------- Index of Articles
NUCLEAR
Uranium reactor stockpiles falling-ERA
Fired nuclear worker seeks to clear his name
Police suspect bin Laden making 'dirty' nuclear bombs
Common Interests in a Hazardous World
China Calls for Specific Efforts to Promote Nuclear Disarmament
Further information about DU conference
Depleted Uranium Munitions Suspension and Study Act of 2001
N-reactors are not bombs waiting to go off: Expert
Walk Softly in Nuclear South Asia
Indian troop movements put Pakistan on high alert
Keeping Peace in the Subcontinent
Analysis of the Immune Status in Latvian Chernobyl Clean-up Workers
Portion of Kursk Left for Next Summer
Sweden says wants to delay close of B2 reactor
NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPLEX VULNERABLE TO TERRORIST ATTACK
YUCCA MOUNTAIN COMMENT PERIOD ENDS FRIDAY
Train loaded with nuclear waste awaits clearance to go
$88K fine proposed for TVA in whistleblower case
Security upgrades coming at Oak Ridge plant
High-level nuclear waste may still move
MILITARY
New offer on Bin Laden
Strikes 'eviscerate' Taliban militia
Northern Alliance closes in on Mazar-e-Sharif
Pentagon confirms Kabul raid blunder
AC-130 Use Signals Start of Attacks on Troops
Afghans the victims of US terrorism
Premier: Australia to Deploy Troops
Anthrax on Senate Letter Called Potent
Daschle Letter Called First Use of Anthrax as Weapon
Russia Offers Calm Antidote to U.S. Anthrax Alarm
U.S. May Waive China Sanctions
Pakistan offers to support long campaign
US buys up all satellite war images
Envoy Urges U.N. Not to Send Peacekeepers
U.N. Says Taliban Seized Wheat Supply
Low, noisy flights rattle Portsmouth
Dugway has all its anthrax
Active Duty 'Conscientious Objectors' On The Rise
OTHER
Solar Able to Meet A Quarter of Global Energy Needs by 2040
How to Make a Solar Power Generator for Less Than $300
Project on Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts to harness power of wind
STERILIZERS COULD KILL ANTHRAX IN MAILROOMS
Ozone hole smaller but radiation risk seen higher
Judges grill Seattle green lawyers on road ban
Anthrax Targets Immune Cells to Kill
Toxic Contamination in Cree Territory: Ouje-Bougoumou
U.S. food drops miss hungry Afghans, supply Taliban
War Hurting Afghani Children the Most
Crackdown on anthrax hoaxes
Message says Navy facilities watched
Analyst says strategy ignored low-level bioterrorism
33 Capitol Hill staffers exposed to anthrax
Anthrax spurs Lott to seek adjournment of Congress
"Those Murdering Men In Their Flying Machines..."
New solutions for an old war
A Rational Alternative to Thoughtless Bombing
ACTIVISTS
Anti-Globalization, Pro-Peace?
Ashcroft Urges Caution With FOIA Requests
Berkeley narrowly passes anti-war measure
Council Calls for U.S. to End Military Action in Afghanistan
Public meeting Nuclear workers programs
Susan Sontag, "The Traitor," Fires Back
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- australia
Uranium reactor stockpiles falling-ERA
Yahoo News
Wednesday October 17,
Reuters
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011017/sp144005_1.html
SYDNEY, - Stockpiles of uranium held by nuclear power generating companies were slowly being used up, creating more demand for new supplies, uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia Ltd said on Thursday.
``Growth in demand for primary uranium production will largely arise through the depletion of utility inventories,'' ERA chairman Barry Cusack told the annual shareholders meeting.
Markets for intermediate uranium concentrate were relatively flat, with requirements from nuclear reactor operators worldwide expected to increase only modestly over the medium term, Cusack said.
But there were signs that supplies could begin to tighten, leading to higher selling prices, he said.
Prices for uranium oxide used by the reactors have slipped 15 percent in the last year to an average of US$7.89 a pound, but had improved recently to around $9.33 a pound, he said.
Mining companies overall produced 34,746 tonnes of uranium last year, a 12 percent increase on 1999, Cusack said.
``Primary production represented only 56 percent of demand, the balance being made up from secondary sources such as utility stockpile draw down,'' Cusack said.
About 440 commercial nuclear reactors in 31 countries supply 16 percent of the world's electricity, Cusack said.
New supply sources of uranium were being concentrated in Canada and Australia, he said.
ERA mines uranium in Australia's far northwest. Rival WMC Ltd (Australia:WMC.AX - news) produces uranium as a by-product of its copper mining business in South Australia. Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd, an affiliate of U.S. utility General Atomics, also operates a uranium mine in South Australia.
Most of the new nuclear reactors planned for construction are located in Southeast Asia, although the California energy crisis has led to discussions of nuclear power in the U.S., Cusack said.
Australia has no nuclear industry of its own but exports uranium to North America, Asia and Europe.
ERA shares were three cents lower at A$1.83.
ERA, 68 percent owned by Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto Plc/Ltd (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: RIO.L)(Australia:RIO.AX - news), earlier this year posted a 62 percent fall in 200/01 (July/June) net profit to A$13.1 million.
-------- canada
Fired nuclear worker seeks to clear his name
Man with similar name found with bomb in car: police
Andrew McIntosh,
October 17, 2001
(Canada) National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011017/740085.html
OTTAWA - A man branded a security risk and fired by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. last month wants the RCMP and Canada's spy agency to take a new look at his case after police in Toronto arrested another man with an almost identical name who allegedly had a bomb in his car.
Mohamed Attiah, 54, was fired from the AECL Chalk River Laboratories on Sept. 20, nine days after the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon and killed more than 5,000 people.
Mr. Attiah, an Egyptian-born father of four who came to Canada 27 years ago, was dismissed after he was questioned by RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers at a police detachment in Deep River, Ont. Mr. Attiah, who was not taken into custody, arrested or charged with any offence, has since repeatedly denied any links with terrorists.
He has urged AECL and security authorities to let him refute claims to the contrary. But AECL, the RCMP and CSIS have refused repeated public calls to share any evidence that suggests Mr. Attiah was a potential security risk.
The federal agencies have also declined to comment when reporters asked why they had set Mr. Attiah free if he was indeed a security risk.
Now, Mr. Attiah wants authorities to re-examine his dismissal following the arrest last week of Mohamed Attia -- the two are unrelated -- in the Toronto area after police allegedly found a homemade gunpowder bomb in a car.
Halton Regional Police Constable Alan Bonner said Mohamed Attia, 23, of Scarborough, was stopped before 4 a.m. last Thursday in the Toronto area after an officer saw a car with an expired licence tag. The officer then noticed marijuana inside the car and decided to perform a full vehicle search. A homemade gunpowder bomb allegedly was found in the trunk.
The device found was a 26-ounce liquor bottle filled with black gunpowder and a wick, Const. Bonner told the National Post.
Mr. Attia is facing charges of unlawfully being in possession of an explosive device and of possession of marijuana. He also faces charges of driving without a licence and driving an uninsured vehicle, Const. Bonner said.
If convicted for the explosives offences, he faces up to five years in jail. Halton Regional Police have alerted both the RCMP and CSIS about the case.
Mr. Attia, described as a factory worker, applied for bail, but his request has been denied and he will stay in custody until his trial.
Mr. Attiah, the dismissed nuclear worker, was not aware of the Toronto case until informed by the Post and he emphasized he does not want to point the finger at Mr. Attia.
Mr. Attiah said the RCMP and CSIS officers who questioned him asked about another Mohammed Attiah who they claimed had died a few years ago. "It was very strange," he said.
Asked whether there might be a case of mistaken identity, CSIS spokeswoman Chantal Lapalme replied: "We cannot comment on operational matters."
AECL, a federal Crown corporation, did not return telephone calls.
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Police suspect bin Laden making 'dirty' nuclear bombs
Troubling signs
By David Pugliese
Ottawa Citizen
October 17, 2001
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011017/740701.html
Police in Canada, Britain and Bulgaria are urgently investigating suspicious activity involving atomic energy research facilities as fears grow that Osama bin Laden may be attempting to build crude nuclear weapons.
Terrorists could build a "dirty" radiological bomb with little effort capable of killing 2,000 people and contaminating thousands more, according to a report from the Center for Defense Information, a think tank in Washington.
A U.S. defence official has said bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorists had developed chemical and biological weapons and possibly nuclear-related arms.
"If there's any nuclear capability, it is liable to be more radiological than fissile," the official said, according to The Washington Times.
Radiological weapons -- or dirty bombs -- combine radioactive material with conventional explosives to increase their deadliness. A fissile nuclear device produces a nuclear blast.
British intelligence officials are reportedly tracing the activities of a Pakistani scientist, connected to bin Laden, who is believed to have tried to obtain nuclear waste materials in England. Also being investigated is a scheme by the bin Laden organization to set up a fake environmental company to obtain radioactive material from a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.
In Canada, police continue to follow leads on a Kuwaiti man found with sensitive documents about Canadian atomic energy facilities.
In a report, Mr. Blair says a radiological bomb is an expedient weapon, in that radioactive waste material is relatively easy to obtain and not as well guarded as nuclear weapons. He estimated the worst-case calculation for a noon-hour explosion in downtown Manhattan to be more than 2,000 deaths.
"There's a potential for that type of action," said John Thompson, who studies terrorism trends for the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think-tank. "I don't think you would create a large number of casualties, but you would certainly generate a lot of panic."
Canadian defence analyst David Rudd notes bin Laden would be courting the demise of his cause if he used a nuclear weapon against the United States. Such an action would turn supporters among the Arab establishment against him and spark massive retaliation from the U.S. government against any country to give him sanctuary.
"All bets would be off if he used nuclear weapons," said Mr. Rudd, director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.
Bin Laden has voiced his desire to have a nuclear bomb. In May, 1998, he issued a statement arguing it was necessary to obtain nuclear weapons and that it was the duty of Muslims "to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God." In a 1998 interview with Time, bin Laden dodged the question of whether he actually had such a device. "If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so," he said.
One of his former aides, Jamal al-Fadl, testified during a terrorism trial this year he was directly involved in an attempt to purchase uranium for bin Laden in 1993. He was instructed to meet a Sudanese military officer, who supposedly possessed radioactive material to sell for $1.5-million.
Mr. al-Fadl arranged for the purchase of a device to determine whether the material was radioactive, but he was taken off the job. Mr. al-Fadl testified he did not know if the purchase was completed.
Earlier this year, customs officers from Uzbekistan seized 10 lead-lined containers at a remote border crossing with Kazakhstan. Intelligence analysts say they were filled with enough radioactive material to construct dozens of crude radiological weapons. The containers were being shipped to a company in Quetta, Pakistan, but since Pakistan already has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, most analysts believe it would have no need for such material, prompting speculation it was destined for bin Laden.
There is also the possibility bin Laden has built or obtained a nuclear bomb, stolen from the stockpile of the former Soviet Union. In 1998, an Arabic news magazine reported bin Laden's organization paid Chechen gangsters US$30-million for 20 Russian nuclear warheads. The plan, according to the magazine, was to detonate the bombs in U.S. cities.
The Russian government denies any of its warheads are missing. But according to Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, the former Soviet Union cannot account for 48 of its 10-kiloton suitcase nuclear weapons.
