------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Bush says he'll 'substantially lower' U.S. arms levels
Terrorists courted nuclear scientists
U.S. Boycotts Nuclear Test Ban Meeting
Nuclear claim questioned
NUCLEAR WEAPONS Fission Confusion
Bush and Putin Expected to Agree to Reduce Nuclear Arsenals
Eurotech progressing on its corporate strategy
Thief Needs Treatment for Radiation-Police
NYC, PENTAGON AREA MAY BE RADIOACTIVE
India has hydrogen bomb: Kalam
Nuclear Installations In Pakistan Magazine
Buttoning It Up Despite Musharraf's full cooperation
Braving PR fallout of nuclear plan fiasco
New water leak found at Japan nuclear reactor
Putin Looking to Boost U.S. Relations
Transforming Relations With Russia
Lax Nuclear Security in Russia
Ever cautious Swiss drill for nuclear accident
Federation of American Scientists news conference - 10 a.m.
Foreign tankers seen as security concern
Advocates say panel composition must change
Congressional support for de-alerting

MILITARY
Taliban ambush rebel convoy
Rebels jubilant over 'dramatic defeat' of Taliban
Rival Warlords Put Aside Bitter Feuds of Past
U.S. Hits Suspected Weapons Sites
Anthrax blamed on US scientist
Panel Criticizes Anthrax Response
Environmental regulators struggle over release of information
FEDERAL CONTRACTS
New tanks will give India a significant edge
Russian-made missile hits bull's-eye
Iraqi Defectors Tell of Kuwaitis in Secret Jail in Baghdad
Israeli troops enter village, kill suspected militant
Big Plans -- and Obstacles -- for a Fraying Alliance
Russia slams US on chemical weapons plant delay
General: Russians to Leave Chechnya
Injustice in Russia . . .
U.N. behind U.S. on forming postwar Afghan regime
Bush Ex - EPA Nominee Gets Navy Job
Vietnam-Era G.I.'s Watch New War Warily
A look at the two leaders

ENERGY AND OTHER
Germany gives green light for offshore wind plants
Larger turbines to push down wind energy prices
Electric Cars May Lose Push in Northeast
Shell called negligent in Brazil toxic waste case
Oil Drilling in Arctic Called Departure From Past Policy
World Lakes Said Overused, Polluted

POLICE / PRISONERS
Lawmakers say aviation security more urgent
Local Officials Accuse F.B.I. of Not Cooperating
Effort to Discover Terrorists Among Illegal Aliens
Man Surrenders in Terror Fund Probe
Why Clinton failed to stop bin Laden
MacArthur $5M Grant for Terror Study
Prague Connection

ACTIVISTS
German Authorities Detain Activists
Protesters Clash Over CNN Coverage
Who will defend the Constitution?



-------- NUCLEAR

Bush says he'll 'substantially lower' U.S. arms levels

USA Today
11/12/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/near.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday he will slash U.S. nuclear weapons to "substantially lower" levels even if Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to respond with similar cuts. The two leaders open three days of talks Tuesday.

Bush said he and Putin were on the verge of forging a relationship that "will outlive our presidencies." In an interview with Russian journalists, Bush said he would urge the 19-member NATO military alliance to build ties with Russia that go "beyond the current relationship."

The president suggested he still has differences with Putin over the U.S. missile defense program, which will soon violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty unless the pact is scrapped or amended. Putin has signaled that he is ready to agree to a formula that will allow the United States go ahead with tests related to missile defense as long as Bush preserves the treaty.

"The ABM treaty is outdated because it will prevent the United States from researching and developing weapons systems that will really reflect the true threats of the 21st century," Bush said, slumping comfortably in a Roosevelt Room chair across the hall from the Oval Office. "The big threat for us and for the Russians is not each other, but somebody developing weapons of mass destruction."

Bush's opposition to the ABM, as well as his pledge to reduce the U.S. nuclear cache regardless of Russia's plans, date to the early days of the 2000 presidential campaign. But coming as Putin arrived in the United States for three days of meetings, the remarks laid the groundwork for what aides said could be a remarkable session.

Though they are playing down the chances for a breakthrough on the ABM, senior administration officials said Monday it is likely that the pair will reach an accommodation on the issue - if not full agreement - before Putin leaves Bush's Texas ranch on Thursday.

Bush said one thing is certain: He will announce his numerical goals for reducing U.S. nuclear stockpiles.

"I'll have a number that I will share with him, and it's going to be substantially lower than today's weaponry, and I presume he'll have a number he'll share with me. The point is, what we don't need is the endless hours of arms control discussions," Bush said. "It's a new day when two new leaders step forward and say this is best for stability in the world."

Russia, no longer able to afford a Cold War nuclear stockpile, has promised new limits on U.S. and Russian stockpiles of not more than 2,000 long-range warheads for each country, down from a current total of about 6,000 each.

Bush advisers say they are considering 1,750 to 2,250 warheads apiece. A senior U.S. official said last week Bush's range dipped below 2,000.

Bush noted that he promised in the campaign to "reduce our weaponry to a level commensurate with keeping the peace but lower enough to say to the world that the Cold War is over. And there will be a specific range" announced Tuesday, the president said.

"Perhaps (Putin) will say the same thing. Regardless of whether he were to or not, I'm going to reduce our weapons," Bush said. "It is the right thing for America to do."

Bush said the leaders will sign a communique and complete several agreements including:

Bush's push to repeal the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, which made trade concessions contingent on Russia's human rights performance. The amendment has had no practical impact on U.S.-Russian trade - the president has regularly waived it - but Russia sees it as a humiliating throwback to the days when Soviet officials were forced to make an annual accounting to the U.S. Congress to win its right to a place in the U.S. market.

---

Terrorists courted nuclear scientists

USA Today
11/12/2001
By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/12/lede.htm

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - At least 10 of Pakistan's top nuclear scientists were contacted by representatives of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist organization seeking their help to build a nuclear weapons program inside Afghanistan, senior U.S. and Pakistani officials said. The contacts are among the first hard evidence that bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been trying to develop a weapon of mass destruction, U.S. officials familiar with the evidence say.

They also underscore U.S. concerns that Pakistan's nuclear secrets could fall into the hands of terrorists - though there is no firm evidence yet that bin Laden possesses weapons-grade technology, they said.

Several of the Pakistani scientists accepted the representatives' offers, said U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the offers. But the scientists, many of whom are Taliban sympathizers and recent retirees, told the representatives that they would only work in Afghanistan with the approval of the Pakistani government, the officials said.

Intelligence experts in the West doubt bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network has nuclear weapons.

"I think it's unlikely that they have a nuclear weapon, but on the other hand, with the determination they have, they may very well," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday.

U.S. officials say bin Laden might have nuclear material for a "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive packed with radioactive waste.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency said the offers, which were made within the past 2 years in Pakistan, were in the "early stages." It also said that only one of the scientists had traveled to Afghanistan since the offers were made.

After being informed of the offers by the FBI and CIA last month, ISI officials detained 10 people with "specific knowledge" of the country's nuclear weapons program to see whether they had been passing some of their nuclear expertise, raw materials or weaponry to the Taliban, U.S. officials said.

Among those questioned was Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

Since retiring in 1999, Mahmood traveled often to the Taliban stronghold city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he built what he described as three flour mills, Pakistani officials said. The three alleged mills, which U.S. officials say could have been scientific laboratories, were destroyed in the U.S.-led bombing campaign, Pentagon officials in Washington said.

Others questioned include Abdul Majid, former technical director of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons design facility, and Mirza Yusuf Baig, a former nuclear scientist. The three were questioned by ISI, CIA and FBI investigators, released, and then questioned again, their families said.

Pakistan, which started its nuclear program in 1974 and has at least 24 nuclear warheads, insists its nuclear technology and secrets are under tight safeguards. After Sept. 11, President Pervez Musharraf ordered a redeployment of the country's nuclear arsenal to at least six secret new locations and reorganized military oversight of the nuclear forces.

---

U.S. Boycotts Nuclear Test Ban Meeting
Some Delegates at U.N. Session Upset at Latest Snub of Pact Bush Won't Back

By Colum Lynch
The Washington Post
Monday, November 12, 2001; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12628-2001Nov11?language=printer

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 -- The Bush administration today boycotted a U.N. conference convened by Secretary General Kofi Annan to encourage states to ratify a global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests.

The decision to sidestep the three-day event represents the latest demonstration of U.S. opposition to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been signed by 161 countries, including the United States, and ratified by 85.

President Bush has made it clear that he will never submit the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification. But some delegates were miffed that the United States had chosen to snub many of its closest allies at a time that it is seeking to build a coalition to fight terrorism.

The decision brought an end to weeks of internal debate in the Bush administration over the wisdom of accepting an invitation to attend the conference as an observer. "We're not attending," a senior State Department official said today. "This is a meeting for ratifying states and we've made it clear we're not going to ratify."

The State Department had initially favored sending a low-level delegation to avoid a diplomatic confrontation. But the Pentagon hoped that a U.S. boycott would contribute to hastening the death of the nuclear pact.

The nuclear accord has long been a target of U.S. conservatives. In 1999, the Republican-controlled Senate voted 51-48 to reject a bid by President Bill Clinton to ratify the pact. Bush and his advisers have argued that the treaty is impossible to verify and that it may need to test weapons to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Russia, which has ratified the treaty, warned that the resumption of atomic tests could restart the nuclear arms race. Igor Sergeev, a special assistant to President Vladimir Putin, proposed today that the United States consider new negotiations aimed at improving the ability to verify treaty violations.

Wolfgang Hoffmann, the Mexican chairman of the conference, said that he expected other countries to follow Russia's lead. "This will obviously be a road down which many delegations will want to go in order to accommodate one very important signatory."

Annan told delegates at the opening session this morning that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington underscored the urgency of limiting the scope of the world's handful of nuclear weapons programs. "We have a precious but fleeting opportunity to render this troubled world a safer place, free of the threat of nuclear weapons," he said. "We must not let it pass."

Although the treaty has widespread support, its prospects for becoming law remain dim. The pact can only go into force after it is ratified by all 44 countries which have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. Thirteen of those nations, including the United States, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel, have yet to ratify the pact. Washington and New Dehli, which violated an informal international moratorium on nuclear tests in 1998, have insisted they will never allow the treaty to become law.

But Hoffmann said that he was still hopeful that the United States would one day ratify the pact. "I don't think there is unanimity within the U.S. administration on these issues," he said. "I think that if you keep up the pressure on the United States they will come around."

----

Nuclear claim questioned

By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 12, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011112-36821470.htm

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says he doubts Osama bin Laden has nuclear weapons but that it is "reasonable to assume he might very well have chemical or biological or possibly even radiation weapons."

Mr. Rumsfeld, interviewed yesterday on CBS' "Face the Nation" and "Fox News Sunday," also said the United States has bombed some sites in Afghanistan that might have been used to develop chemical or biological weapons and narcotics.

"I think it's unlikely that they have a nuclear weapon, but, on the other hand, with the determination they have, they may very well," the defense secretary said on CBS, referring to bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, which is believed to have masterminded the September 11 attacks against the United States.

While the U.S. military continues to hunt for bin Laden, the Saudi-born terrorist said in an interview last week with a Pakistani journalist that he has both nuclear and chemical weapons.

Bin Laden warned that he would be prepared to use those weapons against the United States if "America used chemical and biological weapons against us." The interview was conducted at a secret location, which the reporter, who was blindfolded, believed was near Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

Asked on Fox whether he is "seriously worried" that al Qaeda has weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "You bet."

