------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
It would be worse than Chernobyl
U.S., China Fail to Resolve Missile Dispute
Demonstrators protest German nuke waste shipments
Bush remarks on ABM Treaty

MILITARY
Taliban hit in the north
Bin Laden Said to 'Own' The Taliban
Rebels Delay Move Against Kabul
Anthrax Dangerous, Difficult Weapon
China using terror war against separatists
Bush Watching Iraq Carefully, Calls Saddam Evil
Pakistan Grants Airfield Use
Governor Gets Support on Vieques Stance
U.S. vision for Kabul includes vital U.N. role
U.N. anticipates U.S. arrears check
Caves pose unusual challenge for Army
Military Overhaul Considered
Afghanistan's Distance From Carriers Limits U.S. Pilots' Flights
Pentagon Drops Bombs of All Sizes

OTHER
Australia A$30 mln biogas generator to start 2002
Energiekontor starts building wind park in Portugal
Mexico moves to bolster solar, wind and hydro power
US senators move to secure domestic energy sites
Lawmaker proposes $2 bln/yr to protect US energy
ENERGY LEGISLATION BLOCKED IN SENATE COMMITTEE

POLICE
Developing Countries Learn to Limit Chemical Risks
Rash of anthrax scares hits United States
FBI warns of new attacks in the U.S. or abroad
FBI says US water supplies logical attack target

ACTIVISTS
Against the current
Peace Activists Protest U.S. Attacks
Price-Anderson: ACT NOW!
AFSC organizes relief efforts
Indonesia and Pakistan crush protests
Indonesian Anti - US Protesters, Police Clash
THE TOP FIVE LIES ABOUT THIS WAR
A way to end terrorism
NIRS response to NRC info shutdown
Police photograph peace vigil crowd
Anti-war actions
Assault On Liberty
CCCO SUPPORTS AND PROMOTES RESISTANCE TO WAR
Important article about shutting down U.S. nuclear power plants
Analysis A war without witnesses
Bay Area Emergency Response to US Bombing Afghanistan



-------- NUCLEAR

It would be worse than Chernobyl

scotsman.com http://www.scotsman.com
Belapan news agency, Minsk, in Belarusian
11 Oct 01
BBC Monitoring

The Sellafield reprocessing plant - on a busy air corridor just 50 miles from Lockerbie - could be the 'perfect' target for terrorists in a hijacked aircraft. Kate Foster (kfoster@scotsman.com)

IF A hijacked airliner plunged into Sellafield's nuclear reprocessing complex, the radiation that followed could cause more than two million cancer cases and make some places uninhabitable, scientists have warned.

Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the impact would "almost certainly" break open some of the tanks containing high-level radioactive liquid waste, and the accompanying explosion would fling a plume of radioactivity into the atmosphere.

He said: "The explosion and the fire would just be the beginning. The burning fuel would continue to pump radioactivity into the air.

"Putting this fire out wouldn't be easy. Fire crews struggled to damp down the fire after the Pentagon crash on 11 September, and they didn't have deadly radiation to contend with.

"A crash of such magnitude would probably destroy the cooling systems, too," he added. "Tanks that survived the initial impact would heat up and start to spew out more radioactivity within hours."

The warning comes after fears were voiced that Britain's emergency services are under-equipped and under-resourced to cope with terror attacks and not properly trained to deal with the casualties of chemical or nuclear warfare.

Ministers responded to demands from firemasters with a £200 million package for emergency services, but fire sources have insisted that the biggest risk from terrorist attacks are nuclear or chemical installations.

Contingency plans are currently being reviewed but, according to the Fire Brigades Union in Scotland, resources for such specialist training have not been made available.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, an exclusion zone was set up around the plant and more than a quarter of a million people were resettled. Radiation spread so far that sheep in Wales still have to be tested to check they are safe to eat.

So far, 11,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been reported in the Ukraine and Belarus.

According to Mr Thompson, who has been investigating the high-level waste tanks for local authorities in Britain for the past five years, if a passenger jet were to plough into building B215 at Sellafield, which contains 21 concrete and steel waste tanks, as much as half of its 2,400kg of caesium-137 could escape into the air.

Reprocessing involves dissolving old fuel rods in acid and extracting the plutonium. The leftover liquid, which contains a mixture of wastes including caesium-137, is stored in the tanks in B215. It is so radioactive the tanks have to be cooled constantly to prevent their contents from boiling and leaking out.

Mr Thompson said: "The amount of caesium-137 that would be escape into the atmosphere is 44 times more than was released by Chernobyl."

He added: "Immediately after the attack, there would be widespread chaos as authorities tried to organise mass evacuations. In years to come, the death toll might be terrible."

In a statement, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) said: "Major nuclear facilities, including reactors and highly active waste stores, are constructed to extremely robust engineering standards and incorporate large quantities of reinforced concrete as an integral part of the construction.

"These facilities are resistant to many terrorist threats, including aircraft impact. Safety cases and contingency plans take these events into account."

But according to a safety report published last year, the 21 high-level waste tanks in B215 have not been constructed to withstand crashing planes.

It states: "There has been no specific design provision to protect against crashing aircraft."

John Large, an independent nuclear engineer, has identified seven potential terrorist targets at Sellafield, including the high-level waste tanks and a store containing 70 tonnes of plutonium. He said all their radioactive inventories are published, and aerial photographs showing their precise locations are easy to get hold of.

Mr Thompson says he is "disturbed" that Sellafield is storing so much high-level waste in such a dangerous form.

He said: "BNFL is meant to solidify the liquid waste into blocks of glass to make it safer, but technical problems are holding up the process."

Meanwhile, according to New Scientist, aviation sources have pointed out that every year thousands of large passenger jets fly along the coast near Sellafield, on their way from European airports to the west coast of the US.

Lockerbie, where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in 1988, is less than 50 miles away.

But, according to Mr Thompson, Sellafield is not the only possible target for a terror attack. There are similar storage facilities in several countries, including the US and Russia.

3.Ukraine extends no-fly zone over Chernobyl BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Oct 10, 2001 Text of report by Ukrainian Novyy Kanal television on 10 October

The director-general of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Vitaliy Tolstonohov, said today that should any plane appear in the sky above the Chernobyl area without warning, this will be regarded as a terrorist act. Closed airspace has now been extended far beyond the 30-km zone around the Chernobyl plant.

The closed plant will finally be put out of operation no sooner than the end of 2007. Thousands of units of nuclear fuel elements will have been stored there by that time. The plant chief made the following statement in order to calm the general public.

[Tolstonohov] The flights of any aircraft over the Chernobyl plant zone are prohibited, and I think that the air defence forces will have sufficient time to see to it that this plane is downed. Any unexpected penetration will be regarded as a terrorist act.

Source: Novyy Kanal television, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1600 gmt 10 Oct 01 /BBC Monitoring/ (c) BBC. World Reporter All Material

4.Belarus concerned about safety at Lithuanian nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Oct 11, 2001 Text of report by Belarusian news agency Belapan

Minsk, 11 October: In the wake of the terrorist acts committed in the USA on 11 September, the Republic of Belarus, which has suffered all the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster [in 1986], has expressed its concerns about the efficiency of protection and defence at the Ignalina nuclear power plant, which is located very close to the Belarusian state border, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Pavel Latushka told a regular briefing held at the ministry today.

The press secretary said that there was an active debate in Lithuania about the need to strengthen the protection and defence of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, noting that, despite statements issued by Lithuanian officials about the operation of the current air control system, the issue had not been actually settled. According to the press secretary, as of today, a number of questions remain unsettled between Belarus and Lithuania:

- concerning the order of crossing the state border by foreign aircraft;

- concerning establishing the order of mutual use of airspace by state aircraft;

- concerning the organization and implementation of exchange of air-defence-related information on aircraft flight over the border area and during the crossing of the state border.

"Considering this and taking into account the fact that an accident at the Ignalina power plant could pose a real threat to the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian side believes that Lithuania should take a more responsible and constructive approach in creating an efficacious system of control over airspace and in cooperating with its neighbours in the area of safety and defence at the Ignalina nuclear power plant," the press secretary stated.


-------- china

U.S., China Fail to Resolve Missile Dispute

October 11, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-china-usa.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China have failed to resolve a dispute over Beijing's alleged missile technology transfers to Pakistan, making it unlikely U.S. sanctions could be lifted in time for a U.S.-China leaders' meeting later this month, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

``There was basically no movement on the Chinese part,'' one U.S. official told Reuters after several days of talks concluded in Beijing.

Another official agreed the results of talks involving Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation Affairs John Wolf were ``disappointing.''

Officials said China could still act to allay U.S. concerns about missile technology transfers when Chinese President Jiang Zemin meets President Bush in Shanghai, but that seemed increasingly unlikely.

The sanctions, imposed last August, ``will not be lifted without change in China's behavior,'' one official said.

But officials said the issue also remains a subject of debate within the Bush administration.

Some officials, whom critics deride as ``China hands,'' were reluctant to impose the sanctions in the first place and are keen now to find a way to lift them in time for the Shanghai meeting.

The meeting occurs during a time when both governments are eager to give Sino-American relations a strong boost.

Beijing has impressed Washington with its willingness to support the U.S. anti-terror campaign following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trace Center and the Pentagon.

The sanctions issue is an awkward one because the United States recently lifted proliferation-related sanctions on Pakistan. Pakistan has become America's crucial frontline ally in the assault on Afghanistan, where Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, prime suspect behind the U.S. attacks, and his Islamic network are based.

CHINA COMMITTED TO PAKISTAN

China has increasingly made clear to the United States that it views its relationship with Pakistan as long-standing and integral to its security.

Congressional sources said they believe Beijing is committed to a military technology supply relationship with Pakistan, despite U.S. objections.

On leaving Beijing, Wolf described his visit as ``successful and productive,'' so presumably Bush and Jiang will have some other advances to point to when they meet in Shanghai on the fringes of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Wolf's trip had a main goal of trying to resolve the Pakistan missile issue, however.

The sanctions were imposed on the China Metallurgical Equipment Corp. for allegedly transferring ballistic missile technology to Pakistan in violation of a November 2000 agreement with the United States.

The penalties include a U.S. refusal to issue licenses to U.S. companies to launch satellites on Chinese rockets.

Last month, the number two official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said China conducted an extensive and thorough investigation of the sanctioned company and found the U.S. decision was not based on accurate intelligence.

He said China would reexamine the question if Washington put forward hard evidence and if sanctions were lifted first.

U.S. officials said in Beijing this week that Chinese officials had not denied there was a violation of the November 2000 agreement.

But they argued ``sanctions should be waived because they are promising that it (missile technology transfers) will not be a problem in the future,'' one U.S. official said.

The Chinese also agreed they would finally implement a stricter system of export controls promised last November ``once we (Americans) lift sanctions'' but the U.S. official dismissed the pledge as familiar ``rhetoric.''

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi Thursday on another matter and expressed U.S. ``disappointment'' over the missile talks.

-------- germany

Demonstrators protest German nuke waste shipments

Planet Ark
GERMANY: October 11, 2001
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12757/story.htm

HOENHEIM, France - Anti-nuclear demonstrators gathered yesterday to protest against the rail-based shipment of atomic waste from German nuclear power plants to a reprocessing site in northern France.

A Reuters reporter said about 50 people, including environmentalists and militant leftists, massed near Strasbourg but did not try to block trains carrying seven containers of radioactive waste to the plant in La Hague near Cherbourg.

The shipments passed Strasbourg, near the German border, at about 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT).

The operation had been scrapped twice at the request of the German government because of lack of police. This was the first shipment between Germany and France since the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States.

Anti-nuclear campaigners said it was irresponsible to transport nuclear waste when there was an increased risk of guerilla attacks.

-------- missile defense

Bush remarks on ABM Treaty
Transcript: Bush, in Press Conference, Decries Terrorist "Evildoers"

Washington File,
11 October 2001
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/topic/intrel&f=01101120.tpo&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

... Question (John King, CNN): I want to ask you, before the events of September 11th, one of the big questions you faced this fall was, would you violate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and go ahead with the missile defense plan if Russia did not strike a deal? Will you do that now because Russia's cooperation is so important?

President Bush: In terms of missile defense, I can't wait to visit with my friend, Vladimir Putin, in Shanghai, to reiterate once again that the Cold War is over, it's done with, and that there are new threats that we face; and no better example of that new threat than the attack on America on September 11th. And I'm going to ask my friend to envision a world in which a terrorist thug and/or a host nation might have the ability to develop -- to deliver a weapon of mass destruction via a -- via rocket. And wouldn't it be in our nation's advantage to be able to shoot it down? At the very least, it should be in our nation's advantage to determine whether we can shoot it down. And we're restricted from doing that because of an ABM Treaty that was signed during a totally different era. The case cannot be even -- the case is more strong today than it was on September 10th that the ABM is outmoded, outdated, reflects a different time. And I'm more than -- I am more than anxious to continue making my case to them. And we will do what's right in regards --

Question: If he does not agree with you, would you withdraw from the ABM Treaty this year?

President Bush: I have told Mr. Putin that the ABM Treaty is outdated, antiquated and useless. And I hope that he will join us in a new strategic relationship.

http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/topic/intrel&f=01101120.tpo&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Taliban hit in the north

October 11, 2001
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011011-73678908.htm

U.S. bombers yesterday pounded Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan for the first time and hit targets around Kabul as the opposition Northern Alliance was poised to move south from positions 20 miles outside the Afghan capital.

In some of the heaviest bombing to date, warplanes fired bombs and missiles on Kabul and other "targets of opportunity" around the country during a fourth day of air raids.

A senior Pentagon official said yesterday's strikes indirectly helped the opposition forces. But the military aim is to "alter the military balance" against the ruling Taliban.

Frontline Taliban troops north of Kabul have not yet been hit, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. attacks yesterday were limited to aircraft strikes by U.S. Air Force and Navy jets. No cruise missiles were fired.

"We're going after emerging targets," the senior official said.

The stepped-up bombing near Kabul followed the military gaining unchallenged control of the skies for U.S. and allied warplanes, and trailed earlier attacks on air-defense sites and airfields. The raids were targeted at terrorist groups, their leaders, and their supporters in the ruling Taliban militia.

As the strikes continued, officials said the Pentagon is planning in a later phase of the conflict to use helicopter gunships inside Afghanistan as part of the operations. The helicopters would hunt down terrorists at remote locations, although officials said their use is not imminent.

A second Pentagon official said it would be "some time" before offensive ground operations would begin.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that the war against terrorism may extend beyond Afghanistan to other nations.

"This is a campaign against al Qaeda and the al Qaeda network, which is located in many countries, and the head of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden," Mr. Powell said after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. "But it is also a campaign against terrorism, wherever it may exist in the world."

The first phase is aimed at al Qaeda and what can be "flushed out" of the terrorist network through combined efforts. "And if we also succeed in wiping out the leadership, that would be fine as well," Mr. Powell said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

In a break with past practice, the Pentagon held no briefings yesterday for reporters to discuss the day's military operations. A Pentagon statement said attacks on Tuesday hit six military targets. The bombing was carried out by up to eight land-based bombers and up to 10 U.S. Navy warplanes.

"The broad category of targets struck included airfields, air defense sites and infrastructure of the al Qaeda terrorist organization," the statement said. "This included a re-strike on a garrison near Mazar-e-Sharif."

Defense officials also said U.S. bombers hit targets near the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold where the militia's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, lives.

A U.S. official said two of the mullah's relatives died in U.S. bombing raids Sunday. The official said both bin Laden and Mullah Omar are believed to be alive inside Afghanistan.

From Kandahar, Mullah Omar yesterday called on the world's Muslims to help Afghanistan resist the raids.

"Muslims should dissociate from it. Every Muslim, having a strong faith, should resolutely act against the egoistic power" of America, he told the BBC's Pashto-language service. "They should extend any help and support they can to" Afghanistan.

It was the first comment by the reclusive spiritual leader since the raids began Sunday night. The tape might have been made to show him still alive.

Most fellow Muslim states have reacted tepidly to the calls, with the Organization of the Islamic Conference issuing a communique yesterday that fell far short of what the Taliban might have hoped for.

The statement condemned the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the United States as contrary to Islam and a blow to Arab causes. The organization, meeting in Qatar, "expressed its concern that confronting terrorism could lead to casualties among innocent civilians in Afghanistan" but did not explicitly condemn the U.S.-led bombings.

Reports from Afghanistan also said that loud explosions rocked areas near the Kabul airport north of the city as well as areas near the western sectors of Rishkore and Kargah. Afghan authorities swiftly cut electricity, plunging the city into darkness.

"We are just waiting, hearing the explosions here and there and hoping they do not come any closer," said one resident.

Following a second wave of attacks, huge blasts were heard near the airport, and also to the east and south. After a lull of around an hour, a third strike began. "This was much worse the worst yet," said one witness.

Those areas north and west of Kabul are known to have training camps for terrorists associated with bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization.

Defense officials said the Pentagon is preparing to use new precision-guided 5,000-pound bombs against underground facilities and caves believed to be used as redoubts by bin Laden. Plans also call for dropping cluster bombs that spread smaller bomblets against moving targets and concentrations of troops.

Daoud Mir, a spokesman for the armed Afghan opposition group known as the Northern Alliance, said the group's forces have been holding off its attacks while U.S. bombings are under way. But the group, located some 20 miles north of Kabul, is prepared to take the capital.

Some 1,800 Taliban fighters have deserted and joined the Northern Alliance "with weapons, ammunition, everything" in the past 24 hours, said Abed Nadjib, the alliance representative in Berlin.

In a helicopter assault, U.S. special-operations forces are expected to use UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters in any operations against al Qaeda in Afghanistan, along with AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, U.S. officials said.

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk is en route to waters near Afghanistan; defense officials said it will be used as a floating base for special-operations forces.

Air drops of packaged meals also were carried out in an effort to aid starving Afghan refugees located in the southern part of the country. Meanwhile yesterday, the United Nations resumed food deliveries into Afghanistan with the dispatch of 40 trucks carrying 1,000 tons of wheat.

The trucks were expected to cross the border early today and head for Kabul, the Afghan capital, said Michael Huggins, World Food Program spokesman in Peshawar, Pakistan.

• Rowan Scarborough contributed to this report, which is based in part on wire service reports.