-------- china
Common Interests in a Hazardous World
New York Times
October 17, 2001
By DAVID SHAMBAUGH and ROBERT S. LITWAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/opinion/17SHAM.html?searchpv=nytToday
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's trip to China tomorrow to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting may mark a qualitatively new and more mature phase in relations between the two countries. The current campaign against global terrorism, in which the two governments have already cooperated extensively, offers the opportunity to improve a relationship that has been plagued by difficulties.
Normally a presidential visit to China would generate strong passions and public controversy in the United States, as China has been a lightning rod in American domestic political debates. Disagreements about China policy inside the government, which have often been heated since 1989, have become muted.
The principal reason for the lack of controversy is that America and the world are preoccupied by the events of Sept. 11 and the unfolding American-led military campaign in Afghanistan. This lack of attention may be just what the relationship between America and China needs, providing an opportunity for President Bush and President Jiang Zemin of China to meet without strong domestic pressures and heightened international expectations. Simply going to Shanghai will also help familiarize President Bush with the realities of a rapidly modernizing China, giving him a concrete sense of a country often reduced to abstractions and stereotypes.
This first meeting between Mr. Bush and Mr. Jiang provides a chance for the two to stake out mutual interests in the campaign against terrorism as well as to manage other difficult issues, including the spread of weapons of mass destruction, climate change, organized crime and narcotics smuggling, and the future of North Korea.
China's hosting of the APEC conference and imminent entry into the World Trade Organization in early November are also important events in their own right, and tangibly symbolize China's integration into the global economy. In this context, the tensions of recent years between Washington and Beijing may be reduced by multinational management of common problems. Although the two nations will continue to have friction, international coalitions and multilateral mechanisms offer a productive way forward for Sino-American cooperation.
Since President Nixon's opening to China three decades ago, American policy has sought China's integration into the international community. Encouraging Chinese membership in, and compliance with, international institutions has been viewed as important for global stability. Yet China has long suspected multilateral institutions of being stalking horses for American interests.
Interestingly, this view has recently been reversed; China now believes that such institutions may constrain American power or, at the least, keep the United States from acting unilaterally.
Although China is regarded as a full member of the global system, this integration remains more form than substance. China's ambivalence even now about multilateralism and Beijing's selective implementation of international agreements indicate that China is not fully comfortable with the aims, principles and norms that underlie global institutions. China's commitment to the international system needs to be judged by the consistency of its actions.
The international effort to restrict the proliferation of sensitive military technologies is one particularly thorny area that has long roiled Sino-American relations. Last November, Beijing formally committed to Washington that it would curb its exports of missile components and nuclear technology. This important agreement was reciprocated by a Clinton administration decision to make it easier for American companies to launch satellites on Chinese rockets. But last month the State Department slapped sanctions on two Chinese companies accused of circumventing the pledge to curb missile exports by transferring missile parts to Pakistan.
The Chinese government faces a choice. It can either continue selling nuclear technology and missile components, for example, to unstable states like Pakistan or hostile ones like Iran, or it can live up to its commitments and gain international acceptance as a responsible state. In our discussions in Beijing last week with military officials and civilian analysts, it was apparent that Chinese arms control authorities are rethinking China's approach. China cannot be against terrorism one day and selling dangerous technology to states that sponsor terrorism the next. The incentives now clearly cut in favor of Chinese compliance with multilateral nonproliferation norms. Mr. Bush and Mr. Jiang may announce progress on this issue when they meet in Shanghai on Friday.
The mixed, complex character of Sino-American relations resists reduction to any simplistic slogan, whether "strategic partners" or "strategic competitors." America's relationship with China is increasingly enmeshed in a broader global framework. Of course, some Sino-American problems - Taiwan and missile defense, for example - are not amenable to multilateral management. But China's increased participation in global organizations may well improve the way our two nations handle this always fraught relationship.
David Shambaugh is director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University. Robert S. Litwak is director of international studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
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China Calls for Specific Efforts to Promote Nuclear Disarmament
Tuesday, October 17, 2000
People's Daily (China)
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200010/17/eng20001017_52789.html
China Monday called for concrete efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and to strictly abide by the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) in order to build a nuclear-weapon-free world.
The appeal came as Hu Xiaodi, the Chinese ambassador on disarmament, took the floor at the First Committee of the 55th General Assembly session. The First Committee is in charge of disarmament and international security.
"Efforts must be made to overcome negative elements in order to ensure the right direction in nuclear disarmament," Hu said. "This is essential to the realization of the goal to build a nuclear-weapon-free world at an early date."
In his speech, the Chinese ambassador outlined six principles and concrete measures in the field of nuclear disarmament: First, the countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals should bear the special and primary responsibility in nuclear disarmament. They should continue their efforts aimed at shrinking their respective nuclear arsenal remarkably.
The country who deploys nuclear weapons overseas should withdraw such weapons back to its territories, and efforts must be made to do away with the policy and practice of "nuclear umbrella" and "the sharing of nuclear weapons," Hu said.
Secondly, all nuclear-weapon states should make clear-cut commitments that they will not be the first to use nuclear weapons under any circumstances, and that they will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones under any circumstances.
Nuclear-weapon states should start negotiations to conclude biding international legal documents in this regard, he said.
Thirdly, the strengthening of strategic stability is an essential condition for promoting nuclear disarmament. "At present, the most important thing is to strictly abide by the ABM Treaty," he said.
The Chinese ambassador called for no development or deployment of any missile defense system which upsets the global strategic balance and destroys the world stability, no assistance to other countries in acquiring such a system, and non-proliferation of any sophisticated missile defense system and related technologies to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and undermine their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The international community needs to begin talks on relevant legal documents in order to comprehensively prevent the weaponalization of outer space, he said.
Fourth, the international community should take concerted efforts to urge those countries who remain out of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to enter into the treaty as soon as possible.
Fifth, nuclear-weapon states, on the basis of the commitment not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, should reach agreement through negotiations on "the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons."
Sixth, on the basis of safeguarding international strategic stability and under the guarantee that the security of each country should not be weakened, the international community should conclude through negotiations "the Convention on the Total Ban of Nuclear Weapons."
"China is determined to spare no efforts to promote the above-mentioned principles and measures," and the Chinese delegation will support all ideas and proposals which are conducive to the realization of a nuclear-weapon-free world as soon as possible, he added.
-------- depleted uranium
Further information about conference
"Facts on Depleted Uranium",
Prague, Czech Republic, November 24-25.2001.
Res publica, association for information, Prague, Czech Republic, publica@publica.cz
Reply-To: du@publica.cz
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001
The civic association, Res publica, association for information, the preparing for the date 24 and 25 November 2001 in Prague, the Czech Republic, a conference dedicated to the problems of depleted uranium "Facts on Depleted Uranium".
We consider it necessary to comment on the reason leading us the organization of this conference. In reply a letter pointing out the gravity of using Depleted Uranium in war operations in Persian Gulf and in Balkans, sent to the President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel by the vice-chairman of our association Res publica Jiri Horak, it was stated that the problem of using arms with depleted uranium is becoming ever more relevant and that V. Havel has been perceiving susceptibly all possible perils making possible with the deployment of arms of this type to endanger the health of all peoples. In organizing this conference we wish to contribute to the realization of the idea, supported also according to the mentioned reply by Vaclav Havel, that the whole problematic would be subjected to a proper expert opinion and on this basis relevant conclusions would be deduced as well as urgent steps resulting in the security of the protection of human lives.
It is just this reason that we are laying the central point of this conference on an expert level. We are interested in hearing at this conference technical, military, political, juristic, health, ecological and other expert's views on this problem. We have requested Prof. Jiri Matousek from the Institute of Environmental Chemistry and Technology Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology from Czech Republic, to be an expert moderator at this Conference "Facts on Depleted Uranium". From quite natural reasons we consider it correct to invite also members of various humanitarian, health, ecological and peace organizations. For your information we mention that in view of the nature of the conference we calculate with the participation of the approximately fifty persons. Contributions from this conference will be published in a conference volume.
Results of the conference "Facts on depleted uranium", information and comments presented at the conference will be forwarded also to the president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel.
On this occasion we wish to inform you that by thist conference we take up from our preceding actions, which had been for instance our international meeting dedicated to security problems of central Europe, the question of the nature of OSCE and the importantce of Charter on European Security and particularly the problems of Yugoslav crisis in 1999.
In case you are interested in aspects related to depleted uranium, it would be a great pleasure to welcome you at the conference "Facts on Depleted Uranium" in Prague.
We would appreciate very much too, to recommend us for invitation those of your friends who could address the conference on aspects connected with depleted uranium!
We are convicted that also with your help we may be able to contribute to a good case. We are also attaching a simple registration form to the conference and we would appreciate your decision as to whether you would wish to participate and particularly to present a contribution. Certainly you will understand that your concrete response will be important for our steps in the conference preparation. We are sending our greetings and look forward to your response.
==
Participants fee: None for participants who send filled participation forms not later than October 31.2001. USD 10 for those who send their participation form until November 10.2001. USD 20 for those whose participation forms will be received later.
==
Reply slip Res publica, association for information
I would like to participate in the Conference Facts on Depleted Uranium, Prague, Czech Republic, November 24.-25. 2001
I would like to submit a paper on.................................................
Name............. Organisation.................... Address.......................... Phone............. Fax............ E-mail.............. Web site..............
Please complete this slip and return it to the Res publica, association for information, Prague, Czech Republic: du@publica.cz
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Depleted Uranium Munitions Suspension and Study Act of 2001
(Introduced in the House)
HR 3155 IH
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3155
To require the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies of the health effects of such munitions, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 17, 2001
Ms. MCKINNEY (for herself, Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. KUCINICH, and Ms. LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies of the health effects of such munitions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE- This Act may be cited as the `Depleted Uranium Munitions Suspension and Study Act of 2001'.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS- The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes.
Sec. 4. Suspension of use of depleted uranium munitions.
Sec. 5. Suspension of sale and export of depleted uranium munitions.
Sec. 6. Comptroller general investigation of plutonium contamination.
Sec. 7. Study of health effects of depleted uranium .
Sec. 8. Epa studies of environmental contamination by depleted uranium .
Sec. 9. Environmental mitigation and cleanup requirements.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The highest regard should be given to the health and safety of the Nation's military personnel.
(2) Among the characteristics of depleted uranium munitions are that (A) they are pyrophoric, resulting in the munition burning upon impact with a target, and (B) the impact of a depleted uranium munition on a target creates aerosol particles, which can be inhaled.
(3) Depleted uranium munitions were used by the United States in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War in Southwest Asia and during the conflicts in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro) during the 1990s, with approximately 300 metric tons of depleted uranium being used during the Gulf War, three metric tons being used in Bosnia, and over nine metric tons being used in Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro.
(4) The United States has provided or sold depleted uranium and depleted uranium munitions to allied nations, and the United Kingdom used depleted uranium munitions during the Persian Gulf War.
(5) Depleted uranium munitions have been used at numerous United States military installations, proving grounds, and testing facilities.
(6) The Yugoslav and Iraqi Governments have claimed that depleted uranium is affecting the health of their people, although such claims have yet to be independently verified.
(7) No definitive cause has been established for the various illnesses (commonly referred to as `Gulf War Syndrome') that currently affect approximately 130,000 United States servicemembers and veterans who served in Southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf War.
(8) The British Royal Navy, Canadian Navy, and United States Navy have all announced that they would phase out use of depleted uranium munitions.
(9) It has been reported that depleted uranium munitions use has proliferated to more than 20 nations.
