flag and mandate, diplomats said.
With European countries taking the lead in the current Macedonia operation -- Britain is providing about half the 4,500 troops and a Danish general is the commander -- some diplomats and military analysts were looking at Macedonia as the first test of the EU's efforts to form an independent defense force outside NATO.
The ministers rejected a proposal by Francois Leotard, the EU envoy to Macedonia, for a 1,500-member EU force, saying Europe was not ready to launch its own military operation.
--------
Yugoslavia Arms Embargo Lifted
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Yugoslavia.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Security Council unanimously lifted the U.N. arms embargo on Yugoslavia on Monday, stripping away the last remaining international sanctions imposed in 1998 in an effort to halt the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The United States formally submitted the resolution lifting the sanctions. It notes that Yugoslavia has met the necessary council requirements to end the embargo.
``The decision by the Security Council reveals the good relations, the constructive cooperation and the trust which exists now between the democratic authorities in Belgrade and the international community,'' said French ambassador Jean-David Levitte.
The embargo was imposed almost a year before NATO's 78-day bombing campaign drove Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and ended former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's attempt to clear the Serb province of ethnic Albanians.
The United States and European nations imposed their own economic sanctions against Yugoslavia but began to lift those once Milosevic was voted out of power in October, 2000 elections.
In a letter to the council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlined the measures Belgrade has taken to comply with Security Council resolutions, including withdrawing special police units and ceasing actions affecting the civilian population in Kosovo.
Annan also wrote that Yugoslavia has allowed both humanitarian organizations and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights access to the province.
The 1998 resolution called on all states to prevent the sale or supply of weapons to Yugoslavia and Kosovo ``for the purposes of fostering peace and stability,'' in the area.
--------
NATO Destroys Rebel Arms
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Macedonia.html
KRIVOLAK, Macedonia (AP) -- NATO soldiers burned piles of ammunition and cut apart guns given up by ethnic Albanian rebels Monday as part of the alliance's mission, as the West discussed the next step to steer the Balkan nation toward peace.
NATO's operation to collect weapons is to end Sept. 26, and it has said it would not extend that deadline.
But European Union nations agreed over the weekend in Genval, Belgium, that a multinational force must be sent to Macedonia this month after the NATO mission ends.
Such a contingent would be used to protect civilian monitors and act as a buffer between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in tense regions.
The new force would be smaller than the 4,500 NATO troops now in Macedonia, would again be led by the 19-nation Western alliance but be open to Russian, Ukrainian and other non-NATO troops, as is the case in neighboring Kosovo, and in Bosnia.
The government of Macedonia opposes a further foreign military role.
But Russian support for a new military contingent could help overcome opposition from Macedonian conservatives critical of the Western-brokered peace agreement. The accord calls for surrendering rebel arms in exchange for greater political and language rights to ethnic Albanians, about a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
French President Jacques Chirac called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday to discuss ``preserving the stability'' of Macedonia.
In Athens, Greece, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin endorsed the idea of a new force, but suggested it should have a U.N. mandate.
Meanwhile, NATO neared the halfway point in its mission to collect a 3,300-piece arsenal surrendered by the guerrillas, who launched their uprising in February.
At a military base in Krivolak, about 45 miles southeast of Skopje, NATO teams incinerated more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition.
At another site, they exploded two anti-tank mines and about 24 rocket-propelled grenades. The blast left a nearly three-foot-wide crater and sent a smoke cloud 65 feet into the air. Other teams used electric cutters to slice apart more than 500 weapons -- mostly AK-47 rifles.
We have a schedule to follow. We're on time with that,'' said Lt. Col. Constantinos Houpis.
Soldiers took a small number of arms Monday near Brodec, about five miles northwest of Tetovo and the site of a former rebel training base.
Ethnic Albanians have strongly appealed for NATO to remain, but the Macedonian government has insisted an outside military force is not needed after NATO's departure.
``That would be an artificial peace,'' government spokesman Antonio Milososki told The Associated Press. ``We are surprised by the drastically changed attitude of some Western countries that ... claimed that the peace agreement was the only guarantee of stability and today come out preferring a military presence.''
Milososki added that Macedonia would support an international force to patrol borders. During the conflict, rebels and weapons moved across the frontier with NATO-supervised Kosovo.
In other developments:
-- Ethnic Albanian refugees continued to return from Kosovo. More than 8,000 have come back since last week, the U.N. refugee agency said, and about 34,000 remain in Kosovo.
-------- colombia
U.S. Reassesses Colombia Aid
Anti-Drug Efforts Studied as Powell Visits Bogota
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1749-2001Sep9?language=printer
As Secretary of State Colin L. Powell leaves today for South America, U.S. officials are considering how to expand their training of Colombian security forces with the battle against cocaine cultivation and trafficking spreading from southern Colombia to other parts of the country, administration officials said.
Among the options under consideration is training a new Colombian anti-narcotics battalion beyond the three that already have received instruction under a year-old, $1.3 billion U.S. aid package, a senior administration official said.