--------

Bin Laden Said to 'Own' The Taliban
Bush Is Told He Gave Regime $100 Million

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40211-2001Oct10.html

Osama bin Laden has provided an estimated $100 million in cash and military assistance to the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan over the last five years, making bin Laden the single greatest supporter of the Afghan regime, according to intelligence information presented recently to President Bush and his senior national security advisers.

As a result of the new information, government sources said, the CIA has concluded that bin Laden "owns and operates" the Taliban, highlighting the pervasive influence that bin Laden and his al Qaeda forces exert within Afghanistan. Bin Laden's military units also provide the Taliban with some of its most committed and effective assault forces.

The sources add that a key component of the U.S. war on terrorism -- drying up bin Laden's sources of money -- is designed to drive a wedge between the Taliban and bin Laden in addition to reducing the funding available to bin Laden for future terrorist attacks.

Four days into the U.S. airstrike campaign, meanwhile, locating bin Laden in the mountainous Afghan terrain remains problematic. Some intelligence reports say bin Laden still changes locations frequently, at times using an ambulance as cover -- all under the protection of the Taliban militia. They say he often spends the night in natural or man-made caves located in mountains. "It's like chasing one particular rabbit in the entire state of West Virginia," one official said.

The CIA has been developing some imaginative and novel -- and even risky -- techniques to pin down his location, the sources said. "The problem," one official said, "is that we get where he was, rather than where he will be."

Tens of millions of the $100 million provided by bin Laden to the Taliban since he arrived in Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996 has been directly traced to bin Laden entities through banking and other transfers, sources said. Bin Laden, 44, a member of an extended Saudi family, received a personal inheritance of $30 million when his father died in a plane crash in 1968, according to U.S. officials. But sources said the money he has been providing to the Taliban does not come from his personal fortune. The money bin Laden has funneled to the Taliban comes from three primary sources: legal and illegal businesses or front companies bin Laden operates directly or indirectly; tribute payments he receives from several Persian Gulf states, companies or individuals that give him funds so he and his al Qaeda supporters will stay out of or minimize activities in their countries; and entities that are masked as charities.

One senior source said the United States already has some evidence that one of bin Laden's key lieutenants is starting to hurt for money as a result of the financial squeeze put on by the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But another source said the administration does not expect any near-term impact from the efforts to dry up bin Laden's financial support, because his financial network is so large and because expenses for operating al Qaeda are generally low.

In the past al Qaeda operatives have often held low-paying jobs or resorted to petty crime to finance their expenses.

"There is going to be no instant gratification," the source said.

Bin Laden has also given the Taliban military equipment, training and some of his best fighters for the battle against the Northern Alliance, the opposition coalition trying to topple the Taliban. When bin Laden first moved to Afghanistan from Sudan, he gave the fledgling Taliban militia $3 million at a critical time in the country's civil war, and he was closely involved in the Taliban's subsequent ascent to power.

The Taliban's protection and shelter for bin Laden have been a key reason U.S. intelligence and military forces have not been able to locate him.

Members of the Taliban often travel in bin Laden's retinue, according to U.S. officials. They say U.S. intelligence has information that he often uses decoy caravans when he switches locations and frequently gathers women and children around him, increasing the possibility that a U.S. attack on him could result in the killing or wounding of innocent civilians.

Bin Laden's entourage is small, 25 people or fewer, sources said. He has no headquarters, though U.S. intelligence identified the location of a house he no longer uses. Satellite photography of the Afghan mountains presents even experienced photo interpreters with a daunting task because, as one senior official put it, "One Afghanistan mountain looks like every other Afghanistan mountain."

U.S. intelligence has few, if any, good human sources in Afghanistan, and information that comes through various tribes or factions generally turns out to be unreliable. Said one senior administration official, "It's a treacherous country with treacherous people who buy and sell loyalties." U.S. intelligence agencies believe bin Laden's videotaped remarks released Sunday shortly after the U.S. airstrikes began were recorded at least several days earlier. The tape apparently had been pre-positioned with the Qatar-based al-Jazeera news network with instructions or an agreement that it should not be made available until the bombing began.

While he was in Sudan from 1991 to 1996, bin Laden played much the same role with the government in Khartoum as he does now in Afghanistan.

During his years in Sudan, bin Laden provided "some direct financial support to the government," a senior intelligence official said yesterday. He also contributed funds to the Military Industrial Corporation, a collection of industrial companies run by the military regime to support the defense industry in Sudan.

Bin Laden's aid to the Sudanese military gained his al Qaeda operatives assistance from Sudan's army and its intelligence arm in the transportation of weapons to other countries.

Given bin Laden's pattern in Sudan and Afghanistan over the past decade, one senior administration official said a central U.S. strategy can be reduced to four words: "Dry up the money."

Staff writer Walter Pincus and researcher Jeff Himmelman contributed to this report.

--------

Rebels Delay Move Against Kabul
Devising Plan for New Government in Afghanistan Becomes Priority

By Peter Baker, Molly Moore and Kamram Khan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 11, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40263-2001Oct10.html

JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan, Oct. 10 -- Afghan opposition forces said today they have agreed to delay a crucial offensive to take control of Kabul until an interim government can be established to replace the ruling Taliban regime, a decision that could prolong military action in Afghanistan for weeks.

The guerrilla commanders of the Northern Alliance postponed an assault on the capital after negotiations with U.S. and international officials who fear chaos and bloodshed if rebel warlords seize the city before a functioning government or security forces are in place.

In a bid to forestall any advance by the rebels into Kabul, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, the United States and Britain are holding off aerial bombardments against the thousands of Taliban and Arab troops arrayed in defensive lines on the plains north of the capital. Instead, the U.S. and British warplanes and missiles are attacking airfields, artillery batteries and other targets to assist the Northern Alliance in capturing key northern and eastern Afghan cities.

Airstrikes against the forces around Kabul -- including an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Arab troops financed and armed by accused terrorist Osama bin Laden -- would be necessary before any offensive toward the capital, which lies 25 miles to the south of the rebel front line, the officials said. "U.S. forces have not targeted Taliban artillery and other military hardware positioned around Kabul," said one Pakistani military official. "Hitting the Taliban artillery now [would] mean giving the Northern Alliance a walkover."

The decision to temporarily allow Taliban fighters to retain their positions defending Kabul underscores how the U.S.-British military campaign has moved far ahead of efforts to organize a post-Taliban government. "There is no credible political plan," said one official involved in preparations for a post-Taliban government. "Everyone wants to avoid a replay of the civil war. It's the one thing they remember being worse than the Taliban."

The U.S. government has been under intense pressure from Pakistani officials and U.N. authorities to prevent the Northern Alliance from capturing the Afghan capital and effectively claiming control of the country before an interim government and security can be arranged, according to officials in the Pakistani and U.S. governments and at the United Nations.

The interim government might grow out of a summit to be convened in the rebel-controlled Panjshir Valley. The meeting would be aimed at forging a new accord on how to govern Afghanistan, a process that will inevitably require difficult compromises among competing ethnic, political and military factions. The summit would include the often-fractious guerrillas of the Northern Alliance, who plunged Afghanistan into a civil war in the early 1990s that took more than 50,000 lives.

"We want to, at first, create the core of a government," said Abdullah Rakhim, a regimental rebel commander eager to lead the way to Kabul. "After they've agreed between themselves, only at that point are we really in a proper position to attack. That way there will be order in Kabul when we seize the city."

Rebel commanders had planned to wait until several days of U.S. airstrikes weakened the Taliban hold on Kabul, and perhaps even prompted Taliban fighters to flee, then head to the capital in triumph. Asked on Monday if the rebels would move on Kabul within a week, Abdullah, a top official of the Northern Alliance, said, "This is quite probable, this is quite possible."

But rebel commanders were told on Tuesday that in fact it was not likely as long as the political question was unresolved. Rakhim learned from his superior that the plan had changed. "I'm asking the same questions to my main commander -- why aren't we attacking Kabul?" Rakhim said today. "And he said, for now, we need to wait for the conference."

The delay could be several weeks. Logistical difficulties have proved daunting. Many of the representatives to participate in talks on Afghanistan's future have been stuck in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, because the weather has grounded helicopters. Some delegates finally set off by car over the treacherous roads of the Hindu Kush mountains, an arduous multi-day journey.

Afghanistan has been torn apart by ethnic and tribal warfare since the Soviets abandoned their ill-fated occupation in 1989, and all previous attempts to create a lasting government with broad support among the competing clans have ended in failure and bloodshed.

Ethnic Pashtuns, who make up about 40 percent of the population and dominate the Taliban, are reluctant to simply surrender power to ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, who are prominent in the north. It remains unclear whether any summit or interim government would include representatives of the Pashtun.

Northern Alliance leaders have acknowledged the concerns of the United States, and promised not to seize power only for themselves if the Taliban regime falls, but to try to create a broad interim coalition and then hold elections, perhaps in two years. The alliance sent a delegation to Rome to meet with former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, who was deposed in 1973 and lived in exile ever since, as well as other key leaders of the Afghan diaspora. The king's representatives will participate in the upcoming conference, called a supreme council, involving 120 delegates. The council might call a loya jirga, or grand assembly, to formally resolve the makeup of a future government.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials are vociferously urging the United States to prevent the Northern Alliance from taking over Kabul. Pakistan, which helped finance, arm and train the Taliban militia, opposes any role in the new government for the alliance, which is financed and supplied by Iran and Russia, longtime adversaries of Pakistan.

"We know that those alliance chaps are just awaiting a go-ahead signal from the U.S.," said one Pakistani military official. "We have told the Americans that a Northern Alliance victory over Kabul would place our policy shift on Afghanistan in flux."

To counter the influence of the Northern Alliance, the Pakistani government is cooperating with U.S. intelligence officials in attempting to identify moderate Taliban leaders and southern Afghan tribal leaders who might be willing to trade their Taliban loyalties for large sums of money and a role in a future government, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in a dramatic purge, has reversed Pakistan's sponsorship and support of the Taliban. In the last four days, Musharraf has dismissed his intelligence chief and replaced five of the military's nine influential corps commanders in an effort to oust leaders sympathetic to the Taliban.

"An overthrow of the present Taliban regime in Afghanistan is now an ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence agency] objective," said one Pakistani intelligence official. "There is no doubt that the ISI now wants Mullah [Mohammad] Omar and his cronies to go."

Rebel troops have made some advances in other parts of the country in the days since the U.S. assault began, even as the Kabul front lines remained unchanged. Perhaps the most significant was the defection of local fighters who control the main road used by the Taliban to supply its fighters in the north.

The commander who led the mass desertion said in an interview today that more would soon follow. Nuridin Ahmady said he brought about 35 commanders and 1,000 men with him from the Taliban side, believing that the government had sold out to foreigners such as Pakistan. Ahmady, 28, said he first contacted the Northern Alliance about switching two months ago, 21 days after the Taliban killed his brother.

Ahmady's decision in effect allows the Northern Alliance to cut the main Taliban supply route and help it link isolated forces that have been fighting in different parts of the country for years. In the next two or three days, Ahmady said, he would begin moving his troops in an effort to provide a bridge for separate alliance units in the center of the country.

He also predicted that 25 other commanders, along with 800 or 900 troops in nearby areas, would abandon the Taliban for the Northern Alliance in the next few days.

"They all want to come over to the other side," he said.

Among the Taliban fighters he left behind, he noted, there is only increasing disarray. "They can't do anything," he said. "Why can't they do anything? Because all the people and all the countries in the world are against them. They don't have any strength. They're very scared."

Moore reported from Islamabad and Khan from Karachi, Pakistan.

-------- biological weapons

Anthrax Dangerous, Difficult Weapon

October 11, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Anthrax-Threat.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Anthrax generally is fatal if inhaled and not treated promptly, but it isn't particularly easy to use effectively as a weapon, the commander of the Army's lead biological defense lab told Congress on Thursday.

Although anthrax spores can be sprayed from crop-dusters, ``It's not as simple as it's made out to be in the newspapers,'' Col. Edward Eitzen testified before the House Intelligence terrorism and homeland security subcommittee.

``The old-timers from the old offensive program back before 1970 tell us that these particles tend to stick together,'' Eitzen said. ``So there are certain additives that are required ... to make the particles not clump. If they clump, they'll just fall to the ground, and they won't provide a good aerosol.''

Although Eitzen, who heads the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., was testifying at an open hearing, he said: ``It really bothers me sometimes when things like this are talked about in the open press, because it's almost like giving the terrorists a road map of what they need to do.''

``You want to stop there and not do that,'' said Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., whose questions had elicited the earlier answers.

Eitzen then refused to say which countries are thought to have experimented with bioterrorism weapons.

But Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., pointed out that the Defense Department openly lists them on its Web site: Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Laos, Libya, North Korea, Russia, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

It was not the only time the question of inadvertently helping the enemy arose during the hearing.

Reps. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., and Gary Condit, D-Calif., asked other witnesses whether former uniformed military leaders and government security experts were saying too much on network TV about the war on terror.

``I've had about enough of it,'' said Richard Allen, a former national security adviser now on the Defense Policy Board, which advises the secretary of defense. ``I do agree that they enlighten the public,'' he said, but there seems to be ``excess revelations of what we have in place and how a piece of equipment works.'' It would be better if Osama bin Laden were left wondering about such things, Allen said.

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who now appears regularly on ABC, rejected the criticism.

``There is a lot of self-censorship,'' he said. ``There's an immense amount of just plain noise. We almost always exaggerate the effectiveness of the weapons systems'' and sketch out every possible contingency plan, all in two- or three-minute reports.

The end result is confusion, he said.

People in the Taliban ``in charge of trying to monitor all the images coming out, ... they probably would have gone stark raving mad,'' said Cordesman, a former official at the Defense and State departments.

Retired Army Gen. George Joulwan, former Allied commander in Europe now working for the Fox News Channel, said he knows nothing about details of the military operations.

``I have purposely kept myself away from those who are running these operations so I don't give out any classified information,'' Joulwan said. ``I don't try to get into equipment stuff.'' Instead, he focuses on broader strategy matters, trying to educate people from his experience on ``why we need patience to allow the system to work.''

On the Net:
Defense Department anthrax site: http://www.anthrax.osd.mil/
House Intelligence Committee terrorism panel: http://intelligence.house.gov/terrorism.htm

-------- china

China using terror war against separatists

October 11, 2001
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/nobyline-2001101194436.htm

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- China on Thursday began a campaign against Muslim separatists operating in the region near the Afghan border and made it clear that it will push to have them grouped with organizations being targeted in the ongoing war against terrorism.

"We believe that our fight against the East Turkistan terrorists is also part and parcel of the international effort to combat terrorists," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said.

"We have strong evidence that the East Turkistan elements have not only participated in terrorist activities but they also have links with international terrorist groups," Sun said.

He declined to say what groups they were linked with or what countries they may be operating in.

Ethnic Uighur separatists in China's northwestern Xinjiang province have long waged a low-key struggle for an independent state they call East Turkistan. Beijing has blamed the separatists for bombings and other incidents in recent years that they call terrorist acts.

Analysts have speculated that China would use the international war against terror for a new crackdown on the Turkic speaking Uighurs and arrests in the region have increased significantly since the Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Beijing has cautiously supported international efforts to combat terrorism recently but has made it clear that it will seek international legitimacy in defining its own separatist groups as terrorists.

"In activities to combat terrorists I believe the international community should strengthen cooperation," Sun said, adding that "there should be no double standard in this regard. Harsh measures should be taken to crack down on them since they are a global scourge."

China recently closed its small border with Afghanistan and the Chinese government has confirmed reports of troop reinforcement along the Afghan and Pakistani borders, both of which are in Xinjiang.

Beijing has for years been the target of international criticism by human rights groups and the United States for its limiting of religious freedom and heavy-handed tactics in Xinjiang.

"I would like to remind you of one thing; (suspected terrorist mastermind Osama) bin Laden calls himself a freedom fighter," Sun said when asked about how the international community views the separatist groups in Xinjiang.

"I think as long as those people engage in terrorist activities like bombings, assassination, poisoning, kidnapping and robbery so as to achieve their purpose, they belong to the category of terrorists."

-------- iraq

Bush Watching Iraq Carefully, Calls Saddam Evil

October 11, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-bush-iraq.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday he was watching Iraq ``very carefully'' and President Saddam Hussein should allow international weapons inspectors back in his country.

Speaking at a news conference, Bush called Saddam ``an evil man.'' But he sidestepped a question about whether he might widen the U.S. war on terrorism that began on Sunday with air strikes on Afghanistan to include countries like Iraq or Syria, which the United States has long accused of sponsoring terrorism.

``There's no question that the leader of Iraq is an evil man. After all, he gassed his own people. We know he's been developing weapons of mass destruction,'' Bush said.

``And I think it's in his advantage to allow inspectors back in his country to make sure that he's conforming to the agreement he made after he was soundly trounced in the Gulf War. And so we're watching him very carefully,'' he added.

Bush's father, former President George Bush, led an international coalition to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War but chose not to pursue the battle all the way to Baghdad, leaving Saddam in power.

Under an agreement reached at the end of the war, international weapons inspectors were allowed to scour Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. But they have not been allowed in the country since December 1998, when the United States and Britain launched four days of air strikes against Iraq.

Bush was circumspect when asked if he thought the American people would accept widening the war on terrorism

to include nations like Iraq and Syria. ``Our focus is on Afghanistan and the terrorist network hiding in Afghanistan right now,'' he said.

The United States on Sunday began bombing Afghanistan because of its Taliban rulers' refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, whom Washington believes masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Some Bush aides have argued for strikes against Iraq and Washington took the unusual step earlier this week of telling Baghdad it would pay a heavy price if it took advantage of the crisis surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

While saying that his focus was on Afghanistan, Bush said the United States was also looking for cells of bin Laden's al Qaeda group around the world and, as a first step, would ask foreign governments to move against them.

Saying he foresaw a long war against terrorism, Bush added: ''Not only will we seek out and bring to justice individual terrorists who cause harm to people -- to murder people -- we will also bring to justice the host governments that sponsor them, that house them and feed them.''

-------- pakistan

Pakistan Grants Airfield Use;
U.S. Pounds Taliban Bunkers
Bush Releases List Of the 22 Most Wanted Terrorists

By Alan Sipress and Molly Moore
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 11, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40265-2001Oct10.html

Pakistan has significantly deepened its involvement in the U.S.-led air campaign in neighboring Afghanistan by allowing American forces to begin using a pair of airfields, and a senior Pakistani military official said yesterday hundreds of troops have already moved in.