(10) Crash investigators of the Federal Aviation Administration are instructed, in FAA Advisory Circular 20-123, dated December 20, 1984, to `handle with caution' any depleted uranium that they encounter in crash investigations, and are instructed that `the main hazard associated with depleted uranium is the harmful effect the material could have if it enters the body,' and that `[i]f particles are inhaled or digested, they can be chemically toxic and cause a significant and long-lasting irradiation of internal tissues,'.
(11) The 1949 Geneva Convention specifically outlines the precautions warring nations must take to avoid harming civilian populations, and it would be a violation of the 1977 Protocol to that Convention to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering to civilians, as depleted uranium has the potential to cause.
(12) The Department of Defense has acknowledged that stocks of depleted uranium munitions
have been contaminated with transuranic elements, including plutonium.
(13) Plutonium is an extremely toxic, carcinogenic, and radioactive material with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are the following:
(1) To eliminate health threats from depleted uranium munitions to--
(A) United States military personnel and United States civilian employees;
(B) military personnel and employees of NATO member nations; and
(C) civilian populations in regions where such munitions were used (whether in conflict, training, or development) or produced.
(2) To provide for studies of--
(A) the level and scope of contamination of depleted uranium munitions by plutonium and other transuranic elements;
(B) the health effects resulting from exposure by inhalation, ingestion, or injection to depleted uranium munitions; and
(C) environmental contamination caused by depleted uranium at sites where depleted uranium was used in conflict, development, testing, or training and at sites where depleted uranium and depleted uranium munitions were produced.
(3) To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to issue regulations and requirements, based upon Environmental Protection Agency studies, concerning the cleanup and mitigation of depleted uranium contamination at sites of depleted uranium munition use and production in the United States.
SEC. 4. SUSPENSION OF USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM MUNITIONS.
(a) SUSPENSION OF USE- Effective no later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall direct that all elements of the Department of Defense suspend use of depleted uranium munitions.
(b) DURATION- (1) The suspension of use of depleted uranium munitions required by subsection (a) shall remain in effect until the Secretary of Health and Human Services, based upon the results of the study under section 7(a), certifies to the committees specified in paragraph (2) that use of depleted uranium munitions in future conflicts--
(A) will not pose a likely long-term or residual threat to the health of United States or NATO military personnel; and
(B) will not jeopardize the health of civilian populations in the area of such use.
(2) The committees referred to in paragraph (1) are the following:
(A) The Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives.
(B) The Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
(c) FUTURE USE LIMITED TO STOCKS FREE OF TRANSURANIC MATTER- Upon a certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services described in subsection (b), the Secretary of Defense shall limit any subsequent use of depleted uranium munitions to stocks of such munitions that the Secretary certifies to be free of plutonium and other transuranic matter.
SEC. 5. SUSPENSION OF SALE AND EXPORT OF DEPLETED URANIUM MUNITIONS.
(a) SUSPENSION OF SALE AND EXPORT- Upon the enactment of this Act, all elements of the Government with responsibility for approving the foreign sale or export of munitions shall suspend the approval of the sale and export of munitions containing depleted uranium .
(b) DURATION- The suspension required by subsection (a) of approval of the foreign sale and export of depleted uranium munitions shall remain in effect until the Secretary of Health and Human Services makes a certification described in section 4(b).
(c) FUTURE EXPORTS TO BE LIMITED TO STOCKS FREE OF TRANSURANIC MATTER- Upon a certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services described in section 4(b), any subsequent foreign sale or export of depleted uranium munitions or preproduction depleted uranium may be made only from stocks of such munitions or preproduction depleted uranium that the Secretary of Defense certifies to be free of plutonium and other transuranic matter, excluding depleted uranium .
SEC. 6. COMPTROLLER GENERAL INVESTIGATION OF PLUTONIUM CONTAMINATION.
(a) INVESTIGATION- The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a full investigation into the contamination of stocks of depleted uranium munitions with transuranic elements, including plutonium, neptunium, americium, and other forms of uranium . The investigation shall include--
(1) determination of when such contamination occurred;
(2) identification of the manufacturing or refining facilities at which such contamination occurred;
(3) identification of the quantity, by volume and percentage, of the material by which such contamination occurred;
(4) identification of when such contamination was first realized by Department of Defense personnel and when such contamination was brought to the attention of senior Department of Defense management;
(5) identification of persons responsible for monitoring the quality of such production;
(6) identification of the time when notification of such contamination was made to NATO-member nations; and
(7) determination of whether any law or treaty was broken by any such contamination or by any failure to provide timely notice of such contamination to any affected party.
(b) REPORT- Upon completion of the investigation under subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall submit to the committeed specified in section 4(b)(2) a report on the investigation.
SEC. 7. STUDY OF HEALTH EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM .
(a) STUDY- The Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shall jointly conduct a comprehensive study of the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium munitions on uranium -exposed veterans and on their children who were born after their respective exposures to uranium .
(b) URANIUM -EXPOSED VETERANS- For purposes of this section, the term `uranium -exposed veteran' means a member or former member of the Armed Forces who while on active duty handled, came in contact with, or had the likelihood of contact with depleted uranium munitions, including members and former members who while on active duty--
(1) were exposed to smoke from fires resulting from the burning of vehicles uploaded with depleted uranium munitions or fires at depots at which depleted uranium was stored;
(2) worked within environments containing depleted uranium dust or residues from depleted uranium fires;
(3) were within a structure or vehicle while it was struck by a depleted uranium munition;
(4) climbed on or entered equipment or structures struck by depleted uranium ; or
(5) were medical personnel who provided near-term treatment to members of the Armed Forces described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4).
(c) PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT- The Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry shall conduct a public health assessment of persons who are thought to have an epidemiological link to any United States military installation or facility at which depleted uranium munitions have been or currently are used or any production facility at which depleted uranium or depleted uranium munitions are currently, or have been, produced.
(d) REPORT- The Directors shall submit to Congress a report on the results of the study under subsection (a) and the assessment under subsection (c). The report shall be submitted not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall include the findings of the Directors on the matters covered by the report. The Directors shall include in the report a list of diseases or conditions that are found to exist within the populations specified in subsection (a) and their rate of occurrence compared to the general population.
SEC. 8. EPA STUDIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION BY DEPLETED URANIUM .
(a) LIST OF LOCATIONS IN UNITED STATES- Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall provide to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency a list of all sites in the United States where depleted uranium munitions have been used or produced and a site-specific map of each such site.
(b) EPA STUDIES- After receipt of the list and maps under subsection (a), the Administrator shall, for each site specified on the list, conduct a comprehensive environmental study of the possible contamination of the soil, air, water, and vegetation by depleted uranium at that site.
(c) REPORT- Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall submit to the Secretary of Defense and the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report--
(1) describing the extent of contamination by depleted uranium at each site studied by the Administrator pursuant to subsection (b);
(2) providing site-specific recommendations for the mitigation and cleanup of each such site; and
(3) providing general recommendations regarding the cleanup of sites where depleted uranium has been used on foreign lands.
SEC. 9. ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION AND CLEANUP REQUIREMENTS.
(a) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CLEANUP PLAN- Not later than one year after receiving the report under section 8(c), the Secretary of Defense shall develop a plan for mitigation and cleanup at each site and a prioritized list for such cleanups. The Secretary shall submit a copy of the plan to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
(b) REPORT- The Secretary shall submit a report to those committees and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency each year before commencement of the mitigations and cleanups until those projects are complete.
(c) CLEANUP- After filing of such plans, the Secretary shall commence, or contract for, the mitigation and cleanup of each site for which the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended such mitigation and cleanup and in the manner and scope that the Administrator's report specifies.
(d) APPLICABILITY OF NEPA- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the cleanup and mitigation required by subsection (c) shall be carried out in a manner consistent with the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, without regard to any exemption to any of the provisions of that Act for the Department of Defense or any element thereof.
-------- india / pakistan
N-reactors are not bombs waiting to go off: Expert
The Times of India
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2001,
VITHAL C NADKARNI
MUMBAI: ``When you are in my kind of business, you have to knock misconceptions out of the air like flies," says John Ritch, director-general of the London-based World Nuclear Association (WNA). Ritch, who towers over ordinary mortals like Wilt ``the Silt" Chamberlain, did play basketball at national level when he was at West Point. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford, he worked as a staff adviser to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 22 years, specialising in East-West relations and nuclear arms control. He went to WNA after seven years as US ambassador to UN organisations in Vienna.
Now on a visit to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, he wants to ``recommend steps that could be taken to remove the barriers that now separate India from the global nuclear community". He told Times News Network: ``I will discuss India's institutional status vis-a-vis the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Supplies Group and offer some reflections on how to reconcile India's strategic interests with those of a global non-proliferation regime."
He explains: ``Today, there are already two great organisations in the? nuclear field. The first is the International Atomic Energy Agency, the inter-governmental organisation that sets the rules of nuclear commerce by promulgating safety standards and operating the global safeguards system. The? second great global organisation is the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). This is only 12 years old but has become a major global instrument in promoting operational safety in all of the world's nuclear power reactors.
``Although both organisations are indispensable, we also need a world association of private sector companies that actually perform the various roles comprising the whole nuclear fuel cycle and which performs the third valuable role of commercial facilitation and strong advocacy."
What are some of the myths that he's had to bat down, particularly after the horrors of September 11? ``Some people might quickly jump to the conclusion that the nuclear power industry is particularly vulnerable in a terrorist-ridden world. But that's simply not true," he says.
``A power plant is not a bomb waiting to go off. A power plant is not a radiation-dispersal facility with its horrors waiting to be released. On the contrary, nuclear plants of the 21st century are extremely well-engineered facilities meant to produce clean electricity. Because of the nature of nuclear physics and because of the extremely effective and extensive nature of the safety systems surrounding power production, nuclear plants are already? heavily engineered against worst-case events. So the very technologies that? have been used to make them safe under ordinary operating conditions, make them very heavily defended against terrorist effort to damage them and cause a release of radiation," he adds.
``But the achievements of nuclear science and diplomacy have not been? paralleled by a comparable expansion of public appreciation," he muses.? ``Myths abound concerning nuclear power and radioactive waste, distorting? public debate at the very moment when nuclear technology seems indispensable if we are to meet the environmental challenge. The obvious irony is that? anti-nuclear mythology is most avidly propagated by persons describing? themselves as `green'."
He avers: ``Looking closer, however, an optimist can find powerful reason for encouragement. A case in point is America where nuclear power has maintained a 20 per cent share of electricity generation and where a nuclear renaissance is gaining momentum for a combination of factors. Also, new construction is alive and well not only in much of Asia and Eastern Europe but also in Latin America and South Africa. In the last five years, 24 reactors with 12,000 MW have been commissioned and 36 new reactors totalling over 30,000 MW capacity are now under construction."
He argues: ``If we may reasonably expect in the not too distant future, `new build' is approved, advanced nuclear reactors will be under construction in every region of the world. This will break a barrier of perception shifting the question everywhere from `whether' to `how many'."
----
Walk Softly in Nuclear South Asia
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
by Zia Mian
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1017-08.htm
Before September 11, South Asia's problems were legion: over a billion people, most of them desperately poor; a history of war and violent conflicts; rising religious militancy; hard-line Hindu nationalists in power in India, the army in charge in Pakistan; newly tested nuclear weapons and a get-tough mood. Now, it is also the frontline of the US war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. South Asia may not be able to take the strain. The US needs to ensure it does nothing to worsen the many crises in South Asia and that it thinks long-term, not short term, about its policies in the region.