Another alternative would be training an existing military battalion in fighting drug trafficking, but the official said support for that option could be tempered by U.S. concerns about the human rights record of regular Colombian army forces.
Administration officials stressed that the training would support only the "existing mission" of combating the drug trade, and not be designed to bolster the Colombian government's long-running war against leftist rebels.
A final call about whether to step up U.S. military training would likely be made over the next four to six months, with an eye toward winning congressional approval for the funding for fiscal 2003.
"We have certainly been talking to the government of Colombia about it, but no decision has been made," a senior State Department official said.
This consideration comes as some top Pentagon officials are apprehensive that the United States could be drawn deeper into Colombia's 37-year-old civil war.
The drug trade provides enormous profits to the guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups fighting in the conflict. Officials outside the Pentagon said they were confident their counterparts in the Defense Department would feel more comfortable as they became more familiar with the counter-narcotics program.
The concerns are "raised by civilian guys in the Pentagon who are new on the job, who are getting their feet on the ground," a State Department official said. "Once they go to Colombia and see how it's done, they'll feel better about it."
He and other U.S. officials emphasize that the current aid package, composed primarily of transport helicopters and military trainers for the security forces, is aimed at uprooting drug trafficking in Colombia. The country accounts for up to 90 percent of the world's cocaine.
Powell's trip to Colombia will follow an overnight visit to Peru for a meeting of the Organization of American States. His trip comes as the Bush administration has been reviewing U.S. policy toward Colombia, where President Andres Pastrana's peace effort is flagging in the face of a well-funded rebel insurgency.
The anxiety felt in some parts of the U.S. government was reflected by Peter W. Rodman, assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, who told reporters late last month that the administration was facing "some agonizing decisions" about its Colombia strategy.
"Are we getting deeper into a conflict or not?. . . . What is at stake?" Rodman said. "I think we as a country are not quite sure where we are heading."
He added it was natural that the Bush administration would want to reassess whether the goal of American involvement is solely to curb narcotics or also to help ensure the survival of the Colombian government.
"I think any new administration would have come in and looked and said, 'Where are we heading there, given the military engagement?' "
In his talks with Pastrana, Powell will make clear the Bush administration remains committed to the policy initiated last year by President Bill Clinton, U.S. officials said. The $1.3 billion U.S. aid package formed part of Pastrana's Plan Colombia, which combines an anti-narcotics campaign with development projects.
"He will tell Pastrana that we support the peace process, that we support Pastrana and that the peace process is a big element both in Pastrana's ability to continue with Plan Colombia and for our ability to support Plan Colombia," another senior State Department official said.
U.S. officials said that in Colombia and Peru, Powell will signal the administration's intention to resume anti-drug air patrols, which were suspended in April after an American missionary plane was mistakenly identified by a CIA surveillance plane as a narcotics flight and shot down by a Peruvian jet. Peruvian and Colombian leaders have been pressing for the patrols to resume.
But the conditions for restarting the air interdiction program have yet to be set, and no official announcement is expected during Powell's visit, officials said. The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled this week to review a report on the downing of the plane, in which two people were killed.
Powell's trip to Bogota, which is expected to include meetings with Pastrana, military officials, leading political figures and human rights groups, comes at a time of mounting uncertainty about the peace process.
Officials in Colombia and the United States have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the despeje, the Switzerland-size swath of southern Colombia turned over by Pastrana to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) three years ago as a safe haven for peace talks. Administration officials have accused the FARC rebels in recent weeks of misusing the territory -- for instance, by receiving training in bomb-making, holding kidnapping victims and trading in drugs.
Although administration officials said they privately discussed Pastrana's negotiating tactics with him, they said it remains his call whether to renew the despeje by Oct. 6, the government-imposed deadline for deciding its disposition. "This is a Pastrana decision," a senior administration official said. "We're not going to second-guess him."
Indeed, Pastrana's peace endeavor could be entering its twilight, since his term will end next year and the candidates running to replace him have criticized his handling of negotiations.
At the same time, the ultimate impact of Plan Colombia remains unclear. The United States is just beginning to deliver the 16 Blackhawk transport helicopters that form the centerpiece of American aid. The first three were provided last month -- two for the police and one for the army -- and another three for the army should arrive this week, administration officials said.
The balance, all bound for the army, should be delivered by the end of the year, officials said.
The United States has already supplied 15 aging Huey helicopters. An additional 25 newly refurbished Hueys should be delivered through next year, officials said.
To assist the aerial spraying of drug crops, the administration has promised to augment Colombia's fleet of sprayer airplanes. But the U.S. delivery has fallen behind because the company contracted to supply the planes has gone bankrupt, U.S. officials said.
Administration officials acknowledge that other elements of Plan Colombia, including support for farmers to substitute crops for coca and for improvements in the Colombian judicial system, remain in the early stages.
As the crackdown on coca cultivation in southern Colombia has progressed, particularly in Putumayo province, the drug business has rapidly spread elsewhere in the country. Congress is reviewing an administration request for another $882 million in the coming year to address the spillover of drug activity across the Andean region and beyond.