As U.S. warplanes increasingly turned their fury on the Taliban leadership, U.S. and Pakistani defense officials said Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had given permission for U.S. forces to begin operating from a commercial airport in Baluchistan province and a small military airfield in Sindh province.

These forces, the first U.S. troops in Pakistan, will bolster an air campaign that yesterday waged the most concentrated attack so far on the Afghan capital, Kabul.

In the fourth day of airstrikes, American aircraft also pounded the seat of Taliban leadership in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, in particular targeting underground bunkers that U.S. commanders hoped to demolish with 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs first used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"You use it when you want the earth to shake, when you want to have a real effect," a defense official said. The air assault also targeted troop garrisons and troop concentrations near Kabul and Kandahar. Military vehicles and maintenance shops were also attacked.

Bush administration officials, meanwhile, launched another front in their drive against terrorism, releasing a list of the 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, including Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, accused in last month's terrorist attacks, and other militants accused of involvement in previous assaults on U.S. embassies and military personnel. For the first time since Sept. 11, law enforcement officials publicly extended their effort to include suspected terrorists beyond those implicated in the attacks on New York and Washington.

Defense Department officials said that U.S. airplanes continued to drop food into Afghanistan, but the administration acknowledged yesterday that the airdrops would do little to save about 1.5 million Afghans who are at risk of starvation by the end of winter.

A defense official also said the first American death during the military campaign occurred Tuesday when a serviceman in Qatar, home to a base used by the U.S. Air Force, was killed in a forklift accident. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command confirmed a casualty but declined to comment further.

During the last month, the United States has pressed Pakistan to sever its long-standing ties with the Taliban militia that rules most of Afghanistan and provide support for a military campaign, for instance by offering intelligence and overflight rights. The Pakistani government, however, has resisted becoming too closely intertwined in the military operations, fearing a backlash among influential officers in the security forces and Taliban sympathizers in the public.

But Pakistani officials acknowledged yesterday they had crossed a threshold by allowing the United States to use the air bases. More than 200 Americans had already arrived at each of the airfields, the senior Pakistani official said.

Officials in Pakistan said U.S. troops at the two air bases would be involved in providing emergency support and rescue capabilities for other forces inside Afghanistan, though a U.S. Defense Department official signaled that much more extensive operations were envisioned for those forces.

"We have been told that the airport would be used as a standby facility for a ground action by the U.S. Special Forces," said a senior Pakistani official reached by telephone in the coastal city of Pasni in Baluchistan, located in western Pakistan not far from the Afghan border.

Officials in Pasni and the town of Jacobabad, in Sindh province in southern Pakistan, said the U.S. logistics forces that arrived yesterday were erecting the infrastructure needed for U.S. military operations. Both airports offer little more than small strips for small and medium-sized commercial aircraft and basic radar equipment, officials said.

A U.S. official sounded a note of caution, saying it may be difficult to protect U.S. servicemen at the airport in Jacobabad because it is in an urban area. Military officials worry about placing U.S. troops near large population centers in Pakistan that may be home to anti-American militants.

Pakistani army and naval forces have been assigned to both airports to provide security for the U.S. operations, officials said.

The heavy bombs used over the last two days against deeply buried Taliban leadership targets were dropped by B-2 bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. At the base, Brig. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, told reporters that six B-2s flew to their targets, then continued to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, where fresh crews took over for the return flights to Whiteman. The 44-hour combat missions were the longest in history, he said.

The Pentagon also reported that U.S. airplanes on Tuesday had struck a troop garrison outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif for the second time since the campaign started.

Even with the increased focus on troop concentrations, the U.S. offensive has avoided the total assault on Taliban forces and troops from bin Laden's al Qaeda network that the opposition Northern Alliance has sought. The rebel coalition is seeking the strikes to clear the way for a military victory against the Taliban.

Bush administration officials said they remain wary of handing a military advantage to just one group in Afghanistan's fractious political mix. "For us to be perceived as supporting only the Northern Alliance wouldn't be smart," a defense official said. "Throwing our weight too obviously and overtly in favor of the alliance might achieve a near-term goal, but in the long term, it could lead to more instability in Afghanistan."

At the White House, President Bush reviewed the military operations with NATO Secretary General George Robertson. NATO last month invoked the collective defense clause of its charter, calling the Sept. 11 attacks an aggression against all 19 alliance members.

Bush thanked Robertson for a deployment of five NATO-owned AWACS surveillance aircraft to the United States to cover for American aircraft dispatched to Afghanistan.

"This has never happened before, that NATO has come to help defend our country. But it happened in this time of need, and for that, we're grateful," Bush said.

In recent days, U.S. officials raised with their NATO counterparts in Brussels the prospect of replacing American troops that might be shifted from peacekeeping missions in the Balkans to the front in Afghanistan. Robertson told reporters and editors at The Washington Post yesterday that he questioned the wisdom of substituting forces from other alliance countries for U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo.

"What I don't want it to look like is first of all the United States getting out of the Balkans," he said. "We want to avoid the signal that . . . only American troops will go to the front lines."

While airstrikes continued against Afghanistan, the international investigation into terrorist networks has progressed with suspects arrested or detained for questioning in 23 countries, State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said. He declined to name specific countries but said 10 were in Europe, seven in the Middle East, four in Africa and one each in Latin America and East Asia.

He added that 112 countries, including the United States, had taken steps to choke off the funding of terrorist groups by freezing assets, reviewing accounts and modifying banking regulations.

The State Department, meanwhile, has taken additional measures to protect the far-flung U.S. diplomatic corps and their fellow workers by instructing all embassies to stockpile at least a three-day supply of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in case of anthrax attacks, Boucher said.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice took the unusual step yesterday of contacting the executives of five television networks to urge them to refrain from airing videotaped statements by bin Laden and his lieutenants. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration fears the tapes may include hidden instructions to bin Laden followers to launch additional attacks -- or at a minimum represent propaganda "of a most insidious nature."

The television executives responded that they would screen any videotapes before airing them.

Taliban leader Mohammad Omar, in his first public comment since the airstrikes began Sunday, called on the world's Muslims to rally to Afghanistan's cause and resist the U.S.-led attack. "Every Muslim, having a strong faith, should resolutely act against the egoistic power [America]," he said in a recorded message supplied to the Voice of America and the BBC.

In Kabul, eight relief workers detained by the Taliban for more than a month were seen by their lawyer, Ali Khan, who told U.S. officials in Islamabad that they appeared well and "extremely happy" to see him. He delivered personal items, clothing, blankets and letters sent to the two Americans by their parents.

Moore reported from Islamabad. Staff writers Bradley Graham, Thomas E. Ricks and Steven Mufson in Washington, and special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

-------- puerto rico

Governor Gets Support on Vieques Stance

By Judy Sarasohn
The Washington Post
Thursday, October 11, 2001; Page A31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40540-2001Oct10.html

Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon met with Vieques protest leaders earlier this week and won at least grudging support of her efforts to end the Navy's use of the island of Vieques for bombing exercises. She's in a particularly difficult situation now with lawmakers and defense officials arguing that Vieques is needed more than ever for training as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Calderon supports the Bush administration's proposal to scrap the November referendum on stopping the exercises and to impose a May 3, 2001, exit date for the Navy. But if Congress doesn't include a firm date in the defense authorization legislation, she would oppose killing the referendum.

According to the San Juan Star, Robert Rabin, one of the protest leaders, said they were now satisfied with Calderon's explanation of her efforts to press the Bush administration. "Without being more specific," the newspaper reported, "the governor explained that Republican lobbyists working for the Puerto Rican government had [been] actively advancing the government's position in the White House, said Rabin."

But some of the protesters have been critical of Calderon's lobbyists. One of those protesters is Jose Paralitici, head of All Puerto Rico With Vieques Committee, who was a key supporter of Calderon during her campaign. He wrote her Aug. 26 about an earlier meeting he had with her when he "emphasized the necessity to increase and to make more efficient the lobbying efforts of the government with the White House of President Bush."

Paralitici wrote that he did not want "to take away their merits," but he was critical of your "lobbyists Charlie Black and others." He proposed the hiring of Republicans Carlos Rodriguez, a California Republican, who Paralitici said is a close friend of Bush adviser Karl Rove and lobbyist Gerald Solomon, a former Republican House member from New York.

"There is 'access' and then there is access," Paralitici wrote.

He may be unhappy with Charles Black Jr., a Republican strategist and chairman of BKSH & Associates , but Black does have access with Rove and others in the Bush administration. His lobby shop helped organize Calderon's meetings in Washington earlier this year, including one with Josh Bolton, Bush's deputy chief of staff.

The governor's office wasn't able to comment in time for this column. But Black hasn't lost his client.

Vieques "hasn't been a major lobbying assignment of mine," said Black, who previously defined lobbying as working Congress.

He said the Vieques protesters haven't been fair to Calderon, who "has stood fast under a lot of pressure."

And Black noted about Paralitici, "He's not my client." Law Firm Expands Its Horizons

The law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has formed an international consulting company to expand its reach into "international business, government and public affairs strategies and solutions."

Pure congressional lobbying would still be done by Manatt, Phelps, but the new subsidiary, Manatt Jones Global Strategies, would work the governmental agencies side and provide advice on government policy for its clients, said Charles T. Manatt, a former ambassador to the Dominican Republic and former Democratic National Committee chairman.

Manatt Jones will also help solve business problems in foreign markets and help foreign companies navigate in the United States and in other countries.

"A lot of U.S. clients are much more world-oriented than they were a few years ago," Manatt said.

Co-chairing the subsidiary with Manatt is his partner James R. Jones , former Democratic member of the House from Oklahoma, ambassador to Mexico from 1993 to 1997 and former CEO of the American Stock Exchange. Jones is chief executive of Manatt Jones.

Also on board: Irwin Altschuler, who has led the law firm's international trade practice; Maurice Sonnenberg, a former member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; Gordon Bava, co-chairman of law firm; Eric Farnsworth, a foreign policy adviser in the Clinton administration; Susan Schmidt, a career State Department official; Steven White; and Victoria Ying Jin. APCO Worldwide Taps Bipartisan Counselors

APCO Worldwide recently signed up a bipartisan group of "senior counselors" -- basically folks who aren't leaving their day jobs but will work on client issues on an as-needed basis.

On the Democratic side: Stuart E. Eizenstat, a partner at the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling, and Dick Swett , a former two-term congressman for New Hampshire and ambassador to Denmark. Eizenstat served as deputy secretary of the Treasury, under secretary of state and ambassador to the European Union in the Clinton administration. Swett has his own international consultancy.

On the Republican side: public relations veteran Peter Hannaford, who had long ties to former president Ronald Reagan. Hannaford has his own PR and public affairs shop as well, Hannaford Enterprises. Ex-Press Secretary Joins Conservation Group

Jeffrey M. Fleming, former press secretary to Rep. John S. Tanner (D-Tenn.), joins the Izaak Walton League of America, a national conservation group, as director of communications. .

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

U.S. vision for Kabul includes vital U.N. role

October 11, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011011-33649328.htm

The United States yesterday outlined a vision for a post-Taliban Afghanistan with a pivotal role for the United Nations, as China and Russia endorsed the concept of a coalition government to replace the hard-line militia.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, meanwhile, said he hoped to ease tensions between India and Pakistan on a visit to the two nuclear powers in the coming days. India has said it will stress to Mr. Powell its opposition to Pakistan's inclusion in the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition.

The Bush administration until now has said that toppling the Taliban and installing a new government in Kabul is not among its objectives. But Mr. Powell said yesterday the United States will be involved in rebuilding Afghanistan as part of a broad multinational effort.

"The United Nations might well have to play a very, very important role in a post-Taliban world," he said in an NBC interview.

"We want to see eventually arise in Afghanistan a government that represents all the people," he said.

"It's important for all of us to recognize that, in a post-Taliban Afghanistan, we will have important work to do - humanitarian work, economic development, helping the people of Afghanistan and putting in place some level of stability that has so far eluded Afghanistan in recent years."

Washington has been reluctant to designate the opposition Northern Alliance as the Taliban's successor, even though it is still recognized as Afghanistan's legitimate government by the United Nations. U.S. officials have also been in contact with the former Afghan King Mohammed Zahir Shah, who now lives in Rome.

In a major blow to the Taliban, China and Russia said yesterday they support the formation of a coalition government in Afghanistan. Their positions became clear during a telephone conversation between the two foreign ministers, Tang Jiaxuan and Igor Ivanov, Chinese state media reported.

Mr. Ivanov told Mr. Tang that the international community should support the establishment of "a coalition government with a wide-ranging basis," according to the People's Daily newspaper.

Mr. Tang said in turn that a coalition government that was "able to cooperate with neighboring countries in a friendly manner" would benefit the Afghan people and regional peace and stability.

China has closed its short stretch of border with Afghanistan.

Both Beijing and Moscow back Washington's campaign against terrorism, but they have also sought Western support for their own troubles with groups they view as terrorist.

During the phone call yesterday, Mr. Tang drew parallels between Moscow's conflict in Chechnya and Beijing's campaign against Islamic separatists in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, the People's Daily said.

"China and Russia have the same stance and interests on the issue of anti-terrorism," the newspaper quoted Mr. Tang as saying.

Terrorism will be high on the agenda during President Bush's visit to Shanghai next week for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a senior State Department official said yesterday at the end of a two-day trip to Beijing.

James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, visited the Chinese capital to prepare for the first meeting between Mr. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Mr. Kelly also "had a detailed discussion of our respective views on nonproliferation," but he stopped short of further describing those talks as "frank" or "candid," as the State Department has done in the past.

In an effort to smooth out frictions between India and Pakistan, which could potentially weaken the anti-terrorist coalition, Mr. Powell said he will urge both countries to more vigorously pursue their dialogue on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and other issues.

The Indian Foreign Ministry said New Delhi will tell Mr. Powell during his visit that the United States "has made the problem a part of its solution" by including Pakistan in the coalition, "which we will not accept as long as Pakistan supports cross-border terrorism in Kashmir."

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir.

Islamabad rejects the accusations but backs what it calls a legitimate struggle for self-rule.

Mr. Powell is expected to depart at the end of the week, but the State Department declined to be more specific.

In the NBC interview, Mr. Powell also dismissed fresh threats against the United States by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and said a statement by the group televised Tuesday may have contained "some kind of message," adding, "That's why analysts are looking at it."

The al Qaeda spokesman, Sulaiman Bu Ghaith, said on Qatar's Al Jazeera television network that there would be more attacks on the United States until it "exits our land," stops supporting Israel and lifts sanctions on Iraq.

"It's a chilling challenge, but I assure you we will meet that challenge," Mr. Powell said.

"We will pursue that campaign until that spokesman will no longer have any reason to make such boasts," he said.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.

--------

U.N. anticipates U.S. arrears check

October 11, 2001
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011011-93347901.htm

NEW YORK - When Washington's arrears check for a half-billion dollars arrives at the United Nations, possibly by Thanksgiving, the organization will find itself in an unfamiliar position - in the black.

For the first time in seven years, the United Nations will get through the year without having to borrow from the peacekeeping budget to meet payroll and other expenses.

"Stability and security is close at hand," an ebullient Joseph Connor, the U.N. undersecretary-general of administration and management, told member states yesterday. He said U.N. estimates show the organization will have $2 million in its bank account at the end of the year.

Just last week President Bush signed the authorizing legislation, the final step before Washington releases some $582 million to the organization. That money is the largest chunk of a three-year, $926 million arrears payment negotiated in 1999 by Sens. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, and Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat.

Another $877 million worth of current peacekeeping, regular budget and tribunal payments should arrive from the United States by the end of December, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. This money is the full amount of Washington's assessment for 2001 under new scales negotiated last year.

"The U.S. is very pleased that we are on a new footing financially at the United Nations," a U.S. official said yesterday.

In a briefing to the U.N. finance and management committee yesterday, Mr. Connor painted a brighter picture of the organization's finances than he has in many years.

He said that 2001 was the first time in institutional memory that payments to all three accounts - regular, peacekeeping and tribunals - have exceeded the assessed amounts.

"For the first time in many years, the United Nations will have a secure and solid basis from which to do business," he said yesterday. "We may need it now more than ever."

He said peacekeeping demands continued to grow, while wild fluctuations in foreign-exchange rates could hurt an organization that pays salaries and expenses in many currencies.

The United Nations' regular budget is about $1.1 billion per year. The peacekeeping department is funded separately, and is projected to cost about $3 billion in 2001, most of that for missions in Congo, Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

The tribunals, with a burgeoning caseload and 1,800 employees, are costing about $169 million a year.

The expected U.S. arrears payment will comprise a check for $475 million and a peacekeeping credit of $107 million.

Conservative lawmakers have long argued that the organization hasn't fully appreciated or credited the U.S. contribution to peacekeeping, and say that, in fact, the organization owes Washington money.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Connor said the United States faces no risk of censure under Article 19, in which nations that fall more than two years behind in their payments lose their vote in the General Assembly.

Nonetheless, some $600 million worth of contested arrears - mostly assessments that Washington paid at a lower rate than the world body said was required- will remain on the U.N. ledgers "for a very long time," said Mr. Connor.

"In short, the Secretariat got stiffed," he said yesterday.

Mr. Connor told delegations yesterday that the U.S. arrears check will be used to pay down the organization's debt to 48 nations that have contributed men and materiel to peacekeeping missions. He said the organization considered this "a debt of honor to be paid immediately."

But some delegates remained skeptical after Mr. Connor's briefing yesterday.

China also refused to rejoice.

"The briefing sounded very positive today," said Sun Minqin, budget specialist with the delegation from China, which is owed $157,000 for its peacekeeping contributions. "But the money is not yet here."

The United States and other nations are expected to respond to the presentation next Wednesday.

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

Caves pose unusual challenge for Army

October 11, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011011-71426178.htm

U.S. commandos set to begin search-and-destroy missions against terrorists in Afghanistan must be prepared for a new kind of combat - cave warfare.

The mountainous Central Asian country has numerous deep caves favored as hideouts by the Taliban militia and America's most wanted fugitive - Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, often has been photographed or videotaped camped in natural limestone caves with his 40-strong security force.