The greatest concern is Pakistan. General Pervez Musharraf justified the October 1999 coup that brought him to power by citing the prevailing sense that Pakistan's economy, government, and society were on the verge of collapse. The fall has been swift; about one in three Pakistanis now live below the poverty line, double what it was a decade ago. There have been eight governments in this time. All of them have become wary of setting-off the widespread public resentment and anger at the hopelessness of everyday life. They have struggled to not provide political opportunities to the radical Islamist groups that have emerged and feed off the misery. Too often, they chose to make concessions to radical Islam. The military is in the same fix.
The US bombing campaign against Afghanistan in response to the terrible attacks of September 11 has opened wide the door for Islamist groups, with their history of anti-Americanism and strong ties to the Taliban. They have taken to the streets challenging Musharraf and his decision to support the U.S. The longer the U.S. bombs Afghanistan, the more civilians get killed, the greater the humanitarian and refugee crisis, and the more organized and angry the Islamists' challenge. Musharraf and the army may hold the line, but the Islamists will come out politically strengthened. Musharraf may win this battle but lose the war.
The US should heed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and suspend its bombing campaign to allow relief supplies to reach the more than seven million Afghans in direst need. Calling in the UN Secretary-General and newest Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kofi Annan, showing him the evidence and asking him to mediate with the Taliban for a hand-over of Osama bin Laden for trial would acknowledge the vital role of the UN. Both would strengthen the hand of Pakistan's government against the militants.
Pakistan is also trapped by its conflict with India. Reflecting the intensity and depth of this battle, India and Pakistan have each sought to take advantage of the situation after September 11. India immediately offered political and military support to the United States in its conflict with the Taliban and urged it to include Pakistani-supported Islamic militants fighting in Kashmir as targets of the US assault on terrorism. Pakistan, under enormous pressure from the US, eventually decided to turn a liability into an asset and sought to cash in on its location and its leverage over the Taliban.
Seeing Pakistan win the US over to its side, and with the militants continuing their attacks in Kashmir, India is now trying another more dangerous gambit. It has threatened to follow the US example and attack militant training camps and bases in Pakistan. In an ominous development, India has ended a 10-month long effective cease-fire and started shelling Pakistani forces across the border that divides Kashmir.
The US must press Pakistan to end its support for the militants, restrain India from actions that may trigger a South Asian war, and get serious in working with the international community to resolve the more than fifty year old Kashmir dispute. For this effort to be taken seriously, the US must show by word and deed that unilateral military action is not the order of the day.
A longer term danger is that of nuclear weapons in South Asia. The May 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan put the world on watch. The US and the international community used sanctions to pressure both countries to exercise restraint, and to signal a refusal to accept new nuclear weapons states. But, in its search for support in the region, the Bush administration has let go the already waning US hopes to reverse the nuclearization of South Asia. The US is lifting all its sanctions against India, most if not (yet) all sanctions against Pakistan, and economic and military assistance is being offered to both.
India and Pakistan may return with renewed vigour to their conventional and nuclear arms race. India seeks US arms to add to its $4 billion arms deal with Russia and $2 billion deal with Israel. Pakistan's limited funds have stalled its military purchases. With the army in charge, any resources freed by a blanket lifting of sanctions may go to catching up with India. With political and economic pressures eased, both sides may speed deployment of their nuclear warheads. South Asia may escape the frying pan of terrorism only to fall into the nuclear fire.
Also long term is democracy. General Musharraf's new status as ally in the war against Afghanistan and the man most likely to hold Pakistan together may lead to the lifting of the US sanctions levied after his coup. But, concern about Pakistan's stability should not translate into abandoning democracy and Musharraf should not be allowed or encouraged to stay in power. The two previous Pakistani generals who seized power each kept it for the better part of a decade. Civil society withered both times.
Musharraf should hold to his promise of elections and restoring democracy by next October. Elections may be just what it takes to mobilise the majority of Pakistanis in the battle against radical Islam. Whenever they have been allowed to choose who should govern them in the past, Pakistanis have decisively rejected Islamic political parties. They would do so again now. The small crowds on the streets supporting the Islamist groups are testament to that. Ten years without democracy may change their minds.
Dr. Zia Mian researches South Asian security issues with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. He has taught at Princeton, Yale, and Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad, Pakistan). He is the co-editor of "Out of The Nuclear Shadow", a collection of the best South Asian writing on nuclear disarmament.
----
Indian troop movements put Pakistan on high alert
CNN
October 17, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/17/pakistan.alert
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan said on Wednesday that it had put its armed forces on high alert, claiming that it had detected Indian troop movements near its shared border.
Pakistani government spokesman Gen. Rashid Qureishi said Pakistan is "ready to thwart any attempt at mischief or misadventure."
"We have information wherein India has moved some troops and relocated some air force assets which may too be a threat," Qureishi said during a regularly scheduled briefing.
"This action when seen in the context of the irresponsible remarks of their newly-appointed Defense Minister and also the unprovoked firing that they resorted to two days earlier against civilians in Kashmir ... has become a cause of concern," he said.
India denied it was moving troops, calling the claim a "complete fabrication".
"Reports of a troop build up are a complete fabrication," Indian government spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said. "We reject such statements in their totality and restrainst should be exercised by the spokesman on the Pakistan side."
Tensions between India and Pakistan flared again Monday in Kashmir, when the Indian Army said that it had shelled 11 Pakistani military posts across the cease-fire line, destroying them.
Pakistani officials in Kashmir said two areas had been attacked and accused India of unprovoked firing on civilians.
Kashmir, which has a majority Muslim population, has been a decades-long source of tension between Indian and Pakistan which have fought two wars over the region.
Powell visit
Wednesday's announcement comes during U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to Pakistan and India.
Powell earlier has told his Indian counterpart that the American-led fight against terrorism includes all terrorism, including that faced by India.
Speaking at a press conference following talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Powell said: "We deplore terrorism wherever it exists, whether on September 11 or on October 1 in Srinagar."
The latter incident referred to the suicide bombing at Kashmir's state assembly in which 38 people died -- India has blamed Kashmiri militants backed by Pakistan for carrying out the attack.
"The United States and India stand united against terrorism and that includes terrorism directed against India as well," Powell said.
Solidarity
He said he agreed with Indian officials who said the problem of terrorism was "not limited to Afghanistan".
Powell's short tour of South Asia, with visits to Pakistan and India, is intended to bolster solidarity with the U.S. counter-terror coalition and soothe hostilities between the two nuclear neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.
On Tuesday Powell held talks with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, who has taken on a key support role in the U.S.-led airstrikes over Afghanistan.
Musharraf has agreed to provide the United States with logistical and intelligence support and allowed planes to use Pakistani airspace on the way to Afghanistan.
----
Keeping Peace in the Subcontinent
New York Times
October 17, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/opinion/17WED1.html?searchpv=nytToday
The last thing Secretary of State Colin Powell needed as he began a delicate diplomatic mission to Pakistan and India this week was a flare-up of violence in Kashmir. Thanks to an untimely attack by India on Pakistani border posts, that is just what he got. The clash served notice, if any were needed at this volatile time in South Asia, that maintaining some sort of equilibrium in relations between Pakistan and India will be essential to waging a successful international war against terrorism.
In return for Pakistani support for the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan, President Bush has embraced Gen. Pervez Musharraf's regime in Islamabad and offered Pakistan large amounts of economic aid. Not surprisingly, that has alarmed Indian leaders, who before Sept. 11 had every reason to believe that Washington was eager to build stronger ties to New Delhi. Secretary Powell's difficult job has been to reinforce the new relationship with Pakistan while reassuring India that its interests will not be overlooked.
He appears to have accomplished the first part by gaining General Musharraf's agreement to work together to create a new, broad-based government in Afghanistan. To secure Pakistan's cooperation, Mr. Powell in principle endorsed the inclusion of moderate elements of the Taliban leadership. General Musharraf, for his part, did not insist on a fixed deadline for ending American military action. As General Powell completed his visit to Islamabad and began talks in India yesterday, it was clear that the Bush administration has no choice but to get more deeply engaged on a host of regional issues, including Kashmir.
General Musharraf deserves American support for his willingness to help in the campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. That does not mean he should be given a free hand to support Islamic fundamentalist extremists in Kashmir, the northern Indian state where a Muslim uprising has been raging for years. Pakistan needs to stop supporting guerrilla fighters in the conflict. India must understand that it cannot crush Muslim aspirations in Kashmir with the use of force.
Washington should also press the two nations to lower nuclear tensions. The Clinton administration made significant progress in getting India and Pakistan to agree to end nuclear testing, curb the production of weapons material and halt the export of sensitive material. That effort must be continued.
George W. Bush came into office determined to keep his distance from foreign conflicts that did not directly threaten American interests. He probably would have put the strains between India and Pakistan in that category before Sept. 11. Now, with American forces attacking Afghanistan, Washington will have to be very much involved in maintaining the peace between these two old adversaries.
-------- latvia
Analysis of the Immune Status in Latvian Chernobyl Clean-up Workers
From: Magnu96196@aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 19:50:17 EDT
Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 54 (5), 528-533 Scandinavian Journal of Immunology
Analysis of the Immune Status in Latvian Chernobyl Clean-up Workers with Nononcological Thyroid Diseases
N. Kurjane, R. Bruvere , O. Shitova, T. Romanova, I. Jaunalksne, M. Kirschfink and A. Sochnevs
Institute of Immunology, Rigas Stradina University, Dzirciema 16; Biomedical Research and Study Centre, University of Latvia, Ratsupites street 1;
P. Stradins University Hospital, Pilsonu 13, Riga LV-1002, Latvia;
Institute of Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 305, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
The aim of the present work was to characterize the immune status of 385 individuals who participated in the 1986â€"90 clean-up work of the after effects of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion. Fifty-nine Chernobyl clean-up workers developed the most common thyroid diseases; euthyroid nodular and diffuse goiter; 47 healthy blood donors were taken as controls. The levels of immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG and IgM), the numbers of peripheral blood leukocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, T lymphocytes and their subpopulations (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+), B lymphocytes (CD19+), natural killer (NK) cells (CD16+), classical and alternative pathway activity of complement (CH50, APH50), the C3 split product C3d, and neutrophil phagocytosis were determined in the peripheral blood. We found a significantly decreased number of CD16+ cells (natural killer), of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, a reduced neutrophil phagocytic activity as well as a significant complement activation in Chernobyl clean-up workers with and without thyroid diseases when compared with normal levels and those in the control group. In addition, the number of CD3+ and CD4+ cells was significantly higher in patients with nodular goiter when compared with that in patients with diffuse goiter. Levels of IgG and numbers of monocytes were significantly decreased in persons who worked in Chernobyl in 1986 during the first 2 months after the accident (with maximal radiation exposure) but were without correlation to thyroid disorders. Our results clearly reflect an impaired immune system in the Chernobyl clean-up workers even 10â€"14 years after the nuclear accident.
--
Dr N. Kurjane, Institute of Immunology, Rigas Stradina University, Dzirciema 16, Riga LV-1007, Latvia. E-mail: nkurjane@hotmail.com (Received 10 March 2001; Accepted in revised form 14 August 2001)
PubMed Search Kurjane, N. Bruvere, R. Shitova, O. Romanova, T. Jaunalksne, I. Kirschfink, M. Sochnevs, A.