A little less than half the funds would go to Colombia, with the remainder designated for six other Latin American countries. The initiative would finance social and economic development, as well as law enforcement and security assistance.
The administration is also asking Congress to adjust a limit on Americans working in Colombia as part of the anti-drug effort, which caps U.S. military personnel at 500 and contract employees at 300. Bush officials have agreed to maintain the overall limit of 800, but they say the number of contract employees will have to exceed 300 once Plan Colombia fully ramps up.
-------- drug war
Cocaine - Producing Peru Names Anti - Drug 'Czar'
September 10, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-drugs-peru.html
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo on Monday named a prominent businessman to spearhead the fight against drug trafficking in the world's No. 2 cocaine producer, and said he would discuss the thorny issue of drugs with visiting Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Ricardo Vega Llona, a dye producer and former senator who served as the head of Peru's business confederation and its exporters association in the late 1980s, will have ministerial rank in his new role as presidential advisor.
The nomination of Vega Llona comes amid warnings from drug experts and farmers that cultivation of coca leaf -- the raw material for cocaine -- is booming again after a decade of U.S.-backed programs helped slash coca production here.
Vega Llona, who said he knew coca eradication was an ''uphill'' path, is charged with putting forward plans to fight the illicit drug trade and money laundering, Toledo told a news conference. He said that was a national security priority because of links between drug trafficking and rebel violence.
Peru wants no return to the rebel wars it suffered in the 1980s and early 1990s in which 30,000 people died. Despite stray surviving rebel clusters in jungle areas where coca is grown, Toledo ruled out a large-scale revival of subversion.
``Tomorrow we will have a working breakfast here with Secretary of State Colin Powell and I understand that one of the items on the agenda is the anti-drugs fight,'' Toledo said.
Powell, on his first South American tour, arrived in Lima late on Monday to attend a special meeting of the Organization of American States. On Tuesday he flies to Colombia -- which displaced Peru as world cocaine capital in 1998 and whose anti-drug Plan Colombia Washington is supporting with $1 billion in mostly military aid.
NO FORCED ERADICATION
Toledo said the accent was on promoting alternative crops to coca leaf but Vega Llona said he would stick to the president's recommendation: ``Zero eradication by chemical methods.''
Farmers, though, say programs to encourage a switch to coffee, cocoa, fruit and other crops have largely failed and glutted markets have hammered prices.
Peru's eradication efforts in the 1990s made it a key ally in Washington's regional drug war. But analysts say the illicit trade here has been boosted by Plan Colombia, spurring prices which alternative crops cannot hope to match and leaving dirt-poor farmers little choice but to depend on coca.
Coca leaf, which can be harvested every three months, goes for up to $2.30 for 2.2 pounds on Peru's black market compared with just 60 cents for a kilogram of export-ready coffee.
Despite official figures -- the United States cites a 70 percent fall in coca cultivation since 1996 to 84,263 acres in 2000 -- farmers and drugs experts say the stark reality is that Peru's coca production is rising again.
``It is absolutely false that coca production has fallen since mid-1998 and the United States and thegovernment know that very well,'' Hugo Cabieses, an expert on coca at the Peruvian Center for Social Studies, told Reuters.
He estimated 2001 coca cultivation of 173,000 acres.
Farmers who depend on their coca crops to survive warn that blood would flow if Peru tried to eradicate their plantations by force. Colombia has sprayed its coca and opium poppy crops and scores died in clashes in Bolivia when the government clamped down last year on illicit coca cultivation.
-------- iraq
Iraq: Eight Killed in Airstrike
SEPTEMBER 10, 11:41 EDT
Associated Press
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS7EEDU600
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq said Monday that eight civilians were killed in a weekend airstrike by U.S. and British warplanes on southern Iraq.
The Pentagon gave no word of casualties.
The official Iraqi News Agency said three others were wounded in the strike Sunday night in the al-Salhiya area of Wasit province, 100 miles south of Baghdad.
Witnesses said the civilians ``were preparing for prayers when attacked by the savage U.S.-British warplanes,'' the news agency said. Property and shops also were destroyed, it said.
The U.S. Central Command in Florida has said its planes attacked two or more surface-to-air missile sites Sunday in southern Iraq in response to Iraqi threats against American and British aircraft patrolling no-fly zones over Iraq.
F-16, FA-18 and Royal Airforce Tornado aircraft took part in the hour-long strikes that started at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Maj. Brett Morris of the Saudi-based Joint Task Force South West Asia said Monday.
Damage assessments are continuing, he told The Associated Press, saying, ``we strive to make these strikes as focused as possible to avoid civilian casualties or collateral damage.''
The strikes were a response to Iraq's ``multiple violations'' of U.N.-imposed sanctions, Morris said. He did not elaborate on the alleged violations.
U.S. and British aircraft have been patrolling the no-fly zones since they were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurdish rebels in the north and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south from government forces.
Iraq considers the zones illegal and has been challenging them since 1998. The government often claims civilian injuries or deaths have occurred because of U.S. attacks.