However, Mr. Rumsfeld said in both network interviews that he is not sure whether the terrorists in question know how to use biological or chemical agents as weapons. "It's one thing to have the chemical or biological capability. It's another thing to have figured out how to weaponize it or develop the ability to deliver it," he said on "Face the Nation."

"We have a lot of information that they have the first step. We have less information with respect to the second," Mr. Rumsfeld added.

The defense secretary was one of three senior Bush administration officials on news talk shows yesterday who were asked to assess the likelihood that bin Laden has weapons of mass destruction.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," said, "I have no way of knowing, but I think it's unlikely that he has any nuclear weapons."

He called bin Laden's nuclear claim a "wild boast and threat" but said he did not know whether he had chemical and biological weapons.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice discussed the issue in appearances on ABC's "This Week" and CNN's "Late Edition."

She reiterated her previous statements that there was "no credible evidence" that bin Laden had nuclear weapons.

"We know he has been trying very hard to get them. We know he has said it is a religious duty to have weapons of mass destruction, and so we take him very seriously," she said.

"While there's no credible evidence of him having a nuclear weapon, we're taking the threat very seriously" and doing everything possible to make sure "he does not acquire usable weapons of mass destruction," she said.

Miss Rice went on to say that the United States was collaborating with "every intelligence operation practically in the world on the problem of al Qaeda and the Taliban and their weapons of mass destruction."

On CBS, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked about a report in the New York Times that said U.S. warplanes have not bombed some facilities in Afghanistan that show evidence of producing anthrax and cyanide.

"We have bombed some of them. We don't know where all of them are," he said.

"You can be certain that if we had very good information as to the location of a chemical or biological development area, that we would do something about it. We certainly have every desire in the world to prevent the terrorists from using those capabilities," Mr. Rumsfeld added.

He offered a slightly different perspective on Fox. He pointed out that a biological-weapons laboratory may be small, even mobile, yet capable of "creating enormous carnage in the world."

"So if we have suspicions, or information, or intelligence that suggests something might have such a role, then you are faced with this issue: Are you best taking it out or are you best learning more about it?" Mr. Rumsfeld said.

-------

NUCLEAR WEAPONS Fission Confusion
It was a week that embodied unclear policies and strategies on nuclear weapons

Outlook India Magazine
Nov 12, 2001
MARIANA BAABAR
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20011112&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=6

When US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CNN he hadn't ruled out the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan, it was construed in Islamabad as a reflection of Washington's growing frustration at the tardy progress of Operation Enduring Freedom.

But it was also taken to be a signal to the stubborn Afghans of the price they would have to pay for their continued support to the Taliban.

Rumsfeld's gratuitous remarks, though, united strategic thinkers, media and military officials in condemning the talk about tactical nuclear weapons. The News, for instance, was scathing in its criticism: "Fighting the human form of terrorism with conventional weapons might be an acceptable option in difficult circumstances but injecting an element of nuclear warfare into a conflict that is already producing too much death and misery is unconscionable. Neither the Pakistan government nor the people will be able to acquiesce to such an idea."

That Rumsfeld's remark coincided with the visit of US Centcom commander, Gen Tommy R. Franks, to Pakistan only heightened the nervousness here about Washington's intentions.

The protest against using tactical nuclear weapons goaded the regime to make public its opposition. Indeed, Islamabad's silence on the nuke issue could have only enhanced anti-US feelings and bolstered the jehadis in portraying Washington as an 'amoral' force out to decimate Muslims. Government spokesman Maj Gen Rasheed Qureshi said, "We firmly and categorically reject even the thought of using nuclear weapons tactically or otherwise."

But what provoked Rumsfeld to talk about tactical nuclear weapons? Though the Taliban barely has an organised army to take on the might of the superpower, there is little denying that the relentless bombing of Afghanistan hasn't achieved the desired results-neither has there been a rebellion against Mullah Omar, nor has the Northern Alliance succeeded in making any headway. Says Shireen M. Mazari, director-general of the Institute of Strategic Studies, "The ongoing use of cluster bombs and the impending threat that chemical and perhaps even nuclear weapons may be used means the war against terrorism is itself wreaking terror on an increasing number of Afghan civilians."

Strategic thinkers distinguish between tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. Tactical nukes have low yields (below 100 kilotons or KT) and are used in battlefields to eliminate a large number of enemy troops with one blow. In contrast, strategic nuclear weapons have yields over 100 KT and are used on vast areas, say, cities. A lower level of devastation or not, Mazari says, "Rumsfeld's remark is certainly an act of desperation and not responsible at all. The Americans don't need nuclear weapons as they have enough conventional ones."

Adds columnist Ayaz Amir, "In its undoubted grief and agony, the US is in danger of forgetting what the Greeks taught: hubris invites retribution. While there's no denying America's distress, it will only help its cause if this distress is not clothed in too excessive an arrogance." Couldn't the US display this arrogance through the use of nukes? No, says former defence secretary Gen (retd) Talat Masood: "The US doesn't have to use tactical nukes as its armoury of conventional weapons is immense. I think Washington has restrained itself from showcasing its conventional military might. For a country like Afghanistan, Washington's conventional weapons can be as deadly as nuclear bombs."

Similarly, Gen (retd) K.M. Arif, who was close to President Gen Zia-ul-Haq, says, "I understand the US had internal debates and the possibility of using nukes was ruled out. The US did consider it at one point." Arif argues that much shouldn't be read into Rumsfeld's remarks as "its (the US') nuclear policy allows it to keep this option open and use its nukes whenever it wants to".

Others also say that 2001 isn't 1945, when the US was keen to end World War II. As of now, it is in no hurry to end its war, nor is there curiosity in studying the impact of nukes. The use of tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan at this early stage of the war could have other adverse consequences for Washington. Points out Masood, "You cross a very dangerous threshold and you take the war into a different zone altogether. You also cross the moral threshold: the coalition against terror would split overnight."

Adds Gen (retd) K. Mattiuddin, who has authored several books on Afghanistan, "The US has no need to go in for nuclear weapons. It would exercise this option in the event of a world war, or in case it had to go to war against China." But if remarks about tactical nuclear weapons weren't enough, there soon followed media reports about the US and Israel undertaking military exercises to neutralise Pakistan's nuclear weapons, in the event of President Pervez Musharraf being ousted from power. Qureshi shrugged his shoulders and declared, "These reports are baseless and ridiculous. It shows how ignorant they are of the procedure and have little idea of the system involved to safeguard these nuclear weapons. There is no question of anyone attacking or coming close to them."

But Masood doesn't share Qureshi's optimism. He argues, "I certainly think this can happen in the worst-case scenario. For instance, if power goes into the hands of some radicals, the entire world would be too eager to de-nuke Pakistan." But Arif thinks the media reports were in themselves bogus. "The article on the option of de-nuking Pakistan's capabilities was by Seymour Hersh, an anti-Pakistan Jew. He's just maligning our nuclear programme," he says.

Some others think any attempt to target Pakistan's nuclear capability could have catastrophic consequences. For one, it could split the otherwise united army, with factions competing to protect the nuclear arsenal and plunging the country into chaos.

Mattiuddin, anyway, thinks it wouldn't be easy, even for the US, to neutralise Pakistan's nuclear weapons. His argument: "Our nuclear weapons are not lying ready for someone to come and pick them up. They are not in an assembled state. Nuclear weapons are not so simple; they are not carried away in briefcases. For instance, these weapons cannot be detonated till you know the codes. And second, even if our weapons are neutralised, you cannot take the nuclear knowledge away from us."

What surprised some was Indian defence minister George Fernandes' statement that Pakistani nukes were in fact in safe hands. Strategic thinkers, however, feel Fernandes was only articulating New Delhi's own fears of being de-nuked, besides sending a message to the world that South Asian nations are responsible nuke states.

The 'nuke confusion' received a new twist with Islamabad arresting three top nuclear scientists who had worked at the prestigious Kahuta Research Laboratory. It was again the western media which had hinted at their role in assisting Osama bin Laden to acquire nuclear sinews.Though the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, laughed at the US' paranoia and declared his country couldn't even manufacture glass, the Pakistan government kept a stiff upper lip through the week.

Last week's nuclear confusion, indeed, vividly illustrates the dangers the Afghanistan crisis poses to Pakistan and the many inconceivable turns Operation Enduring Freedom could take.

---

Bush and Putin Expected to Agree to Reduce Nuclear Arsenals and to Fight Terrorism

New York Times
November 12, 2001
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/international/12SUMM.html?searchpv=nytToday

President Bush will hold a summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this week and will try to close a number of agreements that could profoundly change the post-cold-war trajectory of relations between Washington and Moscow.

Meeting against a backdrop of war in Afghanistan and the national mobilization against terror at home, the two leaders are expected to announce deep reductions in the offensive nuclear arsenals that have stood - needlessly in the view of much of the world - like overhanging threats from the era of superpower competition.

The two men are also poised to establish a strong bond of cooperation - perhaps an alliance of sorts - in the struggle to quell the Islamic violence that has been welling up in Central Asia. The movements there directly threaten Russia's security and that of former Soviet republics that are striving - many with American investment - to tap one of the last great reservoirs of oil and natural gas on the planet.

Mr. Putin has also telegraphed that he is ready to reach an accord that will allow the United States to proceed with rigorous testing of antiballistic missile systems as long as Mr. Bush will agree to preserve the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which Russia sees as the cornerstone of strategic stability.

To critics who say that Russia has nothing to offer the United States, Mr. Putin has broadcast in a number of pre-summit-meeting interviews that Russia, the world's second-largest oil producer, stands ready to ensure the West's energy security in the event of war or disruption in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

A number of American leaders have been impressed.

"Russia has a tremendous capacity of being an alternate energy source for the United States," Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week.

Russia's churlish intelligence services have - under orders from the Kremlin - unloaded into American hands an inestimable amount of information about the networks that radiate out from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network into the Middle East and Asia.

"This is a very different relationship now," said Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, in briefing reporters last week. "This is a different relationship than the one that Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon had, or even that George Herbert Walker Bush and Gorbachev had," she said. "It is a relationship that got new impetus to shared cooperative security issues concerning Sept. 11 and counterterrorism," she added, and one that will be based on growing economic ties and an expanded role for Russia in the West's security.

"I believe you will start to see the United States and NATO talk to Russia about how NATO and Russia can better relate," she said.

In Moscow, Kremlin officials told reporters this past weekend to expect as many as seven statements to emerge from the three-day meeting, which will begin in Washington tomorrow and carry over to Mr. Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch on Wednesday and Thursday. The statements are likely to include one on the future of Afghanistan, an accord on joint efforts in counterterrorism, an agreement on missile defenses and reducing offensive weapons and an elaboration on Russia's role with NATO.

In addition, administration officials in Washington said they were pushing for a "significant proliferation element" in any new strategic framework sealed with Russia, an apparent reference to its continuing sales to Iran of weapons and civilian nuclear reactor technology that the United States fears will assist Iran's quest to develop nuclear weapons.

Bush administration officials have sought to tamp down expectations that the meeting will produce significant results. But it has been increasingly apparent since Sept. 11 that both leaders view the attacks on the United States as a galvanizing event to overcome resistance to a new Russian-American partnership, broader even than the one forged by President Clinton and Boris N. Yeltsin.

It was not so long ago that Mr. Bush himself was a factor in resisting Russia and Mr. Putin. The Bush administration came to office espousing the view that Russia did not account for much as a world power anymore.