"I can assure you that the smartest people in the Army are working on these types of problems," said a special forces soldier who asked not to be identified. "Caves and subterranean targets are extremely tough. The easiest way to deal with them is to blow them up, preferably with a large bomb dropped by the Air Force."

"Without an informant, there will be no way to surmise the layout of the cave network prior to entry. It has the potential to go very wrong. Caves are easily booby-trapped," the soldier said.

There are other mountain hiding places in Afghanistan. Historically, Afghans have built rudimentary fortifications in which to wait out various attacks by invaders such as the Soviet Union in the 1980s. And, there are "qanats" - tunnels dug at the foot of mountains to provide irrigation.

"A favorite Soviet tactic was to pour diesel fuel into these qanats and ignite it in an effort to eliminate them as hiding places," says a report on Afghanistan by Maps.com. "Afghanistan's rugged topography, numerous caves and massive system of qanats are likely to continue to play a role in military intervention by outsiders."

Stephen P. Cohen, a State Department official in the 1980s and now an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the country's rugged landscape will make hunting down terrorists difficult.

"The country has a series of caves and redoubts in the mountains," Mr. Cohen said. "The terrain of Afghanistan is a cross between Arizona and Texas. Enormous mountain ranges and arid land. Once you are mobile, it's pretty hard to pin people down."

Authorities on bin Laden and his al Qaeda network say he moves from cavern to cavern in the Texas-size country, especially in the hills north of Kandahar, the birthplace of the radical Taliban militia movement.

However, U.S. troops have the ability to find and invade an inhabited cave.

"Caves aren't known for 'escape routes' and it could give modern meaning to what the president called 'smoking them out,'" said an Army officer who asked not to be identified. "The likely spots for caves are easy to narrow down geologically, even from space. It would have the effect of narrowing the places to look."

Military sources say American special-operations troops have been trained in the art of storming underground bunkers, but do not normally practice attacks on a cave-hidden enemy. Still, military officers interviewed yesterday suggested some possible tactics.

"If confronted with an enemy in a cave, why go in after him?" said the Army officer. "Fire in the entrance would suck out all the oxygen, or seal the entrance for a calm, slow death."

The United States' fourth day of air strikes on the Taliban militia and bin Laden's network targeted ammunition dumps and field forces. The Pentagon is approaching the time it will give the go-ahead for helicopter-borne Army commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan and kill or capture terrorists.

Officials have told The Washington Times they do not want to rush the ground search for bin Laden. Some officials believe the offensive should not begin until the Taliban is ousted from power and its military is degraded by air strikes and opposition Northern Alliance forces.

Eventually, a limited number of commandos must enter the country to uproot terrorists, officials say. The most likely scenario is for small teams of Army special forces soldiers to enter with the help of low-flying Black Hawk helicopters, armed with precise intelligence on the location of the enemy and how they are defended.

Search-and-rescue teams, and hundreds of backup troops, will stay outside Afghanistan until needed.

In some cases, the trail will lead them to a cave, complete with rooms and connecting tunnels.

Said a Navy source, "It's time to get down and dirty. We have to send in ground troops of some quantity and root the bad guys out of the caves and tunnels. If I had my way, we'd be filling those caves and tunnels with napalm and fuel air explosives and torching the rats out."

--------

Military Overhaul Considered
Rumsfeld Eyes Global Command for Terrorism Fight

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40223-2001Oct10.html

Less than a week into the war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is contemplating a sweeping overhaul of the way the armed forces are organized to fight because of concern that the current structure is too balkanized to execute a global campaign against terrorism, senior defense officials said yesterday.

Under the current structure, the Pentagon divides the world into regional commands and gives the officers in charge considerable autonomy in planning and conducting any military action in their areas. As U.S. commander for the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War, for example, Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf was the center of the war effort and other U.S. military commanders deferred to him.

The view of Rumsfeld and his top aides is that the regional approach is an inefficient and even dangerous way to organize the armed forces for the murky, multifaceted, sprawling new war against terrorism, officials said.

"The campaign against terrorism really highlights why we have to look at the Unified Command Plan," said a senior defense official, referring to the formal title for the way the Pentagon divides the world. "The war on terrorism is . . . a global campaign," he noted, yet the Pentagon looks at the world as a series of geographical regions.

As a result, he indicated, transnational concerns, such as terrorism and weapons proliferation, have not received adequate attention from senior commanders, who don't have the capabilities to coordinate with law enforcement or to track a threat from one continent to another.

The war in Afghanistan is overseen by Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the Central Command, as the regional command for the Middle East and Central Asia is known. But the discussions inside the Pentagon are a strong signal that when the anti-terrorism campaign eventually moves beyond Afghanistan, command of it may be moved elsewhere.

Franks has been the target of some sniping in the Pentagon from officers who say that his background as an artillery officer gives him little preparation for waging an unconventional war that relies heavily on Special Forces and air power.

Major changes are under consideration. To sharpen military focus on homeland defense, a new "Americas Command" that would be responsible for defending the Western Hemisphere is being discussed. Some officials are urging that the responsibilities of the Special Operations Command be broadened so that it could carry out operations, instead of simply providing forces to regional commanders.

But the most radical and controversial change being contemplated is one that would move away from the current structure that for decades has divided the world among the four major regional commanders: Pacific Command, European Command, Southern Command and Central Command.

Though obscure to those outside the armed services, the four regional commanders in chief are dominating figures inside the military establishment. They usually are referred to as the "CinCs" (pronounced "sinks").

There are four other slightly less prominent commands that cover "functional" areas -- space, special operations, strategic and transportation -- as well as a hybrid organization, the Joint Forces Command, that has some leftover responsibility for the North Atlantic region and oversees innovation in the military.

For the military's most successful and ambitious officers, the two most prized jobs have been the Pacific and European commands. The Central Command traditionally has been seen as a backwater, and yet that is where much of the action has been the past decade. It is based in Tampa even though it handles the Middle East, because the United States has never found a politically acceptable way of basing its headquarters somewhere in the region.

Among the possible changes Pentagon officials are considering is transferring responsibility for covert raids against terrorists or their supporters from the Central Command to the Special Operations Command.

An alternative would be to permanently move command of the war to a top officer in Washington, who would seek to oversee military activity in various regions and coordinate it with the efforts of the State Department, the Justice Department, and even the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Whatever the changes that eventually are made, "you're going to see more Washington control of this war than in past [recent] wars," said one person familiar with the discussions.

"We have global obligations and global capabilities, but are we organized globally?" the senior official asked. Answering his own question, he said, "We need to cut through the seams that exist between the CinCs, to provide more opportunity for a less regional focus."

The contradiction between the current organization and the new campaign became painfully evident in recent weeks when the Pentagon formulated its "planning guidance" for the war on terrorism, said one person involved in the discussions. That guidance boiled down the war effort to three basic goals: attack state support for terrorism, undercut its non-state support, and defend the U.S. homeland from additional terrorist assaults.

Yet, this person noted, the Central Command can take on only part of the first and second tasks, and none of the third.

Discussions about revamping the command structure had been underway before the terrorist attacks a month ago, but the new U.S. campaign against terrorism has given the effort new urgency. "We all knew the future was coming," said the defense official. "Now it has been forced on us."

Rumsfeld, he said, feels "strongly that we have to get it done" and wants the revisions carried out. Another person familiar with the discussions said he expects they will be concluded sometime next month.

Nonetheless, the changes being formulated could encounter fierce resistance from the regional "CinCs," who in the post-Cold War era have become powerful proconsuls, jetting from one capital to another as they oversee regional security strategies.

"They're going to hate it," said one person familiar with the contemplated changes, some of which recently were sent to the CinCs in a briefing paper. "They don't want to lose their empires."

Indeed, one general predicted yesterday that the changes finally implemented would be far less ambitious than those being discussed. "The regional construct has worked effectively for a long time," he argued.

He went on to liken the latest reform effort to Rumsfeld's handling of the Quadrennial Defense Review, which began earlier this year with huge ambitions to transform the military but wound up at the end of last month producing only marginal changes.

---------

AIR OPERATION
Afghanistan's Distance From Carriers Limits U.S. Pilots' Flights

New York Times
October 11, 2001
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/11/international/11NAVY.html

ABOARD U.S.S. ENTERPRISE, in the Arabian Sea, Oct. 10 - As airstrikes in Afghanistan continued today, commanders said air operations had been constrained by the sheer distances involved in striking targets in a landlocked country whose neighbors have refused to let the United States launch its attacks from their territory.

From the two aircraft carriers that are the closest bases for American strike operations, and are now positioned near the Pakistani coast, some sites in Afghanistan can lie as many as 700 miles away, some officers estimated, an unusually long distance for Navy aircraft to conduct sustained combat operations.

The distances being flown by the F-14's and F-18's from the Enterprise and the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson are less than the thousands of miles covered by B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers that have struck targets in Afghanistan from bases as far away as the United States. But they have forced Navy commanders to limit combat strikes to about half their maximum tempo, senior officers said, and at the same time have required that refueling aircraft be dispatched almost full out to shepherd the fighters.

"Even in Kosovo, you could - and I did - take off from the carrier, fly in and hit a target, and land back on the deck in an hour and a half," said a veteran Navy pilot who is the operations officer of an F-14 squadron aboard the Enterprise. "You couldn't do that here on a dare. It really is a long, long way to go."

Senior commanders who claimed a high rate of success so far said the operations have proved the Navy's ability to conduct deep airstrikes.

Today, the Navy captain who is commanding officer of the Enterprise urged his crew to view a videotape broadcast on the ship's internal television system that included infrared scenes of more than a dozen precision-guided bombs from the ship's warplanes striking targets in Afghanistan, often with enormous explosions.

But the commanding officer suggested there could have been even more success in the early days of the operation. "The further you have to go to deliver weapons, the more that's going to impact your ability to deliver them," he said.

What had seemed a wartime atmosphere aboard the Enterprise began to ease today. A three-day blackout on outgoing e-mail communications was lifted to allow limited dispatches subject to security review by senior officers. Still, the commanding officer reminded the crew: "It's not time to rest on our laurels; we've got to stay focused, with our chin straps down."

"There's no shortage of work out there," he told reporters, saying that continued operations would go after targets missed in the first three days of strikes or new ones set in the days ahead.

In interviews, senior officers and pilots described pressures imposed by the long distances traveled, saying aircraft often have to refuel several times in the air.

Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft are flying from several bases in the region to support the operation, the men said. By contrast, the large number of Air Force F-15 and F-18 fighters on the ground in this region apparently have not participated - in large part because of the sensitivities of Saudi Arabia, their main host government.

"Without Air Force tactical air, the Navy has a lot to do, and that has also limited the number of strikes," said the commanding officer of the F-14 squadron, a Navy lieutenant commander whose full name - along with those of everyone else aboard this vessel - cannot be published under ground rules imposed by the commander of the Enterprise battle group.

The eight S-3 refueling jets aboard the Enterprise have flown an average of nearly two four- to six-hour missions a day for the first three days of the operation, while the 48 F- 14 and F-18 strike planes apparently averaged less than a mission a day.

On the first night of the attack, the refuelers from the carrier escorted its attack planes through an air corridor above Pakistan all the way to the border of Afghanistan, an unusually long distance mission for aircraft with standard duties that keep them much closer to the ship. The Navy refuelers allow the jet-fuel guzzling F-14's and F-18's to refill their tanks soon after takeoff, as they head toward combat operations, and again on the way home.

The Navy refueling planes also circle overhead as the attack planes attempt to land on the carrier's deck in case a missed approach requires even more refueling.

The average of about 70 sorties a day - single flights by single planes - by all planes aboard the Enterprise during the first three days of combat operations has been about half an intensive training rate, commanders said.

Still, American strike pilots said today that their operations remained intense, because round-trip journeys take a minimum of three hours and many missions have to be devoted to time-consuming and defensive combat air patrol operations.

"We're not flying as many events as usual in combat," said the F-14 operations officer who flew combat missions over Yugoslavia during the war over Kosovo in the spring of 1999. "But if the number is only half, the amount of flying time is probably even more than usual."

A total of about 96 Navy strike planes are believed to be aboard the Enterprise and the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, its fellow carrier in the Arabian Sea.

With some of their work devoted to defensive operations, and much of their time consumed by the long- distance flights, the Navy pilots noted that the task of carrying out attacks would have been greatly eased had Pakistan, Uzbekistan or another of Afghanistan's neighbors permitted the American military to carry out strikes from bases on its soil.

They argued that the Navy's success to date, albeit against a weak foe, demonstrates an ability to carry out long-distance strikes without the Air Force support, and even with aircraft like the F-14, a tactical aircraft developed for limited-distance, air-to-air operations.

In several interviews, even the most experienced fighter pilots said they felt a rush of pride about the current operation.

"That first night was the first time in my military career that I actually felt emotion was beginning to squeeze into my preparation," said a Navy lieutenant commander who has now piloted his F-14 on three combat missions into Afghanistan.

"It was like: `This is for home; it is for the United States; it is to keep my home and family safe.' "

---------

Pentagon Drops Bombs of All Sizes

October 11, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Bombs-and-Missiles.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pick a target, and the military has something to blow it up.

There are laser-guided tank-killers and bunker-busters, cluster bombs that can rip apart columns of soldiers and armored vehicles, old-fashioned ``dumb'' bombs that, used together, can blast an entire region.

Missiles launched from ships and planes complete the arsenal being used against targets in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon is ``dropping the full range of weaponry,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Some categories of munitions in Afghanistan include:

-- Guided bombs. These are some of the ``smart bombs'' of Persian Gulf War fame, and the military has been using them in increasing numbers over the past decade. They can be dropped from fighters and bombers, and they use lasers or other means to find their targets. These bombs can be targeted on buildings or vehicles and, because of their accuracy, don't cause as much unintended damage as World War II-style unguided bombs.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition -- ``Jay-Dam'' in military parlance -- is frequently employed and can be launched from fighters and bombers.

Among the largest of the guided bombs are the GBU-28 and GBU-37. These massive weapons weigh roughly 5,000 pounds and are designed to penetrate buried bunkers, killing leaders and destroying command-and-control networks hidden underground. The GBU-37 can be launched by the B-2 stealth bomber and is guided by GPS satellites to its target.

-- Cluster bombs. Once launched, these bombs essentially drop more little bombs, called bomblets, over a wide area. Some explode on contact, and are able to wipe out troop concentrations or columns of armored vehicles. Others delay exploding until a certain amount of time has passed, becoming what amounts to an air-dropped minefield.

-- Unguided ``dumb'' bombs. These range from 500 pounds to 2,000 pounds. The skill of the bomber pilot determines whether these free-fall weapons hit their targets. B-52s can drop these in large numbers, laying waste to a wide swath of territory. They are also much cheaper to manufacture than the newer, guided weapons.

-- Air-to-ground missiles. Similar to guided bombs, these also have a propulsion system that carries them to their targets, meaning they can be launched from farther away.

One relatively new missile, called the Joint Standoff Weapon, is built to be fired from a great enough distance that the bomber's exposure to anti-aircraft fire is limited.

Certain air-to-ground missiles, called high-speed antiradiation missiles, or HARMs, can follow an incoming radar signal back to its source. These are used to attack air defense sites, which use radar to search for incoming attack aircraft.

-- Cruise missiles. This term is generally applied to long-range ship- or air-launched missiles that jet toward their target, be it a building, ship or military vehicle. The most well-known is the Tomahawk, launched from U.S. cruisers, destroyers and submarines. B-52s can also launch cruise missiles from great distances.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Australia A$30 mln biogas generator to start 2002

Planet Ark
AUSTRALIA: October 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12756/story.htm

MELBOURNE - A A$30 million biogas generator which will produce 3.2 megawatts of electricity would start operation by the end of next year, developers EarthPower Technologies Sydney said yesterday.

The company said construction had started on the Parramatta plant which will recycle organic waste from the food manufacturing, food retailing and hospitality sectors into about 7 MW of energy in the form of biogas.

The gas will then be converted into enough electricity to power 3,200 homes.

The project has received financial backing from Babcock & Brown and Westpac Banking Corp as well as funding from the federal government's Australian Greenhouse Office and the New South Wales Sustainable Energy Development Authority.

----

Energiekontor starts building wind park in Portugal

Planet Ark
GERMANY: October 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12761/story.htm

FRANKFURT - German wind park developer Energiekontor said this week it had started building a wind park in Portugal, which will be among the country's biggest and begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2002.

The firm said in a statement the wind park, called "Trandeiras," would comprise of 14 wind plants, each with 1.3 megawatt capacity, in the mountains north of the harbour town of Porto.

It would have total capacity of 18.2 MW and an investment volume of 25 million euros.

Energiekontor had already demonstrated an early start and an above-average track record in foreign expansions after a recently completed wind park in Greece had been hooked up to the power grid, analysts WestLB Panmure said.

Project developers needed to focus more strongly on foreign markets, as wind power sales in Germany's domestic market were likely to stagnate, they said.

Energiekontor has been active in Portugal since 1995.

----

Mexico moves to bolster solar, wind and hydro power

Planet Ark
MEXICO: October 11, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12753/story.htm

MEXICO CITY - Mexico, a nation four years away from a possible power crunch, is pushing to drum up new solar, wind and hydroelectric power projects to meet its electricity needs, officials said this week.

Mexican Energy Regulating Commission (CRE) head Dionisio Perez-Jacome said that new regulations would permit wind, solar and hydro generators to pay between one-third and one-half of the connection fees and other charges paid by hydrocarbons-based generators.

Mexico's territory counts on vast coastal areas that could accommodate hydroelectric plans and wide swaths of land could be used for wind-powered projects, said Niceforo Guerrero, deputy energy minister for electricity.

And some three-fourths of the territory is arid or semi-arid, Guerrero added, so intense solar radiation could be tapped to produce energy.

The push for renewable electricity projects comes as Mexico confronts possible blackouts as early as 2005 if it does not push through a reform of the sector. The government has not yet sent a broad energy reform package to Congress, which is currently in discussions over a much-awaited tax system overhaul.

Mexico requires some $50 billion in the next decade to widen and modernize its 35,000 megawatt power grid. Officials say the government, which largely controls the energy sector, does not have the cash to foot the full bill of the overhaul so the system should be further opened to private capital.

Mexico nationalized its electricity industry in 1960, but in recent years it has allowed private companies to build plants under the independent power project (IPP) and other schemes to help meet demand.

