------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
After Sept. 11, a new push for 'nuclear pills'
U.S. Moves to Block General Dynamics Bid
Newport, Grumman Earnings Mixed
DEPLETED URANIUM IN AFGHANISTAN?
France Puts Anti - Aircraft at Nuke Site
France Positions Missiles
How we can prevent a nuclear nightmare
Many thyroid cancer cases linked to Chernobyl
Atomic Tests
Details of Nuclear Power Left Open
Nuclear electric power generation
Security tighter than ever at Lawrence Livermore
Precautionary Zone Set Around Florida Nuclear Plant
US NRC approves Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site
Group wants to block relicensing of Catawba
Catawba Nuclear Station wasn't notified
Richland firm looks to irradiation

MILITARY
Conscientious objectors increasing?
Cluster bombs have trapped villagers
Taliban's Human Shields
Facts About Traditional Loya Jirga
Afghan Opposition Warns U.S. Over Civilian Deaths
US company in Pakistan hit by anthrax
Research Could Offer New Defenses Against Anthrax
Anthrax found at remote White House mail site
Anthrax Congress sites may be shut weeks - aide
U.S. sets new push for treaty on germs
Iran Sets Up New Refugee Camp in Afghanistan
Israeli actions get harsh response
Navy Admiral Becomes NATO Commander
NATO Says Disrupts Terrorist Structure in Bosnia
Hundreds protest at Pakistani air base
The United Nations' daunting task
Females kept off ground for special-ops missions
Errant Bombs May Have Hit Afghan Civilians, U.S. Says
U.S. Jets Blast the Front Lines of the Taliban for a Fourth Day

OTHER
Senators sponsor renewable energy bill
Ballard joins with Osaka Gas for home generator
Nissan to have fuel cell vehicle technology by 2005
Cyanide Spill Ghana's Worst Environmental Disaster
Ecology minister says 'no grounds for panic' over mercury spill reports
WFP Races Against Onset of Winter to Feed Afghans
Spy Suspect Had Missile Site Coordinates
House Passes Bipartisan Anti-Terror Bill

ACTIVISTS
Need for IMMEDIATE assistance
ALERT! HELP STOP PRO-NUKE, PRO ANWR ENERGY BILL!
Dalai Lama Urges U.S. to Talk, Not Bomb
ALERT! HELP STOP PRO-NUKE, PRO ANWR ENERGY BILL!



-------- NUCLEAR

After Sept. 11, a new push for 'nuclear pills'

Associated Press
October 24, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/24/rec.attacks.nuclearpills.ap/index.html

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Mary Lampert keeps a single potassium iodide pill in her medicine cabinet and another in the glove compartment of her car. When you live seven miles from a nuclear plant, she says, you can't be too safe.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, people who live near nuclear plants have been buying the pills, which can help protect against cancer from radiation exposure.

"The terrorist doesn't make an announcement ahead of time, 'We are going to attack the nuclear power plant,"' said Lampert, who lives in Duxbury, across Kingston Bay from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth. "How long would it take the radioactive iodine to make it across to my house? In less than an hour, it's here."

Such fears are sending sales of potassium iodide through the roof at the Starke, Fla.-based American Civil Defense Association, which sells bottles of 200 tablets at $19.95 each. Before Sept. 11, sales topped 15 bottles in a good month. Since then, more than 500 bottles have been sold.

"That is our No. 1 item. We can't hardly keep it in," said spokesman Alex Coleman.

Iodine is one of about 200 radioactive elements created when the uranium atom splits, as occurs in a nuclear reactor.

Potassium iodide, if taken shortly after exposure to radiation, blocks the thyroid gland's intake of radioactive iodine, providing some protection against thyroid cancer and certain other diseases.

It proved effective in preventing thyroid cancer among adults and children in the path of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

However, officials in Massachusetts and other states worry that stockpiling the pills would make people less likely to evacuate in the event of a nuclear accident.

Also, potassium iodide will not protect people from radiation burns, radiation sickness and other forms of cancer in a nuclear accident.

"The public tends to look at potassium iodide as the magic bullet to protect them, but that's really not what it is," said Dr. Kenneth Miller, professor of radiology and director of health physics at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania. He lives 61/2 miles from the Three Mile Island plant, the site in 1979 of the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident.

Still, momentum for distribution of the tiny white pills seems to be building.

In January, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopted a rule that encourages states to consider giving out potassium iodide as part of their nuclear accident strategy.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has until now left it to states to decide whether to stockpile the pills, is holding a meeting this week with representatives of 16 other federal agencies to begin drafting a new potassium iodide policy.

Last month, a group of North Carolina elected officials in three counties asked the owner of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant to distribute the pills to neighbors.

And Tuesday, a bill to require Massachusetts health officials to make potassium iodide pills available to people living or working within 10 miles of nuclear plants passed a key legislative committee.

"All one would have to imagine is a plane crashing into that reactor," said state Rep. John Binienda, chairman of the Joint Energy Committee, which approved the bill. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what the end result would be."

The bill would apply to more than 300,000 people who live or work near Pilgrim Station, Seabrook Station in Seabrook, N.H., or Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., or are on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, which are downwind from the Plymouth plant.

Massachusetts already stockpiles potassium iodide for emergency workers as well as prisoners, nursing home patients and other institutionalized people.

-------- business

U.S. Moves to Block General Dynamics Bid

New York Times
October 24, 2001
By KENNETH N. GILPIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/24/business/24SHIP.html?searchpv=nytToday

The government moved yesterday to block the General Dynamics Corporation (news/quote)'s $2.1 billion offer to acquire Newport News Shipbuilding (news/quote), effectively endorsing a competing bid by Northrop Grumman.

The action came in two steps - a finding by the Pentagon that the General Dynamics bid would reduce competition in the construction of nuclear submarines and other military vessels, followed by an announcement that the Justice Department had filed an antitrust suit to block the deal.

Vigorously contesting the General Dynamics offer, Northrop argued that the Pentagon would effectively be creating a monopoly if it allowed General Dynamics and Newport News to combine.

The Navy, which considered and rejected competing bids for Newport News from General Dynamics and Litton Industries (news/quote) in 1999, has wanted to cut costs in its nuclear submarine program. Since 1997, Newport News and General Dynamics have evenly split the work on submarines. But competitive concerns turned out to be decisive.

"Either transaction would have reduced costs," a Pentagon spokesman, Glenn Flood, said. "But in addition to cutting costs, General Dynamics would become a monopoly, hurting competition for not only nuclear submarines but also surface ships. We believe Northrop Grumman will preserve competition in the submarine building business."

Northrop, mainly an aerospace company, gained shipbuilding expertise earlier this year with its purchase of Litton for $3.8 billion. The company, based in Los Angeles, said it was pleased with the Defense Department's decision. In a statement, it said it "does not expect any issues with the Department of Justice on the closure of the acquisition."

Executives of General Dynamics, based in Falls Church, Va., declined to comment yesterday. In the past, the company has said that a Northrop-Newport News combination would have a virtual monopoly in the construction of aircraft carriers and other ships. Officials of Newport News Shipbuilding merely noted that any deal with Northrop would require its directors' approval.

When it made its competing offer in May, Northrop Grumman offered to match General Dynamics' all- cash bid with a stock-and-cash offer that at the time was also worth $2.1 billion. Gains in Northrop Grumman's stock price since the attacks on Sept. 11 raised the value of its bid to the point that Newport News Shipbuilding three weeks ago opened talks about a possible deal.

Northrop Grumman shares were trading for $91.50 when the company made its bid in May. Yesterday, they closed at $100, down $5.50; the announcements in Washington came after the close of trading.

Analysts were divided about what effect, if any, last month's attacks had on the debate within the Pentagon about the two merger proposals.

Byron K. Callan, an armaments industry analyst at Merrill Lynch (news/quote), said: "If Sept. 11 meant higher defense spending and more money for Navy ship construction programs, there was more room for competition and not just cost savings. The broader signal being sent is that competition is good, and monopoly is not good."

Jacques Gansler, a former defense under secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said events flowing from the terrorist attacks probably had a limited effect on the Navy's thinking. "The one thing you want to get is innovation and low cost and you need competition to do that," said Mr. Gansler, now a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. "The Navy strongly argued for shorter-term cost savings. But I am sure the Justice Department had a pretty strong bias for maintaining competition."

The Pentagon's decision to thwart the General Dynamics bid is a triumph for the Senate Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi. Mr. Lott, whose state's largest employer is Litton Industries, invested considerable time and energy arguing that a General Dynamics-Newport News merger would be anticompetitive.

General Dynamics shares closed at $81.76 yesterday, down $3.04. Newport News Shipbuilding fell 73 cents, to $69.11.

--------

Newport, Grumman Earnings Mixed

October 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-Defense.html?searchpv=aponline

Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp. (news/quote) reported mixed earnings Wednesday, a day after a federal government decision that paves the way for the two defense companies to combine.

On Tuesday, the Defense of Department said it favors Northrop Grumman's bid for Newport News over a rival offer from General Dynamics. The Justice Department went to court to block the General Dynamics bid.

Government lawyers said a merger between the Newport News, Va.-based shipbuilder and General Dynamics would result in a monopoly for building nuclear submarines, a weapon vital to national security.

Northrop Grumman has offered to buy Newport News for a combination of cash and stock originally worth $2.1 billion.

Bolstered by increased construction revenues, Newport News Shipbuilding Inc.'s earnings grew 39 percent in the third quarter.

The Newport News, Va.-based shipyard on Wednesday said it earned $27 million, or 85 cents per share, compared with $21 million, or 67 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Excluding merger-related charges, Newport News earned 93 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected earnings of 87 cents per share.

Shipyard revenues increased 17 percent to $578 million from $493 million in the third quarter last year.

Increased activity on Virginia-class submarines and new aircraft carrier CVN-77 helped construction revenues grow 35 percent over the third quarter of 2000, from $222 million to $300 million.

``This outstanding financial performance in the third quarter represents a continuation of the favorable results we've delivered throughout the year and positions us to meet or exceed our full year estimates,'' said William P. Fricks, chairman and chief executive officer.

Newport News Shipbuilding's board of directors also declared a dividend of 4 cents per share on the company's issued and outstanding stock. The dividend will be payable on or about Nov. 16 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 5.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Newport News earned $72 million, or $2.29 per share, on revenue of $1.64 billion. In the year-ago period, Newport News earned $66 million, or $2.03 per share, on revenue of $1.49 billion.

Shares of Newport News were up $1.10 to $17.21 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Newport News Shipbuilding designs and builds nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines and services Navy ships. The company has about 17,800 employees.

The Los Angeles-based defense contractor reported strong third quarter earnings Wednesday, although net income dropped because of investment losses in its pension fund.

Grumman reported net income of $117 million, or $1.28 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to $150 million, or $2.11 per share, in the same period last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson/First Call had expected earnings of $1.47 per share.

Excluding the pension fund losses, Grumman reported a 58 percent increase in earnings to $161 million, or $1.79 per share, due mainly to its acquisition of Litton Industries (news/quote) and continuing strong demand for the radar, guided missiles and other high-tech systems produced by its Electronic Systems and Information Technology division.

Revenue for the third quarter more than doubled to $3.61 billion, compared to $1.73 billion in the same quarter last year.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Northrop Grumman earned $334 million, or $3.97 per share, on revenue of $9.25 billion. In the year-ago period, it earned $483 million, or $6.87 per share, on revenue of $5.39 billion.

Shares of Northrop Grumman were up $1.40 to $101.40 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


-------- depleted uranium

DEPLETED URANIUM IN AFGHANISTAN?
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER: Depleted Uranium

[This is by a Pakistani, forwarded by Max Obuszewski <MObuszewski@afsc.org>]

By: ALI AHMED RIND "Ali" <thinkers@cyber.net.pk>
Fri, 24 Oct 1997

As US and NATO forces continues pounding Afghanistan with cruise missiles and smart bombs, people who be acquainted with aftermaths of two previous wars fought by US around the world, fear after Gulf and Balkan war syndrome another Syndrome the 'Afghan War Syndrome'. A state of vague aliments and carcinomas, linked with usage of Depleted Uranium as part of missiles, projectiles and bombs in battle field. People of Afghanistan, who had been dying in starvation up till now, are likely to savor a modern form of death; death owing to radioactive materials pulverized over barren mountains and harsh plains in modern world's war on terrorism. And the fear is that Afghan people will not be alone to go through it. People neighboring Afghans are equally at risk. World has attained globalize outline, now, all crop and spoil are equally shared among people.

What Depleted Uranium Is?

Depleted uranium is the super weapon of the '90s; used in the Gulf War and the conflict in Kosovo. DU is not a weapon itself but a heavy metal used in production of armaments. DU is a rather benign sounding name for uranium-238, the trace elements left behind when the fissionable material is extracted from uranium-235 for use in nuclear reactors and weapons. For decades, this refuse was a radioactive nuisance, piling up at plutonium processing plants across the US. By the late 1980s there was nearly a billion tons of the material left over in US dumps. Then weapons designers at the Pentagon came up with a use for the tailings: they could be molded into bullets and bombs. The material was free and there was plenty at hand. Depleted Uranium is 1.7 times denser than lead and this means that it can form the core of a shell which will easily penetrate steel armor of tanks and other military vehicles. This makes it perfect for use in armor-penetrating weapons, designed to destroy tanks, armored-personnel carriers and bunkers. It is triumph of military technology. It smashes through a tank's armor better than anything else. At high speed, it slices through tanks like a hot knife through butter. All flying bombs (Tomahawk, JDAM, etc.), are made of DU metal. DU is a concern because it's a by-product of the process that is used to make nuclear power fuel or nuclear weapons. Although 'depleted' of its powerfully radioactive component, DU does still contain minute traces of radioactivity.

When the tank-busting bombs explode when a hardened missile strikes target, around 70% of the DU burns and oxidizes, bursting into minute particles that can be inhaled or ingested as dust. This can be harmful because of the residual radioactivity of the DU, possibly leading to cancer, but also because uranium itself, as a heavy metal, is toxic and can lead to kidney failure and other health problems. DU is toxic only if the dust is inhaled or ingested, or if DU-contaminated shrapnel enters the body. The inhaled lethal dust, sticks to the fibers of the lungs, and eventually begins to wreck havoc on the body: tumors, hemorrhages, ravaged immune systems, leukemia's. Un-oxidized DU metal in the downed craft and in unexploded ammunition, rockets, bombs and missiles rusts away into a very fine black dust. This dust, too, spreads around through air, water and via people, animals and mobile objects that move over it.

Staying in a contaminated area is risky because one never knows how one might ingest a particle of DU oxide, and one particle is all one needs to become sick. The radioactive and toxic DU-oxides don't disintegrate. They are practically permanent. DU has a half-life of more than 4 billion years, approximately the age of the Earth. It means thousand of acres of land in the Balkans, Kuwait and southern Iraq have been contaminated forever. If our apprehension is spot on, Afghan terrain would be as well to catalog.

The stockpiling of DU weapon is spreading. AS DU is becoming more popular with defense establishment around the world, more than 20 countries are now having DU in their arsenal, Pakistan is among one of. A few months back among the exhibits at <http://idex.janes.com/>IDEX 2001 held at Karachi, was a model of the new 125mm armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) projectile with depleted uranium (DU) long-rod penetrate, which is being developed by the Pakistani National Development Complex (NDC) for use with T-80UD tanks.

GULF WAR SYNDROM

The amount of DU used in the Gulf War was approximately 100 times greater than the amount used in Kosovo. In all, the US hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles. Roughly half of the 320 tons of DU fired in the Gulf War was shot in Kuwait, to oust Iraqi occupation troops. Months of bombing of Iraq by US and British planes and cruise missiles in Gulf War has left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. As allied bombing was intense in part of southern Iraq, epidemic of carcinomas has erupted consequently in that part of Iraq. At present the desert dust carries death all around southern Iraq.

Although downplayed by the US administration and Western media, Iraqi physicians have been reporting sharp increases in cancers such as lymphomas and leukemia in Southern Iraq, as well as an increase in birth defects. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. One Iraqi Oncologist who studied cases of rising leukemia among southern Iraqi population terms conditions in southern Iraq as another Hiroshima. Most of the leukemia and cancer victims aren't soldiers. They are civilians. And many of them are children. According to mortality figures compiled by UNICEF as many as 180 children dying every day in Iraq. Callous part of this occurrence is that because of UN sponsored embargo, Iraqi hospitals be short of drugs and equipments to face the endemic. Children are dying in their mother's lap without food and pills. They are at heart ration for cold tummy of death. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia.

Iraqis and Kuwaitis aren't the only ones showing signs of uranium contamination and sickness. But what soldiers often didn't know was that depleted uranium poses a threat to victor as well as vanquished. Gulf War veterans, plagued by a variety of illnesses; have been found to have traces of uranium in their blood, feces, urine and semen.

The number of Gulf War vets who were in contact with radioactive tanks or breathed contaminated dust could be in ten of thousands. The shadows of that war ago still haunt them. The world came to know about Gulf War Syndrome - a variety of mysterious ailments, when US and allied countries soldiers returned to their homes carrying symptoms of yet unknown aliment/ malady. Doctors labeled it Gulf War syndrome, on account of the fact that this malady had no previous record to be classified. With the exception of US defense establishment, every one believes that this state is straight outcome usage of DU in conflict. Iraqi cancer victims and American former soldiers suffering from Gulf War Syndrome are joining forces to sue the US government over the use of DU missiles and projectiles in Gulf War.