There is little agreement on what changed the course of Mr. Bush's thinking last spring. Some specialists have speculated that the confrontation with China over the collision of an American spy plane was a signal event that persuaded Mr. Bush and his advisers that their indifference to working collectively in foreign affairs was both alarming allies and driving other powers like China and Russia together.

Mr. Bush sought to overcome these apprehensions with a European tour in June. In his first meeting with Mr. Putin, in Slovenia, Mr. Bush said that he had found in Mr. Putin a partner he could trust, a step that was essential if only to quiet the apprehension Mr. Bush had incited among European leaders about America going it alone on missile defense. Of Mr. Putin, Mr. Bush said, "I am convinced that he and I can build a relationship of mutual respect and candor."

The sweep of events after Sept. 11 continues to impel the two leaders toward one another, notwithstanding the deep reservations many Americans harbor over Mr. Putin's background as a K.G.B. officer, whose political rise were orchestrated by Mr. Yeltsin and built on a brutal military campaign in Chechnya.

In Shanghai last month, Mr. Bush, with some emotion, noted that his first call from a world leader after the Sept. 11 attacks came from Mr. Putin. Since then, the distance between the two leaders' positions on a host of issues had closed rapidly.

To some experts, Mr. Bush has traveled the greater distance toward Mr. Putin's view of a collaborative new security structure in the world. It was Mr. Putin who, earlier this year, spoke forcefully in an interview with American correspondents in Moscow about the need for Russia and the United States to confront the threat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

"I feel that I personally am to blame for what happened," Mr. Putin said in the wake of the attacks. "Yes, I talked a great deal about that threat, but I guess it wasn't enough."

Mr. Putin's goal has been "to shift the United States away from the illusion that it is leading a unipolar world," said Clifford G. Gaddy of the Brookings Institution in Washington during a forum last week. "I stress the word illusion because Putin and other Russians never thought that this was objectively possible," he added.

There are still many prominent skeptics, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter, who argue that it is premature to conclude that Russia has made a historic choice in favor of the West, but rather may simply be maneuvering cleverly to lay the most advantageous foundation for a long-term rebuilding of Russian national power.

"I would say that joining the West is exactly what Putin is not about," Mr. Gaddy said. "What Putin is about is, with respect to the U.S., is that he is absolutely convinced that the U.S. must not be allowed to continue to go it alone."

-------- business

Eurotech progressing on its corporate strategy

November 12, 2001
ECON Investor Relations, Inc.,
Dawn Van Zant, 1-800-665-0411 dvanzant@investorideas.com
From: "Darci Danyliu" <darci@hereyougo.com>

The Following is a Direct Communication from EUROTECH, Ltd. Chairman Chad A. Verdi and President/CEO Don V. Hahnfeldt

In light of the tragic events that occurred in our nation on September 11th and the resulting economic and market uncertainties, we wanted to give you a Company update.

After meeting with current and prospective customers, management does not expect the terrorist acts to delay current development plans or commercialization of our technologies. In fact, some of our market opportunities are expected to grow as funding is becoming available for a variety of products where our technologies can be applied to enhance homeland safety and security.

While Eurotech is progressing on its corporate strategy, the Company's management has focused on bringing together all of Eurotech's corporate resources to deliver its most promising technologies into the marketplace - radiation-resistant EKORTM, radioactive fixative RAD-X, non-intrusive ground survey EMR/ACTM, non-isocyanate polyurethane HNIPUTM, and its encryption technology. Each of these technologies exhibits qualities with the potential to be "disruptive" in the marketplace and the capability to become a leading product in its respective market. Limited revenues from delivery of these technologies have already begun to take place.

EKORTM and RAD-X have been demonstrated in the last few months at certain Department of Energy ("DOE") nuclear weapon complex sites as an innovative solution for managing nuclear waste. Revenue flow from the sales of the EKORTM and RAD-X products from small-scale DOE projects has begun. Following initial small-scale projects we have submitted proposals to DOE contractors that management believes could lead to multi-million dollar contracts. The 2002 DOE budget for environmental management is again over $6 billion. The Company is also actively pursuing commercial non-nuclear applications of EKORTM in the construction industry. A teaming agreement for this use of EKORTM is very likely in 2002. Management believes that revenues from this market opportunity can be substantial.

Eurotech has licensed EMR/ACTM as a complimentary technology to EKORTM, and together they can provide life cycle management services to nuclear environmental cleanups projects. For example, EMR/ACTM can identify a leaking tank of liquid waste, EKORTM can seal the leak, and EMR/ACTM can monitor the migration of the remaining contaminants in the subsoil and ground water. The Company is marketing these technologies to DOE contractors with numbers of active proposals submitted and under consideration. The outcome of these proposals should be known shortly and management believes they will be will very positive.

The Company has established two major divisions, which are moving steadily forward. The Nuclear and Environmental Technology Solutions division is supporting nuclear and non-nuclear applications of EKORTM and RAD-X. The Advanced Performance Materials division has brought HNIPUTM to the point of commercialization, and the Company is in negotiations with multiple large corporate entities for worldwide licensing/royalty revenue agreements in the coatings and foam segments of the $40 billion worldwide polyurethane market.

As a result of the tragedy of September 11th a new focus has been established on technologies that can counter the threat of terrorism here in the United States and worldwide. Eurotech's encryption technology may provide a unique and significant capability to secure communications. The Company is in discussions with appropriate United States entities formalizing agreements and sponsorship to deliver its secure communications products to the market. The Company has also recently announced that its ACTM technology is capable of non-intrusively detecting plastic explosives. EKORTM is being promoted as a complementary method of protecting our nuclear waste sites from possible acts of terrorism today.

With regard to the Shareholders' Meeting, the Company had anticipated holding its Annual Meeting on November 30, 2001 in New York City at the American Stock Exchange. After the terrorist attacks and the temporary closing of the AMEX building, we consulted AMEX on the issues of travel, dates, alternate locations, safety and security. We made back up plans and selected an alternate site to stay on schedule. The introduction of bio-terrorism and ongoing terrorist warnings have given us cause for continued concern for travel and the security at our primary and secondary meeting locations of New York City and Washington, DC. Therefore we asked AMEX for an extension of our Annual Meeting to early 2002. AMEX's Board of Governors approved an extension of our meeting, which we will hold on March 29, 2002, at a time and location to be announced shortly.

As reported in our last SEC filing, we are concluding a $1 million private placement and as disclosed before, we are pleased to announce that we will be closing on the first part of a new financing of $2.5 million that is in final negotiation. The Company has reduced its annual fixed cost basis by approximately 50 percent as part of its overall plan to reduce overhead expenses until additional revenues are achieved.

Thank you for your support, Chad A. Verdi, Chairman / Don V. Hahnfeldt, CEO

For additional information about Eurotech and its technologies visit the Company website www.eurotechltd.com.

Certain information and statements included in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Privates Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.

-------- canada

Thief Needs Treatment for Radiation-Police

Mon, Nov 12 7:55 AM EST
Reuters
http://news.excite.com/news/r/011112/07/odd-radiation-dc

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A determined thief who broke into a Canadian weather station made off with more than C$300 worth of tools, as well as a dose of radiation.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued an unusual warning on Friday urging the thief to seek medical treatment immediately, reminding him or her that the visit can remain secret because of doctor-patient confidentiality rules.

Police said the thief was exposed to radiation when entering and leaving the unmanned station at Mount Sicker on southern Vancouver Island through a Doppler Radar dome near the top of the facility.

"The radar dome is bathed in radiation. Human exposure to this type of radiation could result in permanent damage to soft tissue, i.e. eyes and testicles," police said a statement.

To reach the dome, the thief had to get through three barbed wire fences and climb an 80-foot spiral staircase. It is not known when the break-in occurred, but it was believed to have happened within the past three weeks.


-------- depleted uranium

NYC, PENTAGON AREA MAY BE RADIOACTIVE

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

The or a possible cause of what's being called "World Trade Center Syndrome" might be from the DU on the Sept. 11 airplanes[Depleted Uranium] that may have caught fire[probably].

Has anyone done and/or is anyone interested in getting out their Radalert or other rad monitoring device and measuring and testing radiation levels at:

1. Near The Former World Trade Center[In Manhattan or any of the other 4 NYC boroughs and Northern New Jersey]

2. Near The Pentagon

3. At or Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed?

From: "Leuren Moret" - leurenmoret@yahoo.com:

On Sept. 11, I called a medical doctor who lives 7 miles from the Pentagon and warned her that DU could have burned in the hijacked jets that crashed (up to 3000 pounds were used in 747's). She turned on her gamma meter - radiation levels were 8 times higher than normal inside her house. She informed the Nuclear Information ResourceService in Washington DC[Phone: 202-328-0002], and the EPA, FBI, HazMat and other emergency response agencies went to the Pentagon to investigate. A pile of rubble from the crash was radioactive, but the EPA rep said "oh... it's probably depleted uranium... it's not a health hazard unless you breathe it". Firefighters, Pentagon personel, and communities nearby DID BREATHE IT. There was no followup investigation, and what about the World Trade Center in NY? Radiation almost never gets into the media. It is a taboo subject.

From: "Dr. H. D. Sharma" <hdsharma@golden.net>[Physicist]

It does not matter whether the planes that hit the World-Trade Towers and the Pentagon have DU or not as long as DU does not catch fire. If DU catches fire -- most likely just like in the case of the El-Al plane that caught fire outside Amsterdam (Netherland), it will form aerosols of uranium dioxide. Inhalation of the aerosols can be harmful to human health depending on the quantity inhaled.

The presence of aerosols can be checked with the help of a simple radiation survey meter. Such meters are readily available and the site near the Towers should be checked for gamma-ray emitters as soon as possible. If you do not see any radiation from radioisotopes of thorium-234 and protoactinium-234, you are fairly certain that no DU has become airborne and it is unlikely to be harmful to human health. Hari Sharma.

-------- india / pakistan

India has hydrogen bomb: Kalam

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2001
Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1465593281

NEW DELHI: India possessed a hydrogen bomb and its nuclear weapons were "absolutely safe", noted scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who demits office on Monday as principal scientific advisor to the government, said on Sunday.

"Scientists and technicians who conducted the Pokhran II tests in 1999 are all satisfied with the results and we have a thermo-nuclear device," Kalam, regarded father of India's missile systems, said here.

Asked about the safety of nuclear assets, 70-year-old Kalam, who holds a Cabinet rank, said "safety standards are in-built in our country. We possibily have much better safety standards than many others".

On whether India should develop missiles with strike ranges longer than 'Agni-II', which can reach a target at a distance of over 2,200 km, he said "it depends on what kind of enemy the country faces and its strategy for the next 10 or more years. India is capable of manufacturing (a longer range missile) if the necessity arises".

Kalam, who will be succeeded in the key post by R. Chidambaram, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said that he was quitting his job as he wanted to work with younger people and high school students to create a scientific culture and push India to a developed nation status.

"Change, I believe, is very important in a man's life. Change allows a person to contribute very effectively," Kalam, who worked in key defence and space centres for the last 43 years, said.

A recipient of Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour, Kalam skirted a question as to who had given the command for triggering the underground nuclear blasts in Pokhran in 1998, saying "these days computers are there (to do the job)".

On his future plans, he said that he would return to Bangalore, where he had started his career, and would join the Indian Institute of Science as a distinguished professor.

An aeronautical engineer from the Madras Institute of Technology, Kalam said that he had been trying for a change since 1991 when he was offered the post of vice chancellor of Madras University.