(Received 10 March 2001; Accepted in revised form 14 August 2001)
Affiliations
Institute of Immunology, Rigas Stradina University, Dzirciema 16;
Biomedical Research and Study Centre, University of Latvia, Ratsupites street 1;
P. Stradins University Hospital, Pilsonu 13, Riga LV-1002, Latvia;
Institute of Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 305, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
Correspondence
Dr N. Kurjane, Institute of Immunology, Rigas Stradina University, Dzirciema 16, Riga LV-1007, Latvia. E-mail: nkurjane@hotmail.com
To cite this article:
Kurjane, N., Bruvere, R., Shitova, O., Romanova, T., Jaunalksne, I., Kirschfink, M. & Sochnevs, A. Analysis of the Immune Status in Latvian Chernobyl Clean-up Workers with Nononcological Thyroid Diseases. Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 54 (5), 528-533.
-------- russia
Portion of Kursk Left for Next Summer
October 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Submarine.html?searchpv=aponline
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- The mangled front compartment of the nuclear submarine Kursk will probably be raised from the bottom or the Barents Sea next summer, Russia's leading submarine designer said Wednesday.
Igor Spassky, the head of the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in St. Petersburg, said Russia was hoping to raise the sunken section on its own between June and August, without foreign help. He said it would be brought up in parts.
Most of the Kursk, which blew up and sank during military exercises in August 2000, was raised last week, but the front section was sawed off and left on the seabed for fear it could break off and destabilize the delicate operation.
Investigators say clues to the tragedy, which killed all 118 crewmen, could lie in the badly first compartment, which contained the torpedoes.
Many Russian and foreign experts have said the initial explosion was set off by an internal malfunction, while government officials suggest the Kursk collided with another vessel or a World War II mine.
The Russian navy has also said it was studying the possibility that a leak of hydrogen peroxide, which is used to propel torpedoes, may have been responsible for the explosion.
Spassky said the mystery of the Kursk tragedy will eventually be resolved.
``It may happen now after the investigation of the Kursk (in dry dock), but if that's not enough, we'll solve it after looking at the first compartment,'' he said.
Spassky said that the riskiest moment of operation last week to lift the main part of the Kursk was removing it from the sea floor, because engineers had feared that the first compartment had not been cut off completely.
He said the vessel would be put in dry dock this weekend after some defects in the pontoons are corrected.
The 18,000-ton Kursk was one of the world's largest submarines, making the docking operation a difficult effort since any sharp move could destabilize its twin nuclear reactors or its 22 supersonic Granit cruise missiles, each containing a metric ton of explosives.
-------- sweden
Sweden says wants to delay close of B2 reactor
SWEDEN: October 17, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12843/story.htm
STOCKHOLM - Sweden suggested postponing the closure of a reactor at nuclear power plant Barseback by 2003 because of a failed requirement to meet the lost power with renewable energy.
"The government's judgement is that the conditions for a shutdown should stand fast and that these conditions have not been met," Sweden's Industry Ministry said in a statement.
According to a 1997 agreement, Sweden aims to phase out its nuclear power if electricity prices stay stable and the lost power can be replaced with electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass and small hydropower.
Sweden closed its first reactor at the Vattenfall -owned two-reactor Barseback plant in 1999 in line with the phase out plan.
The statement suggested the issue should be re-examined in 2003.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPLEX VULNERABLE TO TERRORIST ATTACK
DOE's Longstanding Indifference to Lax Security Cited
TOMPAINE.com
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/17/index.html
The Project on Government Oversight investigates, exposes, and seeks to remedy systemic abuses of power, mismanagement, and subservience by the federal government to powerful special interests.
The following is a release from the Project On Government Oversight.
http://www.pogo.org
Washington DC, October 15, 2001 -- A new report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has revealed serious security flaws at nuclear weapons facilities around the country. These flaws, which leave U.S. weapons-grade nuclear material vulnerable to sabotage and detonation by terrorists, put the entire country at risk.
The Department of Energy (DOE) analyzes and tests the security of nuclear weapons facilities by conducting simulations and mock force-on-force exercises, often using U.S. military forces as adversaries. According to experts who have conducted these tests in the past, the government fails to protect against these attacks more than 50 percent of the time -- although the exact figure is classified.
"When our security efforts do not protect our weapons-grade nuclear materials against over half of the mock terrorist attacks, it is well past time for a reassessment of our security tactics," stated Danielle Brian, POGO Executive Director.
For example, in mock attacks on the nuclear weapons complex, the "terrorists" have been able to successfully "steal" enough material to make multiple nuclear weapons, "kill" enough protective force members to throw the remaining force into disarray, and had enough time to construct and "detonate" an Improvised Nuclear Device.
Furthermore, POGO has uncovered a disturbing trend of cheating and dumbed-down mock attacks favoring DOE's protective force. For example, several times the protective forces have been warned by DOE Headquarters against the indiscriminate "killing" of scientists, lab employees, and each other during mock attacks, in the hopes of hitting their targets as well. These instances are regularly counted as wins for the protective force.
DOE's disregard for proven threats to nuclear security and its institutional bull-headedness have thwarted the efforts of reformers, time and time again. DOE employees and others who have raised security concerns have largely been ignored and subjected to retaliation over many years.
In recent weeks, POGO has been working with policymakers in an attempt to remedy these problems. Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), the Chairman of the House National Security Subcommittee, has announced the initiation of a Congressional investigation in response to POGO's findings: "In this critical environment, it is important for the Department of Energy to assure the integrity of basic security measures for the protection of nuclear weapon facilities and the nuclear materials they contain against both internal and external threats."
"Our report shows a long standing pattern of DOE's indifference to and even contempt for security reforms. Particularly in light of the recent terrorist attacks, we believe it is time for outside oversight to correct these problems," said Brian. The POGO report outlines a number of possible long term solutions. Brian added, "We have been recommending to the National Security Counsel and other policymakers two near-term security measures. Military units with SWAT capabilities should be brought in immediately to protect nuclear weapons and material at selected fixed sites. In addition, nuclear materials and weapons should not be transported on public highways until security is upgraded."
-------- nevada
YUCCA MOUNTAIN COMMENT PERIOD ENDS FRIDAY
October 17, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-17-09.html
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Midnight this Friday is the deadline for the public to comment on a proposal to build a permanent high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that the Las Vegas Science Center's hours will be extended on Friday to accommodate those persons who would like to submit comments on the Yucca Mountain site recommendation. The comment period, which began May 4, 2001, was extended to October 19 to provide citizens with additional time to comment.
The Las Vegas Science Center, located at 4101-B Meadows Lane (across from the southeast end of Meadows Mall) is open this week on Tuesday through Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm and on Friday from 10 am until midnight.
Since September 26, 2001, the Las Vegas Science Center has served as an extended hearing facility to receive official testimony from Nevada citizens. A DOE official and a court reporter have been available to record public comments.
Citizens are encouraged to reserve time slots to offer testimony by calling 1-800-967-3477. Oral testimony will be limited to 10 minutes, in order to provide proper consideration to all individuals wishing to testify.
Walk in testimony will be accepted as the schedule permits, with priority given to those citizens who have reserved time in advance.
Under normal hours, citizens also can visit DOE Science Centers located in Pahrump, 1141 South Highway 160, and Beatty, 100 North E Avenue, to submit comment cards on the project, until the close of the comment period.
The DOE is also accepting comments via electronic mail (YMP_SR@ymp.gov), fax (1-800/967-0739) and mail submitted to: Carol Hanlon, U.S. Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office (M/S#25), P.O. Box 30307, North Las Vegas, Nevada 89036-0307.
Letters should be marked with "Possible Site Recommendation for Yucca Mountain." There also is a comment form on the Yucca Mountain Project's website at http://www.ymp.gov
-------- new york
Train loaded with nuclear waste awaits clearance to go
October 17, 2001,
Associated Press
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--attacks-nucleartr1017oct17.story?coll=ny%2Dap%2Dregional%2Dwire
WEST VALLEY, N.Y. (AP)--A train loaded with nuclear waste remains idled at the West Valley Demonstration Project after plans to ship it cross country were delayed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Alice Williams, the U.S. Department of Energy's representative at the site, said the agency has no plans to cancel the shipment, but acknowledged obstacles will mount as time passes.
In light of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, authorities along the 11-state, 2,360-mile route are re-examining security procedures, Williams said.
Also at issue are contracts with some of the four railroads hauling the waste, which are scheduled to expire at the end of the month. Williams said those contracts will have to be re-negotiated.
Additionally, the two specially engineered casks that hold the 125 spent nuclear fuel rods cannot be shipped if the temperature dips to below minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, she said.
The obstacles "are not insurmountable," she told The Buffalo News. "Everybody in the DOE is committed to this shipment and nobody is saying we have to rethink" the decision to move the waste to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
As was the case before the attacks, authorities are not expected to announce when the shipment will leave, for security reasons.
The assemblies, bundles of rods that contain fuel pellets, used to produce electricity in nuclear power plants. They have been stored at the West Valley site, 35 miles south of Buffalo, since the private Nuclear Fuel Services ceased operations in 1972. The company was the country's first commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.
From New York, the train is expected to follow a route through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and into Idaho, where it will pass through the Shoshone Bannock Indian Reservation before reaching INEEL in four to five days.
The $1.6 billion West Valley cleanup is a joint effort by the state and federal governments.
-------- tennessee
$88K fine proposed for TVA in whistleblower case
The Associated Press
October 17, 2001
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/101701/stt_1017010032.html
KNOXVILLE -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed an $88,000 civil penalty against the Tennessee Valley Authority, finding it discriminated against an employee who raised safety concerns at a nuclear facility.
NRC officials informed TVA of the proposed fine in a letter Monday for discriminating against Curtis Overall, who in 1995 was removed from his job after he exposed problems at the Watts Bar facility in Spring City, Tenn.
Overall was shifted from his job overseeing the ice condenser containment system at Watts Bar after he found nearly 200 screws were either broken or missing from the system and asked that the problem be inspected.
TVA arranged for Overall's transfer to TVA Services but did not rehire him once he had been transferred, which led to his eventual layoff.
A judge sided with Overall in 1998 and ordered that he be rehired and receive back pay.
In May, a Labor Department review board ordered TVA to pay $50,000 in compensatory damages to Overall, and the NRC said in June it would consider a civil penalty.
TVA appealed the Labor Department decision to the U.S. Department of Appeals in June and may defer paying the fine until the appeal has been completed, NRC officials said.
The agency maintains the Labor Department's findings are incorrect.
"We believe that the Department of Labor's decision is in error and not supported by the record," TVA spokesman John Moulton said Tuesday.
Overall's attorney, Lynne Bernabei, wrote the NRC in July urging them to levy a large fine to send a signal to TVA.
"The amount of the fine is not insignificant, however, we continue to think the NRC should be stronger given TVA's record of sort of ignoring NRC penalties in the past for harassing whistleblowers," she said Tuesday. "That's good but not great."
"The money they save by harassing whistleblowers and not fixing safety problems is literally a million dollars a day per nuclear plant."
The NRC gave credit to TVA for what it considered "corrective action," which included assurances that "this matter was not having a chilling effect on the willingness of other employees to raise safety and compliance concerns within TVA," according to the NRC letter to TVA.
Overall no longer works in the nuclear department. He has a job in the fossil fuel division, Bernabei said.
TVA is the nation's single largest producer of electricity, providing power to 159 distributors serving some 8 million people in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
----
Security upgrades coming at Oak Ridge plant
By Frank Munger,
News-Sentinel senior writer
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/opinion_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_364_850272,00.html
The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant expects to share in the $40 billion emergency fund approved by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "We certainly hope so," Bill Brumley, the top federal official at the Oak Ridge plant, said this week.