-------- israel
Arab attacks mark upsurge against Israel
September 10, 2001
By Greg Myre
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010910-21307530.htm
JERUSALEM -- Arab militants unleashed a wave of attacks yesterday against Israel, including a suicide bomber who homed in on soldiers and civilians getting off a crowded train, blowing himself up and killing three Israelis.
The surge of violence, which included four retaliatory missile strikes by Israeli helicopters, threatened to scuttle possible truce talks aimed at ending more than 11 months of Middle East violence.
Overall, militants staged two bombings, one attempted bombing and a lethal drive-by shooting. Five Israelis were killed along with three Arab militants who died while carrying out the attacks. About 40 Israelis were wounded.
The rapid-fire attacks took place within a few hours, unusual even by the standards of the current conflict. Three separate groups claimed responsibility for violence that stretched from the northern town of Nahariya on the Mediterranean coast to deep inside the West Bank and to the Gaza Strip in the south.
From Israel's perspective, the suicide attack at the train station in Nahariya was particularly significant because police said the suspected bomber was an Israeli Arab man, Mohammed Saker Habashi, 55.
Israeli Arabs, who account for more than 1 million of Israel's 6.5 million citizens, have long complained of discrimination and are deeply sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. They took part in protests at the beginning of the uprising nearly a year ago.
But they have been implicated only rarely in attacks against Israel, and no Israeli Arab has previously acted as a suicide bomber. If they were to stage bombings and shootings, it would vastly complicate Israel's security problems.
Israeli Arabs live inside Israel proper, and do not face tough restrictions on their movements, as do the 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
Soldiers and civilians stepped onto the platform as the train pulled into the station in Nahariya yesterday morning, the beginning of the Israeli work week. It was at that point that the bomber moved forward and detonated his explosives.
"I was standing nearby, and I heard a great explosion. It took me a minute to come to my senses, and then I saw glass everywhere and I saw people running like crazy," witness Avi Levy told Israeli television. "People were crying and hysterical."
Police and ambulances rushed to the scene, taking more than 30 persons to hospitals, though most had relatively minor injuries.
Mr. Habashi had links to the radical Islamic group Hamas, which has carried out many suicide attacks against Israel in recent years and claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing in phone calls to Arab television channels.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres have been trying to arrange truce talks for nearly three weeks, but the daily violence has undermined efforts. The two are expected to meet in coming days, but yesterday's upheavals again raised political tensions.
The Israeli government blamed Mr. Arafat for failing to halt the attacks. "The Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to stop these bombers," said Israeli spokesman Arye Mekel.
The Palestinian leadership rejected the Israeli charge. "The Palestinian leadership repeats its condemnations of all attacks that target civilians, whether Palestinians or Israelis."
In other violence yesterday:
• A Palestinian gunman in a jeep sprayed automatic rifle fire at a van carrying Israeli teachers to schools in the West Bank. Two Israelis -- the driver and a woman teacher -- were killed and four teachers were injured in the shooting in the Jordan Valley, police said. The radical group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, a Palestinian television station reported.
• A car bomb exploded at a stoplight at a busy intersection in central Israel, near Netanya. The Palestinian driver was killed and five vehicles, including a bus, were set on fire, police said. Three persons were hurt. Police speculated that the driver was heading to Netanya, the scene of several previous attacks. It was not clear whether the driver intentionally detonated the bomb, or if it went off prematurely.
• Israeli troops fired on three Palestinians who were attempting to plant a bomb near a border fence in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said. One Palestinian was killed, a second was wounded, and the third escaped, according to the army and the Palestinians. The militant Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility in an anonymous phone call.
Israel responded with helicopter missile strikes at four different sites in the West Bank, damaging buildings in each instance, but causing no injuries.
The helicopters hammered two buildings belonging to Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement and the affiliated Tanzim militia in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Israelis also pounded Palestinian security offices in Jericho and Kabatiya.
--------
U.S. troops would enforce peace under Army study
September 10, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010910-68476943.htm
An elite U.S. Army study center has devised a plan for enforcing a major Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that would require about 20,000 well-armed troops stationed throughout Israel and a newly created Palestinian state.
There are no plans by the Bush administration to put American soldiers into the Middle East to police an agreement forged by the longtime warring parties. In fact, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is searching for ways to reduce U.S. peacekeeping efforts abroad, rather than increasing such missions.
But a 68-page paper by the Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) does provide a look at the daunting task any international peacekeeping force would face if the United Nations authorized it, and Israel and the Palestinians ever reached a peace agreement.
Located at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the School for Advanced Military Studies is both a training ground and a think tank for some of the Army's brightest officers. Officials say the Army chief of staff, and sometimes the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ask SAMS to develop contingency plans for future military operations. During the 1991 Persian Gulf war, SAMS personnel helped plan the coalition ground attack that avoided a strike up the middle of Iraqi positions and instead executed a "left hook" that routed the enemy in 100 hours.
The cover page for the recent SAMS project said it was done for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Maj. Chris Garver, a Fort Leavenworth spokesman, said the study was not requested by Washington.
"This was just an academic exercise," said Maj. Garver. "They were trying to take a current situation and get some training out of it."