"I am more comfortable with youngsters and high school students. I want to share their imagination. In the last few months, I have interacted with over 15,000 youngsters across the country from Tripura to Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Dindigul in Tamil Nadu and I want to ignite their scientific temper," he said.

The top sceintist said "the best example of a leader is when he allows change. I left ISRO and DRDO and I found better people emerging".

Describing himself as a "sea guy", Kalam said that he had worked all his life in sea coasts along the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. "I also found Pokhran challenging," he said.

He further said that he wanted to work with the youngsters to transform the country into a developed nation. ( PTI )

----

Nuclear Installations In Pakistan Magazine

Nov 12, 2001
Outlook India
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20011112&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=7

Over the years Pakistan has developed facilities to make nuclear weapons inside the country.As per media reports, Pakistan has about 24 nuclear warheads.

http://www.outlookindia.com/images/nuke_011112.jpg

---

NUCLEAR ESTABLISHMENT
Buttoning It Up Despite Musharraf's full cooperation, the US is taking no chances with the ISI or Pakistan's nukes

Outlook India
AMIR MIR
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20011112&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=8

Embarrassed at repeatedly missing its target in Afghanistan, and quite paranoid of what Osama bin Laden may still have in store for it, the United States is attempting to tighten the screws on Pakistan's nuclear establishment and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Its goal: purge the two organisations of alleged jehadi elements and sever any link between them and the Taliban as also bin Laden.

Last month, the Pakistan government removed then isi chief Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed, presumably at the behest of Washington. Reeling under the same pressure, Islamabad has reportedly handed over three superannuated Pakistani nuclear scientists to American investigators for probing their alleged links with bin Laden and the Taliban.

Among them is Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood, former director-general, nuclear power, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), and his colleagues, Abdul Majeed, a former chief engineer, and Mirza Yousaf Baig, a senior scientist.

Sources claim that Sultan Mehmood, who was running an ngo by the name of Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (Ummah Reconstruction), was arrested from his Islamabad residence on October 24, and subsequently released on October 26, after being cleared of the suspicion that "he was working against US interests". But he was picked up again the following day and allegedly handed over to a US team for interrogation.

Sultan's organisation was involved in voluntary activities in Afghanistan, but the US believes he used the ngo cover to assist bin Laden in his search for crude nuclear weapons. The scientist's family and close associates simply refute this charge.

The Pakistan government too has come to Mehmood's defence, albeit confusingly. Said government spokesman Maj Gen Rasheed Qureshi: "Sultan Bashiruddin retired in 1998 from the government service and became involved with an ngo. In the process, he had been to Afghanistan and certain questions are being asked about this and the process is continuing. He is not under arrest but is presently unwell and in an Islamabad hospital."

Claiming that Sultan's interrogation was in line with the policy of identifying those running dubious ngos, Qureshi said: "Bashiruddin is being asked as to why he had travelled to Afghanistan. Apparently, he was involved in some land development research. As poppy is no more being cultivated in Afghanistan, his efforts were to look for substitute crops."

Such clarifications apart, government sources say that Gen Pervez Musharraf's unstinted support to the US has fanned resentment in military and intelligence circles, even raising fears about his security and the future of his government. These sources say the cia has accused the isi of playing a double game post-September 11, of pretending to help and yet allowing the flow of weapons into Afghanistan. Wary of the isi, the US pressured Musharraf to remove Ahmed and co, via sweeping changes in the army on October 8, in the hope of getting credible intelligence on the Taliban.

On October 10, however, a mysterious fire broke out in the heavily-guarded General Headquarters (GHQ) building in Rawalpindi, reducing to ashes some top secret intelligence files there. Though the government claimed the fire was triggered by a short circuit, sources say some middle-ranking intelligence officers set the blaze, hoping to destroy evidence of cooperation between Pakistan and the Taliban and between the isi and bin Laden.

As far as the Americans are concerned, there's much the isi needs to conceal.

-------- ireland

Braving PR fallout of nuclear plan fiasco
Irish fallout exercise

The Irish Times - IRELAND
November 12, 2001
ireland.com
From: Cat@freewomen.freeserve.co.uk

The dry run brought little cause for comfort about our ability to respond to a nuclear accident, writes Joe Humphreys after watching the testing of a national emergency plan.

Whatever about the merits of Saturday's simulated nuclear accident as regards testing the national nuclear emergency plan, as a public relations exercise it came across as a genuine disaster.

Despite the fact Joe Jacob had been given advanced warning of the simulated incident, not to mention some six weeks to prepare his script following his infamous Marian Finucane interview, he remained as vague as ever regarding the advice to give the public in the case of a nuclear emergency.

Seven hours after the simulation began with an imaginary earthquake at the Wylfa nuclear power plant in Wales, the Minister of State for energy could offer no more advice than "stay indoors". All other information would be decided upon in the context of the incident, he said.

Well, he was asked, what of this incident? What advice would be given, for instance, on food consumption, or the ingestion of iodine? Ah, he replied, "we are talking hypothetically at this point," and he wasn't willing to speak about matters hypothetical.

Journalists called to this media "briefing" were left scratching their heads at what the Mr Jacob had described as "an exercise in information management". It seemed advice couldn't be given on a hypothetical situation, even in the context of a hypothetical situation.

It didn't quite help to secure what was one of the Minister's stated aims of the day, namely restoring public confidence in the country's "total state of readiness" for a nuclear emergency.

The second objective, he said, was to "fine-tune" the National Emergency Plan for Nuclear Accidents, to give it its official title. To meet both goals, the Department of Public Enterprise not only drafted in a team of consultants to evaluate the State's emergency response but also an external PR firm to manage the media's.

The exercise began at 5.15 a.m. with a phone call from consultants Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to a duty manager within the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII). This triggered a further series of calls, and the Emergency Response Co-Ordinating Committee - comprising representatives of Government Departments, the Garda Síochána and Met Éireann, among other bodies - was scrambled to the RPII's headquarters in Clonskeagh, Dublin.

ERM's director, Mr Sean O'Riordain, said relevant personnel were alerted to the day of the exercise, but not the time. While he would not say how good the initial response was, he confirmed the different officials "answered the phones".

Adding to the crisis atmosphere was the fact that the press briefing, shortly after noon, was conducted in a cramped front lobby of the RPII building. The media was not allowed upstairs to see the committee at work.

Mr Jacob emphasised the exercise was "not a reaction to anything".

And just in case minds were turning to his RTÉ radio interview, he added hastily: "it's not a reaction to the events of the 11th of September".

He added he expected a report on the exercise to be available within days. Soon after, he said, the public would receive their long-awaited information leaflets on the emergency plan.

In the meantime, the public have at least learnt one fact: Wylfa and not Sellafield is the closest nuclear plant to the Republic. So it wasn't a completely wasted exercise then.

-------- japan

New water leak found at Japan nuclear reactor

November 12, 2001,
by Masayuki Kitano
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13249/story.htm

TOKYO - A water leak was found at a Japanese nuclear power reactor operated by Chubu Electric Power Co Inc following a steam leak accident this week, Chubu Electric officials said on the weekend.

The water leak, which amounted to about a drip of water every few seconds, was found last week at Chubu Electric's 540,000 kilowatt No.1 reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear plant during an inspection, they said.

The Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, had been shut down after emergency alarms sounded on Wednesday. A leak of steam containing a small amount of radiation was later confirmed.

An official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, a government agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI), said the water that was found leaking last week also contained radiation.

But he said the water leak did not pose a threat to people.

"It is a leak from inside the nuclear reactor...and the water does contain radiation," said Hiromitsu Yoneyama, an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"But it is not the type of leak that has the possibility of exposing people to radiation," said Yoneyama, adding that the water leak was discovered inside a container that houses the nuclear reactor.

"Such containers are built taking into account the possibility of leaks," he said.

The exact location of the leak and the cause would have to be confirmed through an inspection, which is expected to be completed later on the weekend, Yoneyama said.

SEPARATE INCIDENTS

Atsushi Sato, a Hamaoka nuclear plant official who was visiting Chubu Electric's Tokyo head office, said the water leak is believed to be unrelated to the steam leak accident.

"We think they are separate incidents," Sato said.

And the discovery of the water leak is unlikely to affect METI's tentative classification of the steam leak accident, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's Yoneyama said.

"I think a change can be practically ruled out," he said.

METI has tentatively classified the steam leak accident as "Level one" on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the first such designation for an accident at a Japanese nuclear facility since July 1999, when coolant water leaked at nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture, 320 km (200 miles) west of Tokyo.

The scale, introduced in 1992 to classify nuclear accidents, goes from zero to seven, with seven being the most severe.

Japan's worst nuclear accident, which occurred in September 1999 at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, was designated "Level four".

Hundreds of Tokaimura residents, plant workers and emergency personnel were exposed to radiation when an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction was triggered at the plant. Two workers later died.

Japan, heavily reliant on nuclear power, has seen a number of accidents over the past decade that have undermined public support for its nuclear programme, which meets a third of the country's electricity needs.

-------- missile defense

Putin Looking to Boost U.S. Relations

New York Times
November 12, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-US.html?searchpv=aponline

MOSCOW (AP) -- In the run-up to this week's U.S.-Russia summit, President Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly he's not looking for any concrete payoff for his country's contributions to the war against terrorism but simply a boost in bilateral relations.

``We would like to create a new quality in our relationship, and we would like to see in the United States a reliable, predictable partner,'' Putin told a group of American reporters in the Kremlin this weekend, two days before departing on his first trip to the White House.

``This maximum task is much more important, it seems to me, than receiving some material advantage of a transitory nature,'' he said.

Yet Putin's allies and critics alike have warned that he can't afford to return from the United States empty-handed.

``Putin is really taking a risk,'' Sergei Karaganov, head of Russia's influential Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said Sunday on the Itogi television news magazine show. ``He's taking a risk because if Americans don't meet him halfway, then in several years Putin will be taken to account by society and the political class ... if they (the Americans) are simply courteous to him, take everything they can from us, and pressure us as they have before.''

Putin and his team have made a series of gestures to the United States in recent months. Putin committed Russia wholeheartedly to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign, even giving a green light to deployment of U.S. troops in formerly Soviet Central Asia, long seen as Russia's sphere of influence. Officials have softened their unyielding opposition to U.S. plans to construct a national missile defense, suggesting an openness to compromise.

Last month, Putin pledged to close an electronic spying center in Lourdes, Cuba, and a naval base in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam -- two outposts that symbolized the Soviet Union's global reach during the Cold War.

While many Russians appear to support the moves, some allege that Putin is putting Russia's national interests behind the West's.

``In fact, Russia is already fulfilling the role of 'trolley' -- the deliverer of cheap natural resources to rich countries,'' Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov wrote last week in an open letter criticizing Putin's pro-western policies. ``And tomorrow, through these policies, it will become 'the American special forces' -- cannon-fodder for new international adventures.''

American officials have indicated that Bush is prepared to agree to sharp offensive nuclear weapons cuts, which would relieve Moscow of the need to siphon funds from its overstretched national budget to maintain a large nuclear arsenal. Washington has also softened its criticism of Russia's war in Chechnya -- endorsing the Russians' allegations that Chechen rebels have ties with Osama bin Laden.

Russian officials have long lobbied for these changes, but they want more.

Moscow seeks U.S. support for putting it on the fast track to membership in the World Trade Organization, ending its status as the only major world power outside the international trade system. Economists say WTO membership would help boost foreign investment in Russia, provide access to new foreign markets and cement Russia's place among the world's largest political and economic powers.