Brumley said Y-12 and other nuclear weapons installations were asked to submit requests to Washington based on their needs to enhance security and respond to recent events.
"How much of that we will get back, we'll just have to wait and see," he said.
Y-12 already was hoping to make security improvements, even before U.S. vulnerabilities were showcased last month, and there was a request for some funds in the 2002 budget.
Oak Ridge security police have complained about their armaments for years, and one guard recently said Y-12's equipment was clearly inferior to that at other facilities under the auspices of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Brumley promises that's about to change.
The Y-12 guard force, managed by Wackenhut, is in the process of phasing out the M16 machine-gun and MP5, a submachine-gun, in favor of the M4 - a more modern weapon, Brumley said.
And, he noted, "Everybody's getting new handguns this year." Guards have said handguns currently used are 15 years old.
Brumley said "a lot of other, smaller things" will be added to Y-12's arsenal of security hardware, including night-vision and thermal-imaging capabilities.
Guards are pushing for better tools to deal with possible chemical and biological threats.
"We do have masks," Brumley said, but the NNSA official acknowledged the respirators are not the type fully protective of chem-bio hazards.
"People across the complex are looking at what we ought to do to protect against that," he said.
Current capabilities are not adequate - that's obvious - but Brumley said Y-12 and other federal facilities do not want to respond to terrorist threats in a knee-jerk fashion and end up wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
Meanwhile, a long-anticipated security inspection is underway at Y-12, but it, too, has been affected by fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks.
Typically, as part of a major security evaluation, there would be one or more exercises to test the response of the Y-12 security force to physical threats. But that was scrapped because of the heightened state of security, according to Brumley.
"There was a collective decision that we did not want to conduct any more force-on-force (exercises)," he said, noting that six or seven of those drills were done over the summer.
While they are good tests for security, the exercises apparently can make the plant more vulnerable during the actual event. Such drills also require extraordinary safety precautions.
Brumley reiterated that Y-12 is the nation's chief repository for weapons-usable uranium and noted, "We can never, ever not protect it."
At the same time, some observers have suggested that training exercises heretofore may not have been tough enough to ensure preparedness. One Oak Ridge guard said there's a certain amount of cheating that takes place, because the threat is typically known in advance.
"In any drill or scenario, there is always some degree of artificiality," Brumley responded. "We work as hard as we can to minimize that."
FOREIGN FLAVOR: Last week, I wrote about the world campus at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, noting there currently are about 1,500 foreign nationals visiting the research facilities despite the heightened state of security. Some assignments last up to two years.
A recent visitation list at ORNL showed 84 countries represented - some of which may surprise you. Here's the list in alphabetical order:
Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, PRC, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and Zaire.
Senior Writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News-Sentinel. He can be reached at 865-482-9213 or at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This column is also available on the Web at www.knoxnews.com/editorsview/munger/
-------- us nuc waste
High-level nuclear waste may still move
By Sylvia Cukan
10/17/2001
UPI
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=17102001-082626-6061r
BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 17 -- Plans to ship highly radioactive spent fuel rods by rail from West Valley, N.Y., near Buffalo, to Idaho by the end of the October may go forward despite security concerns after the terrorist attacks in September, Department of Energy officials said Wednesday.
"Obviously, it's more complicated than it was a few months ago, but we have not been told we cannot ship this year," said Alice C. Williams, director of the West Valley Demonstration Project for DOE. "Contracts with some of the four railroads are scheduled to expire at the end of the month."
In August, officials announced that 125 spent fuel assemblies, stored in stainless steel casks with 9-inch steel walls to shield radioactivity and for strength and durability in case of an accident, were to take a 2,360-mile rail journey through 11 states that would take 70 hours.
The specially engineered casks cannot be shipped if the temperature dips below minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Williams.
The nuclear shipment was scheduled to occur by Oct. 31 -- the date on which the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's certificate for compliance for the shipment ends.
"We cannot disclose the exact date the train will go because of concerns of terrorist attacks or demonstrations," West Valley Demonstration Project spokesman John Chamberlain told United Press International in August.
"Contracts with some of the four railroads were scheduled to expire at the end of the month," Williams said. "Those contracts will have to be renegotiated and that's not a trivial thing in most cases."
Nuclear shipments were suspended after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 in New York and Washington. Spent fuel is the nuclear fuel removed from a nuclear power reactor because it can no longer sustain a nuclear chain reaction, and it is considered the most radioactive type of nuclear waste, according to Chamberlain. It contains uranium, plutonium and other radioactive products. It will remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years.
"It's perhaps the most dangerous cargo ever shipped in this country," according to Kevin Kamps, of the Washington-based Nuclear Information & Resource Service.
The dedicated train will carry no other cargo and will be composed of two flatbed cars carrying the casks, several spacer buffer cars, and a personnel car with people with expertise in radiological monitoring, emergency response and management, communications, and public affairs.
The train will be tracked around-the-clock using the federal Department of Energy's satellite tracking system, TRANSCOM. States and tribes along the shipping corridor will have access to the system to monitor the shipment. States and tribes have reviewed and provided input on potential rail routes and DOE is supporting state and tribal preparation of local emergency responders.
The spent fuel is destined for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory where it will be stored in interim, dry storage, before it is ultimately shipped to a permanent repository.
The route uses the Buffalo & Pittsburgh rail line to Machias, N.Y. and then Norfolk Southern to Driftwood, Pa. where the carrier changes to the B&P line to New Castle, Pa. At New Castle the route changes carriers to CSXT and proceeds through Youngstown, Ohio.
At Fostoria, Ohio the shipment is transferred to Norfolk Southern and proceeds through Indiana, Springfield, Ill., and Missouri to Kansas City where it is transferred to Union Pacific. The Union Pacific portion of the route proceeds through northeastern Kansas, southern Nebraska, and Cheyenne, Wyo. to southeastern Idaho.
The route was chosen by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1999 using computer modeling to evaluate 22 rail segments arranged in 12 different routes. The evaluation considered distance, quality of track, population along the route and potential risk to the public. A composite score for each route was developed that ranked the 12 routes from the route that had the highest combination of the four parameters to the lowest.
The West Valley Demonstration Project, located about 30 miles south of Buffalo, N.Y., is the site of a former nuclear fuel reprocessing plant and a shut-down low-level radioactive waste disposal area.
The $1.6 billion West Valley Demonstration Project Act was signed into law in 1980, it's purpose was to design and construct the two shipping casks for spent fuel, solidify liquid radioactive waste and to contain the leaking radioactive waste that had been tracked to a creek that emptied into another creek that drained into Lake Erie.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
New offer on Bin Laden
Minister makes secret trip to offer trial in third country
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Wednesday October 17, 2001
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0%2C1361%2C575593%2C00.html
A senior Taliban minister has offered a last-minute deal to hand over Osama bin Laden during a secret visit to Islamabad, senior sources in Pakistan told the Guardian last night.
For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the US without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the bombing, a source close to Pakistan's military leadership said.
But US officials appear to have dismissed the proposal and are instead hoping to engineer a split within the Taliban leadership.
The offer was brought by Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban foreign minister and a man who is often regarded as a more moderate figure in the regime.
He met officials from the CIA and Pakistan's ISI intelligence directorate in Islamabad on Monday. US officials pressed the minister for a sweeping change in the regime. "They are trying to persuade him to get the moderate elements together," another source said.
Mr Muttawakil's visit coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of Colin Powell, the US secretary of state. After several hours of talks with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf yesterday, Mr Powell admitted that moderate Taliban would play a role in talks on a future Afghan government. "We would have to listen to them or at least take them into account," he said.
Mr Powell also met envoys sent by Zahir Shah, the former Afghan king who lives in exile in Rome, and a representative of the opposition Northern Alliance, sources said.
The Taliban foreign minister had asked for face-to-face talks with the US secretary of state but no direct meeting was held. Mr Muttawakil returned to Kabul last night and the Taliban have publicly denied he was ever in Islamabad.
His visit came as Taliban forces in Afghanistan came under renewed pressure from the bombing campaign and opposition advances.
Troops from the Northern Alliance were yesterday closing in on the key northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif. More alliance soldiers were locked in heavy fighting with the Taliban in the west hoping to cut a key supply line to the town.
Some reports suggested the Taliban foreign minister had in fact defected in the face of mounting pressure and was now in the Gulf. But sources in Pakistan confirmed he had returned to Kabul and said there was still no clear rift in the ultra-Islamic regime.
Instead, the offer appears to indicate that Pakistan is applying pressure on moderate Taliban elements to negotiate their way out of the crisis.
Pakistan has made clear that it wants the bombing campaign to be brief and that it does not want the Northern Alliance, backed by its arch-enemy India, to sweep to power in Kabul. Gen Musharraf said publicly yesterday that he wanted to see "moderate Taliban" in the next Afghan government.
Pakistan was intricately linked to the emergence of the Taliban as a military force and has closely backed the movement financially and diplomatically. Pakistan is now the only country to maintain diplomatic links with the ostracised regime.
The Taliban have offered to hand over Bin Laden before but only if sufficient evidence was presented. Bin Laden is wanted both for the September 11 attacks and for masterminding the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which 224 people were killed. He is also suspected of involvement in other terrorist attacks, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year.
But until now the Taliban regime has consistently said it has not seen any convincing evidence to implicate the Saudi dissident in any crime.
"Now they have agreed to hand him over to a third country without the evidence being presented in advance," the source close to the military said.
However, it is unclear whether the Taliban would have the ability to seize Bin Laden and hand him over.
The US administration has not publicly supported the idea of a trial for Bin Laden outside America and appears intent on removing from power the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and the hardliners in the regime.
Some in Pakistan have suggested Saudi Arabia as a loca tion for any trial for Bin Laden. "The Pakistan army would be supportive of anything with a Saudi link," said the source.
The Saudi royal family has long seen Bin Laden as a threat because he has accused the government of corruption and mismanagement and continually demanded the withdrawal of US troops from Saudi soil.
Mr Muttawakil's clandestine visit to Pakistan was planned several days in advance. The Taliban ambassador in Islam abad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, left the embassy on Friday and travelled to Kandahar, home of the Taliban headquarters in southern Afghanistan, for talks with Mullah Omar to prepare for the visit.
It is not clear how the Taliban foreign minister travelled from Kabul to Pakistan without approval from the US. One report in the US yesterday suggested that Pakistani intelligence flew him out of the country in a small aircraft.
----
Strikes 'eviscerate' Taliban militia
October 17, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011017-97599731.htm
The Pentagon yesterday declared that 10 days of air strikes have "eviscerated" the ruling Taliban militia, as the United States greatly increased the number of troop-hunting fighter jets swarming over Afghanistan.
In recounting the heaviest two days of bombing, officials disclosed that for the first time all four Navy carriers in the region took part in operations Monday. This included the USS Kitty Hawk, which an Army source said is carrying Army Special Forces soldiers and Black Hawk helicopters.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Pentagon's director of operations, said Navy fighter-bombers hit sites around the important northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif. He said the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance was close to capturing the city and, with it, a critical pathway to western Afghanistan and to Kabul.
"I would say they're in danger of being cut off right now," he said.
He also said the bombing hammered forces protecting Kabul to the north, meeting a key demand of Northern Alliance commanders who want to start an offensive on the capital.
"We're striking Afghan Taliban military positions around Kabul, including those that protect the capital," he said.