Balkan Syndrome

NATO planes fired 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium, DU, ammunition into Serbia and Kosovo during the NATO air war in 1999. Now fears of a "Balkans Syndrome" related to the depleted uranium used in allied armaments in Bosnia and Kosovo are raging across Europe. Already medical teams in the region have detected cancer clusters near the bomb sites. The leukemia rate in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, has tripled in the last five years. A United Nations report found evidence of radioactivity at eight of 11 sites tested in Kosovo that were struck by NATO ammunition made with depleted uranium. There is concern about civilians who stray too close to the lingering dust at the sites of crushed tanks.

History repeats itself in Balkan and akin to Gulf war; it's not just the assailed Serbs who are ill and dying but NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also coming down with cancer. Eight Italian soldiers who served in the region under NATO's banner during past one and half year have died of leukemia. Five Belgians, two Dutch, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech are in addition to victims of DU. Consequently, Italy asked NATO to institute a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium in its armaments until more studies are done. France and Portugal added their voice to Italy. France launched an enquiry into the effects of DU on their soldiers In Kosovo and Portugal withdrew its soldiers from Kosovo. The Portuguese Defense Minister went public by declaring that Portuguese soldiers were not going to become uranium meat by taking part in further military expedition. In the meantime, Canada stopped using its own DU weapons two years ago and has taken steps to deal with sick veterans, offering to pay for soldiers to be tested for DU exposure at independent American centers. However, Ottawa, like Washington, has so far rejected calls for a ban on weapons made from Depleted Uranium.

The US Defense Department doesn't want to admit that DU is harmful because they don't want the liability. The Pentagon has shuffled through a variety of rationales and excuses. First, the Defense Department shrugged off concerns about Depleted Uranium as wild conspiracy theories by peace activists, environmentalists and Iraqi propagandists. When the US's NATO allies demanded that the US disclose the chemical and metallic properties of its munitions, the Pentagon refused. It has also refused to order testing of US soldiers stationed in the Gulf and the Balkans.

To hope against hope.

As described above, DU should be stored as a radioactive waste, and instead powerful people in the helm of affairs are spreading this malignant refuse around the globe risking million of lives those who are directly drawn in combat or indirectly exposed to it by living in combat field.

Afghan people are not solitary at risk but people bordering them are equally at peril. As wind and rivers could take DU across the borders, therefore it is not very unlikely that in the coming days we people in Pakistan also be sharing spoil and hazard of toxic DU with Afghan people. If DU enclose weapon are on the cards in this war, in that case the United States should reconsider its use in our courtyard. At least we could demand perpetrator of 'infinite justice' of doing justice to we people by making sure of not using ammunition with DU in war against Taliban regime, as it will render million of people across Afghan border at risk of life.

M.K. Gandhi had once written that morality is contraband in war. But world should have to disagree with him by stirring international conscious in favor of morality and ethos in all forms of war. All is not fare in war.

Warfare, for all its chaos, does not shelve ethics and morality. Chemical weapons are banned by international agreement. Antipersonnel land mines are on their way out. DU rounds should go the same route. They may be military wonders. But they're ethical horrors that the world should get rid of sooner the better.

Ali Ahmed Rind.

-------- france

France Puts Anti - Aircraft at Nuke Site

October 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-France.html?searchpv=aponline

PARIS (AP) -- The French military has stationed surface-to-air missiles at key military and nuclear processing sites in western France as a precaution against airborne suicide attacks, defense officials said Wednesday.

The anti-aircraft missile defense systems were positioned to protect a military base for nuclear submarines at Ile Longue, off the Brittany coast, and the nuclear waste reprocessing plant at La Hague, said an air force spokesman, Frederic Solano.

The installation started Tuesday and was expected to be finished by Thursday, the defense ministry said.

Radar systems capable of scouting out airplanes flying at low altitudes were already moved into the two sites Friday.

Solano said the radar and missile systems ``enable us to identify aircraft ... and if necessary to shoot them down.''

A defense ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missiles ``complement planes that are already on alert.'' The ministry had previously said it also could use fighter planes to shoot down aircraft picked up on radar screens.

The officials said there had been no threats against France and the measures were purely precautionary. France has been bolstering defense in the northwest since the Sept. 11 attacks, because many of the country's air bases are located in the south.

Officials said that details about the missiles and other possible sites under protection were being kept confidential for security reasons.

La Hague is home to Europe's largest nuclear reprocessing plant. It stocks 8,250 tons of nuclear fuel, officials say. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the site shut its doors to visits by the public because of safety fears.

-------

France Positions Missiles

Excite News
Wed, Oct 24
By ANGELA DOLAND,
Associated Press Writer
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011024/18/int-attacks-france

PARIS (AP) - The French military has positioned surface-to-air missiles at two sensitive military and nuclear processing sites in western France as a precaution against airborne suicide attacks, defense officials said Wednesday.

Anti-aircraft missile defense systems were being positioned to protect Ile Longue, a military base for nuclear submarines off the Brittany coast, and La Hague, the site of Europe's largest nuclear waste reprocessing plant, air force spokesman Frederic Solano said Wednesday.

Solano said the radar and missile systems, "enable us to identify aircraft ... and if necessary, to shoot them down." There have been no threats so far, and the missile systems - expected to be fully installed by Thursday - are purely a precaution, the Defense Ministry said.

Radar systems capable of scouting out airplanes flying at low altitudes were already moved near the two sites Friday. There are also 12 fighter planes stationed throughout France that are capable of taking off in five minutes' notice in case of an attack.

Jolted into action by the Sept. 11 attacks, governments throughout Europe have tightened security outside nuclear power and radioactive waste facilities. Hungary is one other European country that has placed surface-to-air rockets near a nuclear facility. The country's only nuclear power plant is located about 60 miles south of Budapest.

France has been bolstering defense in the northwest since the Sept. 11 attacks. Many of the country's air bases are located in the south, which had left the sensitive northwest area vulnerable.

Officials have declined to say what France was doing, however, to protect its 20 nuclear power plants from terrorist attacks. France gets more than three-fourths of its power from nuclear energy.

"The less we say, the more effective our system will be," Solano said.

In some countries, officials have continued to discuss the best way to protect nuclear sites.

German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said last week that he would discuss with power companies how nuclear plants could be quickly switched off in case of a threat or attack. But he has dismissed calls from some opposition politicians for missiles to defend them. Germany has instead stressed the need for tighter air security to prevent hijackings.

In Britain, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority said nuclear plants have been on a heightened state of alert since Sept. 11 but would not provide details.

An official at Britain's Ministry of Defense said, however, that fighter pilots are on alert, able to get to plants quickly when necessary. No surface-to-air missiles have been placed at nuclear facilities, she said.

In Sweden, a spokesman at the Swedish Nuclear Power Directorate said security checks of visitors to the nation's four nuclear plants were more rigorous since the U.S. hijackings. Christer Viktorsson declined to comment on other measures, saying only that staff were in a "great state of readiness" and that "drills will focus more on different types of sabotage."

In Slovakia, officials altered the corridor for civilian flights to reduce the danger of attacks on strategic targets such as oil refineries, dams and its two nuclear plants.

------- terrorism

How we can prevent a nuclear nightmare

By Alan Judd
24/10/2001
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$5UBLXGYAACYDJQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2001/10/24/njudd24.xml

DESPITE the panic-inducing attractions of chemical and biological weapons, terrorists have generally preferred blasts to bugs: blast is more predictable, easier to deploy effectively, more likely to kill large numbers in one go - and there are no antidotes.

The greatest danger is, therefore, not plague or anthrax but deployment of the ultimate blast: nuclear.

Imagine the scenario. A small nuclear device is secretly assembled in a merchant ship, then detonated when the ship sails into New York harbour. About a square mile is incinerated, and casualties are in seven figures. Afterwards, on the Al-Jazeera television network, bin Laden gleefully promises that another device will be detonated in another city if the US does not immediately cease all support for Israel, remove its forces from the Middle East, hand over President Bush to the Taliban and convert its people to Islam.

What makes this scenario just about feasible is that the expertise and materials needed for making a nuclear bomb are available. They come from two sources, and they have a common origin: the break-up of the old Soviet Union after the Cold War.

In 1993, Russia was believed to possess about 32,000 nuclear warheads and about 177 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Since then, there has been no reliable inventory of what has gone where, nor any proper record of the nuclear materials distributed to research institutions.

There are also graveyards of Soviet nuclear submarines with fuel rods which, if re-processed, could provide plutonium for a bomb. And there have long been reports that some of Russia's 3,000-odd underpaid and neglected nuclear weapons workers have sold off fissile material.

The other source of black-market nuclear proliferation is people rather than material.

In 1990, there were 1.6 million people working in Soviet science; then the money dried up and, a decade later, half of them were no longer involved or had disappeared. Some, it was reported, sold nuclear secrets or materials to Iran. Others sold their brains.

If a terrorist group has been able to put that expertise together with black-market materials, we have the makings of a nightmare scenario.

The recent New York trial of some of those responsible for the 1998 American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania heard how the bin Laden network tried to buy South African enriched uranium in the early 1990s.

They may well have succeeded since then. Uranium has become more available rather than less, particularly in Pakistan and former Soviet states.

Earlier this year, four men were arrested in the Black Sea port of Batumi, Georgia, after police found 4lb of weapons-grade uranium in their hotel room. Its final destination was not known.

The danger is probably more from expertise and materials that leaked a few years ago than from anything coming out of Russia now. Western intelligence agencies alerted their governments to the problem early in the last decade and managed to disrupt, divert or deny would-be proliferators.

The Americans have also intervened, either buying up dangerous material or paying the Russians' disposal and decommissioning costs.

But, like counter-terrorism itself, counter-proliferation was always one among a number of competing priorities. Even if you threw all your resources at the problem, you couldn't guarantee complete success - especially as the country most intimately concerned did not itself know what was happening to all its constituent parts.

Although the theory of constructing a nuclear device is well known, it is actually quite difficult to make a working bomb. Our ill-wishers will keep trying, however, and we should assume that one day they will succeed. What can we do?

Three things. First, we must do all we can to delay or prevent them. That will take money, patience and determination, all of which will buy time for the second, parallel course of action.

This is the long-term political task of educating those states and groups into some wider sense of political responsibility, making them feel that the world community is something they are part of, rather than apart from.

Third, anyone who dreams of committing nuclear terrorism must be made to believe that it would result in the destruction not only of themselves, but of everything for which they stand.

When the Iranians seized the American embassy hostages in Teheran, there was a story that the Russian ambassador had sought urgent audience with the Iranian government. He had one brief, brutal message from Moscow: "If anything happens to the Russian embassy, tomorrow there is no Teheran." Even if the story is apocryphal, you could believe, in those days, that the Russians really meant it.

A credible reputation for ruthlessness may not sit comfortably with Western liberal self-perceptions and involve actions in apparent contradiction to the political process - but it may also be one of the necessities for survival.

Alan Judd is a novelist and former diplomat

-------- ukraine

Many thyroid cancer cases linked to Chernobyl

24/10/2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12957/story.htm

LISBON - Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear accident, is linked to nearly 2,000 thyroid cancer cases, the largest number of cancers associated with a known cause on a specific date, scientists said this week.

Although it is 15 years since a cloud of radioactive dust spewed from the explosion of Chernobyl's number four reactor in 1986, new cases of cancer associated with the accident are still being reported.

"Four years after the accident, an excess of thyroid cancers was noted among children who had been exposed to fallout from the disaster," said Professor Dillwyn Williams of the Strangeways Research Laboratory at England's Cambridge University.

"That increase has continued and new cases are still being seen in those who were children at the time of the accident."

Williams told the ECCO 11 cancer conference in Lisbon that children are particularly sensitive to the cancer after exposure to radiation - the only established cause of thyroid cancer.

"Exposure to isotopes of iodine gives the thyroid over 1,000 times the average dose to the rest of the body. The particular sensitivity of children to thyroid cancer after radiation exposure can be linked to a combination of a higher thyroid dose and the biology of thyroid growth - which falls to a very low level in adult life," he said.

The radioactive cloud that erupted from the explosion in Ukraine contained inert xenon gas and caesium but the largest components were radioactive isotopes of iodine, according to Williams.

The thyroid is a gland at the base of the throat that absorbs iodine from the diet and produces hormones to keep the body running properly. Thyroid cancer is rare.

Dr Elaine Ron of the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, said the risk of developing thyroid cancer could be highest 15 to 19 years after exposure.

If the theory is correct, many people who were children at the time of the explosion may still develop the illness.

Other research presented at the five-day meeting showed that the accident may also be linked to lung cancer.

Victor Chizhikov of the Cancer Research Centre in Moscow said 43 clean-up workers, both smokers and non-smokers, who had radioactive dust in their lungs after the accident had higher rates of lung cancer than a similar number of people who had not been exposed to the radioactive cloud.

About 8,000 doctors, scientists and nurses are attending the five-day cancer conference that began on Sunday.

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

Atomic Tests
Forgotten History "Little known facts and overlooked history"

By Denis Mueller -
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
http://www.shagmail.com/sub/history.html

Against the backdrop of the Cold War, one of the strangest spectacles of the period were the Nevada tests of 1955. Here an almost surreal scenario developed when the national media went to Las Vegas to watch and prepare for a dress rehearsal for Armageddon. Over 500 newspaper, television and radio reporters were on hand to report on the soap opera that they were about to see. "The world's most expensive premiere will be unfolded out on the Nevada desert, and nothing that Hollywood ever produced will be able to equal it," said one reporter.

A mock town using mannequins was constructed to see what would happen to an American community if a nuclear bomb struck it. That was the official view. The unofficial view was that this was a great propaganda stunt for the nuclear industry. For some people it was a must see. Hotels did great business as people flocked to Vegas to see the spectacle. One hotel went so far as to change its name to the Atomic-View motel because the guests could get a good view of the explosion.

The buildup of the event dominated the news for over a week. All of the heavies of journalism were there to report on what was happening. The blast itself was anti-climatic and the FCDA estimated that in the case of a real attack over 8 million Americans would die. The Soviets, spurred on by the development of the H-bomb, poured enormous resources into their own bomb. The military used the soldiers as guinea pigs as they marched into ground zero without being told of the health risks.

The damage done to the survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki should have served as ample warning, but one of the amazing features of these tests was the lack of reporting on the health risks. Nobody in the media, amidst countless articles about the bomb, wrote of the health risks involved.

They were more interested in speaking to official experts about the tests than to consider what it might do to the men. Years later, when the atomic veterans came down with cancer and various other ailments, the VA denied the Vets benefits, the media was no where to be found and the experts said nothing.

The callous disregard for the men was unforgivable. Nobody ever tried to find out what were the results of this for the veterans. This was typical of the military that, after sending people to war as in Vietnam and the Gulf War, they often forgot about them when they get back. Or, worse yet, they deny any responsibility for their illness.

The politicians did their part to close the debate on what health risks were being asked of the servicemen. When two Colorado professors charged that the dust resulting from these blasts could become dangerous, the former governor of Colorado said, "They should be arrested." So all of our major institutions failed these men, the press, the politicians and the military and that remains the lesson of these tests. Question authority.

Sources: GI Guinea Pigs, Michael Uhl and Tod Ensign.

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

Details of Nuclear Power Left Open

Wednesday October 24
By JOHN SOLOMON,
Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011024/us/attacks_nuclear_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Nuclear.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite evidence dating to 1994 that terrorists wanted to strike nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission kept a study in its public reading room that identified in precise detail the vulnerabilities of U.S. reactors to a jetliner crash.

The 119-page report was still available for public inspection this month, long after the Sept. 11 hijackings prompted increased security across America.

The 1982 study by the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory detailed the likely damage that a jetliner at certain speeds could inflict on the thick concrete containment walls protecting reactors.

Though it addressed only accidental crashes, it included a chart that identified the speeds at which a jetliner crash would begin to transfer its force into the primary containment wall and interior structure of a nuclear reactor.

And it estimated that if just 1 percent of a jetliner's fuel ignited after impact it would create an explosion equivalent to 1,000 pounds of dynamite inside a reactor building already damaged by the impact. The more fuel, the worse the explosion.

The ignition of fuel ``could lead to a rather violent explosion environment and impose upon the primary containment relatively severe loads,'' the report said. The report added that U.S. nuclear regulators may have underestimated the potential damage from such explosions.

The report doesn't estimate at what point lethal radiation might be released in a crash. But it notes, ``the breaching of some of the plant's concrete barriers may often be tantamount to a release of radioactivity.''

An NRC spokesman said Tuesday he didn't know if the agency had removed the document from its reading room but the agency was beginning to delete from its public Web site similarly sensitive materials that could benefit terrorists.

``Clearly we've begun our effort with our Web site which we know is the vehicle through which one is most easily able to access information, technical reports and documents. That's our first priority,'' spokesman Victor Dricks said.

Dricks said the NRC has ``had people working around the clock'' to implement numerous improved security measures since Sept. 11, including some which specifically address vulnerabilities to suicide hijackers.

As for why officials hadn't taken such precautions beforehand, Dricks added: ``It was never considered credible that suicidal terrorists would hijack a large commercial airliner and deliberately crash it into a nuclear power plant.''

The federal whistleblowers group that discovered the document Oct. 3 in the NRC reading room while researching for a lawsuit says it was astonished such sensitive information was left public.

Attorney Michael Kohn, general counsel for the National Whistleblower Center, said that when he was shown the document, he was astonished that such material was still in the public domain.

``And I still can't believe it,'' Kohn said.

Kohn's group, which has successfully represented numerous nuclear plant workers in whistleblower lawsuits, is citing the document in a lawsuit it is filing this week.

The suit asks the NRC to order immediate security changes at nuclear plants, including deploying anti-missile weapons and posting armed guards outside spent fuel storage areas that have lesser security.

U.S. officials have known at least since the mid-1990s that terrorists wanted to strike a nuclear power plant.

Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, encouraged followers in 1994 to strike such a plant, officials say. An FBI (news - web sites) agent has testified in court that one of Yousef's followers told him in 1995 of plans to blow up a nuclear plant. And in 1999, the NRC acknowledged to Congress it received a credible threat of a terrorist attack against a nuclear power facility.

The 1982 study contrasts with statements some U.S. nuclear officials made in the first few days after the Sept. 11 attacks when they suggested American nuclear power plants could withstand the crash of a commercial jetliner.

Ten days after the attacks, the NRC corrected those assertions by saying it could not rule out the possibility that a suicide hijacker could cause structural damage to a plant and force the release of some radioactivity. ``Nuclear power plants were not designed to withstand such crashes,'' it said.

The 1982 report suggested federal nuclear regulators had underestimated the potential damage caused by subsequent fire and explosions in such a crash.

``It appears that fire and explosion hazards have been treated with much less care than the direct aircraft impact,'' the report said. ``Therefore the claim that these fire/explosion effects do not represent a threat to nuclear power plant facilities has not been clearly demonstrated.''

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a frequent NRC critic, said the document suggests the government should have prepared to guard against a jetliner crash much earlier, and urged the agency to do so now.

``This document is disturbing because it makes clear the NRC knows that a nuclear power plant can be successfully attacked by an aircraft and that information has been public for nearly 20 years,'' Markey said.

----

Nuclear electric power generation

October 24, 2001
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/AdvSearchByKeywordServlet?_command=getResults&_keyword=nuclear&_method=set&_programYear=&_synonyms=no&_lang=en

US Census Bureau Industry Quick Report NAICS: 221113
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IQRTable?NAICS=221113&_lang=en

Selected Industry Statistics by State: 1997 and 1992

NOTE. Data based on the 1997 Economic Census. For information on confidentiality protection and definitions, see http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/datanotes/exp_econ97.html. [Excludes data for auxiliaries. For Manufacturing industries,only states with 100 employees or more are shown.]

Geography = Number of Establishments = Number of Employees = Annual Payroll ($1,000) = Shpmts/Sales/Recpts ($1,000) = Population Estimate 1997 = 1992

United States = 67 Establishments = 34,381 Employees = 2,201,922 Annual Payroll ($1,000) = 13,966,616 Shpmts/Sales/Recpts ($1,000) = 267,743,595 Population Estimate

Florida = 6 Establishments = 34,381 Employees = 14,677,181 Population Estimate

Illinois = 8 Establishments = 34,381 Employees = 11,989,352 Population Estimate

New Jersey = 6 Establishments = 34,381 Employees = 8,058,384 Population Estimate

Pennsylvania = 7 Establishments = 3,610 Employees = 225,248 Annual Payroll ($1,000) = 2,334,445 Shpmts/Sales/Recpts ($1,000) = 12,011,278 Population Estimate

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997 Economic Census D: Withheld to avoid disclosing data of individual companies; data are included in higher level totals N: Not available or not comparable S: Withheld because estimate did not meet publication standards Z: Less than half the unit shown a: 0 - 19 employees b: 20 - 99 employees c: 100 - 249 employees e: 250 - 499 employees f: 500 - 999 employees g: 1,000 - 2,499 employees h: 2,500 - 4,999 employees i: 5,000 - 9,999 employees j: 10,000 - 24,999 employees k: 25,000 - 49,999 employees l: 50,000 - 99,999 employees m: 100,000 or more employees p: 10 to 19 percent estimated q: 20 to 29 percent estimated r: Revised s: Sampling error exceeds 40 percent

-------- california

Security tighter than ever at Lawrence Livermore
Nuclear material may be moved underground

Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2001
San Jose Mercury News
BY TIA O'BRIEN Mercury News
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/nukelab24.htm

Within minutes after jumbo jets crashed into the World Trade Center Sept. 11, security chiefs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, arguably the most secured facility in Northern California, slammed shut the gates to public areas.

Guards, armed with submachine guns, started checking anyone entering the nuclear weapons research lab. Everyone knew what was at stake: Protecting almost half a ton of weapons-grade plutonium and a reported 500 pounds of enriched uranium stored at the lab.

Despite all the security, even one of the Livermore lab's own security chiefs says that may not be enough. Lab officials are considering an entirely new approach to guarding Lawrence Livermore's radioactive stockpile: moving some of the weapons-grade nuclear materials to an underground site.

``It makes it harder for an adversary to get their hands on it,'' says Joseph Krueger, who oversees all physical security at the nuclear weapons lab. About 8,000 employees and 2,000 visitors and contractors can be found daily on the one-square-mile campus.

While the idea of reducing the amount of radioactive material in highly populated regions like the Bay Area has been debated for years, it's now being revisited in the wake of the Sept. 11th attack.

The final decision would be part of a broader Department of Energy plan now under review, as the agency attempts to beef up security at the nation's 10 major nuclear weapons facilities, which are scattered around the country. Underground sites are part of a proposed solution.

Although DOE officials are refusing comment on any security steps it might take to fend off terrorists, Krueger says the DOE is ``looking at further consolidating some of its holdings of nuclear materials.''

Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are the two federal research laboratories charged with designing and maintaining the nation's aging arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The terrorist threat is not just hypothetical. Experts at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, which tracks the movement of nuclear materials, say that terrorist master-mind Osama bin Laden has openly discussed his interest in obtaining nuclear weapons.

``He felt it was a requirement for moving the jihad forward,'' says Amy Sands, deputy director at the center. She added that there's no proof that bin Laden's group has obtained the necessary weapons components.

Consolidating the nuclear material in a few spots has come up before. During the Clinton Administration, former DOE Secretary Bill Richardson's staff discussed the possibility of consolidating tons of bomb-grade materials but the idea never gained momentum.

The proposal surfaced again last month in a report released by the Project on Government Oversight, a private watchdog group, which is highly critical of security at the nation's nuclear weapons facilities. Danielle Brian, the group's executive director, was encouraged after meeting Monday with a former Clinton administration official who's now advising the DOE on anti-terrorism measures.

``He said they are looking at how to implement our consolidation recommendations quickly,'' Brian said.

Lawrence Livermore already had improved its security following an internal energy department investigation in 1999, which found security lapses at weapons plants including Livermore and the Los Alamos National Lab. The review grew out of the Wen Ho Lee case at Los Alamos, where Lee was suspected of giving nuclear weapons secrets to China. All but one of the charges against Lee were later dropped.

The problems cited in the review ranged from weak computer security to ineffective security guard forces, which were contract hires unable to fight off intruders during mock attacks.

In a Sept. 13 letter to Congressman Chris Shays, D-Conn., one critic, Peter Stockton, who was a special assistant to former Secretary Richardson, warned that the DOE found the guards losing ``well over 50 percent'' of these mock terrorist attack battles. Shays heads a House subcommittee on national security and is planning hearings on the issue early next year.

As a result of that 1999 DOE investigation, security has been tightened at both labs over the past 18 months. The major changes at Livermore are at the so-called Superblock, where the plutonium is stored. (According to the last declassified figures available from the 1990s, lab officials say there is about 0.4 tons of weapons-grade plutonium at their facility. Although they won't comment on enriched uranium, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists cites a government report putting the figure at about 500 pounds.)

For years, the lab had relied on the Alameda County Sheriff's Department to aid in any security breaches. After the 1999 DOE probe, highly trained and armed SWAT teams were put on guard 24 hours a day.

The Superblock also has been wrapped in a mesh-like net to prevent intruders from throwing plutonium over multiple barbed-wire fences, which themselves are topped with razor wire. Motion sensors and video cameras keep an eye on movement around the area. Inside, tall metal poles are strung with cables to stop helicopters from trying to land.

During a tour of the lab last week, Livermore still was at a heightened state of alert with armed guards posted at every gate. Officials showed off the mix of high-tech devices and physical barriers which are intended to block the theft of nuclear weapon design secrets and bomb-making material.

No one can enter top-security areas like the Superblock without passing through an electronic security booth which double-checks not just a person's badge and PIN, but palm size and weight. ``What we're trying to do is have layered defenses,'' says Dennis Fisher, associate director for safety, security and environmental protection. ``Where we have the more sensitive resources, it takes an increasing level of clearance to get into those areas.''

Fisher doubts that terrorists could successfully crash a jumbo jet into the Superblock, a one-city-block-sized area with low-lying buildings. ``It could happen, but it's a difficult target to hit. Big planes aren't very maneuverable,'' Fisher says.

Even so, when a small suspicious aircraft was spotted in the weeks following Sept. 11, two military fighter jets were dispatched. ``The response was in tens of minutes,'' says Krueger. He added that the plane was not found to be a threat.

These assurances don't satisfy a local community group that has been lobbying for years to close Lawrence Livermore's plutonium facility.

``It's not clear to us if the Department of Energy and the lab have done an analysis of such things as a 767 jumbo jet crashing into the plutonium facility with a full fuel tank,'' says Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, who lives a quarter of a mile from the laboratory. Kelley says that now, in addition to concerns about radioactive leaks and spills, terrorism has been added to her list of daily worries.

Contact Tia O'Brien at tobrien@sjmercury.com.

-------- florida

Precautionary Zone Set Around Florida Nuclear Plant

October 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-attack-nuclear.html?searchpv=reuters

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Coast Guard has set up a precautionary secure zone in the waters around Turkey Point nuclear power plant south of Miami, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Coast Guard spokesman Ron LaBrec said boaters would be banned from the area in the event of an incident or threat involving the plant.

The zone was set up as one of a series of security measures taken by the Coast Guard in Florida waters after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Steps include protecting cruise ships entering and leaving ports such as Miami.

The security zone around Turkey Point, which is about 25 miles south of Miami, would mean that in the event of an incident or threat, the Coast Guard could advise boaters and anglers the area was closed.

The zone will remain effect until June, the National Park Service said.

-------- nevada

US NRC approves Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site

24/10/2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12955/story.htm

WASHINGTON - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week signed off on a plan to build an underground dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain to hold radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.

Yet another step in a long approval process, NRC approved a site suitability study submitted by the Department of Energy. The Bush administration must still submit that plan for congressional approval.

The Energy Department in August gave a favorable safety assessment to the proposed project, which would face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill. It is heavily opposed by Democrat Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the new Senate assistant majority leader.

The site in the Nevada desert would store thousands of tons of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants for an estimated 10,000 years.

-------- north carolina

Group wants to block relicensing of Catawba

By Jason Cato
The Herald
October 24, 2001
http://www.rockhillherald.com/redesign/localnews/story/0%2C2660%2C294845%2C00.html

Duke Energy's efforts to extend the life of the Catawba Nuclear Station through the middle of the century got a shot in the arm from high-ranking local officials during a pair of public hearings at Rock Hill City Hall Tuesday.

Among those who touted the power plant on Lake Wylie as a major partner in the county's economic growth and educational success were Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols, Clover Mayor Vance Stine, York Technical College President Dennis Merrell and Tim Morgan, president of the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce.

But a North Carolina environmental organization took a shot of its own in an attempt to delay the review process.

The Blue Ridge Environmen-tal Defense League filed a legal petition Tuesday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have the Catawba relicensing process blocked.

Dozens of local citizens attended the hearings, scheduled by the NRC after Duke officials applied in June to have the license of the power plant extended 20 years until 2046. The life of the two units at the station are now set to expire in 2024 and 2026, respectively.

Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is for 40 years. The license can be renewed for an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are met.

Janet Zeller, executive director of the Blue Ridge Environ-mental Defense League, cited a number of reasons the group wants to block the relicensing process, including concerns over vulnerability to terrorist attacks.

However, Zeller said the largest reason for filing the petition was the fact that the license renewal process would not take into account Duke's plans to use mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, at the station in the near future.

"That's the fatal flaw in the entire process," Zeller said. "The NRC's finding will be skewed if MOX is not considered now."

MOX is made by mixing uranium oxide and plutonium oxide from older nuclear weapons and placing the material in fuel rods.

Duke officials have stated publicly that they intend to use MOX fuel by 2007 at both the Catawba station on Lake Wylie and the McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte.

Roger Hannah, a NRC public affairs officer, said any environmental issues relating to MOX use would negligible in the review process for the license extension.

He also added that even if the effects were great, they couldn't be addressed because Duke officials have not applied for permission to use MOX yet.

"We cannot act on anything until we get something legally," Hannah said. "But most of the things at the station will be the same no matter what type of fuel is used, and MOX would not change the environmental issues significantly."

NRC regulations generally require a plant to operate for 20 years before being eligible for relicensing, but Duke was granted an exemption for the Catawba Station, which began operating 16 years ago.

Company officials maintained that the timing of the request had nothing to do with the MOX issue, rather they said it would be more efficient to complete the process now since they already have a team in place after recently going through the process for its Oconee station and while it's facing the same process for its 20-year-old McGuire station.

"This process is irrelevant to MOX," said Duke spokeswoman Rose Cummings. "It's just the point in time where we are."

NRC officials will compile all the issues brought up at the hearings in a report that will be presented at another round of public hearings in Rock Hill in June.

The entire license renewal process could take 30 months, NRC officials said.

Contact Jason Cato at 329-4071 or jcato@heraldonline.com.

----

Catawba Nuclear Station wasn't notified by military before exercise

From staff and wire reports
The Herald, Rock Hill, SC
October 24, 2001
http://www.rockhillherald.com/localnews/story/0,2660,294849,00.html

LAKE WYLIE - A special operations mock attack on the Catawba Nuclear Station three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks alarmed officials in two states because the military didn't notify them.

The unannounced exercise included soldiers rappelling from helicopters and small arms fire around the Duke Energy-operated power plant on Lake Wylie.

Fighter jets from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter were scrambled to check out reports of an assault southwest of Charlotte on the North Carolina-South Carolina line, The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer reported Tuesday.

Later that night, the York County Emergency Operations Center was told that the sightings were part of a "classified military exercise."

The North Carolina Division of Emergency Management's command center in Raleigh also received unconfirmed information that it had been a U.S. military special forces operation, according to a report Monday.

Word of the exercise began about 8 p.m. Sept. 15, when people called Rock Hill police to say four or five helicopters were flying low near Interstate 77, following the Catawba River north toward the nuclear power plant. Several city police officers saw the aircraft in the distance but couldn't identify them, police Capt. Charles Cabaniss said.

The county's emergency operations center couldn't reach the helicopters on any radio channel, and learned that air traffic controllers at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte couldn't reach them, either.

"Of course, since they weren't talking with the control tower in Charlotte it did get our attention," said Cotton Howell, director of York County Emergency Management.

The helicopters were traced up the river toward Tega Cay before their signals vanished from radar screens. Two F-16 were sent and accounts of the helicopters and jet fighter planes quickly lit up emergency phones lines across York County.

By midnight, eight state and federal agencies, including the FBI, had been notified and were looking into the scare.

Carolina Power & Light security personnel also monitored the situation, concerned that there might be security breaches at other nuclear plants. Duke and CP&L have nuclear plants in both states.

By 5 a.m., FBI agents told local officials they had determined the power plant was not under attack, according to the NCEM report.

The Department of Defense apparently forgot to advise regional authorities of the exercise, North Carolina emergency management reported.

"This could have been a catastrophic event," the emergency management report said.

A Duke Energy spokesman said Monday the company still doesn't know what was going on.

"We were not part of an exercise and there was no contact made with the station," said Joe Maher, company spokesman.

------ washington

Richland firm looks to irradiation

Hanford News
Wed, Oct 24, 2001
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2001/1024-1.html

As the U.S. Postal Service investigates ways to sanitize mail, a Richland company is making plans to build an irradiation center in north Richland or the former Soviet Union.

Plans hinge on finding a source for the isotope with the energy that can kill bacteria in food, mail or medical equipment, said Carl Holder, chairman of New Horizon Technologies Inc.

"A major constraint in the development of the gamma irradiation industry is no United States suppliers of gamma-producing isotopes," he said. "Gamma energy is in critically short supply."

Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility could change that, if the Department of Energy agrees to a plan to commercialize and restart the reactor. New Horizon is negotiating with Advanced Nuclear and Medical Systems, which is proposing operating the reactor, to use isotopes produced by FFTF.

The reactor is large enough to produce gamma-emitting isotopes in its outer rings in addition to isotopes for medical use, the primary use proposed for the reactor, said Bob Schenter, vice chairman of the Northwest Chapter of the National Association of Cancer Patients.

In fact, it's produced cobalt 60, the only isotope approved for food irradiation, in test runs. It's also produced gamma-emitting isotopes used in medical tests to diagnose osteoporosis and scan the hearts of newborns.

During irradiation, high-energy electrons pass through food to kill pathogens. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the technique to kill bacteria such as E. coli in hamburger and sterilize medical equipment. But it also has been used as early as the 1960s to kill anthrax in lamb's wool sweaters.

Demand for irradiation is growing, Holder said.

Irradiation most recently has been proposed to kill pathogens in mail after two postal workers died, apparently from anthrax-infected letters or packages.

Either gamma radiation or an electron beam source can be used.

However, gamma radiation can penetrate packages or an entire pallet of mail, and an electron beam source likely would have to sanitize letters individually since it can penetrate less than an inch.

The public also is more aware of the dangers of pathogens in food and less fearful of irradiation, potentially increasing that market, Holder said.

In addition, the medical market is growing 7 percent to 10 percent a year. Demand for irradiation could grow faster, as environmental and other concerns grow over a competing technology using a chemical, he said.

"The industry is ready, but the isotopes are not ready," he said.

Now New Horizon Technologies is irradiating food on a demonstration scale. It's used the technology to lengthen the shelf life of Walla Walla onions, cherries and herbs using isotopes imported from Canada.

But Canada cannot meet the current demand for cobalt 60 and would not supply full-scale operations by New Horizon, Holder said.

"There is a national emergency in irradiation, and FFTF needs to come on line to (solve) that," he said.