Guerrero said that a single project fueled by wind or water may be tiny in size, but altogether Mexico can make a dent in its power needs with renewable sources.

"It sometimes seems that a half of a megawatt is not significant, but all together we will be able to arrive at a significant quantity of megawatts," said Guerrero.

A survey by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation, cureated under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), showed that the vast majority of Mexico's major industries would support so-called green energy, and about half would even pay 10 percent more for such power.

Guerrero said the government is also working on a project to retain steam lost in operations at state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which could use the steam to generate power.

-------- energy

US senators move to secure domestic energy sites

Story by Chris Baltimore and Tom Doggett,
REUTERS USA:
October 11, 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12760/story.htm

WASHINGTON - Warning of cracks in security at U.S. oil refineries, pipelines and electric power plants, the Senate Energy Committee this week endorsed measures to protect private facilities from cyber-attack and guard huge federal hydroelectric dams in the West.

The deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center have focused new attention on the vulnerability of American energy facilities.

The Democrat-controlled Senate energy committee is looking at options ranging from restricting information on the Web about nuclear power plants to arming Bureau of Land Management employees. The energy panel will vote on specific measures on Thursday.

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said she would offer legislation to provide federal funds to all 50 states to protect oil and natural gas pipelines, refineries and other industry infrastructure from attacks or sabotage.

Landrieu, a Democrat from a major oil-producing state, said the federal government needs to do more.

Money for the program would come from royalties that energy firms have paid for federal leases for oil and natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico. Landrieu did not specify how much money would be needed for the program.

"I think the whole issue is of critical importance to our nation," she said at a Senate Energy Committee hearing.

U.S. lawmakers, who have frequently railed against U.S. dependence on oil imports from the politically sensitive Middle East, emphasized that they are now concerned about the security of domestic energy.

WESTERN DAMS, CYBER-ATTACKS

New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman agreed to sponsor an amendment proposed by the Interior Department to beef up federal oversight at federal hydroelectric dams. The huge dams provide a large amount of electricity to consumers and businesses, especially in the West.

John Keys, commissioner of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, testified that his agents need authority to carry weapons, make arrests and enforce vandalism and trespassing laws on the nation's 8 million acres of public land. "We have over 400 sites that need some security," Keys said.

One amendment being considered by the energy committee would let the federal government hire extra security guards and perform criminal background checks at federally owned dams such as the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest.

Utah Sen. Robert Bennett, a Republican, raised the specter of a cyber-attack on computer networks that control energy installations and urged legislation to protect them.

Calling privately owned sites like oil refineries and power generation plants "a major national blindspot," Bennett has proposed to restrict government documents about the sites through requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Lawmakers laid out several scenarios that could disrupt U.S. domestic energy supplies. For example, a computer hacker might be able to disrupt a railroad line's computer that controls trains carrying coal to utility power plants.

"Someone can break in one place and then have an impact somewhere else," Bennett said.

Bennett also wants private companies and federal agencies to share information on Internet security breaches.

NUKE PLANT INFORMATION

The federal government already oversees private security measures at nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams. Some lawmakers want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to remove from its Web site information about the location and safety features of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants.

"I can't imagine the public needs to know the exact latitude and longitude of nuclear power plants," said Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski, a Republican.

The lawmakers' push for more security at energy facilities reflects heightened concern about another possible attack in the United States, now that American troops have bombed radical Islamic forces in Afghanistan.

Last week, an Alaska man was arrested for shooting a hole in the huge Trans Alaska Pipeline System that ships crude oil from Alaska's North Slope. The puncture forced the pipeline and oil production to temporarily shut down, delaying some 2.7 million barrels of crude oil set for delivery to the market.

The bullet hole also caused the second-biggest oil spill the pipeline had seen, spewing some 6,800 barrels of crude.

The incident was described by police as a random shooting, and not connected to any terrorist group or threat.

---

Lawmaker proposes $2 bln/yr to protect US energy

Story by Julie Vorman,
REUTERS
October 11, 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12759/story.htm

WASHINGTON - A Senate bill introduced yesterday would allocate $2 billion annually to the Bush administration's new homeland security office to patrol and protect U.S. pipelines, oil refineries and electronic transmission lines.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from the oil-producing state of Louisiana, said her legislation had broad support among both parties to safeguard the nation's energy supply from potential attacks.

"It's absolutely crucial that Congress take up an energy infrastructure bill before we leave here," Landrieu told reporters. "This would help us move in that direction."

Congress aims to finish its work for the year by early November.

Money for the program would come from the annual royalty payments made by oil and natural gas companies for drilling on federal offshore leases. The Interior Department collected nearly $4 billion in royalty payments last year, she said.

Landrieu said her legislation did not specify what kinds of protection would be funded, but said military patrols and software upgrades were among the possible projects.

Most private U.S. oil, gas and power companies have already beefed up their own security measures since the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center that killed at least 5,500 people.

The attacks have raised concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. nuclear power plants, natural gas pipelines and oil refineries.

"It's not fair to ask the industry to pick up the full tab, and there are some real issues of safety for communities around our nation," Landrieu said.

Under her proposal, about one-third of the $2 billion would be earmarked for Louisiana, Texas and four other major energy states. The remaining 70 percent of the money would be spread among all 50 states.

The program would be run by the new Office of Homeland Security, an anti-terrorist office headed by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, she said.

Landrieu also said she was "disappointed" in the unusual step by the Senate Democratic leadership late Tuesday to halt Energy Committee work on a comprehensive energy bill. That legislation, which had not yet been completed by the committee, aimed to boost U.S. domestic production, encourage conservation and fund development of alternative sources.

Landrieu said her energy security legislation could pick up some of those components, such as funds to buy more crude oil for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve or drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge.

"I still believe we have to work very hard on energy security legislation, which would include some stepped-up production, some stepped-up conservation measures and tripling or quadrupling of research and development," she said.

-------- environment

ENERGY LEGISLATION BLOCKED IN SENATE COMMITTEE

October 11, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-09.html

WASHINGTON, DC, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has barred the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from further consideration of omnibus energy legislation that would open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.

The House of Representatives has already approved an energy package that would allow oil and natural gas exploration on the North Slope of ANWR. Environmental groups and Senate Democrats had hoped to block the drilling provisions in the Senate version of the bill.

But since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, the drive to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil has intensified. Two Democratic members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee - Senators Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana - have said they would vote to approve ANWR drilling, giving the Republican minority a slight edge in any future votes on energy legislation.

"Several members of the other side don't want a vote on ANWR because they know they would lose," Senator Frank Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, told reporters. "They didn't have the votes in committee and we did."

Daschle's move to halt consideration of the existing bill will allow the Senate to craft new energy legislation that could include provisions friendlier to environmental interests, including a pet plan by the South Dakota Senator to boost the use of grain based ethanol as a gasoline additive. That provision would benefit corn farmers in Daschle's home state.

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Developing Countries Learn to Limit Chemical Risks

October 11, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-01.html

ROME, Italy, Officials from over 100 governments concerned with reducing the risks of chemical use, particularly in developing countries, have been meeting in Rome this week to prepare for the entry into force of a global treaty to govern these risks.

Delegates conclude a week long meeting tomorrow on the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC). The treaty deals with certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade, and limits the introduction of hazardous chemicals and pesticides into countries that cannot safely manage them.

Pakistan pesticide dump contains barrels of DDT (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Adopted in 1998 under the auspices of UNEP and FAO, the Rotterdam Convention uses the prior informed consent procedure to help governments decide whether to accept or refuse the imports of certain hazardous chemicals. Countries that export such chemicals will have to respect the decisions of importing parties.

Some 70,000 different chemicals are available on the market, and 1,500 new ones are introduced every year.

In a joint statement the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said, "This poses a major challenge to many governments who must attempt to monitor and manage these potentially dangerous substances. Many pesticides that have been banned or whose use has been severely restricted in industrialized countries are still marketed and used in developing countries."

David Harcharik, FAO deputy director-general, said, "Global agreements such as the Rotterdam Convention serve to provide a level of control and can help to mitigate the negative effects of globalization."

FAO Deputy Director-General David Harcharik (Photo courtesy FAO)

Pending the entry into force of the Rotterdam Convention, governments have agreed to apply the PIC procedure on a voluntary basis. The processes developed are operational, with three additional chemicals and two severely hazardous pesticide formulations identified as candidates for inclusion in the interim PIC procedure.

Recognizing the problem of illegal trafficking in controlled chemicals, a start has been made towards the establishment a working group to govern illegal trafficking under the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC).

A preliminary meeting to start the work of the IOMC group was held in Geneva on August 27. The delegates concluded that a broader meeting to establish the IOMC working group should be held in December. In preparation, UNEP will collect information on issues related to illicit trafficking, responsibility and liability.

The Rotterdam Convention was adopted and signed by Ministers and senior officials on September 11, 1998. It has received 73 signatures. To date 16 governments - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Germany, Guinea, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovenia and Suriname - have ratified, accepted, approved or acceded to the Convention.

It will enter into force 90 days after the 50th ratification. Harcharik urged countries to work towards ratification of the Rotterdam Convention in time for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002.

-------- terrorism

Rash of anthrax scares hits United States

Story by Jim Loney,
REUTERS
October 11, 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12755/story.htm

BOCA RATON, Fla. - A rash of anthrax scares flared this week in a country jittery over last month's anti-U.S. attacks as several hundred people in Florida's coastal city of Boca Raton were tested for contamination following a journalist's death from the disease.

FBI investigators combed through the sealed-off headquarters of American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids, looking for clues after disease specialists said the bacterium that causes anthrax might be present in the building.

"We are still looking for the source. We really have nothing concrete right now," Judy Orihuela, spokeswoman for the FBI's Miami office, told Reuters.

Asked if officials suspected the contamination was a criminal act, she said: "We've got to find the source before we can determine if it's criminal. We just don't know."

Robert Stevens, a photo editor for AMI publication the Sun, died on Friday of a rare form of anthrax. A second man, mailroom employee Ernesto Blanco, has been exposed to the disease but has not contracted it. He is now in a Miami hospital.

Florida health officials said they had still not determined if the anthrax strain was natural or engineered - a fact which could help to decide if the contamination was a criminal act.

Asked at a briefing if they had ruled out a terrorist action, Palm Beach County Health Department Director Jean Malecki said: "We are open to the possibility of anything. We've not dismissed anything."

The cases of anthrax - a very rare disease that experts say can be used as a biological warfare agent - has caused anxiety among a public still nervous over the Sept. 11 attacks allegedly masterminded by Muslim militant Osama bin Laden.

More than 5,500 people were killed in the attacks in which hijacked planes rammed into the Pentagon in Washington and the World Trade Center in New York.

CALLS ABOUT SUSPICIOUS PACKAGES

Amid fears of possible anthrax contamination, authorities also took precautionary measures isolating and treating people in Washington, Virginia and Kentucky. And with Floridians on edge, police and fire officials responded to a spate of calls from residents concerned about suspicious packages.

Palm Beach County tested about 850 AMI employees and others who had worked in or visited the building, as well as their relatives, over Monday and Tuesday.

Florida State Epidermist Steve Wiersma said the tests would be processed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Nasal swabs could take several days and blood tests longer but so far there had been no new cases, he said.

The CDC said 15 of its specialists were in Florida to investigate the transmission route of the cases. The bacterial disease is spread by spores and generally confined to sheep, cattle, horses, goats and pigs. It is not contagious.

There was a new scare at the Palm Beach Health Department while people awaited tests. Police cordoned it off and took away dust found in an envelope in a garbage bin. It was believed to be construction dust but would be checked by hazardous material experts, police said.

In nearby Deerfield Beach, local fire chief Jim Mathie said his department received calls about suspicious packages in three separate incidents that turned out to be harmless.

"People are being overly cautious," Mathie said. "I'm sure it has a lot to do with the anthrax."

In Naples, on Florida's southwest coast, police closed two buildings housing the offices of a bank and a law firm after staff reported finding a white powdery substance in mail bins. About 80 people were evacuated and underwent a decontamination process, Naples police spokesman Victor Morales said.

FBI agents took samples of the substance away for testing.

SUBWAY SCARE

In Washington, a Metro subway station was closed and 21 people were held in isolation after a fare dodger fired a gun and dropped a plastic bottle containing liquid. A Justice Department official said the incident involved a container of carpet cleaner and did not appear to be related to terrorism.

In Virginia, a man who may have worked in a building owned by AMI was tested for anthrax on Monday after coming to the hospital with flulike symptoms and signs of confusion. Doctors treated him with an antibiotic, rushed tests to health authorities and called the FBI. Tests showed he probably did not have anthrax.

In Covington, Kentucky, an Internal Revenue Service center was shut for several hours and seven workers treated as a precaution after a powder was found in the mail room, police said. An envelope containing the powder was removed for study.

Nervousness even spread to Canada, where a building in Montreal was briefly evacuated after employees of Globe International Inc., a company with close ties to AMI, noticed an envelope mailed from the Florida publisher. Police said they doubted it was dangerous but did not want to take chances.

The CDC said it had received frequent calls from Floridians worried about anthrax contamination. "I think people just want more information, which is typical in a situation like this," a spokeswoman said. The CDC is advising callers to consult local health authorities or to visit its Web site at www.cdc.gov.

"It's out there, it's something to be concerned about. Just knowing that those guys lived in this area, who knows what they left behind?" said Boca Raton resident Trisha Martin, referring to the men believed to have carried out the Sept. 11 attack.

Debbie Duckworth, 37 a Globe copy editor, said, "Everybody's just shocked. It's just surreal. It's like it's not happening."

The AMI tabloids - which specialize in a mix of celebrity scandal, sex and fantastic stories - have published many items belittling the hijackers and bin Laden. The Globe said bin Laden had underdeveloped sex organs while The Enquirer promoted toilet paper printed with photos of his face.

----

FBI warns of new attacks in the U.S. or abroad

USA TODAY
10/11/2001
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/10/11/fbi-warning.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a stark warning, the FBI said Thursday it has received information there may be additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days. The bureau said its information does not identify specific targets, but it has asked local police to be on the highest alert and for all Americans to be wary of suspicious activity. "Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government the reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days," the FBI said in its warning.

"The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity," it said.

The statement provided no additional information.

Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the department had received new intelligence within the past few days about a potential attack and decided to alert the public as well as law enforcement agencies.

"We realize the importance of the public accurately understanding the kinds of alerts we are sending out to law enforcement," said Tucker.

She said since Sept. 11 the FBI has sent law enforcement agencies five or six alerts. One that urged extra security and vigilance over crop-dusting operations was eventually made public.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has also warned Americans about possible attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan.

"We asked everyone to be on the highest alert and we're asking everyone to do that again," said Tucker. She added, in words similar to Ashcroft's this week, "Americans should go on with their lives, there's no reason people should live in panic."

It was the FBI's second request this week that law enforcement move to its highest state of alert. The first was on Sunday.

Thursday's statement was the first to suggest attacks might occur within several days.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller have said they intend to alert Americans to any credible threats about future terrorist plans.

In recent days, the FBI has asked supervisors of water supplies, nuclear and electric power plant operators, owners of crop dusters and drivers of hazardous waste trucks among others to increase security to ward off attacks.

"We are working to do everything possible and we would enlist the help of citizens in that," Ashcroft said earlier Thursday, before the FBI warning was issued.

----

FBI says US water supplies logical attack target

Story by Will Dunham,
REUTERS
October 11, 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12772/story.htm

WASHINGTON - The FBI said yesterday U.S. water supplies can be considered a "logical target for a possible terrorist attack," although authorities know of no credible threat to poison the nation's drinking water, and carrying out such an attack would be harder than it sounds.

At a hearing before a House of Representatives subcommittee on potential threats to the water supply, the nation's publicly owned water agencies also asked Congress to spend $5 billion to shore up the water supply infrastructure with the aim of protecting national security.

"Could our water be poisoned? Can the distribution system be shut down? Can biological agents be placed in the system? As you know, our water supply can be affected by a number of malicious enemies," Ronald Dick, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, told a panel of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

"Based on available intelligence and investigative information, there are currently no specific, credible threats to any water distribution network. We cannot rest on that information, though," Dick added.

Law enforcement authorities have been scrambling to protect against numerous types of potential domestic attacks in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in which hijackers crashed airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.

The subcommittee's chairman, Tennessee Republican Rep. John Duncan, said the men who carried out the attacks turned planes into weapons of mass destruction. He said U.S. officials must consider the possibility of someone turning water supplies into weapons of mass destruction through contamination.

"One of the worst things we could do would be to exaggerate the threat that's out there, or help create some kind of a panic situation," Duncan said. "On the other hand, we need to look very seriously at the situation that we now have before us and do whatever is reasonable and responsible."

Dick said the FBI coordinates a threat-assessment process in order to assess the credibility of any possible threat such as introducing deadly bacteria or viruses, chemicals or radioactive material into water supplies.

"With regard to contamination by biological agents, the nation's water supply may seem to be a logical target for a terrorist attack," Dick said. He added that the FBI views such an attack as "possible but not probable," noting that a perpetrator would need large amounts of a contaminant and knowledge of and access to key locations in the water supply.

A FRAGMENTED WATER-SUPPLY SYSTEM

"Because our supply consists of many systems, it would be difficult for a terrorist attack to have a broad, long-term impact," Dick said. There are 168,000 public drinking water systems throughout America.

"Further, contamination of a water reservoir with a biological agent would probably not pose a large risk to public health because of the dilution effect, filtration and disinfection of the water," he added. "To contaminate the water supply with a hazardous industrial chemical, it would take a truckload of the chemical to have any effect."

Dick said germs can cause disease by being ingested through drinking water, but inhaling these pathogens would be more deadly. He added that most viruses and bacteria would be rendered harmless by the chlorination process at water treatment facilities.

Environmental Protection Agency official Marianne Horinko noted that on Friday the EPA created a task force aimed at helping federal, state and local officials better safeguard the nation's drinking water supply from attack.

John Sullivan of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, who represented the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, told the House panel U.S. drinking water utilities have been on a heightened state of alert since Sept. 11.

But Sullivan, whose group represents utilities that provide water to 160 million Americans, said emergency-response plans in place at many water systems address emergencies due to natural disasters or accidents - not deliberate attacks.

Sullivan asked Congress for $5 billion to help rehabilitate the water and waste-water treatment infrastructure to allow for better treatment, storage, transmission and distribution.