The exercise was done by 60 officers dubbed "Jedi Knights," as all second-year SAMS students are nicknamed.
The SAMS paper attempts to predict events in the first year of a peace-enforcement operation, and sees possible dangers for U.S. troops from both sides.
It calls Israel's armed forces a "500-pound gorilla in Israel. Well armed and trained. Operates in both Gaza . Known to disregard international law to accomplish mission. Very unlikely to fire on American forces. Fratricide a concern especially in air space management."
Of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, the SAMS officers say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."
On the Palestinian side, the paper describes their youth as "loose cannons; under no control, sometimes violent." The study lists five Arab terrorist groups that could target American troops for assassination and hostage-taking.
The study recommends "neutrality in word and deed" as one way to protect U.S. soldiers from any attack. It also says Syria, Egypt and Jordan must be warned "we will act decisively in response to external attack."
It is unlikely either of the three would mount an attack. Of Syria's military, the report says: "Syrian army quantitatively larger than Israeli Defense Forces, but largely seen as qualitatively inferior. More likely, however, Syrians would provide financial and political support to the Palestinians, as well as increase covert support to terrorism acts through Lebanon."
Of Egypt's military, the paper says, "Egyptians also maintain a large army but have little to gain by attacking Israel."
The plan does not specify a full order of battle. An Army source who reviewed the SAMS work said each of a possible three brigades would require about 100 Bradley fighting vehicles, 25 tanks, 12 self-propelled howitzers, Apache attack helicopters, Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters and Predator spy drones.
The report predicts that nonlethal weapons would be used to quell unrest.
U.S. European Command, which is headed by NATO's supreme allied commander, would oversee the peacekeeping operation. Commanders would maintain areas of operation, or AOs, around Nablus, Jerusalem, Hebron and the Gaza strip.
The study sets out a list of goals for U.S. troops to accomplish in the first 30 days. They include: "create conditions for development of Palestinian State and security of "; ensure "equal distribution of contract value or equivalent aid" that would help legitimize the peacekeeping force and stimulate economic growth; "promote U.S. investment in Palestine"; "encourage reconciliation between entities based on acceptance of new national identities"; and "build lasting relationship based on new legal borders and not religious-territorial claims."
Maj. Garver said the officers who completed the exercise will hold major planning jobs once they graduate. "There is an application process" for students, he said. "They screen their records, and there are several tests they go through before they are accepted by the program. The bright planners of the future come out of this program."
James Phillips, a Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said it would be a mistake to put peacekeepers in Israel, given the "poor record of previous monitors."
"In general, the Bush administration policy is to discourage a large American presence," he said. "But it has been rumored that one of the possibilities might be an expanded CIA role."
"It would be a very different environment than Bosnia," said Mr. Phillips, referring to America's six-year peacekeeping role in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The Palestinian Authority is pushing for this as part of its strategy to internationalize the conflict. Bring in the Europeans and Russia and China. But such monitors or peacekeeping forces are not going to be able to bring peace. Only a decision by the Palestinians to stop the violence and restart talks could possibly do that."
-------- space
Russia-China Deal Makes NASA Uneasy
By Steven Siceloff
FLORIDA TODAY
10 September 2001
http://www.space.com/news/russia_china_010910.html
An emerging relationship between Russian and Chinese space agencies has a cash-strapped NASA looking on with concern.
The Sino-Russian embrace causes increased suspicions in America of a Chinese government increasingly seen as a threat.
Having dealt with the captured spy plane in the spring, the two nations now trade accusations over America's missile shield and Chinese efforts to build up its nuclear forces to defeat it.
The strengthening partnership concerns NASA and Washington for several reasons:
The Russian Space Agency already has a hard time completing crucial supply spacecraft for the International Space Station. Now it has committed to build spacecraft for China and help train Chinese astronauts, possibly leaving the space station grasping for seconds.
NASA has no ties with China, but shares technology and training principles with Russia to effectively operate the station from Moscow and Houston. Analysts suggest Russia could funnel that information to China.
Any improvements in Chinese rockets means more reliable and more threatening Chinese nuclear missiles.
"The Chinese space program is a military program using military hardware and overseen by the military," said Charles Vick, space policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation of American Scientists.
For now, NASA can only watch the growing relationship from afar. A March 2000 e-mail obtained by Florida Today through the Freedom of Information Act revealed one way NASA Administrator Dan Goldin is learning about the growing friendship between the massive neighbors. The document was obtained through an appeal process after NASA first denied its release.
"When I was in Moscow last week, there was a public announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov that Russia and China are negotiating a deal for Russia to develop a manned space craft for China, and for joint use of Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system," Jesco von Puttkamer said in his e-mail.
Von Puttkamer is a technical advisor for the space station and has been with NASA for more than three decades.
"Apparently, according to an RSC-Energia spokesman, RSC-E expects to play 'the leading role' in Russia's effort to help China's manned space program," he said.
Energia is the corporate side of the Russian Space Agency. It built and managed the Mir space station and builds the Soyuz and Progress capsules for space station Alpha.