However, rather than depending entirely on a restart of the Hanford reactor, the company is negotiating with a Ukrainian and Russian group for gamma-emitting isotopes from reactors there. Rather than cobalt 60, another gamma-producing isotope would be used.

If the FFTF is not restarted, the company's first irradiation center would be built in the Ukraine, Holder said.

The Department of Energy's decision on whether to permanently shut down the Fast Flux Test Facility or continue to look at commercialization could come in November.


-------- MILITARY

Conscientious objectors increasing?

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
From: The Progressive Review <news@prorev.com>

JEN COOPER, SCRIPPS HOWARD: Several peace organizations said they have received a dramatic increase in phone calls and e-mails from military personnel who have questions about conscientious objection and other types of discharges. The inquiries tend to come from young enlisted personnel who joined the military within the last 10 years . . . Conscientious objectors - people opposed to any and all war - may be granted an honorable discharge if their beliefs are found to be sincere. Brian Cross, a staff member with the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors in Oakland, Calif., said many of the service personnel who call are people who were already uneasy about their duties in the military, and the renewed threat of war has caused them to think more seriously about filing for conscientious objector status . . . Since Sept. 11, the committee has received hundreds of phone calls, and Cross said 12 times as many people have requested literature as they did in August . . . The CCCO is also associated with the GI Rights Hotline. The hotline had anticipated 20,000 calls this year, but in light of the terrorist attacks, staff members are expecting that number to jump to 30,000, Cross said.

-------- afghanistan

Cluster bombs have trapped villagers

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
From: The Progressive Review <news@prorev.com>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1616000/1616751.stm

BBC: The United Nations has said that unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs have trapped villagers after a raid near the western Afghan city of Herat. The villagers have a lot to be afraid of, because these bomblets, if they did not explode, are very dangerous. The cluster bombs were dropped around Herat on Monday during a raid in which UN officials say a military hospital was hit. Cluster bombs are controversial weapons consisting of a canister which breaks apart to release a large number of small bombs. However, there is a significant "dud rate" of about 5% - many do not explode but litter the ground with the potential to explode years later. Dan Kelly, manager of a UN mine removal program for Afghanistan, said the people of Shaker Qala outside Herat were now living in fear of stepping outside. He said: "The villagers have a lot to be afraid of, because these bomblets, if they did not explode, are very dangerous. "And they can explode if the villagers so much as touch them."

----

Taliban's Human Shields
Refugees Say Fighters Hide in Schools, Mosques

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42242-2001Oct23.html

AINGARI, Afghanistan, Oct. 23 -- Taliban forces are taking cover among the civilian population of Kabul and stashing their military equipment in mosques and schools to avoid U.S. airstrikes, according to refugees who have fled the capital in recent days.

Allied planes have attacked targets in and around Kabul nearly every day since the U.S.-led airstrikes began Oct. 7. The attacks are aimed at Taliban military sites. But the refugees said today that many Taliban fighters are now hiding among civilians in the capital.

"The airstrikes destroyed some [military] sites, but now the Taliban come at night to the houses of the people and bring their equipment into civilian places," said Mohammad Ali, 50, a jobless former bus driver in Kabul who crossed the Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance front lines this morning, walking for six hours to reach this alliance-controlled village about 20 miles southeast of Jabal Saraj.

"They come at night to schools and mosques and universities where there are lots of trees," Ali said as he leaned on a cane at an alliance checkpoint here. At one mosque at Kotal-e Khairkhana, a residential area in the northern part of Kabul, the Taliban has parked 10 tanks inside the compound, he said.

"The people are very angry and worried," fearing that the tanks will attract U.S. airstrikes, he said. "For this reason, they are not going to the mosque to pray."

Many Kabul residents support the U.S. airstrikes in hopes that they will bring about the fall of the Taliban, even though the bombing campaign has caused some casualties among civilians, refugees said today. At least eight civilians were killed and 12 others wounded when U.S. bombs destroyed one house and damaged three others in the Poroja-e Jadid neighborhood of northern Kabul on Sunday, refugees said.

As Ali and other refugees were streaming into alliance-held territory, fleeing what they said were worsening conditions for Kabul's civilian population, U.S. jets bombed Taliban front-line positions north of the capital for a third straight day, and Taliban gunners fired two rockets into a crowded market in the town of Charikar, killing two civilians and injuring at least 15.

Two U.S. F-18 fighter-bombers flashed across the sky over Charikar from the northwest at about 3 p.m. and hit Taliban positions near the ruined Bagram air base, sending a large plume of smoke into the air from an undetermined target. A second wave of attacks started around 6 p.m., as the roar of jet engines announced the presence of warplanes invisible in the night sky.

About four hours before the afternoon strike, two rockets were fired from a Taliban position on a mountain west of Charikar. One landed harmlessly in an empty lot, but the other exploded at treetop level above the town's crowded bazaar.

Two people were killed by shrapnel: Agha Shirim, a tea seller who earlier had lost both legs in a land mine explosion, and Sheikh Rasul, a vegetable vendor. Friends of Shirim said he was a widower with five children.

Bismullah, 28, a car-parts vendor, said he was standing next to Shirim when the rocket hurled a piece of shrapnel into Shirim's abdomen. Bismullah showed a slight leg wound and a torn vest from the blast.

Qassem Muhazeb, a doctor at a nearby emergency clinic, said 15 civilians were wounded, including four children, one of them a 4-year-old girl who was in a coma with a head injury. He said it was the first Taliban rocket attack on Charikar in two months.

At this Northern Alliance village, in Kapisa province on the road from Dernama, a mountain pass between Taliban and alliance zones, a steady stream of refugees passed through an alliance checkpoint on foot and in dilapidated buses, trucks and jeeps. Accompanied by four guards with AK-47 assault rifles, a record keeper named Zaralam from the alliance's "committee of refugee affairs" recorded their names, number of family members and where they were heading, then issued each family a piece of paper labeled "refugee identity card."

A couple of miles farther down the road toward Jabal Saraj, the village guards included 12-year-old Mohammad Azam, carrying an AK-47 and wearing an ammunition pouch with three banana-shaped clips in it. He said he joined the armed guards three days ago, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was killed fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Standing beside the dusty road, which crosses a boulder-strewn plain bordered by steeply rising barren mountains to the north, Zaralam said the pace of the refugee exodus from Kabul has picked up in recent days, with as many as 900 people now riding to the Dernama no man's land each day, then trekking three hours on foot through the pass to alliance territory, where other vehicles wait to take them on their way.

"Most of them don't have anything to eat, and they come here to be safe," he said. "They don't have any work to do in Kabul."

Mahfuz, 40, a fruit vendor in Kabul's bazaar, said he left the city with his wife and six children "because our lives were in danger" from the Taliban, who he said are increasingly suspicious of ethnic Tajiks hailing from northern Afghanistan, like him and his family.

Tajiks hold several key leadership positions in the Northern Alliance and are heavily represented in its ranks. Accordingly, many of the refugees fleeing north share both ethnicity and hatred of the Taliban, and their feelings about the American bombing contrasts sharply with the bitterness expressed by ethnic Pashtuns fleeing southern Afghanistan. Mahfuz, for example, said: "Most of the people are supporting the American bombing because they want to be free from the Taliban."

Increasingly, Taliban members "are hiding themselves in the houses of the people," he said. "The people cannot do anything because they have the power."

Habib Khan, a turbaned 55-year-old with a gray-streaked beard, arrived at the checkpoint with his wife and seven children crammed into a wheezing Soviet-built Uaz jeep.

"The situation in Kabul is very bad," he said. The Taliban "placed their tanks and equipment near the houses of the people." Taliban fighters have not been greatly affected by the U.S. airstrikes on Kabul, he said, because "they're not in a constant place; they're in civilian places and the front line."

"The Taliban stay in mosques and schools," said a clothing salesman, 22, who gave his name only as Massoud. Such equipment as armored vehicles, he said, are hidden under trees "next to mosques."

Mohammad Ali, the unemployed bus driver, said U.S. airstrikes in Kabul had hit a military base of the Taliban's 315th Brigade, the airport, a base in the southern part of the capital containing Afghan and Arab Taliban fighters and their equipment, and a suspected missile site known to residents as Scud Hill.

"I walked all around the city, and the people are very happy about the American airstrikes," he said. But those who show satisfaction risk reprisals from the Taliban, he added. About 10 days ago, three young men who lived on his street and had expressed such sentiments were taken away in the middle of the night and have not been seen since, Ali said.

In the last two weeks, he said, many more Arab and Pakistani supporters of the Taliban have shown up in Kabul than at any time previously, possibly with the aim of waging a last-ditch fight for the capital. He said he has seen them driving around in their pickup trucks armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

At the Pul-e Khushti mosque, Kabul's biggest, he said, "I saw 30 or 40 [pickup trucks] of the Arabs and Pakistanis."

Ali said he has never seen accused terrorist Osama bin Laden in Kabul, but he recalled watching two heavily armed motorcades in which the Saudi fugitive was rumored to be riding. The motorcades consisted of seven identical black Mitsubishi jeeps with tinted windows, accompanied by dozens of pickup trucks carrying armed men. They drove on each occasion to the former Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

The first time, Ali said, was about when the Taliban destroyed the ancient Buddhist statues at Bamian. The second was two days before the U.S. airstrikes began.

Since the U.S. bombing began, he said, "the Taliban have been treating the people very badly." Now, residents would welcome "anyone who comes to Kabul to take power -- American, British, Russians, anyone." Whatever happens, he said, "the Taliban should leave Kabul."

---------

Facts About Traditional Loya Jirga

October 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-Loya-Jirga.html

A traditional loya jirga, or grand council, is being promoted as the best means of selecting a new government for Afghanistan to replace the ruling Taliban regime. Here are some facts about such a traditional gathering:

-- A loya jirga, is a Pashtu-language phrase meaning a large gathering of elders and is a traditional tribal method of ruling.

-- The first government of Pashtuns was formed in the 18th century in Afghanistan through a loya jirga. That was headed by the ancestor of the exiled king, Mohammad Zaher Shah. His name was Ahmed Shah Abdali. The majority of Afghans are ethnic Pashtuns, which is the predominant ethnic group of the ruling Taliban.

-- A jirga is also a means of settling disputes.

-- The size of a jirga is not predetermined. It depends on the size of the area it governs and the number of elders in that region. Most regions in Pakistan's northwest and in Afghanistan's south and southeast, where the Taliban stronghold is located, are divided according to tribes. Each tribe has its subtribes and together they have their elders who would form a jirga.

--------

Afghan Opposition Warns U.S. Over Civilian Deaths

Wednesday October 24, 2001
Reuters
By Elizabeth Piper

KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's opposition urged the United States and its allies Wednesday to work harder to prevent civilian casualties in its military campaign against the ruling Taliban.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition's foreign minister, said bombing raids against Taliban positions had inflicted more pain on a people who had already suffered under the rule of ''terrorists.''

``I think more attention has to be paid to avoid casualties in the aftermath (of bombing raids),?? he told a news conference.

``A major concern is that of civilian casualties... which have to be avoided by any means. They have suffered for so long under the rule of terrorist groups... and now they are suffering in a different way."

Abdullah, on his way to meet commanders in the northeastern town of Khoja Bahawuddin, said the opposition Northern Alliance had received confirmed accounts of civilian casualties during the bombing raids.

He said many Afghans had been killed or wounded in the southern city of Kandahar and eastern city of Jalalabad in the strikes, which Washington and its allies launched earlier this month.

While the United States has dismissed the Taliban claims of more than 1,000 civilian deaths, they have confirmed that some bombs have gone astray. The United Nations said Tuesday a military hospital had been destroyed by bombing in the western city of Herat on Monday but it had no information on casualties. A U.S. defense official said in Washington U.S. forces might have accidentally hit a home for the elderly.

But most reports, such as a story by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press Wednesday that 52 people were killed in the village of Chakor Kariz in southern Afghanistan, were impossible to verify.

HELP REBUILD AFGHANISTAN

The airstrikes have been targeted at Taliban camps and frontlines after the hard-line Islamist refused to surrender Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, prime suspect behind the attacks on U.S. landmarks.

``Yes this is not the target, and we know the target is the terrorist camps and the bases of the Taliban... but the strikes have exacerbated the problem (of people fleeing their homes)," Abdullah said. ``How to get the targets without hitting the civilians... needs to be dealt with in a very serious manner."

Abdullah said the Northern Alliance, which has fought the Taliban since it took Afghanistan's capital Kabul in 1996, and the United States military were cooperating, but more could be done.

``We are in contact with the Americans, we have considered all aspects of cooperation... (But) better coordination would bring better results, there is no doubt about it," he said.

``But our expectations are realistic,?? he said, adding that the recent bombing of a Northern Alliance position was an unfortunate mistake and should be avoided in future.

Abdullah called on the United Nations to help Afghanistan's future reconstruction, saying the country needed to rebuild its health service, schools and demine swathes of land. He said the international community had offered aid, but Afghans did not want charity.

``Afghanistan has... great potential in a peaceful time," he said. ``We have to pass through... this phase of charity quickly and focus on reconstruction."

-------- biological weapons

US company in Pakistan hit by anthrax

By Kamran Khan,
Wednesday October 24, 2001-- Shaban 06,1422 A.H

KARACHI: Two cases of anthrax attacks have already taken place in Pakistan, involving multi-national companies, including an American bank, but for unknown reasons officials are trying to keep them under wraps.

Senior executives at two business organisations in Karachi -- an international bank and a computer-marketing firm -- received international mail that carried anthrax spores mixed with some powdery material last week.

A number of staff members at both organisations are now being treated for anthrax. A senior staff at the main laboratory of Aga Khan University and Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi confirmed on Monday that the laboratory test on two specimens received from these organisations on Friday last showed that one of the two specimens was loaded with anthrax while the other one had some traces of the dreaded bacterium, Bacillus Anthracis, in medical terms.

Another senior executive at the Aga Khan hospital has informed The News that soon after the detection of anthrax, a detailed report was sent to the government of Pakistan health officials both here and in Islamabad with recommendations to create public awareness.

Medical experts say that since first cases of anthrax have already been confirmed in Pakistan the authorities must immediately launch a public awareness exercise because almost all forms of anthrax if caught early enough can be cured by prompt antibiotic treatment and if it is left untreated, it kills about one in five people. Requesting anonymity a senior ministry of health official in Karachi confirmed that Aga Khan hospital has reported the first case of anthrax in Pakistan and the matter has been referred to top federal authorities in Islamabad who were considering the pros and cons of making a public disclosure about the advent of anthrax in the country.

Experts have described anthrax as perfect germ for bio terrorism mainly because it is not contagious and only those exposed to a release of spores get sick. Since its outbreak in the United States soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, two postal workers are reported to have died while about 20 people are now being treated for anthrax.

The first anthrax carrying mail, sources in the affected business organisations said, was addressed to the joint-president of a Zurich-based Pakistani bank and it had originated from New York city. A Karachi computer company that deals in American brands had also received dusty anthrax material in a mail envelope.

The employees from both organisations who may have handled the mail were later given penicillin doses at Aga Khan hospital. A senior security official in Karachi has also confirmed that intelligence agencies have been ordered to trace the roots of the new anthrax threat to Pakistan.

An official source said that a strategy was being debated in consultation with the Post Master General to caution the postal staff on domestic and international mail that may carry anthrax. Before using it as a weapon for bio-terrorism anthrax spores are dried and then mixed with any powdery substance, a process that needs excellent scientific skills and facilities.

----

Research Could Offer New Defenses Against Anthrax

October 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-24-06.html

WASHINGTON, DC, Two groups of researchers have announced key features of how anthrax toxin destroys cells. In back to back papers in the journal "Nature," investigators identify how one part of the toxin gets into cells and how another part turns off one of the cell's major internal switches. The studies also show how at least one molecule can prevent the toxin from destroying cells.

Spores of anthrax bacteria (Photo courtesy U.S. Postal Service)

Though still in the laboratory stage, these discoveries offer new ways to investigate potential anthrax treatments. The papers appear in a special advance online publication of "Nature."

Several types of anthrax exist, but researchers are most concerned with inhalation anthrax, which can occur after a person inhales a large number of bacterial spores. The spores move to the lungs where they germinate, producing a potent toxin.

"If you do not kill the anthrax bacterium soon after infection, the microbe has time to produce potentially fatal levels of toxin, against which current drugs are not likely to be effective," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funded the two studies. "These reports greatly increase our understanding of how anthrax toxin destroys cells and offer promising ways to develop treatments for advanced disease by attacking the toxin itself."

Anthrax toxin has three parts. Two parts, edema factor (EF) and lethal factor (LF), can destroy cells from the inside or prevent them from working. A third component, protective antigen (PA), carries EF and LF into the cells.

In the new reports, the researchers asked two critical questions: What molecule on the surface of animal cells does PA use as a doorway, or receptor, for entry; and how does the LF toxin attach to and destroy its intracellular targets?

One anthrax vaccine is already available, but its effectiveness is uncertain, and it is only available to certain military personnel (Photo by Joe Parker, courtesy U.S. Navy)

To answer the first question, the University of Wisconsin's John Young, Ph.D., an expert on receptor molecules, joined forces with John Collier, Ph.D., a Harvard University specialist on anthrax toxin. Researchers have long known that anthrax toxin uses an unidentified receptor molecule as a type of Trojan horse, riding the receptor into the interior of a cell.

Through genetic analysis, Young, Collier and their colleagues identified a protein on the surface of animal cells that proved to be the anthrax toxin receptor, which they labeled ATR.

The researchers next identified the region of ATR where the toxin attached. Using this information they then produced a shortened, free floating version of the receptor that contained the toxin binding domain. When they mixed that receptor fragment with rodent cells and anthrax toxin in a test tube, the cells were completely protected from destruction.