-------- activists

Against the current
Building a peace movement is not the most popular effort right now. But a group of activists in St. Petersburg say they cannot remain silent.

By TOM ZUCCO,
Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Times,
October 11, 2001
http://www.sptimes.com/News/101101/Floridian/Against_the_current.shtml

ST. PETERSBURG -- The loyal opposition -- a minister, an actor, an activist and a couple of moms -- has gathered in Eric Rubin's living room to plan its next move. There are a dozen more members -- college students, teachers, health care and office workers -- who couldn't get the time off to be here.

It's a tough spot they're in. They've heard the war drums and sensed the paranoia, and they're afraid of what's unfolding in Afghanistan. They're also apprehensive. They're preaching peace and tolerance at a time when America is at war.

But when you're trying to build a peace movement, as these people are, you have no other choice. To remain silent, they argue, would only further the injustice.

The steering committee of People United For Peace huddles with note pads and pens in Rubin's bayside bungalow on a sunny afternoon. The group, formed in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is a coalition of labor and religious organizations, student groups and individuals who oppose war.

They say they are sickened by the attacks on New York and Washington.

But just as important, they say, it was a criminal act. A crime against humanity. Not an act of war.

That's why they're planning one of the first major rallies for peace in the Tampa Bay area since the terrorist attacks and America's response. (A Sept. 23 march on St. Petersburg City Hall, organized by activist and former mayoral candidate Omali Yeshitela, drew 120 people.) The Peace Picnic is scheduled for 2-6 p.m. Sunday at North Shore Park in St. Petersburg.

No one is sure what will happen or how many people will show up.

But they are sure of one thing.

They have to do this.

"I was in New York the week of the attacks, and it was very solemn," says committee member Bonnie Agan, a St. Petersburg actor who was an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War and moved on to support other causes, including women's rights. "But when I got back here, I heard this big drum beat for war. I was so horrified.

"It was as if it were a football game.

"I'm amazed at the number of people who are willing to accept collateral damage."

Rubin, seated next to her, nods in agreement. "The terrorists considered the people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as collateral damage, too," he says.

From where he sits, Rubin, a former marketing executive who is now a full-time organizer and a leader of the peace movement, has a breathtaking view of Tampa Bay. But he notes that an Army Reserve training center is just down the street. And that if you look hard enough, you can see MacDill Air Force Base on the horizon.

"Ironic, isn't it?"

The committee is an unlikely collection of people. Natalie Judge, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom, has never been an activist, never carried a sign or marched down a street.

"I've coasted through life," she says. "I've been very fortunate.

"But the day after the attacks, I sat down and felt so sad and I was crying. So I wrote my (7-year-old) son a letter and tried to say I was sorry.

"It's not that I can change anything, but I have a voice. And I didn't do enough to speak out against injustice in the past. I wrote him that I was so sad the world has come to this.

"That's when I realized I've got to do something because I have a voice."

Committee members say that advocating peace and living in the South is not always easy. And after Sept. 11, standing up for peace became even more unpopular.

"But if it (a peace rally) can play here, it can play anywhere," says the Rev. Bruce Wright, pastor/director of the Refuge, an organization that ministers to the homeless and working poor in St. Petersburg. "I think much of the fervor is fueled by hurt and pain, not a real, honest desire to go to war. I was angry the day it happened, too. I have family in New York and Washington and hadn't heard from them. (They were okay.)

"But the opinion polls were taken at the height of everyone's pain, and whenever you go to someone after they've experienced a personal tragedy, it's difficult for them to think objectively."

The support continued after this week's U.S. airstrikes. In an ABC-Washington Post poll, seven in 10 said they support President Bush's call for entering a broad war against terrorism and not limiting it to those behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wright and the others advocate finding those responsible for the terrorist hijackings and bringing them to trial before a world court, somewhat like the fate that befell former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They also want to examine how and why terrorist organizations are born and flourish.

"We need to look at resolving the poverty and pain in the Middle East," Wright says, "and the conditions that create this terrorism, this insanity.

"I think there are a lot of other people who are starting to feel the same way."

The tricky question for those on both sides is who is the enemy? Osama bin Laden? The al-Qaida network? The Taliban regime?

"Those responsible should be brought to justice," Rubin says. "You have to make a distinction between the people of the country and the political structure of the country.

"Should people pay for the crimes of their leaders?" he asks.

"We've seen millions of innocent people become refugees, and the reality is the standard aid going in to the refugees has been stopped by these attacks.

"War, with a so-called humanitarian face, is still war."

As for the question of justice, committee member Sharon Russ, a single mom who raised three sons in St. Petersburg, wants that, too. Here in America.

"If we can't have social justice here in America, why go and fight for it over there?" she asks. "I'm not unpatriotic. But I'm against violence, and we're in a war every day right here in south St. Petersburg."

She also worries about her sons, who are in their early 20s and in college. She safely led them through the briar patch of childhood, and now they are of prime draft age.

"The African-American community can't afford to lose any more young men," she says. "Or for that matter, any young men from any community."

The group also plans to raise awareness regarding stereotyping, particularly of Muslims and those of Middle Eastern decent. With help from the Tampa Bay Action Group, a consortium of various church and activist organizations, the group has established a hotline to serve the Arab and Muslim communities.

"We're starting to see the criminalization of a whole society (Arabs and those of the Muslim faith)," Rubin says. "It's interesting to note that historically, women were seen as criminals during the suffrage movement, blacks were criminals during the civil rights movement, labor when it tried to organize, and Asians during World War II."

The committee says there will be music and food at Sunday's event. But it won't be Lafayette Park, circa 1969.

"We're not a bunch of hippies," Judge says.

But there will be people from religious groups, labor unions and every university in Tampa and St. Petersburg, as well as several high schools. The Professors for Peace will be there, as will the Pastors for Peace.

"I hope there are hordes and hordes of people," Judge says. "So often you end up preaching to the choir. The problem is reaching the people who feel a different way or aren't sure.

"We really believe there is a wider audience who feels pretty much the same way we do but don't feel comfortable speaking about it."

At a glance

People United for Peace will hold the Peace Picnic from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at North Shore Park in St. Petersburg. The event is free and open to everyone. For more information, call (727) 896-8224 or e-mail PeopleUnitedForPeace@yahoogroups.com.

-------

Peace Activists Protest U.S. Attacks

New York Times
October 11, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Peace-Movement.html?searchpv=aponline

BOSTON (AP) -- His gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, a 52-year-old pacifist clutched an anti-war sign in a city square this week, again mobilized to decry an American war.

But this time, it was different: Americans are scared as never before.

``As for convincing people, you may have to go a little bit further, because there has been an attack on this country,'' said the protester, Bill Leary, a Vietnam veteran converted to the peace movement 30 years ago.

Around the country, peace activists are again scrawling slogans and taking to the streets, this time to protest the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan. But they are striking a gentler, less confrontational tone than in the past, searching for tactics better adapted to the political terrain transformed by the Sept. 11 attacks on the American homeland. They have been avoiding civil disobedience and other confrontation.

``It's a different situation, and it creates a special challenge for the peace movement,'' said Howard Zinn, the American historian and anti-war activist. ``The peace movement finds itself with a message of peace in a situation where people's emotions have been aroused ... in a way they have never been aroused before.''

Shaped by Vietnam and last mobilized en masse in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, the modern peace movement has never confronted such an atmosphere of intense patriotism steeped in fears for safety at home. Even at the height of the nuclear arms race with the Soviets, the domestic threat -- however frightening -- was still only potential.

``We have a tough sell this time,'' said Ofer Levy, a 35-year-old doctor wearing a peace symbol on his jacket during the Boston demonstration. ``People who disagree with us say, `We just had 6,000 casualties on our own soil. What do you mean, peace?'''

Anti-war protesters, who have been gearing up since the first U.S. threats of retaliation, have mounted demonstrations in Boston, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere this week. Within hours of the first attacks in Afghanistan, more than 1,000 protesters converged on a New York City park less than two miles from the World Trade Center.

On Tuesday, at the Boston protest, organizers had hoped for up to 1,000. Instead, barely 100 came. They somberly lit candles, hoisted anti-war signs, listened to an Arabic prayer chant and some words of inspiration, and left.

Most rush-hour pedestrians breezed by, declining protest leaflets. But a jogger, clearly upset by talk of peace, waved his arm, uttered an obscenity, shouted ``Death to them all!'' and sprinted away.

Nearby, Patrick Faherty, a 15-year-old Boston student, watched with two friends at a distance. ``They want peace? They don't want to go to war? I hate that. Thousands of people are killed. I would actually want to go to war,'' he said. ``I get too mad to talk about it,'' he said. He too stomped away.

Kevin Martin, director of Washington-based Peace Action, said some activists have been subjected to hate mail and even death threats.

``It's understandable that out of people's fear and anger of the Sept. 11 attacks that they would support a war,'' he said. ``I do think we need to be sensitive to people's ... questions about personal security, which they really haven't had since World War II.''

Even some lifelong protest veterans feel torn. Charles Deemer, a writer who teaches at Portland State University, in Oregon, quit the movement.

``When a nation is under attack, the first decision must be whether to surrender or to fight,'' he wrote in an open letter to a local newspaper. ``I believe there is no middle ground here: you either fight or you don't fight, and doing nothing amounts to surrender.''

Wishing his old comrades well, he advised them to work out new strategies. For starters, he suggested marchers carry American flags to make their cultural allegiance clear.

Many activists are putting aside old anti-war mantras like ``give peace a chance,'' which risks sounding naive or irrelevant in a country that feels itself under attack. Their new rallying cry is ``No More Victims!'' In the post-Sept. 11 world, they hope to find heightened compassion for civilian bystanders anywhere.

``If the killing of the people in the World Trade Center was wrong, then why kill more people?'' asked Michael Borkson, a Boston protester with a guitar slung over his shoulder.

Activists are for the first time coordinating a mass mobilization on the Internet. A unified message is emerging: The attacks of Sept. 11 were criminal acts of mass murder, and the attackers should be pursued by diplomatic and legal means. War will make domestic terrorism more likely, destabilize countries like Pakistan, and make the world more dangerous in the end.

The peace movement is also declaring a common cause with Islamic and Arab rights advocates. Peace activists are demanding stronger protection for civil liberties, defending the rights of Arab-Americans, and even teaching followers the rudiments of Islam.

They hope to turn up anti-war pressure in coming days, especially if the fighting drags on or turns bloodier. But Joseph Gerson, an activist at the American Friends Service Committee, said, ``If we suffer another serious attack right here in the United States, that's going to come as a blow'' to the anti-war movement, too.

--------

Price-Anderson: ACT NOW!

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: michael mariotte nirsnet@nirs.org

The full House Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark up the Price Anderson Act today (Thursday, October 11) at 1 pm (although the markup could still be delayed). We are told by House staffers that they have not been hearing much from the public on Price-Anderson. Please call your congressmember, whether on the Commerce Committee or not, and urge opposition to the Price-Anderson Act. At the very least, Congress should not be considering this subsidy to the nuclear power industry until a new assessment has been made of the potential risk from terrorist attack on nuclear facilities.

In addition, the House bill reportedly includes a provision to weaken Price-Anderson coverage for Pebble Bed Modular Reactors--reactors that have no containment structure and are absolutely unaccepable.

SECC tells us that Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is planning on offering two amendments, one related to terrorism (did not specify) and a second that would require licensees to demonstrate that they are unable to secure private insurance for their full potential liability before receiving P.A. protection.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Below is a brief background sheet on Price-Anderson from our friends at Public Citizen. Thanks, and please call your members today, and ask your friends and colleagues to call as well. Some environmental groups still are taking a less-visible stance following Sept. 11th; it really is up to us to show the Congress that Price-Anderson is unacceptable.

Michael Mariotte NIRS

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark-up H.R. 2983, the reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act, on October 11, 2001.

Public Citizen OPPOSES the reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act and urges the rejection of H.R. 2983 for the following reasons:

+ The Price-Anderson Act was originally enacted in 1954 to assist a nascent nuclear power industry get off the ground. The nuclear industry has had a 50-year economic stimulus package with this taxpayer subsidy and it is time to end it.

+ The Price-Anderson Act distorts the economic viability of the nuclear power industry since it relies on taxpayer subsidies to cover the insurance costs for the industry.

+ The Price-Anderson Act is blind to risk as it treats all nuclear power plant operators uniformly and does not differentiate risk from power plant to power plant.

+ The insurance coverage required in H.R. 2983 is disproportionate to the calculated risk for operating nuclear power facilities.

+ The Price-Anderson Act does not sunset until August 2002. H.R. 2983 does not address the issue of increasing security and strengthening the safety of nuclear facilities in the event of terrorist attack. There should be a thorough and independent assessment of the security needs at U.S. nuclear power facilities before Price-Anderson is even considered for reauthorization.

+ H.R. 2983 continues to have the American taxpayer foot the bill for negligent and even willful misconduct by private contractors working at Department of Energy facilities. No other government agency provides this level of taxpayer indemnification to non-government personnel.

VOTE NO ON H.R. 2983

To learn more about PRICE-ANDERSON visit: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/nuclear_revival/articles.cfm?ID=4912

----

AFSC organizes relief efforts targeted towards growing human crisis in Afghanistan

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: Max Obuszewski MObuszewski@afsc.org

AFSC EMPHASIZES "NO MORE VICTIMS" IN THE U.S. OR ABROAD

Relief efforts targeted towards growing human crisis in Afghanistan

Philadelphia, PA - Expressing concern that the U.S. "war on terrorism" will magnify a burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is expanding its No More Victims relief campaign to combat the plight of Afghan refugees. $20,000 has been earmarked from its Emergency and Materials Assistance Program (EMAP) crisis fund to launch the initiative to help Afghan refugees in Pakistan, with an additional $20,000 supporting refugee work in Iran. Funds will help purchase vital supplies, including blankets, sheets, food and medicines. In conjunction with Life for Relief and Development, a Detroit-based Islamic relief organization, EMAP is initiating a 3-week field assessment of the situation in the region.

"Afghanistan is a small country where an estimated three million people are refugees," states Carlos Mejia, director of the AFSC Emergency and Material Assistance Program (EMAP). "This represents one of the largest refugee population in the world, yet their plight was virtually ignored until the terrible September 11 U.S. tragedies."

A 20-year war has ravaged this poor country, leaving Afghanistan's per capita income among the lowest in the world. Its infant mortality rate - approximately 200 deaths per 1,000 infants - is among the world's highest.

"The outpouring of love and support that has been expressed for survivors and victims of the September 11 tragedies has been overwhelming," Mejia states. "We hope the American public will continue to respond to this appeal for the people of Afghanistan, who are themselves victims of these atrocities."

The Emergency and Material Assistance Program (EMAP), now in its 80th year of operation, provides material assistance to those in need in this country and abroad. Materials include clothing, medical supplies, seeds, Friend-Ship Kits, and other requested items. The program receives volunteer support to collect, sort, and pack donations.

In addition to the national center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, EMAP has regional centers in Baltimore, Maryland; Cambridge, Massachusetts; High Point, North Carolina; Richmond, Indiana; and San Francisco, California.

Cash donations can be sent to: No More Victims - Afghan Relief, AFSC, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102. Cash donations can also be made at our secure donations page at www.afsc.org, or via Visa or MasterCard by calling 1-888-588-2372, ext. 1. AFSC is also accepting in-kind donations of blankets, sheets, essential medical supplies and large tents.

Grounded in the beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) respecting the dignity and worth of every person, AFSC has worked for over 84 years to bring peace to some of the most turbulent regions of the world. AFSC is a 501(c)3 organization, and all donations are tax deductible. For more information, please visit www.afsc.org.

AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE 4806 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21212

Janis D. Shields, Director Media and Public Relations (215) 241-7060 After Hours: (302) 545-6596 John W. Haigis, Media Assistant, (215) 241-7056

For Immediate Release Contact: Carlos Mejia, director, Emergency and Material October 2, 2001 Assistance Program (EMAP), (215) 241-7283

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

----

Indonesia and Pakistan crush protests

October 11, 2001
By Geoff Spencer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011011-27533475.htm

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Police fired tear gas to stop about 1,000 Islamic students from storming the grounds of Indonesia's Parliament during a protest yesterday against U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan, witnesses said.

It was the third consecutive day of anti-U.S. demonstrations in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Witnesses said the protesters tried to break through police lines and push down the legislature's main gate.

Women wearing Islamic head scarves clutched pictures of terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.

"Allah loves holy warriors," the crowd chanted.

Earlier, several groups staged noisy demonstrations outside the United Nations building and the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy, demanding Indonesia suspend diplomatic relations with Washington. Police beat some outside the embassy, injuring four students.

In at least five other Indonesian cities, protesters burned tires, U.S. flags and effigies of President Bush.

The embassy remained closed yesterday even after Indonesian security forces moved in two additional water cannons. Some U.S. Embassy staff have left the country voluntarily.

About 100 police controlled a small, peaceful protest outside the British Embassy, which is located on Jakarta's main traffic circle.

About 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim.

So far, the anti-U.S. protests in Indonesia have been relatively small, and analysts say the majority of Indonesians are not hostile toward Americans.

In Pakistan, fed up with chaotic protests, Pakistan's military ruler promised yesterday to deal firmly with anyone who attacked public property or acts against the national interest.

President Pervez Musharraf vowed during a Cabinet meeting to deal "firmly and swiftly" with agitators, the government news agency said. The warning was aimed at leaders of anti-American, anti-government demonstrations that have been staged in major cities.

Yesterday, the Afghan Defense Council, a pro-Taliban alliance of 35 Islamic and militant groups, issued a fresh call for nationwide demonstrations tomorrow - the Muslim holy day - to protest the air strikes on Afghanistan.

More than 5,000 protesters took to the streets yesterday in Karachi, a city of 14 million. Holding banners and brandishing sticks, they chanted slogans against America and President Bush, promising to recruit 10,000 fighters to take part in a jihad, or holy war, on Afghanistan's behalf.

Police have detained three top Muslim clerics to prevent them from organizing protests, and the government says its backing of the United States enjoys broad support.

Outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila, some 200 Muslims and left-wing activists denounced the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan. Protesters burned an American flag and called for a holy war. Another group released doves.

A top security official said no U.S. ground troops will be allowed to take part in counterterrorist operation in the Philippines.