China sought Russian help in 1995 to jumpstart its manned space program. The Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft is a larger version of the Russian Soyuz.
China wants to launch its first astronauts next year, then build a space station. The communist program also calls for an eventual moon base. The third unmanned test of the Chinese space capsule could launch within weeks.
Complicating things further is a tense relationship between Beijing and Washington that shows no signs of changing. Russia and China have condemned U.S. plans to build a missile defense system and have stepped up relations throughout the two governments. Both have pledged to build up and improve their own nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Human rights issues and China's refusal to stop selling ballistic missiles to other nations keeps NASA from inviting the Chinese into the space station program.
Australia-based China observer Steven Pietrobon said the relationship between Russia and China could mean more stability for the International Space Station.
"I don't think NASA should be perturbed, but NASA probably is," Pietrobon said. "If Russia can earn some money from the Chinese, this is good because this will give stability to a key partner in ISS."
NASA, however, will have to watch that Russia doesn't violate agreements by sharing American technology with Chinese scientists, he said.
"I guess how much NASA should worry would depend on how much NASA trusts Russia to maintain its agreements," Pietrobon said.
Russia has not reneged on a deal with NASA outright, but provoked an intense debate in April when it decided to fly American millionaire Dennis Tito to space station Alpha onboard a Soyuz rocket. NASA and the other project partners fought the flight, but Tito went anyway.
There should be no doubts that China is pursuing a manned space program largely to benefit its armed forces, analysts said. The Chinese government, which refused repeated interview requests, contends its space program is peaceful.
Vick said Chinese astronauts orbiting in a space station could make up for the country's lack of photographic spy satellites.
"I would expect them to be doing nothing else other than photo-reconnaissance and intelligence gathering," Vick said. "They will do some civilian and scientific work, that will be the front."
Rick Fisher, China analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Jamestown Foundation, said China's People's Liberation Army will look to the manned program to make its missiles and rockets more reliable and to test electronics that would be used in new spy satellites.
Aside from the obvious military threat, more reliable Chinese rockets mean increased competition for American aerospace companies like The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin. That could mean reduced business for Cape Canaveral.
The Chinese can sell their Long March rockets much cheaper than American companies, but the Asian launchers have been too unreliable or underpowered compared to their American counterparts.
The Long March 3, for example, could lift about the same payload as a Boeing Delta 2, but all three missions failed. The improved versions have enjoyed total success, but carry less than half the weight of other rockets.
That too is changing as China perfects its Long March 5, which it used to launch the unmanned tests of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
While the technology aspects are what concern NASA and the American government the most, Fisher said the impetus behind the Chinese surge is an attempt to prop up the ruling communist party.
"For its propaganda purposes, the manned space program is worth its weight in gold to the communist party," he said. "The manned space program is first and foremost a nationalist tool, which the communist party will use to strengthen its nationalistic credentials."
Statements from the Chinese government signal similar sentiments.
The government issued its space program blueprint in November 2000, showing the nation regards the effort much the way the Soviets and Americans saw their own during the Cold War: as an avenue to show off technical prowess.
"Now, China ranks among the most advanced countries in the world in many important technological fields," the Chinese government said.
The nation has built the Jiuquan launch center at the edge of the Gobi Desert complete with a smaller version of Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.
Though China talks about a lunar mission, observers don't expect one for at least 15 years. They are divided on whether such an attempt would signal a new space race with NASA.
Pietrobon said a Chinese moon flight is impossible until the Chinese develop a rocket similar to the Saturn 5 that carried Apollo astronauts.
"I don't see the U.S. twiddling its thumbs while Taikonauts are hopping around the moon's surface," he said. "This won't happen for awhile yet, (but) the Chinese are interested in the moon."
Fisher said it would be a surprise for the Chinese to reach the moon, and doubted anything less than a permanent Chinese moon base would cause concern to the rest of the world.
"We were there first, so who cares?" he said. "If China were to endeavor to put something more permanent on the moon, that would be very serious."
-------- u.s.
Rumsfeld Chides Pentagon Bureaucracy
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Rumsfeld-Pentagon.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday declared a war on bureaucracy in the Pentagon, saying he wants to combine some civilian and military staffs, cut duplicate positions in the military services and shift some jobs to the private sector.
In a Pentagon speech, Rumsfeld gave few specifics but said the changes are vital to saving every penny for modernizing the nation's military. The secretary argued that a bloated bureaucracy is nothing less than an adversary posing a serious security threat.
The Defense Department is composed of 1.4 million active duty men and women in uniform, another million in the National Guard and Reserves and about some 659,000 civilian employees.
``Today we declare war on bureaucracy, not people, but processes,'' Rumsfeld said, arguing the campaign is aimed at shifting ``Pentagon resources from the tail to the tooth.''
Rumsfeld gave no specific numbers for his vision of consolidation and savings in the Pentagon's $300 billion-plus budget.
The secretary pointed out that the Army, Navy and Air Force each have a general counsel's office, and that another exists to coordinate them all; that three separate commissary and exchanges systems exist to purchase supplies for the services, and that in the Navy, ``One out of every five officers is a physician.''