"The soluble receptor worked as a decoy or sponge to absorb the toxin before it could attach to the ATR on the cells," explained Young. "Now that we know what the anthrax receptor looks like, researchers can screen large numbers of smaller molecules to see if they, too, can prevent the toxin from binding ATR and entering cells."

"Our short term goals are to study the mechanism of toxin uptake through ATR and to make enough of the toxin blocking form of the receptor so that it can be tested in animal systems," Young added. "A more long term application would be for pharmaceutical companies to use the receptor along with anthrax toxin to screen the millions of compounds they've already synthesized to identify toxin inhibitors."

Two U.S. Postal Service employees have died from inhalation anthrax, and three more have been hospitalized (Photo courtesy National Association of Letter Carriers)

In the second study, other researchers sought to learn how the LF part of anthrax toxin attaches to its target molecule inside of a person's cells. After entering cells, LF locates a protein called MAPKK and chews off one of its ends, preventing it from working.

Because MAPKK is a key molecular switch that controls a cell's internal communications, its destruction leads to death of the cell.

Robert Liddington, Ph.D., of The Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California led an international team of researchers in a study of the three dimensional structure of LF. The investigators took X-rays of LF as it attached to MAPKK, uncovering key details of the toxin's surface and how it binds in a specific way to its target protein.

"LF grabs on by means of a long groove in the toxin molecule," said Liddington. Finding a molecule that fits into the groove in the toxin could deactivate it, rendering it harmless.

"By understanding how LF attaches to MAPKK, we now have the information needed for rational drug design," Liddington explained.

The ability to construct new anti-toxin compounds based on known features of the protein rather than by randomly screening large numbers of compounds should hasten the development of new drugs to treat anthrax.

The letter which brought anthrax to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office may have infected Washington DC postal workers (Photo courtesy FBI)

The two "Nature" reports describe new opportunities for study at a time when the nation is paying unprecedented attention to the disease, although the research reported here was begun long before recent events brought anthrax to the public spotlight.

"The persistence of new and reemerging infectious diseases, brought about by natural events as well as the intentional release by those who seek to do harm, has long driven NIAID's commitment to studying many microbes, including the anthrax bacterium," said Fauci. "Current events are now showing the importance of scientific diligence."

----

Anthrax found at remote White House mail site

By Arshad Mohammed,
24/10/2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12964/story.htm

WASHINGTON - Anthrax spores were found at the remote military facility where all mail for the White House is screened, but U.S. officials are confident none found its way to the executive mansion, the White House said this week.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the remote site, which he did not identify, had been closed and all employees there were being tested for exposure to the potentially deadly bacteria, as were workers in the White House mailroom.

Anthrax-laced letters have been sent to the U.S. Congress and to U.S. media companies in New York and Florida over the past several weeks, leading to the deaths of three people and a nationwide scare about biological terrorism.

"This afternoon a positive anthrax culture was found at the remote mail site that serves the White House," Fleischer told reporters in a hastily called briefing. "Test results showed it to be positive for a small concentration of anthrax."

"The facility has been closed for further testing and decontamination. Tests will be performed on all mail received at this site to determine its source. All employees at this site are being swabbed and tested," he said.

The White House has said that it suspects there is a link between the letters and the Sept. 11 hijacked-plane attacks on New York and Washington, which killed some 5,400 people, but that it has no hard evidence.

Asked if anthrax had made its way to the White House, Fleischer replied: "There have been a series of security precautions that have been put in place here at the White House, which give us high confidence that there is not an issue here at the White House itself."

He also said that "environmental sampling throughout the White House has all shown negative."

The U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for the president's safety, said it did not know the origin of the anthrax spores but said the mail sent to the remote site comes through the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, D.C., where two U.S. postal workers died from anthrax this week.

Officials have said it is their operating assumption that those two men may have been infected by an anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle last week, but they have left open the possibility of other tainted letters.

The Secret Service said in a statement it has been standard practice for some years for all mail addressed to the White House to be sent to the remote site, which CNN identified as Bolling Air Force Base.

"No one connected with the remote delivery site has reported symptoms consistent with exposure to anthrax," the Secret Service said. "Employees at this site had previously been provided protective equipment, however, they will now be offered testing and treatment as a precautionary measure."

----

Anthrax Congress sites may be shut weeks - aide

REUTERS
24/10/2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12965/story.htm

WASHINGTON - The Capitol Hill buildings that have tested positive for anthrax are likely to stay shut for weeks during cleanup procedures, congressional aides said this week.

The buildings are expected to be flooded with gas to clean up the deadly bacteria, said the well-placed congressional aide, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"We've been told that the buildings have to go through a process in which they are cleaned with gas," one aide told Reuters. "It's impossible to work there under those conditions, and it could take a few weeks. All the buildings that tested positive for anthrax are going to be closed for some time."

Another well-placed congressional aide said he had also heard that it could take weeks before the buildings reopen. He said gas may be used to clean up the buildings, but that was not definite.

"They have to decide how they want to do the cleanup," he said.

Four buildings linked to the Capitol have tested positive for anthrax in the past week, since an anthrax-laced letter was received at Sen. Tom Daschle's offices. They are the Hart and Dirksen Senate office buildings, the Ford House office building, and an off-site Capitol police facility.

Those buildings as well as all other House and Senate office buildings remained closed for a sixth straight day this week while an environmental sweep for anthrax continued. But lawmakers returned to work in the Capitol.

A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert said it was still unclear when any of the office buildings could reopen, even the ones where anthrax has not been found.

"It's unclear. We haven't got a lot of tests back yet," spokesman John Feehery said.

"If the tests come back fine, we'll reopen those areas quickly. If they don't, we won't," he said.

The buildings where anthrax was found were declared a "warm zone" by officials last week, requiring that anyone entering them wear protective clothing.

This week evening, spokesman Dan Nichols of the Capitol Police refused to say how long the office buildings would be closed, but said that the cleanup of the anthrax-positive buildings had not even begun. He could not be reached for comment this week.

"Remediation is going to take place but we have to find a way to do it," he said this week, adding that environmental and health care experts would make this decision. "It will start when the recommendation is made, and they haven't given me a time frame."

--------

U.S. sets new push for treaty on germs

October 24, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011024-36399528.htm

Three months after rejecting a protocol to strengthen a 1972 convention banning germ warfare, the Bush administration is seeking to rally international support for a new proposal that would commit the treaty's 143 signatories to criminalizing bioweapons activities on their territories.

The administration's effort to ban biowarfare on a national - in addition to international - level marks a clear departure from traditional biological arms control, which aims to prevent nation-states from production, use and export of bioweapons, but doesn't cover terrorists or other individuals and groups.

With a new sense of urgency in light of the escalating anthrax attacks, the United States is discussing the new proposal with European governments this week and will try to make it part of a declaration to be adopted by a November conference of all countries that have signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), including Iran and Iraq, an administration official said.

"Our first goal is to get broad support for our ideas and we hope that a series of measures can be introduced at the review conference that starts on Nov. 19," the official said yesterday. "We hope to see them reflected in the final declaration, which is a political, not legal, document, and what happens after that will be a matter of a diplomatic follow-up."

In late July, the administration rejected a widely supported protocol that involved ways to enforce the BWC through on-site inspections. It said the proposed regime would threaten U.S. military and trade secrets while allowing "rogue states," such as Iran and Iraq, to "cheat."

Having concluded that compliance verification is "not possible," Washington started "looking at things that can be implemented on a national basis and don't require lengthy treaty negotiations," the official said.

The United States, which has had criminal legislation dealing with germ warfare since 1989, will try to "ensure that countries have in place criminal penalties for bioweapons-related activities," he said. "We have to worry not only about nation-states, but also about sub-state actors, terrorists and state support for terrorism."

Two U.S. officials - Avis Bohlen, assistant secretary of state for arms control, and Donald Mahley, the chief U.S. negotiator on biowarfare - are traveling to several European countries this week and will visit Canada next week to "consult the allies" about "alternative measures" to enforce the BWC, a State Department official said.

Although the new proposal comes in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and an ongoing anthrax threat in the United States, officials said the Bush administarion always intended to come up with new suggestions after dismissing the BWC protocol draft during the summer.

"It was right for the administration to identify the problems of the protocol and, in light of the danger and the urgency, it's right to try to fix it," said Lee Feinstein, former deputy director of policy planning at the State Department, who is now a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

"You can't beat something with nothing," he said. "Once you put something on the table, you engage in the process."

-------- iran

Iran Sets Up New Refugee Camp in Afghanistan

October 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-iran-refugees.html

ZAHEDAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran has set up a second camp for Afghan refugees next to its border but inside Afghanistan on territory controlled by the ruling Taliban, relief workers said on Wednesday.

They said the latest camp at Mahkaki, north of the Afghan town of Zaranj, was set up five days ago and already shelters some 3,000 refugees.

Iran earlier established a camp called Mil-e 46 just inside Afghanistan and which hosts more than 500 people. That camp is south of Zaranj in an area controlled by the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance.

Mainly Shi'ite Muslim Iran backs the Northern Alliance but is a staunch opponent of the Sunni Muslim Taliban, which it accuses of persecuting Afghanistan's Shi'ite population.

Iran, which already hosts between 2-2.5 million Afghan refugees, has sealed its borders like other countries in the region to prevent a further influx following the attacks on U.S. cities and the U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan.

``Conditions in Mahkaki are not as good as in Mil-e 46. The people are in a very bad condition. Many children have swollen stomachs and are showing signs of severe malnutrition,'' said Amir Khadir, a doctor with relief organization Medicins du Mond.

Relief agencies have voiced concerns about working in the camps inside Afghanistan because of the proximity to the frontline between Taliban and Northern Alliance forces.

Medicins sans Frontieres said that despite its concerns, it has requested permission from Iran's Interior Ministry for regular access to Mil-e 46 to help support the refugees. It said it also planned to extend its activities to Mahkaki.

-------- israel

Israeli actions get harsh response

October 24, 2001
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011024-1858573.htm

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which many expected would deepen U.S. sympathy for Israel's security plight, instead have provoked some of the sharpest exchanges between an American president and an Israeli leader in memory.

President Bush, in a White House meeting yesterday with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, again urged Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian-controlled areas. But Mr. Peres said the troops would stay until Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat moved to arrest terrorists operating in his territory.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell reinforced that message in a separate meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, while Mr. Peres insisted Israel's government had no plans for long-term occupation of the areas on the West Bank.

"The secretary knows we would like to withdraw immediately," he said, but added the forces will remain until the killers of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, assassinated last week, are arrested and extradited to Israel for prosecution.

In Bethlehem, heavy fighting resumed yesterday between Israeli solders and Palestinian gunmen, while two Palestinians were killed at a security post in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

At least 31 Palestinians and one Israeli have died in the violence since Mr. Zeevi was shot Oct. 17.

Early today, a column of Israeli tanks stormed another Palestinian village in the West Bank apparently in search of extremist suspects, the head of the village council said.

About 15 tanks rolled into Beit Rima, close to Ramallah, under cover of darkness, sealing the community of about 4,000 people off and sparking clashes.

Mr. Bush's effort to enlist leading Arab and Muslim nations in the fight against global terrorism networks has been greatly complicated by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new offensive against Palestinian militant groups, which has intensified since last week's assassination of the hard-line Israeli Cabinet member.

"The administration has concluded it badly needs Arab world support for the war on terror," said Hermann F. Eilts, a veteran U.S. diplomat who served as ambassador to both Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"Whether people like it or not, many of those governments are deeply concerned with the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I think Mr. Sharon overplayed his hand because he did not fully appreciate the linkage."

Mr. Sharon earlier this month implicitly compared U.S. cultivation of Arab states to the "appeasement" of Adolf Hitler before World War II, a comment that brought a quick White House condemnation before the prime minister apologized.

The State Department Monday employed unusually blunt language in criticizing new incursions by Israeli forces into areas controlled by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, demanding that Mr. Sharon exercise "greater discipline and restraint."

"The deaths of innocent [Palestinian] civilians under the circumstances reported in recent days are unacceptable," department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

That comment brought a quick retort from Mr. Sharon's government.

A spokesman said yesterday that the Oct. 17 assassination of Mr. Zeevi - for which a radical Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility - "crossed a red line."

"Sometimes even among friends there are differences," spokesman Gideon Meir told the BBC. "We have to defend our people."

With a lasting peace deal in the Mideast still far away, U.S. officials had hoped simply for a period of quiet in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A combined delegation of representatives from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations met with both Palestinian and Israeli leaders over the weekend with what one called a basic message to "cool it."

Washington politely declined Mr. Sharon's public offer of assistance made in the hours after the attacks last month on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon for fear it would complicate the effort to build a broad anti-terror alliance.

There was a historical precedent well known to President Bush's father. Israel kept a low profile during the buildup to the 1991 Persian Gulf war against Iraq, as President George Bush assembled his own alliance of Arab and non-Arab powers to defeat Saddam Hussein.

Many Israeli press outlets speculated in the days after Sept. 11 that the terrorist attacks would inspire greater understanding in Washington of the kinds of security threats that Israelis have to deal with on a daily basis and of the dangers of radical Islamic terrorist groups.

Mr. Arafat, fearful of just that reaction, moved quickly to disassociate the Palestinian cause from Osama bin Laden. But "politics, like the Lord, works in mysterious ways," said Khalid Jahshan, vice president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

"When the United States started working seriously in the region with Arab states on the crisis, Israel's efforts to play a larger-than-life role were not workable when they clashed with the needs of realpolitik," Mr. Jahshan said.

Mr. Sharon's government has watched with increasing dismay what many in Israel see as Bush administration signals of a new sympathy for Arab and Muslim causes.

Most important, the administration leaked the news earlier this month that Mr. Bush sees an independent Palestinian state as part of a long-term Middle East peace settlement.

Arab diplomats argue that the need for a more "balanced" U.S. stand on the conflict is moral and pragmatic. And active U.S. diplomacy on the Israeli-Palestinian front, they say, could provide political cover for regimes in the Arab world that face domestic criticism.

• Joseph Curl contributed to this report.

-------- nato

Navy Admiral Becomes NATO Commander

October 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Italy-NATO.html

BAGNOLI, Italy (AP) -- U.S. Navy Adm. Gregory G. Johnson became NATO Allied Forces Southern Europe's new commander in chief at a ceremony Wednesday at regional headquarters near Naples.

Johnson, a former commander of the Navy's Sixth Fleet, succeeds Adm. James O. Ellis, who held the position for the past three years.

Allied Forces Southern Europe is one of the two regional commands of NATO's Allied Command Europe and controls an area stretching from Gibraltar to eastern Turkey and from Hungary to the southern Mediterranean.

It is also responsible for NATO-led peace keeping operations in the Balkans.

--------

NATO Says Disrupts Terrorist Structure in Bosnia

October 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-bosnia.html

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - NATO-led peacekeepers said on Wednesday they believed they had disrupted a terrorist organization in Bosnia but it was not clear whether it had links to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

A spokesman for Bosnia's Stabilization Force (SFOR) said action by both peacekeepers and local police, including arrests of Bosnians and people from Middle Eastern countries suspected of links to terrorism, had contributed to disturbing the group.

``There's excellent cooperation between NATO, SFOR and Bosnian authorities and, yes, we believe we disrupted a terrorist organization inside of Bosnia-Herzegovina,'' SFOR spokesman Daryl Morrell told Reuters.

Asked if the group had links to bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, the West's prime suspects for the September 11 attacks on the United States which killed more than 5,400, Morrell said: ``Well, right now our investigation is ongoing on that matter.''

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that NATO officials believed they had foiled a terrorist attack planned for last week on two U.S. military installations in Bosnia.

In a front-page report, the paper cited unnamed officials as saying the large Eagle Base near the northern town of Tuzla and a smaller facility, Camp Connor near Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia, had been the intended targets of the attack.

Morrell declined to say whether SFOR had received any threats of attacks against its bases or installations.

``Let's be clear -- there were no actual attacks (against SFOR) and, at this point, SFOR's not going to comment in any specific way about threats or potential threats,'' he said.

He could not say whether the alleged terrorist organization had anything to do with threats that led to last week's closures of the U.S. and British embassies in Sarajevo.

Five Algerians were arrested by police on suspicion of making threats to the missions, which closed for five days.

Morrell said several elements had contributed to the disruption of the terrorist group.

``I think it is a string of events -- the people we detained in (the Sarajevo suburb) Ilidza, we suspected they were involved in support for terrorist activities,'' he said, referring to the arrest last month of a Jordanian, an Egyptian and two Bosnians.

The Egyptian and Jordanian were subsequently deported while the Bosnians were released.

Before the embassy closures, SFOR and Bosnian police had arrested at least six people, including the Egyptian and the Jordanian, suspected of links to or support for terrorism.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ivica Misic said last week there was no evidence linking the six with bin Laden.

-------- pakistan

Hundreds protest at Pakistani air base

Washington Times
October 24, 2001
From combined dispatches
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011024-96469214.htm

JACOBABAD, Pakistan - Police locked down a southern city yesterday after Islamic militants vowed to marshal thousands of supporters to storm an air base that is providing support to U.S. military personnel.

More than 100 people had been arrested by midmorning after a protest inside Jacobabad, site of Shahbaz Air Base.

Blockades and sandbag bunkers were erected around the city, most shops were closed and many streets were deserted except for heavily armed patrols of police, army and paramilitary troops.

Islamic militants summoned by Jamaat-e-Islam want to expel U.S. personnel supporting the U.S.-led military campaign designed to root out terrorist installations in Afghanistan belonging to Osama bin Laden, top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.

Roads to the city have been blocked for days to prevent mass entry. But yesterday morning, about 200 militant Muslims appeared inside the city, chanting anti-government slogans. Police rushed them with batons, ordering them to disperse. Police said at least 100 protesters have been arrested since Sunday.