Russia is also pressing for a repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, which made trade concessions contingent on Russia's human rights performance. The amendment has had no practical impact on U.S.-Russian trade -- the president has regularly waived it -- but Russia sees it as a humiliating throwback to the days when Soviet officials were forced to make an annual accounting to the U.S. Congress to win its right to a place in the U.S. market.

Karaganov, the analyst, said those concessions would be the minimum Putin should seek. The Russian leader should use the summit to press for a substantial change in Moscow's role in international security, addressing Russian objections to what Moscow considers NATO's unnecessary eastward expansion to Russia's very borders.

``If we get an agreement that Russia will become a partner of the leading powers of the world, that a new alliance is formed on the basis of NATO with the participation of Russia and Japan, or the Group of Eight creates a new security group with the aim of answering new security challenges ... we'd break out of the situation where we've been stuck: no man's land,'' Karaganov said.

---

Transforming Relations With Russia

New York Times
November 12, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/opinion/12MON2.html?searchpv=nytToday

After a whirlwind of diplomatic meetings over the weekend in New York, President Bush turns his attention this week to one nation and one leader. Mr. Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia will spend three days at the White House and Mr. Bush's ranch in Texas trying to strengthen the surprisingly cordial relationship that has developed between the two men and their two nations in recent months. Though obstacles remain, Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin seem within reach of decisions that could open a new era of cooperation.

Mr. Putin gave a crucial boost to relations after Sept. 11 by providing strong support for Mr. Bush's campaign against international terrorism. He cleared the way for American military forces to use bases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Central Asian nations that border Afghanistan and were once Soviet republics. Moscow has also helped to arm guerrilla forces in Afghanistan. In the talks that begin tomorrow, the two leaders can enhance their cooperation against Osama bin Laden and other terrorist threats and work to narrow their differences on arms control and other matters.

Although advisers to both presidents caution that no formal arms control agreement is likely this week, the two sides are moving ever closer to an accord. Moscow is apparently ready to accept the missile defense testing that the Bush administration wants to conduct, as long as Washington does not formally repudiate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. The treaty can probably be preserved if the two leaders agree on language permitting limited defensive systems. It would be a grave error for Washington to walk away from a treaty that has helped keep nuclear peace for three decades.

Agreement is also near on trimming arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by more than two- thirds, probably to somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 warheads apiece. Currently, the United States has about 7,000 and Russia a little under 6,000. Such reductions would substantially reduce nuclear dangers and costs, including the risk of a warhead being accidentally launched or stolen as Russia's military infrastructure decays.

While they're at it, Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin ought to talk about ways to improve the inadequate security for Russia's nuclear weapons and materials. President Bush, who warned last week of Osama bin Laden's efforts to obtain nuclear bomb ingredients, should support Congressional efforts to add $100 million to programs that help Russia safeguard stockpiles of enriched uranium and plutonium.

Russia's relations with Iraq and Iran remain a source of friction. Iraq has exploited Russian support to evade international weapons inspections and cheat on United Nations sanctions. Russia has hoped that lobbying for eased sanctions will bring it new business contracts and repayment of Iraq's Soviet- era debt. These commercial considerations must be subordinated to the urgent need to curb Iraq's illegal biological and chemical weapons programs.

Similar concerns apply to Moscow's nuclear reactor and weapons sales to Iran. These deals have helped sustain Russia's struggling arms manufacturers and nuclear industry. Yet if Mr. Putin means to be a full partner in the struggle against terrorism, he must agree to restrict arms and nuclear deals with countries like Iran that refuse to cut their ties with international terrorists.

Mr. Bush made clear after his first meeting with Mr. Putin in June that he thought improved relations with Russia could be a centerpiece of his presidency. He has a chance to bring that goal closer to realization this week.

-------- russia

ATOMIC ENERGY
Lax Nuclear Security in Russia Is Cited as Way for bin Laden to Get Arms

New York Times
November 12, 2001
By STEVEN ERLANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/international/12NUKE.html?searchpv=nytToday

VIENNA, Nov. 10 - In the last year, there have been dozens of violations of nuclear security rules in Russia and at least one loss of fissile material; Taliban emissaries have tried to recruit Russian scientists, and terrorists have tried to stake out a Russian nuclear storage site at least twice, say senior officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Western governments.

The officials detailed the incidents, citing conversations with Russian officials and verified news reports. Despite significant improvements in Russian nuclear security in the 1990's - some of it with American money and advice - up to half of ex-Soviet civilian and military nuclear stockpiles with weapons-grade material are not well protected.

Officials of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations body for monitoring nuclear programs, are deeply skeptical of Osama bin Laden's claim, in an interview published in Pakistan on Friday, that he possesses nuclear weapons.

On the other hand, given the vulnerability of material in the former Soviet Union, the increasing professionalism of nuclear smuggling and the relative ease of fabricating a primitive weapon, they cannot rule it out.

In the Kazakh port of Aktau on the Caspian shore, one ton of plutonium and two tons of highly enriched uranium sit near a now closed breeder reactor.

Ukraine, with 17 nuclear reactors and one research reactor, is considered a country of "serious concern" by officials because of its climate of government corruption and crime. Enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb remains at a research reactor just outside Belgrade throughout the 1999 Kosovo war.

Just last week, Turkey announced it had broken up a gang of smugglers who tried to sell 2.2 pounds of what appeared to be highly enriched uranium for $750,000 to undercover police officers, material they said they had bought several months ago from a Russian of Azeri origin.

Officials are increasingly concerned that terrorists willing to die could create a "dirty bomb," wrapping more easily stolen radioactive materials used in medicine and industry around a conventional explosive, like dynamite, to try to make a significant area of a city uninhabitable for many years.

Russian officials say their fissile nuclear material is under strict and improving controls. But only 10 days ago, in a discussion with officials at the United Nations agency here, Yuri G. Volodin, chief of safeguards for the Russian nuclear regulatory agency, revealed that in the last year, there were dozens of violations of Russia's regulations for securing and accounting for nuclear material.

Mr. Volodin noted one loss of nuclear material, which he called of the "highest consequence." He said he could not be more specific about the type of material or the size of the loss.

Last month, Col.-Gen. Igor Volynkin, head of nuclear security for Russia's military, said that twice this year Russian forces discovered stakeouts by terrorists of a secret nuclear arms storage facility, although he did not say where.

Also last month, an official of the Russian Security Council, Raisa Vdovichenko, told Russian journalists that emissaries of the Taliban had asked an employee of "an institution related to nuclear technologies to go to their country to work there in this field."

There is continuing evidence of efforts to traffic in nuclear material that give many officials deep concern.

In April 2000, the police in Georgia seized, in Batumi, several hundred fast-reactor fuel pellets, containing 920 grams - nearly a kilogram - of highly enriched uranium; in September, at Tbilisi airport, the police confiscated half a gram of plutonium.

The Russians say they thwarted an effort, at the very end of 1998, by an organized gang to steal 18.5 kilograms - more than 40 pounds - of highly enriched uranium from a military weapons facility near Chelyabinsk in the Urals.

Still, senior officials here and in Washington do not believe that Mr. bin Laden or even any state interested in a shortcut to a bomb - from Syria and Iran to Iraq and Libya - has been able to obtain the roughly 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of highly enriched uranium required to make a simple bomb, or the roughly 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of plutonium, a much more difficult material with which to work.

But they also admit that they cannot possibly know for sure.

The atomic energy agency has built a database of incidents of nuclear trafficking since 1993 - only counting incidents confirmed by the states involved. Of the 175 cases of trafficking in nuclear material and 201 cases of trafficking in medical and industrial radioactive materials, only some 18 cases involved even small amounts of the fissionable material needed for a nuclear bomb - plutonium or highly enriched uranium (enriched by 20 percent or more).

Altogether in all these cases, agency officials say, there have been seizures of about 400 grams (nearly one pound) of plutonium and an additional 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of uranium at varying levels of enrichment, equivalent to only some 6 kilograms of uranium 235.

The most serious cases, involving large amounts of material, took place in 1993 and 1994, when Russian, German and Czech police officers made large seizures of very highly enriched nuclear material manufactured in the former Soviet Union, usually at nuclear-fuel fabrication plants.

In March 1993, in St. Petersburg, nearly three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of 90 percent enriched uranium-238 were seized; in August 1994, in Munich, the police seized about 360 grams of Russian-made plutonium; in December 1994, 2.7 kilograms (just over 5 pounds) of 80 percent enriched uranium-235 were seized, part of a shipment that showed up in smaller amounts in other places - and which officials hope was not part of an even larger shipment, apparently stolen from the Russian nuclear research center in Obninsk, about an hour's drive southwest of Moscow.

For context, officials point out, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had made only 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of bomb-capable uranium before the gulf war broke out.

But in fact the atomic energy agency's database is only a guide, and perhaps not even a good one. "Are we seeing half the iceberg or only the tip?" said one official, noting that the police consider seizures of drugs, a commodity far easier to secure, to represent only some 10 to 20 percent of what is shipped. Nor does the agency, devoted to civilian nuclear energy, know much about the military programs of states with nuclear weapons.

Friedrich Steinhäusler, a physics professor at Stanford University and co-director of a Stanford center on the physical protection of nuclear materials, said, "It's clear that we're seeing a typical move toward professionalism in this smuggling business, with increasingly fewer incidents of significance, but of greater significance, as professionals are probing the market."

He noted that traffickers increasingly are going south, over traditional smuggling routes through Turkey, the Caucasus and especially central Asia, closer to Afghanistan, where borders are extremely long and lax.

Matthew Bunn, assistant director of the science, technology and public policy program at Harvard University's Kennedy School, was a Clinton White House adviser. The main source of loose nuclear material remains the former Soviet Union, he says, with some 600 tons of weapons- grade nuclear material stored there outside of warheads.

The key question, he says, is to improve the security around military and especially civilian nuclear installations. In as many as half, he said, there are no automatic detectors that sound an alarm if material is smuggled out, and no security cameras where material is stored.

"For all the work we've done with Russia, after seven years, we still have most of the job to do," Mr. Bunn said. "This is a serious threat, and we know how to fix it," he said, urging that President Bush agree with Russia at the this week's summit meeting to account for and secure all nuclear material.

Some safeguards put in place by the Americans in the former Soviet Union no longer function, agency officials said - spare parts are expensive and available only from the United States, and sometimes guards do not bother to use the equipment.

The Vienna agency is also looking for a 10 percent increase in its own budget of some $320 million, said Graham Andrew, the special assistant for Scientific and Technical Affairs, to upgrade security standards around the world. He and other officials regard a terrorist nuclear bomb to be "highly unlikely."

But the likelihood of terrorists compiling the radioactive materials necessary to make a dirty bomb with immense economic and psychological impact is much higher, the officials say.

The dirty bomb is an almost ideal instrument of terror, Mr. Bunn said. It would not kill many people, but it would terrify, and make a large area unsafe to work or live in, possibly for decades or longer.

One official said: "Imagine a dirty bomb on the Washington mall. Do you abandon the White House?"

-------- switzerland

Ever cautious Swiss drill for nuclear accident

Story by Michael Shields,
Reuters:
12/11/2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13263/story.htm

ZURICH - As the world wrings its hands over a potential nuclear attack by extremists, Switzerland is readying a drill to test how it can cope with an accident that spews radiation into the air.

In the works for more than a year, the exercise next week assumes that an atomic weapon contaminates the broad plain that stretches from Lake Geneva to Lake Constance, forcing millions into thousands of bomb shelters in houses and public buildings.

"This is absolutely the first time that we are practising for such a thing," Felix Blumer, spokesman for the National Alarm Centre, said last week.