Instead of ground troops, the United States was to provide intelligence, training and equipment to help fight Islamic militants in the Philippines, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said.

"We would like to state that there is no possibility that the Americans could be conducting covert and overt military action using their own troops," he said.

Mr. Golez was reacting to a New York Times report quoting unidentified U.S. officials who said terrorists with links to bin Laden in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are among the likely targets of future covert and overt American actions.

The country's most extremist guerrilla group, the Abu Sayyaf, claims it is fighting for an independent Islamic state. Abu Sayyaf is believed to have links to bin Laden.

-------

Indonesian Anti - US Protesters, Police Clash

October 11, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-indonesia-injuries.html

SURABAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police clashed on Friday with students protesting against the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan, injuring at least five protesters, witnesses said.

About 100 Muslim students had gathered at the local parliament in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya, to march toward the U.S. consulate-general when police surrounded

and beat them with sticks and kicked them, the witnesses said. At least four students were arrested.

The protesters quickly dispersed.

Raising a baton in a threatening manner, one senior officer warned journalists not to write about the incident. Police could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Muslim groups in the world's largest Muslim nation are due to hold mass rallies in the capital and other cities after midday prayers on Friday, the Islamic holy day.

Early on Friday, Jakarta was mostly peaceful but security was tight. About 40 armored cars backed by hundreds of troops were positioned in the central Merdeka (Freedom) Square, across the heavily fortified U.S. embassy.

----

THE TOP FIVE LIES ABOUT THIS WAR
[Leaflet produced by a student group at U. of Pittsburgh.]

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: "Phil Gasper" pgasper@ndnu.edu

The following is the text of a leaflet I developed for use in tabling by the anti-war committee of my student group. If you size it so that the bulk of the text is about 12-point, it will fit on a leaflet, front-and-back. This leaflet is designed for informational purposes; it is not run-of-the-mill low-level agitation but a serious effort to debunk several major misconceptions about the war in a relatively succinct format. It's also intended to be interesting and engaging to read. When tabling, it's best to be up-front about what you're doing, raise your voice a bit, but be friendly, shout short but provocative things like "Surprise! The government is lying to you! Read about it here!" or simply "The top five lies the government is telling you about the war!" Naturally, you'll get some smartass and jingoistic comments, but you can get folks' attention by appealing to their natural skepticism.

If you use this on a leaflet of your own, you don't necessarily need to credit Students in Solidarity of the University of Pittsburgh. Rather, if you use it, we'd like to HEAR FROM YOU (at the e-mail address listed at the bottom of the text of the leaflet), hear what you think about it, and hear what responses you get from people.

John Lacny

THE TOP FIVE LIES ABOUT THIS WAR

How many people do you know who claim to be skeptical, who pride themselves on their distrust for authority, who like to pretend that they're wise to the ways of the world -- and then, every time there's a war, they swallow the lies of the government with all the gullibility of a three-year-old child in the lap of a department store Santa Claus? Don't fall into that trap yourself! Learn to identify and refute official misinformation when you see it. Let's count down some of the common misconceptions about this war:

Lie #5: "We're not at war with the Afghan people -- look, we're bringing them food!"

Reality: Afghanistan is in the midst of a severe drought which threatens literally millions of people with starvation. Even before the threat of US bombing, the World Food Program (WFP) said that nearly 6 million people were in need of immediate food assistance. When the threat of war caused massive movements of refugees and internally displaced people, the WFP raised that number to 7.5 million. UN agencies were keeping huge numbers of people alive, but the war danger -- as well as the US demand that Pakistan seal its border with Afghanistan -- caused the WFP to suspend deliveries of wheat flour to the country. We have no idea how many people have already died as a result. Meanwhile, the US dropped 37,000 individually-wrapped packages of food from the sky. You do the math. That's enough to feed about 37,000 people for one day, in a country where seven and a half million are in danger of starvation. Additionally, the spokesman for an international charity active in Afghanistan told the London Independent that "Random food drops are the worst possible way of delivering food aid. They cause more problems than they solve." Not the least of which is the fact that Afghanistan has the highest number of unexploded land mines in the world. There are already 10 or 15 mine incidents every day, and with people scrambling into mine-ridden areas to pick up random packages of food dropped from US planes, that number is only going to go up.

Lie #4: "Oil? Who said anything about oil?"

Reality: The Caspian Sea region has potentially the world's largest oil reserves, likely making Central Asia the next Middle East. The problem is piping it out. Afghanistan occupies a strategic position between the Caspian and the markets of the Indian subcontinent and east Asia. It's prime territory for building pipelines, which is why the oil company Unocal -- as well as the US government -- welcomed the Taliban's rise to power in 1996 as a promising source of "stability." That turned out to be a pipe dream (so to speak), but people like our Commander-in-Chief and the oil men around him have never given up on the tremendous profit possibilities that Central Asia offers. And if you don't think such considerations are crossing their minds at this time of crisis, may we suggest a refresher course in The Facts of Life?

Lie #3: "The US is trying to liberate the people of Afghanistan from Taliban tyranny."

Reality: The US, Russia, and Iran have been aiding a rough coalition of armed groups called the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance's fighters are drawn mainly from ethnic minority groups in Afghanistan who have been persecuted by the Taliban. But their record is also a bloody one. Groups like the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which have been fighting against fundamentalism and for democracy in Afghanistan for years, have publicly stated that the fundamentalist gangsters of the Northern Alliance are not an acceptable alternative to the fundamentalist gangsters of the Taliban. No wonder: Human Rights Watch implicates the Northern Alliance in "indiscriminate aerial bombardment and shelling, direct attacks on civilians, summary executions, rape, persecution on the basis of religion or ethnicity, the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, and the use of antipersonnel landmines." By now everyone knows that Osama bin Laden was among the mujihadin recruited by the CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Meet the next generation.

Lie #2: "America is coming together."

Reality: Tens of thousands of people have been laid off in the airline industry alone. The government quickly responded to the airline industry crisis with a multi- billion-dollar bailout package for the companies in order to keep afloat the profits of shareholders and the salaries of CEOs, but when it came to aiding the thousands of workers laid off, Congressman Dick Armey said that that would be contrary to "the American spirit." Maybe it is. Maybe it's the "American spirit" to make common working people pay for a crisis and to bear the burdens of an expensive war. But it certainly doesn't have anything to do with "togetherness."

And the biggest lie of them all . . .

Lie #1: "It's possible to win a 'war against terrorism.'"

Reality: Terrorism is a tactic, not a political or social force in and of itself. Anyone can use it, and the idea that you can wage a "war" against it is as dishonest as the idea behind the "War on Drugs." The use of food as a political weapon, indiscriminate aerial bombardment, and the arming of gangsterish groups of religious fanatics all count as "terrorism" by any reasonable definition of the word, and the United States has long employed all of them -- and more. This war is really about sordid material interests and power (see especially Lies numbers 2 and 4, above), and in defense of these interests the US is prepared to shift the label "terrorist" as it sees fit, to apply to all manner of dissident political movements and not just marginal bands of fanatics like bin Laden's al-Qa'ida. Conversely, it's willing to call its own terrorists "freedom fighters" (see Lie number 3 above). Maybe some of them will get transformed into "terrorists" again in a few years. It's a sick game and a charade, and the government is manipulating the very real grief and anger of the people of the United States after the September 11 atrocities to get us all to fall for it again. Don't believe them for a second.

Produced by the Anti-War Committee of Students in Solidarity at the University of Pittsburgh

---

A way to end terrorism

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: lu_yu_ping_888@yahoo.co.uk

We all wish to see the end of terrorism and live in a peaceful world.

To reach this goal, we need the help of all peace loving individuals from both sides of the fence.

First, we need to understand the beliefs and motivations of the people behind terrorism. Also, they will need to understand our beliefs and values. Only when we have reached a state of mutual understanding, we can then start to formulate the best way to resolve the conflict.

Many people on both sides want to resolve the conflict with a war. And many people see this as a holy war.

I agree that a holy war is required to resolve the conflict. However, a holy war by definition is a conflict of spiritual beliefs. And therefore, it must be fought spiritually to resolve the differences, and not with a physical warfare such as conventional, biological or nuclear warfare.

A physical warfare would result mutual physical destruction and human suffering.

Whereas, a spiritual conflict consisting of mutual exchange and debates of differences in beliefs and ideals would result mutual understanding and learning, and then in turn both parties will benefit spiritual elevation.

The idea of resolving a spiritual conflict is in effect a negotiation. Until now, the problem has always been the lack of mass direct communication.

Currently, international negotiations are carried out by representatives from both sides with small sets of agenda which will never represent the full ideals and real meaning of the beliefs and values on both sides. We should be able communicate freely and openly without intermediate parties, so that we can express exactly our true beliefs and values. We can then start to learn and understand the beliefs and values of other the other side.

We now have a mass direct communication system available to us, the Internet. We have the potential to directly communicate with people with different beliefs and try to resolve our differences. Let us utilize this tool to accelerate the mutual understanding of all religious and political ideals.

My hope is to create an information management system on the Internet where everyone can voice and discuss the differences of their beliefs. These information are then translated carefully to all known languages, preserving their original meaning. Therefore, people of all languages can participate in the discussion.

We can make a start by using currently available technology such as Internet groups as a prototype system. I have set up a group called "United State of Inner Beauty" to begin the process in English.

However, we still need to create a system that has the ability to translate all the information to all languages.

If you agree with this idea and if you wish to volunteer your help, then please:

1. First of all, forward this message to anyone whom you think will benefit and who could help.

2. Join the group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/United_State_of_Inner_Beauty to show your support.

3. Pledge any resource you can afford to give. eg. * time to help with organization * religious knowledge and understanding * translation skills * influence in marketing or broadcasting, eg. pop music, TV, radio, newspaper, large corporate * IT resource to help develop a web based information management system * monetary resource to help fund such web based system

I hope this message brings you hope for a peaceful world.

Yours truly, in peace,

Richard Lo Chinese name: Lu Yu Ping

----

NIRS response to NRC info shutdown

NRC SHUTS WEBSITE FOR "SECURITY" REASONS;
AGENCY IS PROTECTING THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY, NOT THE PUBLIC

Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001
From: michael mariotte <nirsnet@nirs.org>

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) October 11 shut down its website in order to remove potentially tens of thousands of pages of information about the nation's commercial nuclear power industry. The NRC left the following message on its site: "Our site is not operational at this time. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken the action to shut down its web site. In support of our mission to protect public health and safety, we are performing a review of all material on our site. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these difficult times."

"Why," asked Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), "if the information on the NRC's website is so potentially valuable to terrorists, did the NRC wait a full month to review its material?"

"The simple reason," said Mariotte, "is that the information is not particularly useful to terrorists, rather, it's useful to the U.S. public, which monitors the safety of nuclear power reactors." Mariotte pointed out that plant-specific security-related information never has been posted on the NRC's website, nor made available in the agency's Public Document Rooms.

"We have no quarrel with the NRC removing any legitimate security-related information from public access," said Paul Gunter, Director of NIRS' Reactor Watchdog Project, "but we take issue with any NRC effort to remove documents regarding basic plant information, safety requirements, emerging radiation hazards and licensee compliance issues."

"In light of the agency's information blackout, NRC is obligated to also suspend a business-as-usual approach with the nuclear utilities," said Mariotte. "We are asking that the NRC adhere to its statutory requirements and regulatory commitment to include public participation by suspending all licensing proceedings, its meetings with the industry and extending all public comment deadlines until public access to all non-security related documents is resumed."

Gunter noted that there is no statutory basis for the NRC to withhold most of its information. "Statutes requiring the protection from unauthorized disclosure of very specific types of security information, documents and reports are already in place," said Gunter. "If NRC wants to go beyond these statutory bounds then they need to prepare an order stating their legal basis before proceeding further," he added. "What is this? An undeclared state of Martial Law?" said Gunter.

"The public information blackout only underscores the growing danger and vulnerability that has existed at every nuclear power station," said Gunter. "Since the initial licensing of nuclear power plants in the 1960's, our concern is that this technology is ultimately incompatible with real national security and a democratic society."

The security-based information blackout comes while the NRC has been seeking to close down its Operational Safeguard Response Evaluations (OSRE) program, which has documented a nearly 50% failure rate by utilities in protecting their reactors from mock terrorist attacks. Instead, the NRC has pushed for less costly industry-led security assessments.

NIRS is sending a letter to NRC Chairman Richard Meserve demanding reinstatement of non-security- related materials.

NEWS FROM NIRS Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington DC 20036 202.328.0002; f: 202.462.2183; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michael Mariotte or Paul Gunter October 12, 2001 202-328-0002

----

Police photograph peace vigil crowd

Thursday, October 11, 2001,
By Lee Hammel,
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, New England Newspaper of the Year
http://www.telegram.com/news/page_one/vigilpix.html

WORCESTER-- Worcester police photographed a peace vigil this week, an act that a participant said may have been done with the intention of intimidating the demonstrators.

The Worcester police detective commander, who was contacted Tuesday and yesterday by the Telegram & Gazette, acknowledged that photos were taken, but said he has been unable to identify who ordered or requested them.

But a police officer at the vigil Monday at Lincoln Square said Worcester police had "been instructed by the FBI to take photos of all demonstrations," according to a letter to Chief James M. Gallagher from Worcester Peace Works, which organized the demonstration.

When asked by two of the 125 members of the group who she was and why she was there, the photographer responded, "I'm not with anybody." However, she left in a Worcester police van, according to the letter. The letter asks for an apology from Worcester police.

The letter said, "Police surveillance of people peacefully exercising their constitutional rights is totally unacceptable." It is signed by Philip M. Stone and Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, two Peace Works coordinating committee members; and participants Sister Rena Mae Gagnon, David Williams, Joan Webster, and Diane Rocheleau.

The letter also asks that Worcester Peace Works be supplied with a list of groups that local, state or federal agencies have photographed or put under surveillance in Worcester since Sept. 11. It asks to be provided with a list of all agency personnel who have been provided with Worcester police photos, files and reports on Worcester Peace Works and for return of all photos, negatives and files of vigil participants.

And it asks for police protocols on an officer's obligation to identify himself or herself when asked, and for a copy of the policy on the circumstances under which "groups engaged in free-speech activities are to be photographed by the Worcester Police Department."

Capt. Paul F. Campbell is commander of the Detective Division, which includes the Bureau of Criminal Identification. He told the Telegram & Gazette Tuesday and yesterday that he had not been on duty Monday and he was unable to find out who ordered the photographs.

He said there was no recorded order, no official he spoke with knew who ordered the pictures, and the officer involved is on furlough, or vacation. Photos of a demonstration could be requested by anyone, from a route officer to an official, he said.

"We have done the same thing at other locations in the city at other events," such as labor demonstrations, presidential visits to the city, and other protests and rallies, Capt. Campbell said.

He said the reason for taking the pictures Monday is "confidential," but that "we will take pictures when we feel there's a necessity to take pictures."

The detective commander said "it gives us a tool" if before, during or after an event, someone at the event commits a crime such as vandalism. Such pictures would "show the size (of the event) or what they were carrying for banners, or what were they protesting, what was the intent of the particular protest or particular event."

"It doesn't mean they were being targeted as someone that was responsible for anything," the captain said.

Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, a longtime peace activist, said the demonstration Monday included children as young as 6, a retired college professor, and others in a "really well-ordered and peaceful demonstration."

They carried signs reading "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and "Love Your Enemies" in protest of the U.S. and British bombing of Afghanistan.

A conversation with the police Bureau of Criminal Identification on Tuesday produced an acknowledgement that police had assigned a BCI photographer to take pictures of the demonstration, Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said. He said a woman at BCI who declined to identify herself told him "we were assigned by department officials to send someone."

The demonstration site is across Lincoln Square from police headquarters and it could have been photographed without police ever leaving their property, Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said. "It seems to me they didn't just want the pictures," he said.

"They're giving us a message: You're being watched." He called it inappropriate and said, "Sending a person down there who takes you and your children's pictures, someone who won't say who she is and what it's for, that's a little scary."

---

Subject: Anti-war actions...continued (8)

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: "radtimes" <resist@best.com>

Anti-war resources:

http://www.actionla.org/S11/
http://www.warisnottheanswer.org/
http://www.9-11peace.org/
http://pax.protest.net/
http://www.s29.org/
http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=26
http://www.sfbg.com/News/altvoices.html
http://www.peacefuljustice.cjb.net/
http://www.warresisters.org/attack9-11-01.htm#things
http://www.legitgov.org/peaceprotests.html
http://www.igc.org/inkworks/www/downloads.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/studentsnowar/files
http://www.honoringourhumangoodness.homestead.com/
http://www.peaceflags.org
http://www.mwaw.org
http://www.stopworldwar3.com/

--------

Assault On Liberty

By Judy Rebick
ZNet Commentary

We are not even at war yet and the most important freedom in a democracy, freedom of speech, is already under assault.

Sunera Thobani, a private citizen, a university professor and the former leader of the Canadian National Action Committee on the Status of Women is suffering the most ferocious attack in Parliament, and in the media for something she said. The media in Canada rarely covers the activities of women's groups, yet Thobani's speech made the front page of several newspapers and was covered on the national news.

She was speaking to 500 activists who work in the prison system, the anti-violence movement and with poor women, Thobani expressed anger against U.S. foreign policy. She explained that if we want to understand the terrible events of September 11, we have to understand the raging anger against the U.S. in the Middle East.

Thobani, who is an immigrant of South Asian descent, is a dramatic and passionate speaker. She was speaking to an enthusiastic audience most of whom was glad to hear an alternative point of view so she used passionate language.

"U.S. foreign policy is soaked in blood," she said. You may not like the formulation but the truth of the statement is unassailable. In Iraq alone, 500,000 children under five have died according to UNICEF since the Gulf War due to ongoing bombing and sanctions. There is a long list of bloody coups, civil wars and repressive dictators in Latin America and the Middle East over the last decades paid for by the United States to protect what they saw as American interest.

She also suggested that women's rights would be further ahead without the domination of the United States around the world. Here there may be room for argument but there is no question that the strength of fundamentalists in the Middle East is directly due to U.S. support in the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The U.S. props us autocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia, where women don't even have the right to drive.

What she said has been shamelessly distorted by the right-wing media who seems to see an opportunity here to batter the women's movement as well as to create war hysteria. More than one mainstream columnist used the occasion to attack the leadership of the women's movement for insisting that advocacy is just as important as service in agencies working with marginalized women.