Despite the demonstrations, Pakistani President Perez Musharraf said on government television on Monday night that a "vast" majority of Pakistanis back his handling of the crisis.

Over the weekend, two U.S. helicopters came under fire in Pakistan as their crews attempted to retrieve the wreckage of another helicopter that had crashed during a covert weekend commando raid, the Pentagon said yesterday.

The retrieval crews on Saturday were transporting a Black Hawk helicopter that had crashed, killing two Rangers the night before when more than 100 special force soldiers raided an airfield and a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan.

After loading the helicopter from the crash site, the recovery team stopped to refuel at an airfield, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said at a news conference with Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

"While there, they took hostile fire, aborted the refueling, returned fire and departed," Mrs. Clarke said.

"We don't know who was firing on our forces," said Adm. Stufflebeem, referring to the shooting as small-arms fire.

It was the most hostile act reported so far against Americans in Pakistan.

In Kabul, the Afghan capital, a U.S. air strike yesterday killed at least 35 members of a Pakistani group listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, sources close to the group said.

The 35 were members of the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, which fights against Indian rule in Kashmir and has long been believed to send its guerrillas into Afghanistan.

Also in Kabul, Afghanistan's Supreme Court said it cannot hold regular sessions in the trial of eight foreign aid workers accused of promoting Christianity due to chaos amid the U.S. air strikes, their lawyer said yesterday.

The court was unable to give a date for the next session in the trial but had allowed the eight to make phone calls to their families, Pakistani lawyer Atif Ali Khan said.

In northern Afghanistan, Northern Alliance forces said they were locked in fierce fighting with militia of the ruling Taliban for the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum said yesterday.

"Our forces launched an attack yesterday and the fighting has been fierce," the rebel leader said by satellite telephone from near the front line.

Taliban Education Minister and senior spokesman Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi said the opposition had tried to push forward but had been repulsed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan said yesterday it was shipping some illegal Afghan refugees back across the border to tent villages being set up by the Taliban just inside Afghanistan, the Pakistani government said yesterday.

One of the camps inside Afghanistan will be built in Spinboldak, about 15 miles from the border, the official said. A second will be set up about two miles from the border.

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

The United Nations' daunting task

By John Hughes
Christian Science Monitor
October 24, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1024/p11s2-cojh.html

SALT LAKE CITY - A few days ago, I called a high United Nations official whom I trust for one of those background discussions journalists have when they want to know what's really going on, as distinct from what diplomats carefully say in public.

The topic was Afghanistan and the substantial role the UN is likely to have there once the shooting stops.

"Everything the UN's done before [in a peacekeeping role] looks like a picnic compared to this one," my friend said. "We're not looking forward to it. But we should rise to the challenge."

Brave words for an institution facing a daunting task, but one which, if tackled successfully, could mark the UN's finest hour.

All that is involved is maintaining stability in a wild and barren land where education is minimal and poverty rampant; where the birth of male children is heralded with a celebratory volley of gunshots; where a rifle is as essential a piece of equipment as a toothbrush is to most Americans; where the politics are Byzantine; where national cohesiveness is undermined by fratricidal tribal suspicion; and where Afghans have spent centuries enthusiastically repelling foreign troops since Alexander the Great first took a crack at it in the 4th century BC.

There are three potential roles for the UN in Afghanistan: humanitarian, political, and military.

In the humanitarian field around the world, the UN excels. It brings water to villages that have no water. It brings food to starving refugees. It saves the lives of children who might otherwise die. It is the UN story most overlooked by the mindless critics who invent tales of diabolical UN chicanery and world-governing ambition.

But though courageous UN workers often bring relief in the face of danger, their work requires certain minimal standards of political and military stability.

Among the fanciful political ideas being floated for post-Taliban Afghanistan is a kind of protectorate status under the UN. To me, that seems unrealistic, as it does to Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat who is the UN's point man on Afghanistan. Mr. Brahimi is a mediator seasoned by service in hot spots around the world. I first knew him in Haiti, where he displayed the same kind of realistic caution with which he is approaching Afghanistan.

All options in Afghanistan are bad, he believes. The challenge is to find the least bad.

If the UN cannot and should not aspire to govern a disjointed Afghanistan, it can surely act as a political facilitator, and perhaps ideally be accepted as a trusted referee among the components of a post-Taliban government.

But before the political process can proceed very far, there will need to be military stability. Who is to enforce that?

Before he became UN secretary general, Kofi Annan headed the UN's military peacekeeping operations. He is keenly aware of the challenges they faced in such countries as Somalia and Bosnia.

The UN can only be effective as a peacekeeper in areas where the warring factions have agreed to stop fighting and welcome an impartial force to monitor that agreement. The UN is ineffective as a military force required to impose peace in an area where the conflict still rages. That, as we have seen in Bosnia, is a role for an organization like NATO, with its heavy artillery and armor and air support. UN peacekeepers, by contrast, are lightly armed, with little or no offensive capacity.

Some years ago, I drove the road from Kabul through the Khyber Pass into Pakistan. One soon erases romantic 19th-century Kiplingesque notions of noble contest between red-tunicked British soldiers and fierce Pashtuns. It is hard and dismal country, which was murderous to both defenders and attackers. It is no terrain in which President Bush wants occupying US troops to get bogged down.

While maneuvering over the post-Taliban future goes on, Mr. Bush is looking to the UN, recently honored with the Nobel Prize for its past efforts in the cause of peace, to play a constructive role. The extent of that role is unclear. If it involves a military component, the contributing countries to that force and the coordination between - and deployment of - the various national units must be managed with much skill.

The dividends for the UN from successful intervention in Afghanistan would be high: a return to recognition of the UN's international utility, not to mention a much more cordial relationship with the United States.

But it will be no picnic.

John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, served a one-year term as UN assistant secretary general and director of communications in 1995.

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

Females kept off ground for special-ops missions

October 24, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011024-57408260.htm

American female pilots are dropping bombs on Afghanistan, but when it comes to boots on the ground, they are barred by law from joining special-operations missions to kill terrorists.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said commandos will play a big role in eliminating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and other terror networks around the world. But in the special "ops" community, women are restricted to two noncombat specialties.

"Women are not allowed in combat arms," said Col. Bill Darley, spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command, which is supporting operations in Afghanistan. "We've got lots of women. There are tons of women in SOF, but they are in civil affairs and psyops [psychological warfare]. There are none in combat arms."

Said an Army officer: "I have worked with women in a covert mode that were great. They were as devious as anyone else, and some were cold-blooded killers. But, on average, men are better suited to the job. But a cold-blooded woman does have the advantage of access and placement. The problem is that they stand out in the Muslim world and are afforded inferior status there."

The same federal law that bans women from ground combat jobs such as infantry and field artillery also applies to covert warriors. The Rangers, Green Berets and Delta Force troops who infiltrated Afghanistan this past week belonged to all-male units.

Special-operation forces also ban female aviators from piloting their Black Hawks and other helicopters. This is a break from the conventional combat branches, which allow female combat pilots.

A Defense Department advisory committee has pushed the Pentagon to change this rule. But the department has refused, saying in a letter, "There is public reluctance for women to be in positions involving direct (hand-to-hand ground) combat. Most women would not meet the physical qualifications for some rigorous career fields (Rangers, Seals, Special Forces) or the physical requirements for close-in, hand-to-hand combat in other career fields."

The Navy, Air Force and Army allow women to fly bombers, fighters and helicopter gunships under a policy approved by President Clinton. He retained, however, the ban on direct land combat. Defense officials said yesterday there were no plans to move that line.

Since the change in 1994, a Pentagon panel, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), has urged the defense secretary to change the rule so women may operate long-range artillery and fly special-operations helicopters. But each time, the answer comes back "no." The rejection is based on the doctrine that special-operations aviators may have to take part in what the community calls "direct action" - attacking and killing the enemy.

DACOWITS, a mostly female panel of 33 members, is not impressed.

"There is insufficient evidence that special operations forces rotary wing aviation crews 'collocate' [place together] with units involved in direct ground combat," the committee wrote in a unanimous recommendation. "Generally, SOF aviators have the potential to be exposed to contact with the enemy on the ground only when the mission fails."

Gen. Charles R. Holland, who heads U.S. Special Operations Command and plays a key role in executing the current campaign in Afghanistan, has headed off DACOWITS' maneuver. The four-star general wrote a letter to personnel officials stating, "The command does not concur with the conclusions of DACOWITS. SOF rotary wing aviation crews are doctrinally required to collocate with ground combat units during many SOF mission profiles. Direct action has always been a primary mission of SOF, and contrary to the DACOWITS assertion, involves direct ground combat."

Military women in conventional warfare have flown combat missions since the mid-1990s. They have released bombs over Iraq and Kosovo, and enforced no-fly zones north and south of Baghdad.

The Navy, after unleashing a post-Tailhook-scandal media blitz to announce the first female combat pilots, today downplays the sex significance, as do the women themselves.

"I've never thought that it was a big deal that I was an aviator. I just go out there and do my job," says Lt. j.g. Sara, who has flown attack missions over Afghanistan from the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

"I don't like to see women singled out," Lt. Sara, the only female combat pilot on the Roosevelt, told the Associated Press. For security reasons, only Lt. Sara's first name and her "Goalie" call sign can be disclosed.

The Roosevelt, whose home port is in Norfolk, arrived on scene last week and was dispatching F-14 Tomcats and Marine Corps F-18C Hornets to bomb Taliban militia and troops in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

The Navy first sexually integrated auxiliary ships in the 1970s and allowed women to fly land-based support aircraft. Seven years ago, Congress lifted the prohibition against women serving on combat aircraft and ships, including carriers. A 5,000-sailor crew typically includes fewer than 500 women.

"I've always felt very comfortable being a female in the aviation community ever since I walked into flight school," Lt. Sara told AP. "There aren't many of us, that's true, but I think [the menīs and womenīs] personalities mesh; otherwise, we wouldn't be in this job."

The Air Force's main combat contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom has been heavy bombers: B-1Bs, B-2s and B-52s.

An Air Force spokeswoman said women have piloted B-1B missions. The plane typically drops 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs on fixed military targets, such as barracks, radars and surface-to-air missiles. Two female officers are training to become B-2 stealth bomber pilots, but none is now in the cockpit.

The Air Force has 16 female bomber pilots of a total 759, and 43 female fighter pilots out of 3,491 total.

--------

Errant Bombs May Have Hit Afghan Civilians, U.S. Says

By Vernon Loeb and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 24, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42406-2001Oct23.html

U.S. Navy fighter jets accidentally dropped a 1,000-pound bomb near a senior citizens home in the northern Afghan city of Herat and two 500-pound bombs in a residential area northwest of Kabul over the weekend in strikes that could have resulted in civilian casualties, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, said the senior citizens home in Herat could be the same facility that a United Nations official identified yesterday as a military hospital. Clarke attributed both accidents to guidance-system malfunctions.

"We regret any loss of civilian life," Clarke said, though she refused to discuss claims by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia that as many as 100 people had been killed in Herat. "We take great care in our targeting process to avoid civilian casualties."

The two errant bombings added to the growing number of reports of airstrikes on civilian buildings by U.S.-led forces that are complicating the Bush administration's efforts to maintain support among Muslim allies for its war on terrorism.

Although Clarke rejected as "completely outrageous" Taliban claims that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, the airstrikes have produced a flood of reports and images of civilian suffering in newspapers and television stations in the Islamic world -- often without Defense Department rebuttals or assertions that U.S. forces are aiming only at military targets.

As Clarke described the latest airstrikes by U.S. forces in the 17-day-old air campaign during yesterday's Pentagon briefing, Qatar's al-Jazeera television -- an independent global satellite network that broadcasts in Arabic -- reported that U.S. strikes had killed 93 people in the village of Chukar, 37 miles northeast of Kandahar.

In Quetta, Pakistan, injured refugees crossing the border from Afghanistan reported that airstrikes on the town of Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, 75 miles north of Kandahar, had killed at least 29 people when eight or nine homes were bombed.

Another account, from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, said an airstrike on a military installation in Kabul yesterday killed 19 members of the Harakatul Mujaheddin, a Pakistani group that is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, Reuters reported.

A Defense Department official said last night that the Pentagon had no information indicating whether there were civilian casualties at any of those towns.

The Bush administration holds the Taliban responsible for harboring Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden for the past five years and for supporting bin Laden's worldwide terrorist organization, al Qaeda. U.S. officials believe bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Clarke said she had no information on the extent of casualties resulting from the bombing of the senior citizens home in Herat and the residential area northwest of Kabul.

Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the airstrikes have not been -- and will not be -- directed at military targets in Afghanistan's cities if they have the chance of producing civilian casualties.

This policy will remain in effect despite credible reports, he said, that the Taliban is now seeking to disperse troops in residential areas and inside mosques to protect them from air assaults.

"We are not going into the cities to attack the cities," Stufflebeem said. "What hits may have occurred in residential areas are rare mistakes. We will find other ways . . . using the full spectrum capability of our military, to get at those who might cowardly decide to hide in residential neighborhoods. I personally believe that the Taliban will use whatever means they have, including the people of Afghanistan, to shield their capability."

Coming on top of earlier strikes that have killed four civilians at a U.N.-funded mine removal office in Kabul and at least four civilians in houses close to the Kabul airport, Clarke's disclosure of two new errant bombings seemed certain to complicate the administration's efforts to portray the campaign as a war against terrorists and not against Muslims.

How the battle is being perceived in the Muslim world has become of increasing importance to administration officials amid indications from the Pentagon that the airstrikes could continue for months. Support from Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, and other Muslim states remain crucial not just to the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan but to the larger U.S.-led war on terrorism around the world.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed a note of frustration on Monday when he complained about what he said were Taliban lies being given wide distribution and credibility.

"We have seen repeatedly things that are not true put out by the Taliban," Rumsfeld said. "We have seen them escort people to things they wanted seen, and we have seen the things they wanted seen, and the lies they have been putting forward, carried across the globe on television and in the press. Now, what can one do about that?"

He then answered his own question, saying that the best defense is to report the facts as they become known. Even so, Rumsfeld said on Monday that the Taliban claims of a hospital being hit in Herat were baseless. "We have absolutely no evidence at all that would suggest that [the reported bombing of the hospital] is correct. I'm sure it's not," Rumsfeld said.

Yesterday, however, Clarke acknowledged that a 1,000-pound bomb had landed near a senior citizens home in Herat and that it could have been the same building that U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker had described to reporters in Islamabad as a military hospital. "It was a military hospital, in a military compound, in the eastern outskirts of the city," Bunker had said. "We have no idea of the casualties."

On Monday, Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismissed Taliban claims that they had shot down U.S. helicopters -- claims Taliban officials bolstered by showing reporters part of a landing gear from a U.S. helicopter. Clarke acknowledged yesterday that an MH-47 helicopter had lost part of its landing gear while extracting U.S. Special Forces from commando raids staged early Saturday.

Asked why Rumsfeld and Myers did not have that information on Monday -- more than two days after the incident -- Stufflebeem said: "Well, it's not a perfect system, and unfortunately we didn't bring that information forward to the secretary so he had that at his fingertips."

Discussing another incident related to those raids, Clarke and Stufflebeem said a U.S. helicopter, trying to extract the wreckage of a Blackhawk helicopter that had crashed in Pakistan, was fired upon in Pakistan and had to abort its mission after returning fire. The heavy-lift helicopter was attacked while refueling, they said.

The wrecked Blackhawk had to be left at the site of the firefight, the officials said. Two U.S. servicemen died in the crash, the only casualties related to the first known commando raids to have taken place in Afghanistan.

"We don't know who was firing on our forces," Stufflebeem said. "We returned fire to stop it. We feel very confident that the Pakistanis will take control, and that we'll be able to go back and recover the aircraft that was lost in a mishap."

Commenting on developments on the battlefield, Stufflebeem said he believes the Taliban's military capabilities have been badly degraded since the air attacks began, with Pentagon officials saying that more than 3,000 bombs have been dropped on Afghanistan since Oct. 7.

"We know that in the majority, their air defense capability is gone," he said. "Their countrywide command-and-control capability is gone. They have got to be feeling, from my opinion, quite a bit of stress at not being able to do what they thought they would be able to do."

Given the extent of those attacks, he said, the Taliban is keeping its forces dispersed in the field. "We're not finding evidence that they are trying to amass firepower," he said. "I think that they are learning from this campaign that we have a tremendous lethality in going after their military articles. And, therefore, I think we are seeing that they are trying to disperse them to save them."

As for al Qaeda facilities, Stufflebeem said that all known terrorist training camps have been attacked. "There aren't going to be any camps that we're going to allow them to use," he said, "and when we find them, we'll strike them."

-------

THE MILITARY
U.S. Jets Blast the Front Lines of the Taliban for a Fourth Day

New York Times
October 24, 2001
By JOHN F. BURNS with TERENCE NEILAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/24/international/24CND-ATTA.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 24 - United States jets attacked front-line Taliban positions in Afghanistan for a fourth day today, with high-flying formations hitting targets north of Kabul, the capital, with bombs and missiles.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations, meanwhile, said here today that during an attack earlier this week a cluster bomb was dropped on a village less than a mile north of a military compound near the western city of Herat, in the same raid that reportedly destroyed a hospital inside the compound.

The spokeswoman, Stephanie Bunker, said there were a number of deaths and injuries in the incident, in which 200 bomblets rained down on the village of Shaker Quala. She said a mosque inside the compound was also hit, but she declined to give casualty numbers for either incident until they could be confirmed.

"They had people being taken to the main Herat hospital in vehicles and pushcarts," she said at a news conference.