With typical Swiss precision, its timing coincides perfectly with growing public concern that extremists could unleash biological, chemical or nuclear attacks that would outdo even the events of September 11.

"We could not have picked a better time," Blumer said.

Government officials, army officers, radiation experts and civil defence groups will conduct the computer-simulation drill on Monday and Tuesday from reinforced bunkers. Swiss citizens will not actually have to move underground.

"The assumption is there will be an accident with an atomic weapon that is so radioactive that practically the entire Swiss central plain has to go into the underground shelters. That of course would have wide-ranging consequences. All public life comes to a halt. People are not able to go to work," he said.

The point of the exercise is not so much getting people into the shelters, as getting them out again.

"How do you communicate that they should come out? Food will be contaminated. How do you deal with that? What can you eat, what can't you eat? All these things will be examined," Blumer said.

The drill underscores the importance Switzerland places on civil defence, even years after the Cold War.

Thousands of Swiss homes, hospitals and public structures have basement bomb shelters, thanks to a 1963 law requiring them in practically every new building.

In neutral Switzerland, a nation of 7.2 million that largely escaped the ravages of two world wars, telephone books carry instructions on what to do if an attack or accident dumps chemicals or radiation.

A siren system, regularly tested, warns the population to gather emergency rations and take cover in shelters now more widely used to store wine, vegetables, suitcases and furniture.

-------- treaties

Federation of American Scientists news conference - 10 a.m. -

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011112-320055.htm

The Federation of American Scientists holds a news conference to release a letter urging Congress to oppose Bush administration efforts to develop a missile defense that would undermine the ABM treaty. The participants include: Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winner; and Robert Sherman, Federation of American Scientists. Location: Murrow Room, National Press Club, 14th and F streets NW. Contact: 845/424-8382 or 9140/589-5988.

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

-------- maryland

Foreign tankers seen as security concern

November 12, 2001
By Paul Owens
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20011112-11794072.htm

ANNAPOLIS - Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski is calling on federal officials to reconsider a plan to allow tankers to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a terminal a few miles from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant.

"I want to make sure every single agency with authority over LNG plants and shipping has looked at the risk of a terrorist attack," the Maryland Democrat said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted approval last month to a proposal by Williams Gas Pipeline of Tulsa, Okla., to accept deliveries from tankers that travel up the Chesapeake Bay to its natural gas terminal at Cove Point in Calvert County. The terminal is located about 31/2 miles from the nuclear power plant at Calvert Cliffs.

If the proposal wins approval from other federal and state agencies, tankers carrying 34 million gallons of LNG would make deliveries once a week to the Cove Point terminal beginning in the second or third quarter of 2002, said Mike Gardner, district manager for Williams Gas Pipeline Cove Point LNG.

Miss Mikulski said she is "deeply alarmed" about the terminal's proximity to Calvert Cliffs, particularly now that federal security officials have warned that nuclear power plants are at risk of attacks from terrorists.

"If LNG tankers are allowed on the Chesapeake near Calvert Cliffs, a nightmare scenario could become reality," she said.

Miss Mikulski said LNG is carried by foreign-flag tankers with foreign crews. One source is Algeria, where Islamic radicals have been linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

"What were they thinking when they gave their preliminary approval on October 11?" she asked of FERC.

Tamara Young-Allen, FERC spokeswoman, said the commission did not consider security issues at Cove Point because the U.S. Coast Guard has jurisdiction in such matters.

The Coast Guard is conducting a review, scheduled for completion sometime next month, of the expansion plans at the Cove Point terminal.

Jim Shannon, a director of operations for Williams, said the company does not believe LNG deliveries to its terminal would pose any danger to the nuclear plant or the public.

Mr. Shannon said LNG could catch fire but would not explode. Federal regulators have established a 1,600-foot "thermal exclusion zone" around the terminal to keep out people or property that could be damaged in a fire. The zone's perimeter is more than three miles from the Calvert Cliffs plant.

"We feel an event is very unlikely, but if there is one, anything would be contained to the plant property," Mr. Shannon said.

Miss Mikulski said she is "not interested in debating the company."

"What I want to point out is that every permitting agency is looking at this as an energy issue," she said. "I want them to look at this as a national security issue."

Miss Mikulski said she was calling the issue to the attention of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, FBI Director Robert S Mueller III, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant James Loy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve and other federal and state officials.

"I'm just being hyper-vigilant," she said. Last week, Massachusetts incurred more than $20,000 in security costs to guard a 948-foot tanker carrying 33 million gallons of LNG as it moved through Boston Harbor to a terminal in Everett.

The chairman of the Massachusetts Senate's budget committee has called for the company that operates the terminal, Distrigas, to pay the cost of the additional security.

Distrigas has said that the millions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes it pays every year should include police and fire protection.

The Distrigas facility is one of three LNG terminals in the country accepting tanker deliveries, and the only one close to a major city. The others are in Louisiana and Georgia. The Cove Point terminal would be the fourth.

-------- washington

Advocates say panel composition must change

Hanford News
Mon, Nov 12, 2001
By The Associated Press and Herald staff
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2001/1112.html

WASHINGTON -- Labor advocates want more workers on a panel advising on compensation for Hanford and other workers who were made sick building the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.

Unless changes are made, the advocates fear not enough people will be compensated.

The panel is made up of mostly scientists, doctors and engineers, including Wanda Munn of Richland, a retired nuclear engineer.

Carl "Bubba" Scarbrough, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council at the government's nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said workers can best understand -- and therefore convey -- the risks and working conditions of their jobs.

"We should be advisers," he said. "For one thing, our heart would be in the right place."

A law passed by Congress last year required the White House to appoint a panel that reflected "a balance of scientific, medical and worker perspectives." The 10 people selected included only one rank-and-file worker Richard Espinosa, a metal shop steward at the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico.

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack defended the makeup of the board.

"We think it's pretty balanced," she said. Womack added that one of the doctors on the panel, James Melius, works for a union in New York.

Munn said her work at Hanford in nuclear safety, including the start up and safety of several operating systems inside the Fast Flux Test Facility, qualifies her to evaluate worker concerns.

"I've been there," she said.

Concerns about the makeup of the panel are understandable but with the group so new that it has yet to hold a single meeting, criticism is premature, she said.

The couple of people on the panel she already knows are well-qualified in health physics and familiar with radiation exposure science, she said.

The panel was named after the government acknowledged that radiation, silica or beryllium could have sickened some workers at Hanford and other nuclear sites. Congress has passed a law providing medical care and payments of $150,000 to sick workers or their surviving families. For more information, call 783-1500.

Many medical records are missing or incomplete, so the panel's primary task is to help determine how much radiation workers were exposed to on the job. If doses can't be estimated, the panel will help decide whether certain workers should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Richard Miller, an analyst for the Government Accountability Project, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, said he's concerned by the fact that three members of the panel are tied to the Energy Department. He said he is not worried about Espinosa's independence from the agency, since he is protected by a union.

Miller said lawmakers called for an "independent review process" and recognized Energy Department officials would have a conflict of interest. The legislation prohibited them from writing dose reconstruction guidelines.

"I want people who have absolutely no connection to the Department of Energy on this committee," he said.

Panelist Antonio Andrade, who is a radiation health expert at the Energy Department's Los Alamos lab, disagreed. He said people who are familiar with agency facilities are needed on the panel.

"If anything, we bring truth, experience and knowledge about specific situations to the table," he said.

Several lawmakers have asked the administration to add Mark Griffon, a health physicist who evaluates risks at nuclear facilities.

"He would have an inclination to be quite supportive of people who have been exposed but also continue to use a scientific basis for making decisions," said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who made his case in a letter to White House Personnel Director Clay Johnson.

Griffon said he received a call from the White House Friday asking him to submit an application.

On the Net: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health compensation office: www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/default.html.

-------- us nuc politics

Congressional support for de-alerting

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001
From: fdpeace@earthlink.net

Recently, Congressional Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) appeared at a press conference in support of De-Alerting (taking off hair trigger alert)nuclear weapons, and both were also lead sponsors of bills to encourage initiation of the process of de-alerting.

Frank Dworak Pax Christi USA


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Taliban ambush rebel convoy

Montreal Gazette
MIKE BLANCHFIELD of The Ottawa Citizen, AP and The London Daily Telegraph contributed to this report
Monday, November 12, 2001
http://www.canada.com/montreal/story.asp?id={B7ECB2F7-6E92-44E2-B603-9FF4B42E090A}

Three foreign journalists were killed yesterday when a Northern Alliance convoy in which they were traveling was ambushed in northeastern Afghanistan.

Gazette reporter Levon Sevunts, who was traveling in the same convoy, survived the attack, but the newspaper was unable to establish direct contact with him late last night.

Johanne Sutton of Radio France Internationale was confirmed dead. Two other journalists, whose identities were unknown last night, also died in the attack. They are believed to be the first foreign journalists killed in Afghanistan since the war began last month.

Pierre Billaud, also of Radio France Internationale, a journalist from the German magazine Stern, a reporter from Radio Luxembourg and an Afghan interpreter were reported missing.

The convoy of armed vehicles and trucks was ambushed after leaving the Northern Alliance's military headquarters in Khoja Bahuddin, in the province of Takhar, near the Tajikistan border.

The Alliance had invited the journalists to accompany them to an area where Taliban militiamen were believed to be waiting to defect or had surrendered. The defection was a ruse, however, and the convoy was ambushed.

A reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul McGeough, who was also in the convoy, said: "About 6:30 p.m., Commander Bashir of the Northern Alliance suggested that we go to look at a Taliban trench that had surrendered.

"When we got there, they had not surrendered. Three of us clung on for grim death and we survived."

He said Sevunts was with him.

The editor in chief of Agence France Presse confirmed to The Gazette last night that Sevunts had arrived safely in Khoja Bahuddin.

Geoff Kitney, foreign editor of the Sydney newspaper, said Sevunts was en route to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, with the body of one of the dead journalists.

Sevunts, 32, is a veteran war correspondent, having covered the Nagorno-Karabakh war and spent time in Tajikistan at the beginning of the civil war there.

He has worked for The Gazette for four years, first as a regular columnist in the world-news section, then as a general-assignment reporter.

Meanwhile, undaunted by the convoy attack and emboldened by its victories on the battlefield, Afghanistan's anti-Taliban opposition was chafing yesterday against warnings by the United States and Pakistan not to march on Kabul.

As the Northern Alliance continued to claim significant military gains against Taliban forces in northern and central Afghanistan, one of its top officials said Pakistan has no right to spread false "propaganda" about the advisability of taking the offensive farther south to the capital.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf urged the Alliance Saturday to stay out of Kabul, saying he feared they might commit reprisal atrocities.

Musharraf made the comments in New York, where U.S. President George W. Bush also advised the Alliance to halt its advance at Kabul city limits.

But fast-moving events on the ground might prove beyond U.S. control.

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted yesterday that it cannot prevent the Northern Alliance from marching on Kabul. "We don't have enough forces on the ground to stand in their way," he said. "I mean they're going to make the decision."

Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister of the Alliance's political wing, the United Front, warned Pakistan yesterday to keep its nose out of the Alliance's affairs and said the United States "shouldn't be guided by Pakistani foreign policy. That's not acceptable."

"No single neighbouring country of Afghanistan should be able to play its game in Afghanistan once again," Abdullah said.

Abdullah said Pakistan should concentrate on solving its own internal problems, which include sporadic and severe outbursts of anti-U.S. sentiment since it joined the U.S. coalition against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The United States, grateful for the Pakistani government's support in its war against terrorism, is sensitive to the country's interest in the makeup of any new government in Afghanistan.