The contrast between the reaction of the audience at one of the most successful women's conferences held in quite a while and the media and politicians gives us a glimpse of the possibility of the danger further isolation of an already seriously weakened women's movement in the context of war.

Thobani is not the only one saying these things. Just last week, I heard British novelist Tariq Ali speak in Toronto. He was saying many of the same things. You can read similar arguments in alternative media in North America and in the European mainstream press every day.

So why the ferocious attack against Thobani? While others may be saying the same thing, no-one has said it with as much passion, at least not in public. I have heard the same anger in meetings coming from people who have suffered at the hands of U.S. foreign policy, Palestinians, and survivors of the U.S. backed coup in Chile, for example.

The ferocity of the attack on Thobani is not the only problem. Both British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and the Globe and Mail's editorial cartoonist suggest that her views put Thobani, who lives in B.C., in the camp of the Taliban. This smacks of a new kind of McCarthyism.

In his war speech, President George W. Bush said "You are either with us or you are with the terrorists." Ms Thobani and many who share her critique of American foreign policy are with neither.

A few days after Thobani's speech, the World Women's March put out a statement against war that the media ignored. A broad coalition including unions, peace groups, and anti-globalization groups issued a statement for global justice and peace and it too was ignored. At a grass roots level, there is a growing anti-war movement that has already taken to the streets in several cities. More actions are planned for October 20.

Public opinion in Canada is much more divided than in the United States. There is little question that the attacks on Thobani are meant to put a chill on a growing anti-war movement.

Thobani has always enraged the chattering classes for her refusal to play the submissive role they expect from immigrant women of colour. There she stood railing against the U.S. in defiance of the agreed upon rules of debate set by the ruling elite, dressed in the traditional dress of her people. I know a lot of people of Arabic or South Asian descent who feel the same way she does but they are afraid to say it. Now we know why.

---------

CCCO SUPPORTS AND PROMOTES INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE TO WAR AND PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
http://www.objector.org/

The tragic events of September 11 and beyond have pushed CCCO to the breaking point. Our telephones are ringing off their hooks at both offices. Staff has been coming in earlier than usual, working even later than usual and spending even more weekends in the offices.

Those who are contacting us are people needing information, solace, compassion and support. They may be young women and men tricked into the military who are frightened about being sent into a war they do not understand. They may be Conscientious Objectors, either within or without of the military. They may be community activists needing support against the rising tide of jingoism. They may be worried parents, scared of what could happen to their children. They may be young people bewildered and confused by the false promises of recruiters and the current war frenzy.

MORE: http://www.objector.org/

---------

Important article about shutting down U.S. nuclear power plants

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: "Scott Powell" <spowell@zelle.com>

Hello. My friend Andreas Toupadakis, a Greek former nuclear weapons scientist turned peace activist, sent the following message and an urgent article about shutting down U.S. nuclear power plants to me and to his friends, including Dr. Helen Caldicott. I think this is a very important issue to encourage your members to be involved with.

Thanks,
Scott Powell San Francisco

Dear friends,

Is there any human being on earth who, after reading the article below by Harvey Wasserman, would continue to be indifferent on the nuclear energy issue?

As an ex-worker of two different nuclear facilities I support its truthfulness wholeheartedly.

This article compels me now to make a few concrete statements in regard to nuclear energy, even though I have done so many times in the past through written and spoken words in several countries before the 9-11 events.

For example see: ß There is no safe limit for radiation. (In Greek) -- Ethnos -- http://www.ethnos.gr/pages/2000/jul/25/p040101.htm http://www.ethnos.gr/pages/2000/jul/25/p060101.htm ß
Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Energy, And Globalization. http://www.abolition2000.org/issues/toupadakis080701.html

First, as a human being and second, as a scientist trained in nuclear materials, I demand from those in positions of title to finally become serious about the peril of nuclear energy against humanity and take the appropriate position for humanity's sake. Since my resignation from the nuclear facilities, I have personally met two Nobel Peace Prize winners and I find it very sad to report that they have not taken the necessary responsibility for this issue. In my efforts to contact them and discuss the matter, I have not had success. And it is worth noting that when I spoke at the United Nations in New York in the summer of 2000, my speech was considered even by the peace movement to be too loud.

I challenge all those scientists worldwide and especially those in the peace movement and in Japan who are supposed to know the perils of nuclear energy to come out of their hiding places and speak for humanity instead of their titles. It is their duty to take the moral position in regard to the nuclear power issue now before we see apocalyptic scenes in our cities.

Just before the 9/11 events, there was such an excitement from the Bush administration along with a caravan of disciples to build more nuclear energy plants. The White House last year had given the green light to Turkey to go ahead and build its first nuclear power plant. Because of this behavior of our leaders and experts, we are required to show a sharp resistance to the plans of those who cannot think rationally anymore. I think the article below says it all, and we know what we need to do.

We need to inform the people everywhere, and to organize and resist with all nonviolent means against the nuclear insanity. Now is the best time for bringing awareness to the people of the earth. People of the earth, the earth belongs to us and to our children's children and the creator gave it to us clean to enjoy. Let us stop the nuclear insanity now and keep the earth clean. If we do not, the events described in the article below will become reality sooner or later if not by terrorists, by earthquakes, and if not by earthquakes, by our own governments fighting the last global war on earth. The Cretan

Please disseminate, contact your local media & legislators. Show this to your family & friends. Print and/or e-mail it to them and others and ask them to do likewise. There are NPPs in 44 countries on Earth. The terrorists already know about NPP sabotage and have made threats. The public needs to know.

NOW.Thanks

http://www.tmia.com/sabter.html http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html
For journalists Harvey Wasserman can be reached at: nonukeshw@aol.com -Bill Smirnow

===

AMERICA'S TERRORIST NUCLEAR THREAT TO ITSELF

By Harvey Wasserman

No sane nation hands to a wartime enemy atomic weapons set to go off within its own homeland, and then lights the fuse.

Yet as the bombs and missiles drop on Afghanistan, the certainty of terror retaliation inside America has turned our 103 nuclear power plants into weapons of apocalyptic destruction, just waiting to be used against us.

One or both planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, could have easily obliterated the two atomic reactors now operating at Indian Point, about 40 miles up the Hudson.

The catastrophic devastation would have been unfathomable. But those and a hundred other American reactors are still running. Security has been heightened. But all are vulnerable to another sophisticated terror attack aimed at perpetrating the unthinkable.

Indian Point Unit One was shut long ago by public outcry. But Units 2 & 3 have operated since the 1970s. Back then there was talk of requiring reactor containment domes to be strong enough to withstand a jetliner crash. But the biggest jets were far smaller than the ones that fly today. Nor did those early calculations account for the jet fuel whose hellish fire melted the critical steel supports that ultimately brought down the Trade Center.

Had one or both those jets hit one or both the operating reactors at Indian Point, the ensuing cloud of radiation would have dwarfed the ones at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

The intense radioactive heat within today's operating reactors is the hottest anywhere on the planet. So are the hellish levels of radioactivity.

Because Indian Point has operated so long, its accumulated radioactive burden far exceeds that of Chernobyl, which ran only four years before it exploded.

Some believe the WTC jets could have collapsed or breached either of the Indian Point containment domes. But at very least the massive impact and intense jet fuel fire would destroy the human ability to control the plants' functions. Vital cooling systems, backup power generators and communications networks would crumble.

Indeed, Indian Point Unit One was shut because activists warned that its lack of an emergency core cooling system made it an unacceptable risk. The government ultimately agreed.

But today terrorist attacks could destroy those same critical cooling and control systems that are vital to not only the Unit Two and Three reactor cores, but to the spent fuel pools that sit on site.

The assault would not require a large jet. The safety systems are extremely complex and virtually indefensible. One or more could be wiped out with a wide range of easily deployed small aircraft, ground-based weapons, truck bombs or even chemical/biological assaults aimed at the operating work force. Dozens of US reactors have repeatedly failed even modest security tests over the years. Even heightened wartime standards cannot guarantee protection of the vast, supremely sensitive controls required for reactor safety.

Without continous monitoring and guaranteed water flow, the thousands of tons of radioactive rods in the cores and the thousands more stored in those fragile pools would rapidly melt into super-hot radioactive balls of lava that would burn into the ground and the water table and, ultimately, the Hudson.

Indeed, a jetcrash like the one on 9/11 or other forms of terrorist assault at Indian Point could yield three infernal fireballs of molten radioactive lava burning through the earth and into the aquifer and the river. Striking water they would blast gigantic billows of horribly radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds from the north and west might initially drive these clouds of mass death downriver into New York City and east into Westchester and Long Island.

But at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, winds ultimately shifted around the compass to irradiate all surrounding areas with the devastating poisons released by the on-going fiery torrent. At Indian Point, thousands of square miles would have been saturated with the most lethal clouds ever created or imagined, depositing relentless genetic poisons that would kill forever.

In nearby communities like Buchanan, Nyack, Monsey and scores more, infants and small children would quickly die en masse. Virtually all pregnant women would spontaneously abort, or ultimately give birth to horribly deformed offspring. Ghastly sores, rashes, ulcerations and burns would afflict the skin of millions. Emphysema, heart attacks, stroke, multiple organ failure, hair loss, nausea, inability to eat or drink or swallow, diarrhea and incontinance, sterility and impotence, asthma, blindness, and more would kill thousands on the spot, and doom hundreds of thousands if not millions. A terrible metallic taste would afflict virtually everyone downwind in New York, New Jersey and New England, a ghoulish curse similar to that endured by the fliers who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaskai, by those living downwind from nuclear bomb tests in the south seas and Nevada, and by victims caught in the downdrafts from Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

Then comes the abominable wave of cancers, leukemias, lymphomas, tumors and hellish diseases for which new names will have to be invented, and new dimensions of agony will beg description.

Indeed, those who survived the initial wave of radiation would envy those who did not.

Evacuation would be impossible, but thousands would die trying. Bridges and highways would become killing fields for those attempting to escape to destinations that would soon enough become equally deadly as the winds shifted.

Attempts to quench the fires would be futile. At Chernobyl, pilots flying helicopters that dropped boron on the fiery core died in droves. At Indian Point, such missions would be a sure ticket to death. Their utility would be doubtful as the molten cores rage uncontrolled for days, weeks and years, spewing ever more devastation into the eco-sphere. More than 800,000 Soviet draftees were forced through Chernobyl's seething remains in a futile attempt to clean it up. They are dying in droves. Who would now volunteer for such an American task force?

The radioactive cloud from Chernobyl blanketed the vast Ukraine and Belarus landscape, then carried over Europe and into the jetstream, surging through the west coast of the United States within ten days, carrying across our northern tier, circling the globe, then coming back again.

The radioactive clouds from Indian Point would enshroud New York, New Jersey, New England, and carry deep into the Atlantic and up into Canada and across to Europe and around the globe again and again.

The immediate damage would render thousands of the world's most populous and expensive square miles permanently uninhabitable. All five boroughs of New York City would be an apocalyptic wasteland. The World Trade Center would be rendered as unusable and even more lethal by a jet crash at Indian Point than it was by the direct hits of 9/11. All real estate and economic value would be poisonously radioactive throughout the entire region. Irreplaceable trillions in human capital would be forever lost.

As at Three Mile Island, where thousands of farm and wild animals died in heaps, and as at Chernobyl, where soil, water and plant life have been hopelessly irradiated, natural eco-systems on which human and all other life depends would be permanently and irrevocably destroyed,

Spiritually, psychologically, financially, ecologically, our nation would never recover.

This is what we missed by a mere forty miles near New York City on September 11. Now that we are at war, this is what could be happening as you read this.

There are 103 of these potential Bombs of the Apocalypse now operating in the United States. They generate just 18% of America's electricity, just 8% of our total energy. As with reactors elsewhere, the two at Indian Point have both been off-line for long periods of time with no appreciable impact on life in New York. Already an extremely expensive source of electricity, the cost of attempting to defend these reactors will put nuclear energy even further off the competitive scale.

Since its deregulation crisis, California---already the nation's second-most efficient state---cut further into its electric consumption by some 15%. Within a year the US could cheaply replace virtually with increased efficiency all the reactors now so much more expensive to operate and protect.

Yet, as the bombs fall and the terror escalates, Congress is fast-tracking a form of legal immunity to protect the operators of reactors like Indian Point from liability in case of a meltdown or terrorist attack.

Why is our nation handing its proclaimed enemies the weapons of our own mass destruction, and then shielding from liability the companies that insist on continuing to operate them?

Do we take this war seriously? Are we committed to the survival of our nation?

If so, the ticking reactor bombs that could obliterate the very core of our life and of all future generations must be shut down.

Harvey Wasserman is author of THE LAST ENERGY WAR and co-author of KILLING OUR OWN: THE DISASTER OF AMERICA'S EXPERIENCE WITH ATOMIC RADIATION. *please circulate & reprint

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Analysis A war without witnesses
In most crises, there is a critical point when the scale of suffering impinges on the outside world. But what happens when there are no images?

The Guardian
Felicity Lawrence
Thursday October 11, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,567331,00.html

There is a ghostly absence of images of the victims of this war. More than 1m people were displaced inside Afghanistan before September 11, and since then hundreds of thousands are feared to be on the move, according to the UN. They have little or no access to food, water or medicine. But we can't see them; they have no face. They have not so far massed shockingly, and photogenically, in front of the cameras, because the borders to neighbouring countries remain closed. They have fled to villages in the mountains, where aid agencies fear they will starve slowly, in pockets, away from the places where photographers can bear witness.

Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan have closed the refugee camps in their territories to reporters, so the accounts of those who have managed to escape war and famine have only emerged in dribs and drabs. They have failed to reach the critical mass which might provoke an outpouring of compassion and action.

The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the collapse of the twin towers created conditions so appalling that those trapped were not just injured or killed but obliterated. Access to ground zero has been tightly controlled, and apart from brief descriptions from rescue workers of body parts, the victims are eerily absent. For most people, the abiding images of the attack are not of wounded humanity but of a mangled building, its structure melted by the inferno into arches hauntingly reminiscent of Dresden or Cologne in the second world war. That and week after week of pictures of machinery - of giant cranes and heavy lifting gear picking over the remains.

A small digger levelling the ruins of what had been a UN-affiliated office for mine clearance in Kabul was the only TV image to record the death of four Afghan civilians in American bombing on Tuesday; a puny, dehumanised echo of the scene in New York. The Taliban have thrown out all foreign journalists and censored all coverage, allowing only occasional still photographs to be released, or letting the Arab TV station al-Jazeera broadcast fuzzy pictures of missile attacks and carefully-timed Bin Laden statements.

Just as in the Falklands and Gulf wars, the lack of images from Afghanistan will have a profound impact on the course of events. Once again our view of conflict is night after night of planes roaring off aircraft carriers, and sombre military men from the Pentagon and Ministry of Defence telling us what we need to know, while foreign fighters blast another round of artillery fire into a blank and barren landscape. This is a war depersonalised, and a narrative detached.

Images matter because in an age of global information flow, they have begun to almost replace reality, according to Gilbert Holleufer of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Centre for Human Rights. It is only when we see moving pictures that we process events as actual experience and only when we see real people suffering that we make a personal connection with them. "Only what has been authenticated, certified and validated by being photographed or filmed and shown on TV really exists. Everything else is reduced to oblivion."

Military censors have always understood the need to control the images and until recently the speed of the technology available has been on their side. Vietnam was perhaps the first and last war to be openly covered. During the Falklands war, footage was limited to pictures of military hardware. During the bombing period of the Gulf war, the TV reports were similarly restricted, except when Saddam Hussein found it useful to give cameramen access to scenes such as the civilian shelter bombed by the western allies. There were no contemporaneous pictures of what the Americans called the "turkey shoot" of the retreating Iraqi army on the road to Basra.

In Kosovo, by contrast, film evidence of Serbian massacres, and footage of thousands of fleeing Albanians trapped on the Macedonian border played a significant part in the decision by Nato leaders to intervene.

The pictures that are fed into the public imagination affect the shape of the collective response. Last week, a joint appeal for Afghanistan by the Disasters Emergency Committee, the umbrella group for British aid agencies, was held back amid fears that there was not enough footage to persuade the public to respond.

In most humanitarian crises, there is a critical moment at which the scale of the suffering finally impinges on the outside world with an urgency that cannot be ignored. In the Mozambique floods, it was when film was shown of a woman who had given birth in a tree. In Rwanda, pictures of thousands of skeletal African children fleeing genocidal killings were the catalyst. In Kosovo, images of cattle trains of Albanian refugees marked a turning point.

Aid agencies have called for all participants in the Afghan conflict to open up a safe humanitarian corridor to allow food, medical supplies and shelter to be taken in before it is too late. So far there has been no response, other than the fig leaf of a US military drop of 37,000 rations. The UN predicts that up to 7.5m Afghans will need aid to survive the rapidly approaching winter, but theirs is a silent crisis.

felicity.lawrence@guardian.co.uk

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Report from Bay Area Emergency Response to US Bombing Afghanistan

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001
From: LIST@ACTIONSF.ORG

On just a few hours notice up to 5,000 people crowded into the trolley turnaround at Powell and Market in San Francisco Sunday night to say no to the US bombing of the Afghani people. Since the Gulf War in 1991, Powell and Market has been the site where emergency response protests take place at 5pm the day US bombing begins. The demonstration was organized by the International ANSWER Coalition. It included a huge banner that read "Stop Bombing Afghanistan" that volunteers made in the office and took to the protest with the ink still wet. A long spirited march followed the gathering rally and went into the Mission District, gaining people as it went. It ended on the steps of Mission High School where a short rally was held.

The following day as planned another 1,500 protesters met at the Berkeley BART Station and then marched to a freeway entrance where they were met by a row of police in riot gear. After a short standoff, the demonstration moved back up University Ave., displaying the anti-war message to hundreds of cars waiting to get on the freeway. The action was organized by Middle East Children's Alliance and the International ANSWER Coalition.

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED in the office to help with follow-up to these activities and in preparation for upcoming rallies and teach-ins. A message with details on the upcoming Oct. 20 rally and Oct. 27 teach-in in SF will be sent out soon. You can also get updates by calling the IAC office or checking the www.InternationalANSWER.org website.

Please call (415) 821-6545 or email ANSWER@actionsf.org to plug into the work.


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