She said that United Nations demining workers were putting sandbags around unexploded cluster bomblets, which were lying around the village, because they did not know how to defuse them.

On Tuesday a Pentagon spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, said that a bomb intended for a vehicle storage center in the military compound near Herat had fallen about 300 feet from what she said she was informed was a senior citizens' center rather than a military hospital.

Many Afghans, however, have disputed the Pentagon's version, saying that it was highly unlikely that the village had a senior citizens' center because in the Afghan culture seniors either live with their families or live alone.

Today's renewed attacks centered around Bagram, north of Kabul, according to news media reports. Reuters quoted a Northern Alliance opposition spokesman, based about four miles from where missiles fell, as saying the targets were two positions near the Bagram airport.

The commander, Abdul Mahfus, said the targets were behind the Taliban trenches and that at least four jets were involved in the attacks.

Reuters also quoted witnesses in Kabul as saying that jets roared over the city overnight, unleashing bombs or missiles in the direction of the Taliban front lines.

"It was a horrible night, planes coming and going, coming and going," one witness told the agency. "They stopped around prayers at dawn and have not resumed."

But the Cable News Network, reporting from near Bagram, reported later in the day that heavy military activity was continuing in the area, just north of Kabul. A CNN correspondent said there was no visible advance by Northern Alliance troops opposed to the Taliban.

At a State Department news conference in Washington today, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the administration hoped to conclude the action in Afghanistan quickly, but was prepared if necessary to keep up the fight during the approaching Muslim holy period.

Such action would be almost certain to anger the Islamic world, but Secretary Powell said the United States could not let the period known as Ramadan "be the sole determinant whether or not to continue our military effort."

At a separate briefing in Washington today, the Pentagon said it was "a matter of fact" that the Taliban was moving its forces into civilian areas, including people's houses, university dormitories and mosques.

Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, a deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon also had information that the Taliban may intend to poison "humanitarian foodstuffs and try to blame it on the U.S." He did not elaborate.

On Tuesday senior Pentagon officials said for the first time that by bombing the Taliban front lines north of Kabul they hoped to choke off fuel, food and other supplies that the Taliban leaders need to maintain their grip on power.

Although strikes on the northern front have been intended to bolster rebel forces that oppose the Taliban, the main objective remains what the officials called the pillars of Taliban power, including communications, headquarters and supplies around Kandahar, the southern city that is the spiritual and political capital for the Taliban movement.

Among the targets struck were the main Taliban fuel depots near Kandahar, the officials said, part of an effort to starve the ability to move forces. The plan, a senior military officer said, was "to gradually choke them off."

Winter is approaching in Afghanistan, when military operations, particularly on the ground, would be made more difficult.

"The winter will be harder on the Taliban than it will be on us," a military official in Washington told Reuters today.

"If troops can't get bullets, fuel or food, what can they do?"


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Senators sponsor renewable energy bill; utilities could get more tax breaks

Wednesday, October 24, 2001
By Christine Dorsey,
Las Vegas Review-Journal,
Knight Ridder/Tribune
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/10/10242001/krt_45340.asp

WASHINGTON - Public utilities and rural utility cooperatives would become eligible for renewable energy tax breaks under legislation introduced by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

Though they don't pay federal taxes, public utilities would be allowed to trade tax credits to reap financial benefits from producing energy from wind, solar, geothermal, or other renewable sources, Reid said.

The bill revises an earlier version of tax relief the Nevada senator introduced in February that targeted renewable energy industries. That measure would give companies producing energy from wind, sun, small hydropower, geothermal, or animal waste a permanent tax credit to help make them competitive with traditional energy sources like oil and natural gas.

The new bill expands the benefit to public utilities and rural cooperatives, which could trade or sell the credits to power plants that use coal or other nonrenewable power sources.

"Our legislation encourages the use of renewable energy and signals America's long-term commitment to clean energy, a healthy environment, and energy independence," Reid said.

Glenn Hamer, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said the bill will add an important sector - public utilities - to the mix of power producers who will seek alternative energy sources. "It's a very intelligent addition," Hamer said. "If you're trying to expand renewables, why wouldn't you extend (the tax credit) to those utilities interested in producing greener energy as part of the mix?"

Reid said he hopes the legislation will spawn more renewable energy plants in Nevada and elsewhere where clean, renewable resources are available.

The Bureau of Land Management has seen a sharp increase this year in applications by companies wanting to search for geothermal energy on federal land, where researchers believe the majority of resources reside.

Wind also is a growing resource. Nevada's first wind farm is being constructed by MNS Wind Company at the Nevada Test Site, where owners hope to generate 260 megawatts of wind energy, enough to power 260,000 homes. Under current law, wind producers qualify for a tax credit allowing them to take a 1.8-cent tax credit on each kilowatt-hour of energy generated.

Joe Nipper, senior vice president for the American Public Power Association, said the tax break is a new concept for public utilities. "There's a fair amount of risk in this for us," Nipper said. "We believe it will act as an incentive [to build renewable power projects], but we won't know for sure until it becomes law." He said a survey of public utilities taken this summer by the association indicates a growing interest in generating power from renewable sources.

Reid said the bill could get folded into a larger energy package being crafted by Senate Democrats, but if that measure gets stalled, he will push the renewable bill on its own.

----

Ballard joins with Osaka Gas for home generator

24/10/2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12956/story.htm

TORONTO - Ballard Power Systems Inc. , a maker of fuel cells, said this week it would work with Osaka Gas to develop stationary power generators for the Japanese residential market.

Osaka Gas, a Japanese natural gas utility with more than six million customers, will work with Ballard's stationary power subsidiaries, EBARA Ballard and Ballard Generation Systems, to develop fuel-cell based generators that can heat and light a typical home.

Fuel-cells convert fossil fuels such as natural gas into electricity and heat in a zero-emission process that is more efficient than a traditional combustion engine.

Ballard's fuel cells will be combined with a compact fuel processing system developed by Osaka Gas in a generator that is designed to operate continuously at low temperatures

EBARA unveiled in Feb. 2001 a prototype of a one kilowatt stationary power generator that it intends to refine into an affordable, cogeneration unit for the average home.

----

Nissan to have fuel cell vehicle technology by 2005

24/10/2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12958/story.htm

TOKYO - Nissan Motor Co, Japan's second largest automaker, said this week it expected to have the technology for fuel cell vehicle production by 2005.

Nissan, in the midst of a dramatic restructuring, has lagged in the development of fuel cell technology, although it and partner Renault SA have said they will invest 85 billion yen ($695 million) over five years in such research.

Fuel cells are widely seen to be the most promising alternative energy development, particularly for vehicles, in the coming decades.

Although many other major automakers have said they plan to develop a fuel cell vehicle for the market by 2003 or 2004, the new technology is not expected to become a viable alternative for mass-production until at least after 2010.

Fuel cells use an electrochemical process to produce electricity by mixing hydrogen and oxygen with water the only byproduct.

Ghosn said it would take a decade to start mass producing fuel-cell vehicles until they are priced reasonably and profitable at the same time.

"We are not in the race for size. We are in the race for profitability," he told a news conference as part of a preview for the Tokyo Motor Show which begins on Wednesday.

He added Nissan would participate in the Japanese government's testing programme for fuel-cell vehicles to begin in 2002.

Nissan also said it would expand the use of ultra-low emission vehicle technology in up to 80 percent of its cars by the end of its three-year restructuring plan in March 2003.

Japan's second-largest carmaker said 11 of the 15 new models will be using the "U-LEV" technology, where exhaust emissions are reduced to 75 percent or more below levels mandated under the nation's exhaust regulations of 2000.

"The majority of our cars will be U-LEV equipped by the end of next business year," he said.

-------- environment

Cyanide Spill Ghana's Worst Environmental Disaster

By Mike Anane
October 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-24-01.html

ACCRA, Ghana, Villages in the Wassa West District of Ghana's western region have been hit by the spillage of thousands of cubic metres of mine wastewater contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals. The cyanide-laced waste contaminated the River Asuman on October 16 when a tailings dam ruptured at a mine operation owned by the South African company, Goldfields Ltd.

Hundreds of dead fish, crabs and birds can be seen littering the banks of the river. Others float on the surface of the river which is the only source of drinking water for Abekoase, Huni and surrounding villages.

Containment pond for mine waste in Wassa West district (Photo courtesy Jamie Kneen/Mining Watch)

Virtually all life forms in the river and its tributaries have been decimated, and people's livelihoods are endangered. Scientists fear the cyanide and heavy metal residue from the spill could remain for decades posing a health and environmental threat to the people and wildlife in the area.

Officials of Goldfields have warned all citizens to avoid contact with the water. Fishing is now prohibited, and the people have also been instructed not to feed the dead fish to other animals.

In an interview, Stephen Yirenkyi, senior environmental coordinator of Goldfields said, "It's true. There has been a cyanide spillage here, and we're meeting members of the communities to see how best we can resolve the issue."

The villagers attribute the spill to overflow resulting from design flaws and a heavy downpour. But Richard Graeme, managing director of Goldfields, told ENS that a joint in the main pipe which carries the cyanide wastewater to the tailings dam was dislodged after a heavy downpour allowing the cyanide solution to spew onto the ground.

Masses of dead fish along the river banks confirm the worst fears about the level of cyanide contamination. But Graeme said the cyanide that found its way into the river was "insignificant and could not have been injurious to aquatic life let alone human life."

When asked how insignificant portions of cyanide could kill plants, birds, crabs and fish, he said, "We put in chlorine instantly, and that's the responsible thing to do to neutralize the toxicity of the cyanide until you determine the level of cyanide in the water. I can swear it was the chlorine that killed the fish and not the cyanide."

West Africa map showing gold resources (Map courtesy Goldfields, Ltd.)

This explanation has been discounted by the villagers who said they were some of the first people to arrive at the scene of the disaster, and they saw the dead fish before officials from the company put chemicals in the river.

Rejecting Graeme's denials as "cynical, immoral, dangerous and wicked," Kofi Pare a 28 year old resident of Abekoase said, "Some of us unknowingly drank the water from the river, and we need to be told the truth." He stressed that the incident was the result of an overflow from the tailings dam and not some pipes getting loose at the joint.

Pare called on the United Nations, the European Union and other international officials and conservationists to investigate the legal and financial implications of the spill. "When disasters of this magnitude happen in Europe, it's news and all the big organizations and individuals rush there to show their love or issue statements, but when it happens in Africa it's business as usual. This is not fair," Pare said.

"My company regrets this accident that has happened. How much cyanide was spilled we do not know, but we saw it early and shut off the pump, the spillage occurred at 3 am and we informed the people at 4.30 am. By midday we started sending the tankers with water," Graeme said.

"We did some testing with the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], and there was some cyanide in the river but low levels," Graeme explained. "But cyanide is not as bad as people make it seem, it's just because it was used in the gas chambers some years ago so it sounds really bad in the ear, these villagers dump their excreta into the river, and that should be the problem for them because this is the water they drink, there is so much faecal coliform in the river and that for me is the problem not the cyanide in the water," Graeme declared.

Ghana's EPA has made no official comment on the spill. The officer in charge of the EPA in the Western Region, Irene Heathcote, said, "The incident had indeed happened." When pressed to comment on the issue, she simply said, "Please call my boss in Accra." The acting head of Ghana's EPA could not be reached for comment.

Medical authorities however believe that cyanide pollution of the River Asuman and its tributaries could have a long term impact on human health. "It's possible that the cyanide and other heavy metals may have been carried into agricultural areas by runoff, and this may enter the food chain, explained Dr. Crentsil, a medical consultant.

"You see the people who drank the contaminated water and others who consume food laced with cyanide are not going to die now, but the effects will manifest with time - cancers, miscarriages, nervous problems, you name them," he said.

Daniel Owusu Koranteng, executive director of the local mine watch organization Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) based in the Wassa West district where the incident occurred, demanded that the owners of Goldfields accept full financial responsibility for the cyanide spill.

Abandoned mine from the 1950s Wassa West near Tarkwa (Photo courtesy Jamie Kneen/Mining Watch)

"People in the villages of Abekoase and Huni have lost their clean drinking water and their livelihood as they can no longer sell or eat produce from their farms through which the river runs. Goldfields should not hide from their responsibility for damages, we need to demand compensation for those directly affected by mining disasters," he said.

Describing the disaster as "unprecedentedly serious" Joshua Awuku Appau of the Accra based Greenearth organization said the use of cyanide in gold mining poses an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.

"There is the need for long term monitoring program along the whole river system, but there is still a risk of another catastrophe as long as cyanide is being kept behind a dam, which is often too weak. This is unacceptable, and the mining industry must learn that clean rivers and healthy ecosystems are more precious than gold," Awuku stressed.

Simone Pingel, head of the Africa Desk of FIAN, a human rights organization, said there must be an international effort to protect developing countries from mining practices that would not be allowed where these companies have their headquarters in the U.S., Australia, Canada or Germany. "Mining companies need to be held accountable and international standards need to be put in place to prevent future catastrophes," she said.

In towns and villages along the River Asuman, the most pressing issue for residents is how to pick up the pieces of their lives which are intimately linked to the damaged river system. Their disdain for institutions like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Mines Inspectorate Division and other state organizations is obvious. "They are all agents of the mining companies," a resident of Abekoase fumed in an interview.

"This poison is spilling over and killing us, repeated failures of the dam walls had resulted in poisoning the rivers with cyanide, this area is no longer habitable," lamented Nana Aqua a 70 year old man from Abekoase village.

"I think we need much more strict rules in the mining sector so this type of accident will not happen," said a visibly shaken 11 year old schoolboy who skipped school to look for clean water for his 80 year old ailing grandmother.

Heaps of crushed ore on leach pads in Ghana's Wassa West district (Photo courtesy Satellite Goldfields, Ltd.)

Cyanide used in heap leaching, a low cost technique for extracting metals from ore, is a regular feature of gold mining in Ghana.

Over the years, mining activities in the Wassa West District have generated social conflicts arising from land use conflicts, unfair compensation schemes for displaced communities and environmental degradation.

Surface mining and its associated land clearing has destroyed large tracts of the country's remaining tropical rainforests. A number of rivers and streams have dried up in the area, and protected species such as the red river hog, the roan antelope, the red colobus monkey and the black and white colobus monkey and several medicinal plants have been swept into oblivion by surface mining.

In June 1997, a cyanide spill from the Teberebie goldmine into the River Angonaben in the same district killed fish and destroyed vast stretches of farmland. Villagers wading through the water suffered severe leg injuries, nine villages were left without drinking water, and no compensation was paid to the villagers.

Four years later, little appears to have changed in terms of government oversight or industry practices.

An official of the Ghana Chamber of Mines who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "Incidents such as the cyanide spillage, of course, are completely unacceptable to the community and to the mining industry. They shouldn't happen and the industry needs to be doing all it can to prevent them happening."

With an annual output of around 50,000 tonnes, Ghana is Africa's second largest gold producer after South Africa.

----

Ukraine: Ecology minister says 'no grounds for panic' over mercury spill reports

Wednesday, October 24, 2001
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/10/10242001/ap_45356.asp

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian officials dismissed Russian media reports about a disastrous mercury spill at a chemical plant in the capital Kiev but said the plant was dangerous because of outdated equipment, news reports said Tuesday.

Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Serhiy Kurykin said there were "no grounds for panic or extraordinary actions" over reports on tons of mercury spilled at the Radikal plant, according to the Kievskie Vedomosti daily.

Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry denied the alarming reports once they appeared on Russian television last week, saying that plant workers were engaged in ordinary operations to collect mercury in tanks.

However, Oleksiy Pasiuk, an expert at Ukraine's Ecological Center, said there was recently a mercury spill within the now-closed plant. Pasiuk could not specify the amount of mercury spilled but said there was no danger of it contaminating underground water sources, only of vapors.

"There is no sense to say that the mercury spill was catastrophic, but it can become so if the situation at that plant is not improved," Pasiuk said, adding that the plant had even more dangerous materials stored improperly. "The authorities must take radical measures at the plant."

Kurykin said the plant was in poor condition and could cause an ecological disaster due to mercury spilled during 47 years of Radikal's work and outdated tanks containing dangerous acids, Kievskie Vedomosti reported. Kurykin said no safety measures were taken in the process of the plant's closure several years ago, and a large amount of mercury had gotten into the soils around the plant.

Currently, workers are collecting 100 tons (110 short tons) of mercury from the Radikal's tanks and polluted soil from the plant territory to transport them for storage at a chemical plant in the town of Horlivka in eastern Ukraine, the report said.

-------- human rights

WFP Races Against Onset of Winter to Feed Afghans

October 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-food-afghanistan.html

ROME (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) is racing against the onset of winter amidst a U.S. bombing campaign to feed millions of desperately hungry Afghans.

The food aid agency said in the latest update on its Web site this week that it aimed to increase deliveries to reach a targeted monthly 52,000 tons of food aid, to feed the six million hungriest people inside Afghanistan.

U.S. retaliation for the September 11 attacks and Afghanistan's brutal snow-bound winter, due to begin soon, are seen hampering food distribution across harsh mountainous terrain to people suffering from years of civil conflict and drought.

For the first time since the attacks the U.S. blames on Osama bin Laden and his Afghan-based Al Qaeda network, the WFP Tuesday distributed emergency food to displaced people stranded in a no-man's land along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, according to the Web site http://www.wfp.org.

A WFP team crossed the frontier at Chaman to deliver 6,500 high-energy biscuits to those sheltering in the Spinboldak area.

The WFP team described the people there as tired and ``in pretty bad shape.'' Only one third had their own shelter materials.

WINTER TO HAMPER FOOD DISTRIBUTION

WFP, the main food aid agency in Afghanistan, said on Wednesday it planned to buy 16 snowploughs in Tajikistan, which could be used to clear roads in the Anjuman Pass, near the Pakistan border, often blocked in winter.