Each service also has a separate public affairs office and liaison organization to deal with Congress, he added.
``I have a feeling we don't need as many as we have,'' he said.
He said it was silly for the Defense Department to have its own employees doing payroll paperwork and housecleaning services that could be better done by the private sector.
Rumsfeld argued that private industry could not conduct business the way the government does and survive. The Pentagon must reform its financial information and computer information systems and close unneeded military bases, he said, in order to become more efficient.
``We must transform the way the department works,'' he said, adding he would require the Army, Navy and Air Force civilian service secretaries and other senior aides to conduct the cost-saving effort.
The defense secretary said Congress had mandated a 15 percent cut in the Pentagon's headquarters' staff by 2003, and that his moves were in part in response to that requirement.
``It's not just the law, it's a good idea, and we are going to get it done,'' Rumsfeld pledged.
He also said he intends to have the department submit revised legislation to Congress that would offer more flexible compensation and other incentives to keep military personnel on the job at the peak of their careers.
Rumsfeld said his effort would not be accomplished in the short term, or perhaps even during a potential eight-year span. Achieving change inside the Pentagon may be ``like turning a battleship,'' Rumsfeld said, but even ``a little bit of change goes a very long way.''
-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Wide-open states offer best conditions for wind power
Christian Science Monitor
Mon, 10 Sep 2001
From: "csmonitor.com" <freemail-support@csmonitor.com>
TODAY'S NEWS IN BRIEF
North Dakota and Texas are the states with the greatest energy potential from wind power, according to research by the American Wind Energy Association. It ranked states on such factors as wind consistency and speed. While today's windmills are taller, lighter, and more efficient than those built 20 years ago, challenges remain if they're to be profitable. Wind fluctuations can make turbine power less reliable, say engineers, with most windmills producing just a third of their potential when wind is intermittent. States with the greatest energy potential from wind power, according to American Wind Energy Association:
1. North Dakota
2. Texas
3. Kansas
4. South Dakota
5. Montana
6. Nebraska
7. Wyoming
8. Oklahoma
9. Minnesota
10. Iowa
Associated Press
-------- environment
Corps' chlorine dumps 'poisoning' park stream
September 10, 2001
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010910-77881600.htm
The Army Corps of Engineers twice discharged four times the legal limit of chlorine into a pristine national park stream in Maryland, according to documents obtained by The Washington Times.
While the discharges of chlorinated water violate state law, they do not violate the Corps' discharge permit issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, a spokesman said.
"Since this was brought to our attention, we have reminded them state law calls for less than 0.1 parts per million," Richard McIntire, environment department spokes-man, said Tuesday.
Mr. McIntire said the permit is "vague" in terms of allowable discharges. It is now under review by state officials after they were informed of the chlorine discharges by The Washington Times.
"Of course, it's a concern and recognized as a problem, and we will work to try and address it," Mr. McIntire said.
The Corps has repeatedly denied in interviews and in a letter to the editor that chlorine, which is toxic to fish, exists in the material it regularly dumps into area waterways.
"Our solids contain no human or industrial wastes, nor do they contain chlorine or chloramine," Col. Charles J. Fiala Jr., district engineer, said in an Aug. 31 letter to The Times.
However, tests performed by the Washington Aqueduct -- the public water-supply agency for the District of Columbia and parts of Northern Virginia that is owned and operated by the Corps of Engineers -- revealed otherwise. On Aug. 11, early morning testings showed chlorine levels as high as 0.54 milligrams per liter -- five times Maryland's legal standard -- flowing into Little Falls Branch in Montgomery County. An Aug. 18 reading showed chlorine at 0.45 milligrams per liter in the creek.
Tom Jacobus, chief of the Washington Aqueduct, said a failed pump both weekends resulted in thousands of gallons of treated water per minute discharging into the creek. He said chemicals to neutralize the chlorine were soon added.
Little Falls Branch, which runs through the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park and into the Potomac River, is nicknamed "stinky creek" by area fishermen who, along with a National Park Police officer, have reported overpowering chlorine odors in the creek for years.
A 1999 report filed by the park officer noted there was a "strong smell of chlorine" as far as 50 feet from the creek.
"There are days in the summertime when the chlorine smell is so overwhelming you would think someone is changing the water in their swimming poll as you pass by Little Falls Branch," said Gordon Leisch, a retired biologist for the Interior Department's office of environmental policy and compliance and a longtime area fisherman.
Rob Gordon, executive director of the National Wilderness Institute, said August was not the first time chlorine was included in discharges.
"Police have smelled it, fishermen have smelled it, there is no way this was a one-time occurrence," Mr. Gordon said. "This is a continuing poisoning of Little Falls Branch, which has left the creek devoid of life at the discharge point."
Mr. Jacobus said Aug. 31 that top officials at the Corps receive no reports of high chlorine content in the discharges.
"It was not reported to me or the chief of operations that there was any large chlorine readings that would draw attention for us to make a report," Mr. Jacobus said. "We don't believe there was a violation on that day to be reported, and I think we were in compliance based on the permit."