Echoing Pakistani sentiments, the United States does not want the rebels taking the city before the political framework for a future Afghan government is in place. The Alliance, which has been condemned by human-rights groups for atrocities, is comprised mainly of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, while southern Kabul has a high concentration of Pashtuns, the dominant Taliban tribe.

The rebel alliance, which parlayed its capture of the key northern city of Mazar-e Sharif into what is says are widespread military gains across northern and central Afghanistan, has no immediate plans to march on Kabul, said Abdullah. But it hasn't ruled out an offensive in the days to come, he added.

Abdullah said the United Front fully recognizes the need to forge a multi-ethnic coalition, and sees Kabul as the place to rebuild Afghanistan's political future.

The Afghani opposition is clearly galled by Pakistan weighing in on its affairs. Afghanistan has suffered for 22 years under various foreign interventions, including the invasion of the Soviet Union, the U.S.-financed mujaheddin resistance and Pakistan's support of the radical Taliban regime. The U.S. bombing campaign, now in its 37th day, is an attempt to crush the Taliban for its refusal to surrender terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, the man it blames for orchestrating the suicide jet airliner attacks of Sept. 11.

"To mention that the people of Kabul do not want the United Front to go into Kabul, it is the perception of the past, which was not right," Abdullah said, noting that thousands of Alliance supporters have been arrested in Kabul in recent years.

"Please don't allow Pakistan, once again, to guide the foreign policy of the United States," he said.

"For the first time, there is a unique opportunity for achieving peace in Afghanistan, for getting rid of the menaces" and allowing the Afghan people to be governed by a broad-based, democratic government.

Such a government would pose no threat to its neighbours or the world at large, said Abdullah.

The harsh words against Pakistan came as the Alliance continued to claim victories in several key northern cities and provinces, cutting off Taliban supply routes and driving the governing militia farther south.

The claims could not be independently confirmed because journalists are barred from most of the relevant northern areas of Afghanistan.

The turning point came Friday when the Taliban withdrew from the key northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, giving the Alliance control of the gateway to an important supply corridor from neighbouring Uzbekistan, and providing a possible staging ground for U.S. warplanes inside Afghanistan.

The Alliance claimed more victories yesterday in the cities of Taloqan, which it lost to the Taliban 14 months ago, Pul-e Khumari and Barymian in central Afghanistan.

The Taliban's Bakhtar news agency, however, denounced the claim of victory in Taloqan as an outright lie.

In northeastern Afghanistan, the fight for control of the Taliban garrison in Kala Kata, a harsh, mountainous region about 30 kilometres west of the rebel capital of Khoja Bahuddin, continued. At least 20 Alliance soldiers were killed and eight injured.

Abdullah said the Alliance would in the coming days launch offensives on the western city of Herat, near the Iranian border, and the northeastern province of Kunduz.

The military breakthrough of the Alliance followed a stalemate of several weeks on the ground in Afghanistan. Strategic U.S. air strikes on front-line Taliban positions, aided by the targeting expertise of its special forces operatives, paved the way for the Alliance offensive.

Britain confirmed yesterday that it, too, has its own special forces troops on the ground in northern Afghanistan providing assistance to the Alliance.

Also yesterday, U.S. aircraft, including B-52 bombers, attacked Taliban positions on the front line about 50 kilometres north of Kabul and retreating bands of Taliban fighters.

---

Rebels jubilant over 'dramatic defeat' of Taliban

USA Today
11/12/2001
By Tim Friend, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/11/rebel-attacks.htm

KHOJA BAHAUDDIN, Afghanistan - Anti-Taliban forces seized the strategic northern city of Mazar-e Sharif over the weekend and were on the verge of capturing their former headquarters city of Taloqan. Experts say the successes end a month of battlefield frustration, vindicate coalition strategy and have set the stage for a push on Kabul in the spring, if not sooner.

Northern Alliance officials were jubilant. "The importance of this dramatic defeat for the Taliban is not only that they have lost large areas but that they have lost their main fighting force," Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah said Sunday.

Abdullah said the opposition had captured Taloqan and three other northern provincial capitals since Mazar-e Sharif, linchpin of the Taliban defenses in the north, fell to the alliance Friday. Interviews with commanders and alliance fighters, however, indicated they might only have had Taloqan surrounded and hadn't yet taken complete control of the city.

Military analysts said the advances have put the anti-Taliban forces in position to control all of northern Afghanistan and put pressure on the capital, Kabul. "Symbolically and strategically, taking Mazar-e Sharif was a big, big deal," said retired Army colonel Bill Taylor, former military analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The alliance has "had a very good last 3 days."

The Afghan Islamic Press, quoted by Reuters, reported men in Mazar-e Sharif were shaving their beards, women were throwing off their head-to-toe burqa cloaks, and music was blaring from shops to mark the departure of the fundamentalist Taliban forces.

"It has very big military and political implications," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said of the alliance progress. "I would say now it has turned the corner. Its successes are visible."

U.S. officials reacted cautiously Sunday. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Mazar-e Sharif airport, the largest in northern Afghanistan, had not yet been secured. No Western media reporters are in the city to provide independent accounts of events.

Rumsfeld repeated the U.S. preference that the alliance not attempt to seize Kabul until a coalition government has been formed.

The alliance may not try to take the capital until spring. Abdullah said the rebels want to secure their expanding control over northern sections before moving south. Abdullah also said Sunday that the alliance would prefer a broad agreement with all Afghan groups before making the fight. But he added that "if there is a political vacuum in Kabul," alliance forces would forge ahead.

At least one alliance commander might not be willing to wait, however. South of here, closer to Kabul, alliance Gen. Alim Khan said, "If we want to enter Kabul, we won't care about U.S. willingness or unwillingness."

One immediate effect of seizing Mazar-e Sharif is to open an overland supply route to friendly Uzbekistan.

Until now, the Northern Alliance has had to bring in supplies over treacherous mountain passes. If the Uzbek government soon opens a strategic bridge at Termiz, just 40 miles or so north of Mazar-e Sharif, opposition forces will be able to bring in food, weapons and ammunition with relative ease, even through the winter.

Another major benefit of the weekend advances was cutting Taliban forces into smaller, isolated pockets that might be easier for the Northern Alliance to conquer. That, in turn, could encourage many to defect to the opposition side, Taylor said. "The Taliban is now scattered. Now the Northern Alliance can mass their forces and take them on a piece at a time," he said.

Though the victories in the north are welcome, they took longer than expected and may not presage a quick collapse of the Taliban across all of Afghanistan, said Michael O'Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. He said Taliban forces may be attempting to consolidate defenses elsewhere.

But many analysts said the weekend advances vindicated the strategy of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition to wear down the Taliban by relying on bombing, special operations troops and Northern Alliance fighters, rather than building up a large force of conventional ground troops.

Opposition spokesmen claimed the Taliban had been routed in the north except in Qonduz province near the Tajik border and in Badghis province on the border with Turkmenistan. Strong Taliban units were also operating in Baghlan province, although the opposition claimed to have seized a key road junction at Pol-e Khomri.

Some of the heaviest fighting in coming weeks is expected near Taloqan in Kalakata. There, about 4,000 troops are dug in. Most are Pakistanis, Saudis and other Arabs. They aren't likely to give up easily because they face arrest if they try to return home and wouldn't be welcomed as defectors by alliance forces since they are not Afghans.

Contributing: Kirk Spitzer and Jill Lawrence in Washington; Pat McMahon in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Steven Gutkin of AP in Jabal os Saraj, Afghanistan

------

For Now, Rival Warlords Put Aside Bitter Feuds of Past

By John Ward Anderson and Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 12, 2001; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12593-2001Nov11?language=printer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 11 -- The Afghan guerrilla commanders who captured the city of Mazar-e Sharif for the opposition Northern Alliance, and are trying to expand the alliance's control across northern Afghanistan, are three men with disparate ethnic and religious backgrounds and a long history of fighting among themselves.

The three warlords -- Abdurrashid Dostum, Attah Mohammad and Mohammad Mohaqiq -- acknowledged that it was only by setting aside their differences and working together that they were able to end the Taliban's three-year occupation of Mazar-e Sharif.

"Revenge is ingrained in their minds," said Syed Fida Yunas, a Pakistani from the Pashtun ethnic group that dominates the Taliban. Yunas, who served as a diplomat in Afghanistan for two decades and has written histories of the country, argued that it was unlikely the diverse cast of characters could overcome mutual animosities to run Mazar-e Sharif -- much less the country. "I'm sorry to say, nobody likes each other," he said.

The three commanders are among the warlords who tried to jointly rule Afghanistan for a period in the 1990s, but instead plunged the country into a deadly civil war fueled by ethnic hatred, personal feuds and betrayals, revenge killings and ruthless bombings of civilians, especially in Kabul, the capital.

Their relations over the past two decades have been marked by opportunism and treachery, although many analysts say that as long as they share a common enemy -- such as the Taliban -- chances are they will stay united, particularly as they try to consolidate their hold over the north. Today, for example, Dostum, Mohammad and Mohaqiq held an extraordinary summit and agreed to replace military rule in Mazar-e Sharif with a civilian administration.

Human rights activists warn that the United States is gradually becoming ensnared in the politically dicey mission of backing warlords with abysmal human rights records who may not have widespread support within Afghanistan, and who could face prosecution by international tribunals for crimes against humanity and other war-related offenses. Many of the warlords may eventually be opposed by fiercely independent Afghans for aligning themselves with a foreign power, the United States.

"The U.S. and its allies should not cooperate with commanders whose record of brutality raises questions about their legitimacy inside Afghanistan," the international organization Human Rights Watch said in a recent statement. It criticized "the deplorable record of attacks on civilians" by "the various parties that comprise the United Front," the more formal name of the Northern Alliance.

Afghan warlords and their militias typically are identified with different ethnic and tribal groups in different regions of Afghanistan. They frequently have conflicting religious leanings and often are backed by competing neighboring countries.

The militias were formed by groups of Islamic mujaheddin, "holy warriors" who jointly fought against the Soviet Union's 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan. But when the communist successor regime collapsed in 1992, the militias turned their guns on one another in a deadly power struggle to control the country and the capital. Their ruthless fighting virtually destroyed Kabul -- 24,000 people were killed in the city in 1994 alone -- and was instrumental in fueling the rise of the Taliban, which won popular support in the mid-1990s by promising to end the country's civil war and to restore law and order.

Dostum, 46, a burly former communist, high school dropout and reputedly hard-drinking atheist, is an ethnic Uzbek who has been a key ally and enemy of virtually every militia in Afghanistan. He returned from exile in Turkey in April to rejoin the Northern Alliance.

Once Afghanistan's best-armed warlord and one of the few with fighter jets, he frequently changed sides in the middle of a fight and tilted the country's entire military equation. He has been backed by Uzbekistan, Russia and, most recently, Turkey, but over the years he has lost much of his military equipment and many of his forces.

In 1997, his top deputy, Gen. Abdul Malik Pahlawan, defected to the Taliban, forcing Dostum to flee Afghanistan. After the Taliban entered Mazar-e Sharif, Dostum's traditional stronghold, Pahlawan turned against his new allies and allegedly killed about 3,000 Taliban soldiers. When the Taliban retook the city the following year, they allegedly executed about 2,000 people, mostly ethnic Hazara Shiite Muslims.