A big worry is the remote central highlands region of Afghanistan where road access to about 100,000 families is expected to be cut off by mid-November when the snows begin.

``It is estimated about 30,000 tons will have to be distributed to sustain them through the winter months,'' it said.

``WFP is drawing up contingency plans to airdrop and airlift food to them during this period in the event overland deliveries are insufficient.''

The agency said that 1,300 tons of food aid had been loaded on to trucks in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan, ready for dispatch to the central highlands.

Another convoy loaded with 100 tons of food has set off from the capital Kabul for Hazarajat in the central highlands.

WFP handed the food Monday to British non-governmental organization Oxfam for distribution.

Monday, two mobile warehouses were delivered to the Chaman area. These will be used to store WFP's food supplies, currently 122 tons of mixed commodities.

WFP plans to increase the number of transport routes from bordering countries for food deliveries into Afghanistan.

The agency is buying 17,000 tons of Iranian wheat and 5,000-10,000 tons of Kazakh wheat to feed Afghans, a senior WFP official said Tuesday.

Irene Lacy-Sanders, chief of WFP's procurement and contracts branch, said WFP had completed the purchase of 11,500 tons of wheat from Pakistan and that procurement in that country would continue.

-------- spying

Spy Suspect Had Missile Site Coordinates
Military Contractor Also Had Embassy Addresses When Arrested, Indictment Says

By Brooke A. Masters
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2001; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42721-2001Oct23.html

When accused spy Brian P. Regan was intercepted by federal agents at Dulles International Airport in late August, he was carrying the coordinates of two foreign countries' missile sites and the addresses of Chinese and Iraqi embassies in Europe, according to an indictment handed up yesterday by a federal grand jury in Alexandria.

The grand jury charged Regan, 39, of Bowie, with attempted espionage, which carries a maximum of life in prison. The single-count indictment reinforces the belief of counterintelligence experts that Regan, who worked at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, first as an Air Force master sergeant and then as a contractor with TRW Inc., was apprehended early in his alleged spying career.

The indictment charges that beginning in 1999, Regan, an expert on signals intelligence, began surfing on the classified U.S. intelligence intranet known as Intelink for information about the military preparedness of China, Iran, Iraq and Libya. Law enforcement sources said they believed that he might have been assembling documents to sell.

He did similar surfing in the three weeks before his arrest, viewing classified satellite images of missile facilities and launch preparations of two unnamed countries, while taking notes, the indictment said.

Regan's attorney, Nina Ginsberg, declined to comment on the indictment.

Regan spent 20 years in the Air Force, becoming a "recognized expert" on the air defense systems in the Middle East and former Soviet Union, the indictment said. His last job at the NRO, which builds and maintains spy satellites, was in the office that concentrates intelligence support for military forces in the field.

Regan lost his top-secret security clearance in August 2000, when he retired from the Air Force, but he regained it a year later as a TRW contractor, when he was already under suspicion of spying.

The investigation leading to Regan's arrest began last fall, when U.S. officials learned that Libya had classified documents that it was not supposed to have, according to court documents and law enforcement sources. The documents were mostly classified secret -- not the more critical "top secret" -- and included nonclassified pages of otherwise classified documents.

The United States also learned that Libyan officials had received encrypted messages, telling them to contact a free e-mail account assigned to "Steve Jacobs," of Alexandria, an FBI affidavit said. FBI agents determined that the Jacobs account was being accessed from public libraries in Crofton, Falls Church and Prince George's County. The two Maryland libraries are within five miles of Regan's Bowie home, and the Falls Church library is on his commuting route.

In June, FBI agents watched Regan use public access computer terminals in the Crofton library to look up the addresses of the Iraqi and Libyan embassies in France, Germany and Switzerland, the 16-page indictment said. On June 26, Regan flew to Germany for a week-long private trip.

In August, Regan bought another plane ticket to Germany and began collecting the information on the missile facilities, the indictment said.

Regan told co-workers he was taking his four children to Walt Disney World, but on Aug. 23, he was intercepted at Dulles International Airport as he was taking an airport mobile lounge to board a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then Zurich.

At the time, he had the addresses of the Chinese and Iraqi embassies concealed in a compartment in his shoe, a Global Positioning System and a notebook with a personal code representing the coordinates of a missile launch preparation site, the indictment said. He also had a sheet of paper in his wallet with a similar code for two foreign missile facilities. In addition, he was carrying a list of NRO technical training courses that showed the level of classified information that he had access to, the indictment said.

Regan's checked bag had tape, glue and garbage bags inside, and his carry-on contained latex gloves, the indictment said.

A computer disk seized during a search of Regan's home contained a letter to the Canary Islands, Spain, asking for information about off-shore bank accounts, the indictment said. Regan had amassed $53,000 in consumer debt at the time of his arrest, according to court documents.

Regan enlisted in the Air Force when he was 17 and won several awards during his 20 years of service, including a medal for his analysis of the Iraqi military during the Persian Gulf War.

-------- terrorism

THE LAWMAKERS
House Passes Bipartisan Anti-Terror Bill

New York Times
October 24, 2001
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/24/politics/24CND-CONG.html

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - The House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed a bill giving law enforcement a broad array of new powers to fight terrorism.

The measure, prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and promoted aggressively by the White House, was approved by a vote of 357 to 66. The Senate was expected to take up the bill today or Thursday. Assuming that the Senate approves it, President Bush would probably sign it before the weekend.

"It's a good bill," said Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic majority leader. "We will take it up shortly."

The legislation would give police agencies an array of new powers, including "roving wiretaps" to track terrorism suspects regardless of the telephone they use and increased penalties for supporters of terrorism. It would also encourage greater sharing of information - including grand jury information - among intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Some lawmakers have said the anti-terrorism package would just give the authorities the tools they need without impinging on traditional rights. They have argued, for instance, that the "roving wiretaps" are necessary with more and more people using cellular telephones. Other lawmakers have worried that anti-terrorism steps could be subject to civil-liberties abuses.

"The House is taking a responsible step forward by giving law enforcement the tools necessary to secure the safety of Americans while protecting our constitutional rights," Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said after the vote.

"This landmark legislation will provide law enforcement and intelligence agencies additional tools that are needed to address the threat of terrorism and to find and prosecute terrorist criminals," said Representative James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who heads the House Judiciary Committee.

Representative John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called the bill "one of the most important measures that we will determine" and noted that it "expands the law in many directions."

A crucial part of the bill is a compromise that would have many of its provisions expire, or "sunset," in four years. The White House had opposed any "sunsets," but was forced to accept them as part of the price of getting a measure that both chambers could pass. Last Wednesday, House and Senate negotiators finished ironing out the main differences between the two chambers.

This morning's House vote was in a sense anti-climactic, as the House finished debating the measure Tuesday night.

Even before the terrorist attacks, there had been frequent debate over how to monitor cell-phone and Internet communications, and how much. Some law enforcement people have argued that the law needs to catch up with the computer age. While not disagreeing entirely, some civil rights advocates have offered reminders that, in times of crisis or war, the country has sometimes embraced security measures that it came to regret afterward.


-------- activists

Need for IMMEDIATE assistance

From: "Lisa Helms" <lisa@miltoxproj.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 10:31:09 -0400

There are three hearings scheduled for Portsmouth on Nov 1, Paducah on Nov 6 and Oak Ridge in Nov 8. This is for input on an Environmental Impact Statement, well, the DOE in its wisdom has decided that they only need an assessment and it is a faster track, that maybe they will cancel the meetings!!!!! We need to put pressure on and hammer the idea that public input is critical for either scenario and that they are always saying how important our opinions are....DONT CANCEL THE MEETINGS The communites have worked hard to prepare their statements.

Paducah says this happens all the time, they get people all worked up then cancel it or reschedule without notice. We all know what is going on, let's reverse it and put some pressure on with our calls and emails.

Maybe they wont if we call/email/fax and make a request to move ahead. let's make a name today for the DU issue key contacts are in bold... Here are the contacts: Portsmouth site - Sandy Childers Bechtel Jacobs Childers, y84@bechteljacobs.org Paducah - Don Seabourg - 270-441-6800 USEC - Greg Cook 270-441-5023 Raymond Carroll 270-441-6586 Janet Miller 270-441-5279 General numbers 443-2713 and 443-0197 Oak Ridge - Walter Perry 1-800-382-6938 xt 1 DOE Oak Ridge - Leah Dever 1-865-574-1000 DOE Washington - Spencer Abraham 202-586-5000 ATSDR Carol Connell 1-888-422-8737

----

ALERT! HELP STOP PRO-NUKE, PRO ANWR ENERGY BILL!

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
From: michael mariotte <nirsnet@nirs.org>

Energy industry interests in the U.S. Senate, led by former Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) are using our current national security crisis as an immoral, repugnant means of propping up the nuclear and oil industries.

Specifically, Murkowski and a few other Senators reportedly have introduced a "stripped-down" energy bill that they intend to attach to any legislation moving through the Senate--no matter how important that legislation is to our country.

This "stripped-down" bill (we don't yet have a bill number) would reauthorize the Price-Anderson nuclear insurance scheme (despite the fact that it does not expire until next August, and is only needed to allow construction of new reactors), allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), provide some gas pipeline incentives, and provide a minimum of funds for renewable energy projects.

This effort is in response to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's refusal to bring up energy legislation that includes ANWR to the Senate floor, and his directive to Senate Energy Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) to develop a new bill Daschle can support sufficiently to bring to a vote. Murkowski and his colleagues want to bypass Daschle and get their own bill voted on, and they don't seem to care what kind of harm they do to the nation to get this.

We must respond NOW! However, responding is not as easy in these times as it sometimes is.

First, there is no guarantee Bingaman will produce a bill without Price-Anderson reauthorization (it was in his initial draft). Thus, we cannot simply support a Bingaman alternative.

Second, as you probably know, it is virtually impossible to reach anyone on Capitol Hill right now--most Senate and House offices remain closed due to anthrax scares. It is simply not possible to effectively call, e-mail, or fax anyone in the Senate, and letters absolutely will not be delivered for weeks, if then.

Thus, we must be more creative. First, contact your local media. Do they know a small band of right-wing, pro-energy industry senators are threatening to hold up the works of the entire U.S. Senate during this crucial period in our history, simply to help their allies and campaign contributors? Is this really the type of divisive, controversial legislation the Senate should be considering right now? Or should the Senate focus on appropriations bills and keeping the government running in its few days before adjournment? Why does reauthorization of Price-Anderson, which doesn't expire for many months, and even then is only necessary for new reactors, rate such a high priority on these senators' agendas?

We urge you to call your local reporters and editorial boards, write letters to the editor and op-eds, call in to radio talk shows, contact your local TV outlets. The more this story is told, the less likely Murkowski et al, will be successful. Please feel free to refer your media to NIRS for additional comment/background info if they would like it.

Second, please call your Senators' home offices--since you can't call them on Capitol Hill, call them at home, and urge them to oppose minority efforts to add controversial energy legislation--especially Price-Anderson and ANWR--to urgent bills. Tell them to choose a SUSTAINABLE energy future. Tell them you have contacted your local media to watch their actions. Your Senators' local offices should be listed in the blue (government) pages of your phone book; if you cannot find a number, call NIRS (202-328-0002).

Third, ask everyone you know and everyone you meet to do steps 1 and 2!

Finally, continue to gather signatures on NIRS' Petition for a Sustainable Energy Future. We have collected many thousands of signatures in just a few weeks, but we need to get more. If you need more copies, you can a) download from NIRS' website, in the Nuclear Relapse section (www.nirs.org); b) call NIRS (202-328-0002) and we will either fax or mail you copies. We will get these to the Senate before any vote occurs.

The actions of these few Senators are as opportunistic and disgusting as I have seen in my 17 years at NIRS. But these Senators have some less vocal allies. With some major national environmental groups still sitting on the sidelines after September 11, it's up to us to stop this in its tracks. The nuclear and oil industries are not grieving, they are pressing hard for their own interests. We CAN stop them! I really ask each of you to help.

Thank you.

Michael Mariotte Executive Director Nuclear Information and Resource Service www.nirs.org

----

Dalai Lama Urges U.S. to Talk, Not Bomb

October 24, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-dalai-eu.html

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged the United States on Wednesday to end air strikes on Afghanistan and open a dialogue with those it holds responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Speaking after an address to the European Parliament, the Buddhist leader said he believed the United States was trying to avoid civilian casualties, but said face-to-face contact was the best way to stop international terrorism.

``In the long run, this kind of human approach, a non-violent approach is more appropriate and effective,'' he told a news conference in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

The United States has named Afghanistan-based Islamic militant Osama bin Laden as the mastermind behind the suicide attacks against the United States and has launched air strikes against the country's ruling Taliban for harboring him.

The Dalai Lama, whose exiled government accuses China of brutal repression in Tibet, said he did not believe the stronger ties between Beijing and Washington in the international coalition against terrorism would harm the Tibetan cause.

``China should not be isolated, China should be part of the mainstream of the world,'' he said.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate had earlier given his first address to a full sitting of the European Parliament, a body which has often supported the Tibetan cause.

Speaking in Tibetan, he called for a ``culture of dialogue'' and appealed for international help to put pressure on Beijing to free the Tibetan people, whose culture and heritage he said faced extinction under Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to India in 1959 along with thousands of followers, nine years after the Chinese army entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy.

He said there had been no progress in his relations with Beijing despite his support for autonomy, which would stop short of outright independence for Tibet, a position he calls a ''middle way.''

CHINA ANGRY

The Chinese government had called on the European Parliament to cancel the invitation.

In a letter to the assembly, China's ambassador to the EU said the Dalai Lama was clearly using religion as a cover for political separatism which ran contrary to the will of the Chinese people and the development of EU-China relations.

But the parliament's president, Nicole Fontaine, said the assembly would continue to support the Tibetan cause with ''unflinching loyalty.''

The Dalai also held private talks with European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten, EU officials said.

As Hong Kong's last colonial governor, Patten drew Beijing's wrath for pushing democratic reforms in the territory before its reversion to Chinese rule in 1997.

--------

ALERT! HELP STOP PRO-NUKE, PRO ANWR ENERGY BILL!

Wed, 24 Oct 2001
From: "michael mariotte" <nirsnet@nirs.org>
NIRS

Energy industry interests in the U.S. Senate, led by former Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) are using our current national security crisis as an immoral, repugnant means of propping up the nuclear and oil industries.

Specifically, Murkowski and a few other Senators reportedly have introduced a "stripped-down" energy bill that they intend to attach to any legislation moving through the Senate--no matter how important that legislation is to our country.

This "stripped-down" bill (we don't yet have a bill number) would reauthorize the Price-Anderson nuclear insurance scheme (despite the fact that it does not expire until next August, and is only needed to allow construction of new reactors), allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), provide some gas pipeline incentives, and provide a minimum of funds for renewable energy projects.

This effort is in response to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's refusal to bring up energy legislation that includes ANWR to the Senate floor, and his directive to Senate Energy Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) to develop a new bill Daschle can support sufficiently to bring to a vote. Murkowski and his colleagues want to bypass Daschle and get their own bill voted on, and they don't seem to care what kind of harm they do to the nation to get this.

We must respond NOW! However, responding is not as easy in these times as it sometimes is.

First, there is no guarantee Bingaman will produce a bill without Price-Anderson reauthorization (it was in his initial draft). Thus, we cannot simply support a Bingaman alternative.

Second, as you probably know, it is virtually impossible to reach anyone on Capitol Hill right now--most Senate and House offices remain closed due to anthrax scares. It is simply not possible to effectively call, e-mail, or fax anyone in the Senate, and letters absolutely will not be delivered for weeks, if then.

Thus, we must be more creative. First, contact your local media. Do they know a small band of right-wing, pro-energy industry senators are threatening to hold up the works of the entire U.S. Senate during this crucial period in our history, simply to help their allies and campaign contributors? Is this really the type of divisive, controversial legislation the Senate should be considering right now? Or should the Senate focus on appropriations bills and keeping the government running in its few days before adjournment? Why does reauthorization of Price-Anderson, which doesn't expire for many months, and even then is only necessary for new reactors, rate such a high priority on these senators' agendas?

We urge you to call your local reporters and editorial boards, write letters to the editor and op-eds, call in to radio talk shows, contact your local TV outlets. The more this story is told, the less likely Murkowski et al, will be successful. Please feel free to refer your media to NIRS for additional comment/background info if they would like it.

Second, please call your Senators' home offices--since you can't call them on Capitol Hill, call them at home, and urge them to oppose minority efforts to add controversial energy legislation--especially Price-Anderson and ANWR--to urgent bills. Tell them to choose a SUSTAINABLE energy future. Tell them you have contacted your local media to watch their actions. Your Senators' local offices should be listed in the blue (government) pages of your phone book; if you cannot find a number, call NIRS (202-328-0002).

Third, ask everyone you know and everyone you meet to do steps 1 and 2!

Finally, continue to gather signatures on NIRS' Petition for a Sustainable Energy Future. We have collected many thousands of signatures in just a few weeks, but we need to get more. If you need more copies, you can a) download from NIRS' website, in the Nuclear Relapse section (www.nirs.org); b) call NIRS (202-328-0002) and we will either fax or mail you copies. We will get these to the Senate before any vote occurs.

The actions of these few Senators are as opportunistic and disgusting as I have seen in my 17 years at NIRS. But these Senators have some less vocal allies. With some major national environmental groups still sitting on the sidelines after September 11, it's up to us to stop this in its tracks. The nuclear and oil industries are not grieving, they are pressing hard for their own interests. We CAN stop them! I really ask each of you to help.

Thank you.

Michael Mariotte Executive Director Nuclear Information and Resource Service www.nirs.org



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