However, the data in the documentation showing chlorine above the legal standard were confirmed by the Corps.
The data show the first reading Aug. 11 took place at 6:30 a.m. with a chlorine level of 0.45 milligrams per liter. After a dechlorinating agent was added at 6:35 a.m., the level dropped to 0.02 milligrams per liter. Nearly an hour later, however, a reading showed the chlorine level again rose to 0.27 milligrams per liter and within 15 minutes jumped to 0.54 milligrams per liter -- five times the legal limit.
On Aug. 18, the morning reading again showed 0.45 milligrams per liter, then dropped to legal limits in testings conducted until noon.
Mr. Jacobus said the treated water "does contain chlorine," but that the "effect is negligible" once it enters the Potomac River.
The EPA requires discharged water to be dechlorinated because of the damage it inflicts on aquatic life.
"The purpose of chlorine is to kill things," said Alan Moghissi, retired EPA principal adviser for radiation and hazardous materials.
"You either have a law and abide by it, or you don't. Four or five times the limit is a little excessive," he said.
-------- spying
Documents Show CIA Spy Ideas
September 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Spy-Research.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Soviet-tracking psychics and cats wired as mobile eavesdropping platforms didn't work out so well. But CIA proposals for spy planes and satellites to peer on America's adversaries from above became resounding successes.
Recently declassified documents, released Monday by the National Security Archive, detail some of the successful -- and silly -- research of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology.
The CIA designed and operated spy satellites for years, until the separate National Reconnaissance Office took over many of those duties, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, a researcher with the archive and author of ``The Wizards of Langley,'' a book detailing the directorate's efforts. The directorate also developed the U-2 and A-12 spy planes. Another of its advances turned into an integral part of the pacemaker.
In the 1960s, under a program code-named Palladium, scientists trying to design stealthy aircraft figured out how to insert ghost planes on Soviet radar screens. Assisted by the National Security Agency, the CIA eavesdropped on Soviet radar operators and determined the sensitivity of particular Soviet radars.
While the CIA's scientific successes have become part of the U.S. inventory of spy techniques, its follies are notable as well, Richelson said.
Many of those have been previously documented in books about the CIA. The multiagency plan to use psychics -- called ``remote viewers'' -- to map Soviet military bases and 1950s research into interrogation drugs are well-known.
Another project, known as ``Acoustic Kitty,'' involved wiring a cat with transmitting and control devices, allowing it to serve as a mobile listening post.
A heavily redacted 1967 government memo released by the archive Monday suggests that cats can be altered and trained, but concludes the program wouldn't work.
``The program would not lend itself in a practical sense to our highly specialized needs,'' it says. ``The environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that, for our ... purposes, it would not be practical.''
In the first test of feline surveillance, the cat was run over by a taxi, according to Richelson.
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DOE is Extending the Public Scoping Period for the "Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement" on Scrap Metals Recycling - You Are Invited
From: "Picha, Kenneth" <Kenneth.Picha@em.doe.gov>
U.S. Department of Energy Announcement
Mon, 10 Sep 2001 15:47:57 -0400
DOE is Extending the Public Scoping Period for the "Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement" on Scrap Metals Recycling - You Are Invited to Attend a Public Scoping Meeting and/or Submit Comments
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced an extension to the scoping period for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that will evaluate policy alternatives for the disposition of scrap metals that may have residual surface radioactivity (66 Federal Register 46614, September 6, 2001 - searchable on the Internet at the following address: <http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/>).
The public scoping period for this PEIS has been extended to November 9, 2001 and four additional scoping meetings have been scheduled. DOE has previously conducted public scoping meetings in North Augusta, SC; Oak Ridge, TN; Oakland, CA; Richland, WA; Cincinnati, OH; and Arlington, VA. The schedule for completion of the Draft PEIS is also changed to March, 2002, and the Final PEIS to August, 2002.
The public is invited to comment on the scope of this PEIS, including the alternatives and significant environmental issues. Comments may be submitted in writing, through November 9, 2001, or at any of the public scoping meetings listed. An additional opportunity for public comment on the preliminary results of the impacts will be provided when the Draft PEIS is issued. Requests for further information should be submitted to addresses below.
Mr. Kenneth G. Picha, Jr. Office of Technical Program Integration, EM-22 ATTN: Metals Disposition PEIS Environmental Management Metals Disposition PEIS at 1000 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20585-0113
Email to: mailto:Metals.Disposition.PEIS@em.doe.gov
Fax to: 301-903-9770
Internet at:
http://www.em.doe.gov/smpeis
Schedule of Public Scoping Meetings
Oct 8 8-10pm
Ken Edwards Community Center.
1527 Fourth Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Oct 9 8-10pm
Simi Valley City Hall
2929 Tapo Canyon Road
Simi Valley, CA 93063
Oct 16 2-5pm and 8-10pm
Zurah Shrine Center
2540 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Oct 18 2-5pm and 8-10pm
American Conference Center
780 Third Avenue, C2
New York, NY 10017
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