All told, on each of the last two days, the Pentagon has put more than 100 strike aircraft in the skies, reinforced by Tomahawk cruise missiles and long-range Air Force bombers such as the B-52, B-1B and B-2 stealth planes. In previous days, the Pentagon said about 10 to 20 strike aircraft flew in any 24-hour period.
"The combat power of the Taliban has been eviscerated," Gen. Newbold said. "The campaign does include targets that are all around the country."
Gen. Newbold also said that two Air Force AC-130 Spectre gunships worked over enemy forces the past two days using the repeated volleys of their 40 mm and 105 mm cannons.
For ground troops in its cross hairs, the special-operations aircraft known as "Spooky" can be a terrifying presence as it loiters for hours, using sophisticated precision-guidance and night-sights to destroy soldiers and equipment.
"It has a large crew of specialists who are able to acquire targets to a degree that a fighter aircraft, for example, moving at over 300 knots, cannot," the general said. "There is a psychological effect in all that we're trying to do."
He said the slow-moving gunship was protected by fighter aircraft and flew at an altitude beyond the range of the "current threat," which officials say is principally artillery and portable missiles that reach about 10,000 feet.
Taken together, Gen. Newbold's briefing painted the picture of a Taliban leadership on the run and a military on a rapid decline. One official said the Taliban appears days away from collapse at the hands of relentless air strikes and ground attacks by the multiethnic Northern Alliance.
AC-130 gunships are typically used to support ground troops, including commandos. The general did not say whether American special-operations forces were used in the past two days.
U.S. officials say two AC-130s pounded forces around the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, the birthplace of the radical Islamic militia and home to supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The Pentagon considers Mullah Omar part of the Taliban's command structure and has targeted his residence and known hide-outs since bombing began Oct. 7.
The Taliban claims that both he and Osama bin Laden are still alive. Mullah Omar provided a safe haven to bin Laden in 1996 in Afghanistan, where he enlarged his al Qaeda terrorist network. The Bush administration says bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed more than 5,000 people, almost all of whom were civilians.
Gen. Newbold said the 100 strike planes, and five Tomahawk cruise missiles, hit 12 "target areas" on Monday. The sets included airfields, aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile sites. Over the weekend, U.S. forces also bombed Kabul's main telephone exchange, which was installed by the Chinese, making it difficult for Mullah Omar to communicate with commanders.
"We struck Taliban forces in a robust way that included troop and vehicle staging areas," the three-star general said.
"We're going to keep up the pressure on the terrorists and on the Taliban leadership," he added. "The pressure will come from all elements of national power and include the military. Regardless, it's going to be relentless. The essence of what we're trying to do is to destroy the al Qaeda terrorist infrastructure and those within the Taliban leadership."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday that improved intelligence collection produced a new set of targets, not known when the operation began. He indicated the strikes could go on for weeks or months.
Gen. Newbold said the campaign, after effectively destroying air-defense missiles and radars, and unleashing more than 2,000 munitions, is now geared toward hitting military targets on the move, such as troops and tanks.
"I think you have seen over the past four or five days a shift to strike emerging targets, and that is exactly the way you'd want a campaign to go, to emphasize agility in execution."
The bombing began with two Navy carriers, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Enterprise. Now, the Kitty Hawk and the USS Theodore Roosevelt have joined the ships in the Indian Ocean-Arabian Sea area off the coast of Pakistan, which has granted the United States airspace rights.
Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday taped an interview with Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based Arab news network used by bin Laden and al Qaeda to spread anti-American hatred. The Rumsfeld interview was part of the White House's drive to reach more Arabs to explain America's war on terrorism.
----
Northern Alliance closes in on Mazar-e-Sharif
10/17/2001
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/10/17/nalliance.htm
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Aided by U.S. bombing, opposition forces closed in Wednesday on a key northern city. U.S. jets struck fuel dumps in Kabul, setting off a huge fire, and the Taliban claimed U.S. planes hit two trucks, killing seven civilians trying to flee the onslaught. With the U.S.-led air campaign in its 11th day, a Western diplomatic source said in Islamabad, Pakistan, that the Taliban foreign minister had asked the Americans to slow down the bombardment to allow moderates within the ruling Islamic militia to reconsider their refusal to hand over terror suspect Osama bin Laden.
International aid organizations appealed Wednesday for a pause in the bombing so they can rush food to Afghan civilians as winter approaches. "Time's almost run out," said Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam International.
President Bush ordered airstrikes Oct. 7 after the Taliban repeatedly refused to turn over bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
In the north, the Afghan opposition claimed it was 3 miles from the key city of Mazar-e-Sharif and was shelling its outskirts, said Abdul Vadud, the Northern Alliance military attache in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Vadud also said the opposition had seized Dedai military airport, about 6 miles southwest of the city.
Taliban Information Ministry official Abdul Henan Himet confirmed heavy fighting near Mazar-e-Sharif but insisted Taliban forces were "fully capable" of defending the strategic city. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
In the latest airstrikes, U.S. jets struck an oil depot at a Taliban army garrison Wednesday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, setting off a huge fire. Airstrikes on Kabul were continuing through the afternoon, mostly in the north of the city.
Residents could see fire near the front line between Taliban and opposition forces. That suggested the Americans were going after Taliban troop concentrations there.
In Islamabad, U.N. spokesman Hassan Fairdous said a bomb crashed Wednesday into a boys' school in Kabul but did not explode. A private, U.N.-affiliated mine-clearing team had rushed to the school to try to defuse the bomb.
Elsewhere, a Taliban official, Amir Khan Muttaqi, claimed U.S. jets struck two truck Tuesday afternoon near the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, killing seven civilians. The report could not be independently confirmed.
The Taliban claimed 47 civilians had been killed in bombing in Kandahar over the past two days. The report could not be independently confirmed.
In Washington, U.S. officials said Mazar-e-Sharif could fall within days, thanks in part to U.S. and British bombing that cleared the way for the opposition.
Forces loyal to two opposition commanders, Ato Mukhammad and Gen. Rashid Dostum, have attacked the city from different sides this week trying to drive out the Taliban, who have held it since 1997.
Losing the city would be a "significant setback," for the Taliban, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff operations director, told reporters.
Control of Mazar-e-Sharif would give the opposition power over supply routes and consolidate their position near the borders with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a source of weapons and support for the rebels.
With the air campaign accelerating, there were signs that elements within the Taliban were seeking a way out of the confrontation with the United States.
In Islamabad, a Western diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity said Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Abdul Wakil Muttawakil traveled secretly to Pakistan to ask that the United States slow down the airstrikes.
Muttawakil asked Pakistan to convey the message that if Washington slowed the campaign, moderates in the Taliban leadership would reassess their stand on bin Laden. The source said Muttawakil met several times over the weekend with Pakistan's intelligence chief.
Bush has repeatedly refused to negotiate, insisting the Taliban surrender bin Laden unconditionally.
In an attempt to rally his forces, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar reportedly sent a radio message of encouragement to his commanders Wednesday, telling them God was on their side.
"Show patience and confidence, because we are waging a holy war against infidels," Omar said, according to the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based news agency. "Life and death are both the same to us, because we want to become martyrs."
In Islamabad, international aid groups appealed for a chance to transport food to Afghans ahead the winter snow, expected to start next month. Aid groups also appealed to both sides to avoid targeting aid convoys.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon acknowledged bombing the International Red Cross compound in Kabul, setting two warehouses on fire. A Pentagon official said U.S. pilots thought the warehouses were used by the Taliban.
----
Pentagon confirms Kabul raid blunder
BBC News
Wednesday, 17 October, 2001,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1601000/1601726.stm
The Pentagon has admitted mistakenly bombing a warehouse used by the Red Cross during a raid on the Afghan capital Kabul.
A statement said warplanes dropped 1,000 pound (454 kg) bombs that inadvertently hit one or more Red Cross buildings on Tuesday.
The Pentagon said it "did not know" the Red Cross was using warehouses that were among facilities used by the Taleban to store ammunition.
Red Cross reports "indicate that wheat and other humanitarian supplies stored in the warehouses were destroyed, and an Afghan security guard was injured" in the incident, the Pentagon said.
The apparent blunder followed the killing of four Afghan guards from a UN mine clearance agency in Kabul nearly two weeks ago when another bomb went astray.
Several villagers were also reported to have died when two bombs meant for Kabul airport went astray.
Click here for a map of recent air strikes
The Pentagon said earlier that dozens of US navy and air force planes were hitting other targets including the capital, Kabul.
In the latest daylight raids, six powerful explosions are reported to have rocked Kabul on Wednesday.
A Marine Corps spokesman said US and UK forces had struck military targets and guerrilla bases with "well over 2,000" bombs and missiles since strikes began on 7 October.
More than 100 US planes were used in raids on Monday and nearly that many on Tuesday, the official said.
Ground forces
The strikes continued into the night on Tuesday after a day of sustained bombardment, with attacks on military bases and airports outside Kabul, the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar in the south and the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
The strikes came as the use of low-flying AC-130 gunships signalled a new phase in the operation, with the US appearing to be moving towards deploying ground troops in Afghanistan to hunt down Osama Bin Laden.
A Red Cross spokesman said the compound which was hit was only a kilometre from the airport, but was clearly marked from the air.
The Red Cross has lodged an official complaint with the United States.
"It is definitely a civilian target. In addition to that, it is a clearly marked ICRC warehouse," said Robert Moni, head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul and now evacuated to Pakistan.
"It is marked on the top with a red cross. People should take all necessary measures to avoid such things," he said.
'Search and destroy' aircraft
The AC-130 now being used are among America's most lethal aircraft. They are especially suited to tracking small groups of troops and convoys of vehicles.
A BBC correspondent in northern Afghanistan says the use of the plane indicates that the US is now confident that it has destroyed most of the Taleban's air defences.
It may be a prelude to the first use of ground troops.
But the BBC's John Simpson, north of Kabul, says Taleban reinforcements have moved into position on the front line.
Opposition Northern Alliance troops have claimed that Mazar-e-Sharif could fall within days - they say they have already captured the airport.
The claims could not be verified, but the airport has changed hands several times in the last 24 hours.
Looting
Taleban figures show the overall death toll rising to nearly 400 - about one-third of them from a single village near Jalalabad, hit last week. US officials reject the figures, and there has been no independent confirmation.
The UN has warned that law and order appears to be breaking down in some cities in Afghanistan.
A gang of armed men attacked the offices of a British based aid organisation Islamic Relief in Kandahar, and then clashed with Taleban officials.
And in Mazar-e-Sharif, Taleban members looted the offices of another organisation.
In other cities, United Nations and other agencies have had their offices occupied and vehicles stolen.
--------
AC-130 Use Signals Start of Attacks on Troops
Joseph Fitchett
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
http://www.iht.com/articles/35921.htm
PARIS The Pentagon's decision to begin using low-flying AC-130 gunships in Afghanistan this week signals the start of a bloody offensive against Taliban ground forces that will involve an arsenal of new helicopter-borne firepower and special forces, defense officials and other experts said Tuesday.
The AC-130 is one of the most lethal American warplanes in terms of its ability to chew up ground forces. The goal of the new offensive is to destroy the Taliban militia as a fighting force and to isolate Osama bin Laden's terrorist group from the Afghan people, according to the defense sources.
The slow-flying AC-130 is known as "Spooky II," because of its fearsome firepower. It circles a target and saturates it with automatic fire from three computer-controlled guns, including cannon and heavy machine guns capable of firing 1,800 rounds a minute. The plane's guns can cover an area the size of eight football fields with a round in each square yard.
An adaptation of the Hercules aircraft that has been a U.S. war horse, the AC-130 has banks of electronic sensors on board capable of detecting ground targets normally elusive from the air - notably small units moving at night or through cloud cover or fog. "There's no body count yet, but clearly the attack has shifted to killing Taliban fighters, getting them to move so that they can be spotted and then shot or bombed," according to John Pike, a strategic analyst in Washington.
The new phase of the war also involves covert operations by U.S. special forces, the defense sources said. "If it's safe enough for the AC-130s, then you can bet that black helicopters are going in at night," according to one U.S. official who spoke anonymously.
Night-fighting Apache attack helicopters and more traditional helicopter gunships could provide extra firepower, the source said, as U.S. fighter bombers start trying to pick off Taliban artillery and vehicles trying to move under the cover of darkness.
The next step, the sources said, will involve "capture and kill" raids in which U.S. special operations forces raid Taliban hideouts and try to bring out some fighters alive for interrogation. To strike with surprise and then escape safely, U.S. commandos will ride fast Blackhawk helicopters that have been modernized with satellite guidance so that pilots can navigate through the Afghan weather at night, even in fog.
"This is the secret war that the Pentagon has said was coming in which there would be successes and defeats that are publicly never talked about," according to a French defense official.
The Bush administration apparently hopes to end the war in Afghanistan quickly by moving to this new phase in the offensive. Destruction of the Taliban would open the way to an advance by the Northern Alliance and other rebel groups that are poised to seize power in Kabul.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday referred openly for the first time to cooperation between U.S. airpower and Northern Alliance ground power. U.S. defense planners liken that combination to the teamwork that developed between Albanian guerrillas and U.S. bombers during the 1999 war in Kosovo. The Albanian guerrillas forced the Serbian Army to regroup in self-defense, offering a target that was decimated by U.S. bombers.
Mr. Rumsfeld, without specifically referring to new U.S. tactics, seemed to have that in mind when he referred to the front where the Northern Alliance has been poised for days. "I suspect that in the period ahead, that might not be a safe place to be," he said.
So far, Bush administration officials have avoided any public discussion of heavy losses that are likely to be inflicted on the Taliban, mainly because Washington wants to play down bloodshed against Muslims - even a declared enemy such as the Taliban militia. The administration apparently fears that reports of heavy casualties will spark more anti-American demonstrations.
The overall casualty rate among the Taliban remains unknown at this stage, probably even to their own commanders, due to the collapse of national communications in Afghanistan. Damage estimates measured in Taliban troop losses are generated by the Pentagon, but "advances in the military track seem to be inhibited right now by the uncertainties about the political track with Muslim countries," according to Francois Heisbourg, a French strategic specialist.
Now, a Bush aide said, "This war can go on for a long time without arousing public fever across the Muslim world if we get to a phase centered on small battles that don't make headlines."
In other words, this sort of counterinsurgency campaign can only succeed if it stays largely secret, according to U.S. officials. Many of them draw an analogy with the U.S. failure in Vietnam in the 1970s: now, they say, the Pentagon wants to avoid adverse publicity - and also wants to prevent the Taliban from following U.S. military moves too easily through the global media.
With U.S. armed forces starting to hunt for Taliban battlefield forces, the campaign will see a tapering-off of the thunderous missile strikes that can easily fuel anti-American demonstrations organized by Islamic extremists in Pakistan and other Muslim members of the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.
Though the operations by U.S. special forces risk possible American casualties, the raids are seen as an essential source of information about the Taliban's military deployment and for possible leads about the whereabouts of Mr. Bin Laden, the suspected terrorist leader, and his top aides in Afghanistan.
So far, the Pentagon "has to work with a fuzzy picture of the Taliban's organization and therefore how to go about rolling it up," according to Mr. Pike, who heads Globalsecurity.com, a U.S. strategic consulting firm.
The Taliban have an elite force, the 55th Brigade, that apparently works closely with the bin Laden organization and includes many of the Taliban's best-trained fighters, including combat veterans from Arab countries and from Pakistan. Even this force, said to number one or two thousand men, apparently has been broken into smaller units stationed in different parts of Afghanistan.
"To fight any war, you need a picture of the enemy's order of battle that tells you who you're fighting and where and we still haven't got that," a British official said. That picture has to be pulled together bit by bit, the British official said, especially now that the Taliban have lost the ability to organize and communicate through nationwide command-and-control systems.
Even with fewer electronic intercepts, the United States has several sets of round-the-clock eyes on Afghanistan, including a special spy satellite launched last week, an array of electronic warfare planes and the small unmanned drones - some of which are now being equipped with air-to-ground missiles that can be fired remotely.
All of this technical data, however, needs to be fleshed out with human intelligence of the sort that can come from Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence force, which helped set up the Taliban, and from Russian intelligence agents, many of whom worked against the Taliban for years.
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Afghans the victims of US terrorism
Irish Times Wednesday,
October 17, 2001
All the news bulletins and news channels nowadays have "anchormen" or "experts" parading in front of huge maps of Afghanistan, explaining the detail of the military assault on the country.
We are told of the type of bomber used and from what base, the aircraft carriers from where the tomahawk missiles are fired. Sometimes we are told of the "payload delivered".
And not a hint of the devastation these "payloads" deliver to the people of Afghanistan. The awful terror they bring, the devastation, the injury, the slaughter.
We have become morally desensitised to the abominations that are clinically conveyed to us night after night on our television screens.
Nobody at any of the news conferences challenges George Bush or Tony Blair or Donald Rumsfeld or Colin Powell about the outrages they are perpetrating. We are all part of the consensus that it is OK to bomb a country to a pulp with the vastness of the military might the world has ever known.
Nobody asks Tony Blair about the "human rights of the suffering women of Afghanistan" that he talked about in that speech at the Labour Party conference two weeks ago.
How did the world get to believe that terror and slaughter delivered by a bomb in a car was an atrocity, while much more terror and much more slaughter delivered by airplane or missile is morally OK?
Remember all the talk some years ago about the godfathers of violence who sat in their comfortable, middle-class homes in Dundalk or Buncrana, while their cowardly minions delivered mayhem to the streets of Belfast or Derry or Claudy or Omagh?
What about the godfathers of violence sitting in their stately mansions in the White House or Downing Street or Chequers or Camp David, and their minions dropping far larger bombs from the security of thousands of feet beyond range of retaliation, causing far more mayhem in the homes and streets of Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad?
And all for what?
Is it believable that the attack on America of September 11th could have been planned, directed and co-ordinated from caves in Afghanistan? Or that the organisation that was responsible for that attack originates in Afghanistan? A great deal of the emerging evidence suggests otherwise.
Last Wednesday the New York Times published a lengthy portrait of one of the organisers and perpetrators of the September 11th attack, Mohammed Atta. Atta came from a middle-class family in Cairo, where his father was a lawyer.
He went to Hamburg for several years to get a degree in urban planning and he later worked there. "Officials" were quoted as saying there was "strong evidence" Atta had trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, but we are not told what that evidence is or what it is he could have been trained in that would have had any relevance to what happened on September 11th.
It is clear, however, that his radicalism emerged while he was in Hamburg, where he associated with people from the Turkish, Arab and African communities. He went to Florida in 2000 and trained as an airline pilot.
There is evidence that he received a large sum of money from someone in The United Arab Emirates, who "may" have had an association with Osama bin Laden.
A report in Monday's Los Angeles Times quoted FBI sources as saying there were several people involved in plotting further attacks on the US and they were "at large in the United States and across Europe and the Middle East".
The Los Angeles Times also reported that several people suspected of involvement either in the September 11th attack or in planning further attacks were from Saudi Arabia and were resident either there or in the US.
CBS News on Monday evening quoted Prof Vali Nasr of the University of San Diego as saying the Saudi government had "appeased" Islamic extremists by funding and promoting a radical form of Islam that sees the US as the enemy.
Other reports from the US suggest that the real source of terrorism is Iran, where there are several persons wanted by the US, and, of course, Iraq remains a major suspect as a terrorist sponsor.
So what is the point of the assault on Afghanistan? Yes, Osama bin laden and some of his associates are there, but if the vast bulk of those suspected of terrorism by the US are either in the US itself or in Hamburg or Iran or Saudi Arabia or Iraq, what good will it do if everyone in Afghanistan is obliterated?
How will it reduce the terrorist threat to US if the vast majority of terrorists are in places other than Afghanistan?
If the anthrax attacks are the work of terrorists, does anyone believe that the packages containing it were sent from Afghanistan?
And just one other thing. If the point of the assault on Afghanistan is not to defeat terrorism but get Osama bin Laden and bring him to "justice", why has the latest offer by the Taliban to send him to an agreed third country been dismissed?
What would it matter if he were taken to one of America's allies such as Egypt or even Pakistan or Turkey and "brought to justice" there?
The reality is that Afghanistan is being devastated and hundreds are being slaughtered, on the net issue of bringing bin Laden and his associates to justice in the US rather than to some other third agreed country. That's what the slaughter is about. And that's putting it at its best.
-------- australia
Premier: Australia to Deploy Troops
New York Times
October 17, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-Australia-Troops.html?searchpv=aponline
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia will begin deploying troops and military hardware to the Persian Gulf over the next two weeks to join the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism, Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday.
Howard said the deployment was order after a telephone request overnight from President Bush.
``He indicated the United States would like to activate the commitment that Australia had made to join the coalition force. I indicated that Australia would respond,'' Howard told reporters.
``This marks, of course, a significant further stage in the involvement of Australian military personnel and the Australian people in this war against terrorism,'' the prime minister said. ``Our forces will be overseas fighting in our name within a very short period of time.''
The contribution announced by Howard is larger than an initial commitment made last month, after the government invoked Article Four of Australia's 50-year-old ANZUS military treaty with the United States, under which an attack on U.S. territory is considered an attack on Australia.
The government's initial pledge was for a detachment of 150 Special Air Services troops, two B707 tanker refueling aircraft, two P3 long-range maritime aircraft and a navy guided missile frigate.
The additional commitment includes a naval group comprising one amphibious command ship with helicopter capabilities and a frigate escort, four F/A-18A fighter jets, and one frigate also with helicopter capability.
Total number of personnel is about 1,550 -- up from just under 1,000 in the original commitment.
Howard said an exact deployment date had not been set, but the first troops and equipment could begin leaving within the next two weeks. He said the full Australian contribution would be in position by mid-November.
The SAS troops are elite commandos trained to operate in small groups behind enemy lines. Howard said they would ``go to selected locations as decided by the chief of the defense force in conjunction with coalition force commanders to conduct combined operations.''
Howard's announcement comes in the second week of a campaign for national elections on Nov. 10.
Already well ahead of the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls and favored to win with an increased majority, the troop deployment is seen as a further boost to the bid by Howard and his conservative coalition for a third term.
Howard is campaigning on counterterrorism and national security issues. The opposition Labor Party has been trying to refocus voters on domestic issues -- health care, education and tax reform, issues where polls show it leads the government.
Opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley on Wednesday said his party fully supported the commitment of Australian forces.
-------- biological weapons
Anthrax on Senate Letter Called Potent
Investigators Pursue Links to Fla., N.Y. Letters
By John Lancaster and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 17, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5437-2001Oct16?language=printer
The anthrax that arrived in the office mail of Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle on Monday is a highly potent, finely milled variety that spreads easily by air and is similar to the spores that killed Florida photo editor Robert Stevens almost two weeks ago, senior government officials said yesterday.
Senior officials also disclosed t