Dostum -- who used to control the region from a large mud fort near the town of Shebergan -- was a bitter rival of both Mohaqiq and Mohammad, who joined him last week in capturing Mazar-e Sharif. And those two warlords also reportedly harbor deep animosities.

Mohaqiq, an ethnic Tajik, was a top leader of the Shiite Muslim fighting force Hizb-i-Wahdat-i-Islami, when that group joined with Pahlawan in ousting Dostum from Mazar-e Sharif in 1997. His fighters allegedly participated in the subsequent atrocities against Taliban forces, which included dumping soldiers into wells alive and then throwing in grenades.

Mohammad is a Sunni Muslim from the Hazara ethnic group. He is affiliated with the strongest military and political force in the Northern Alliance, Jamiat-i-Islami, the Tajik-dominated militia loyal to Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani himself is a divisive figure, having refused to relinquish the Afghan presidency in 1996 as required under a power-sharing agreement with his coalition partners.

In the war against the Soviets in the 1980s, Mohammad fought against Dostum, who sided with the Soviets. In the recent campaign to take Mazar-e Sharif, Mohammad's forces reportedly moved to within a few miles of the city, but were forced to quickly withdraw after being left exposed when Dostum failed to back up his advance. Dostum and Mohammad then reconciled and agreed to work together under Gen. Mohammed Fahim, the Northern Alliance's defense chief.

Military analysts say that the next logical step for the alliance forces would be to consolidate their positions around Mazar-e Sharif and secure an overland supply route to Uzbekistan, where the United States has supply bases.

Dostum, Mohammad and representatives of the Hizb-i-Wahdat-i-Islami political party met today and agreed to station the bulk of their forces in separate camps outside and to the south of the Mazar-e Sharif. Each of the three forces will send 100 men to share a garrison inside Mazar-e Sharif, which will be administered by civil authorities under Rabbani.

The alliance is also expected to begin advancing west toward the city and province of Herat, where another legendary warlord, Ismail Khan, is hoping to recapture the province where he was once governor.

Khan, a 54-year-old Tajik, defended his base against Soviet forces for 10 years, then joined Rabbani's Jamiat-i-Islami when the Soviets withdrew. He governed his fairly peaceful and prosperous province until 1995, when he was accused of accepting payoffs to allow Herat to fall to the Taliban.

Khan escaped to neighboring Iran. He returned in late 1996 in an attempt to reclaim Herat, but one of his commanders defected to the Taliban and surrendered Khan to them. He spent more than a year in jail in the southern city of Kandahar before escaping with the help of sympathetic local soldiers. He fled again to Iran and was drawn back to Afghanistan only within the last year.

Following the traditional Afghan belief that whoever rules Kabul rules the country, the Northern Alliance leaders are anxiously planning their return to Kabul. Their ultimate test will be expelling the Taliban from the city and declaring a truce among themselves while an interim government is established. That challenge proved too much for them after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.

Mindful of the intense factional differences, both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last week they hoped the Northern Alliance, which is made up predominantly of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, would not try to take Kabul. Powell said the capital should be a neutral "open city," devoid of armed groups, until an interim government is established.

A key challenge will be finding a charismatic Pashtun leader willing to join the Northern Alliance who can rally his ethnic group behind him. Pashtuns make up about 40 percent of Afghanistan, Tajiks about 25 percent, Hazaras 19 percent and Uzbeks about 8 percent.

One top Pashtun, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a brutal warlord who received huge amounts of aid from the United States and Pakistan during the war against the Soviets, and who ruthlessly attacked Kabul and enforced a strict food blockade during the ensuing siege of the capital in the early 1990s, has been negotiating an alliance with the Taliban in recent weeks.

Hekmatyar, who now lives in Iran, reportedly has advised the Taliban where they can find hidden weapons caches in Afghanistan, including shoulder-launched, surface-to-air Stinger missiles.

Another Pashtun warlord who controlled parts of Kabul and relentlessly attacked the capital in the 1990s, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, is a top commander with the Northern Alliance, but it is questionable how much support he has. Sayyaf, a member of the conservative Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, was strongly backed by Saudi Arabia during the Soviet occupation and reportedly is a bitter enemy of some of his nominal allies in the Northern Alliance, particularly Dostum.

"It will be nothing short of a miracle if an ultra Wahhabi [Sayyaf], an orthodox Shiite [Mohaqiq] and an atheist warlord [Dostum] form a stable government in Muslim Afghanistan," said a senior military intelligence official from Pakistan who is monitoring events in Afghanistan. "Those who expect Rasul Sayyaf to join hands with . . . Mohaqiq or Gen. Dostum don't know the ground realities in that country."

Correspondent Doug Struck in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

----

U.S. Hits Suspected Weapons Sites

By Matt Kelley
Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 12, 2001; 6:58 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14235-2001Nov12?language=printer

WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden probably does not have a nuclear weapon, but likely has chemical or biological weapons, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.

U.S. forces have bombed some sites in Afghanistan that could have been involved in producing such weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld said Sunday. Some of them have been bombed, some of them have not and others have not been found, he said.

"If we had good information on a chemical or biological development area, we would do something about it," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It is not an easy thing to do. We have every desire in the world to prevent the terrorists from using these capabilities."

Getting information that a site may be producing weapons of mass destruction "faces you with a situation, are you best taking it out or are you best learning more about it," Rumsfeld said earlier on "Fox News Sunday."

The New York Times reported Sunday that the United States had identified three possible chemical or biological weapons sites in Afghanistan used by al-Qaida, and had avoided bombing them.

Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials said they doubt bin Laden's claim that his al-Qaida network has a nuclear weapon.

"I think it's unlikely that they have a nuclear weapon, but on the other hand, with the determination they have, they may very well," Rumsfeld said on CBS.

The defense secretary and other officials said they were worried, that al-Qaida network could have weapons of mass destruction that possibly include radiological weapons - mixtures of conventional explosives and nuclear material designed to spread radiation without a nuclear detonation.

"We have every intelligence operation practically in the world on the problem of al-Qaida and the Taliban and their weapons of mass destruction at this point," the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said on ABC's "This Week."

President Bush has said the anti-Taliban northern alliance should not take over the Afghan capital of Kabul, preferring to wait until a broad-based, post-Taliban government can be formed. Rumsfeld said that was important to encourage anti-Taliban resistance by some tribes of the Taliban's Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan's south.

The northern alliance is largely made up of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, not Afghanistan's main Pashtun ethnic group.

"We need them to oppose the Taliban, so they will have a voice in post-Taliban business," Rumsfeld said.

An official with the northern alliance said Sunday that "it would be ideal" if a broad coalition of all ethnic groups could come together before Kabul is taken. Abdullah, the opposition's foreign minister, said the alliance already includes some Pashtun forces.

The United States has had difficulty recruiting anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan's south. The Taliban captured and executed opposition Pashtun figure Abdul Haq last month, for example.

Besides, Rumsfeld said, "Kabul is not the military prize of prizes." The Taliban's capital is in the southern city of Kandahar, and Kabul has been so devastated by two decades of war that its 1 million people will need immediate humanitarian aid when the city changes hands, Rumsfeld said.

"The real prize of prizes is the Taliban leadership and the al-Qaida leadership and the al-Qaida fighting forces and the Taliban fighting forces," Rumsfeld said. "And they are not, for the most part, in Kabul."

Rumsfeld and Rice echoed comments by Bush, who has said he believes al-Qaida would use any chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons it has.

"They are not worried about loss of life," Rumsfeld said.

He said that even if al-Qaida has biological or chemical agents, it may lack the expertise to use them.

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Qaida has access to crude chemical weapons such as chlorine and phosgene poison gases, but not more complex weapons such as sarin.

-------- biological weapons

Anthrax blamed on US scientist

news.com.au
By MICHAEL BEACH in New York
12 nov 01
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,3229971%255E15574,00.html

THE FBI believes the person behind the anthrax attacks in the US is a lone American scientist with no links to Osama bin Laden.

The homegrown terrorist probably used the September 11 attacks as a window of opportunity to unleash long-held grudges against the Federal Government and the media.

The snapshot was outlined by the head of the FBI's behaviour analysis unit, Jim Fitzgerald, after scrutiny of the three anthrax-laced letters and interviews with serial bombers in American jails.

Mr Fitzgerald said the anthrax mailer is most likely a man with a science background who had access to lab equipment.

"He prefers being by himself, more often than not," Mr Fitzgerald said.

The three anthrax letters were posted on different Tuesdays, suggesting to investigators the terrorist milled the anthrax during weekends.

Mr Fitzgerald said a "backyard model anthrax system" could be bought for no more than $5000.

The three letters sent to the New York Post , NBC newsreader Tom Brokaw and Senator Tom Daschle contained phrases such as "Death to America", "Death to Israel" and "Allah is Great".

The FBI believes the words were intentional to mask the terrorist's identity and instead throw suspicion on Osama bin Laden who has been blamed for the September 11 attacks.

Although investigators are unsure of the terrorist's motives, they are certain the targets were not picked at random.

"These people meant something to him," Mr Fitzgerald said.

"These victims may have been targets of previous expressions of contempt."

One of their main clues is the return address 4th Grade, Greendale School, Franklin Park, NJ - on one of the letters.

Although the school doesn't exist, there is a school with a similar name near Trenton, New Jersey, where the letter was posted.

FBI investigators believe the anthrax mailer may have had a connection with a Greendale school in the past.

It is unusual for the FBI to release its theories publicly during an investigation. But they are hoping someone may recognise the terrorist's characteristics.

This is how the FBI finally caught the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, who posted homemade bombs in the mail for 18 years.

After the Washington Post published his 35,000-word manifesto on the evils of technology, Kaczynski's brother recognised certain phrases.

The anthrax letters have killed four people and infected 17 others.

---

Panel Criticizes Anthrax Response

Associated Press
November 12, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Antiterrorism-Panel.html

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- The government's response to the recent anthrax attacks received generally poor grades Monday from members of a national anti-terrorism panel.

The panel said the Centers for Disease Control and federal, state and local agencies lack the testing laboratories needed to respond to a bioterrorism crisis.

``A national investment in the CDC and at local levels will be required to deal with bioterrorism,'' said Dr. Kenneth Shine, a commission member and president of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine.

The commission was formed by the federal government in 1999 to study how well the nation was prepared for biological and other terrorist attacks.

Panel members said at a meeting Monday that the lack of testing labs delayed the discovery of anthrax in government buildings.

Trace amounts of anthrax were found only this weekend in 11 Capitol office buildings, nearly a month after an anthrax letter was mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle.

Shine also decried turf battles between the CDC and FBI over who had control of anthrax crime scenes.

Commission member M. Patricia Quinlisk, Iowa's state epidemiologist, said the CDC didn't do a good job of informing the public or the health care community about who was at risk of contracting anthrax.

``The imperfections in communication were widespread,'' she said.

The panel, chaired by Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, is putting together its final recommendations to Congress and the White House.

------

Environmental regulators struggle over release of information on chemical and biological hazards

Monday, November 12, 2001
By JOHN HIELPRIN,
Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/11/11122001/ap_chemical_45539.asp

WASHINGTON-- Environmental regulators find themselves caught between conflicting mandates to give the public information about chemical and biological hazards and at the same time keep that information away from terrorists.

"The right to know is a proven tool for increasing public safety," Jeremiah Baumann, an environmental health advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, told a House subcommittee on water resources and environment.

"Let's at least make the bad guys work for it," countered Amy E. Smithson, a chemical and biological weapons analyst for the Henry L. Stimson Center think tank.

Enter the Environmental Protection Agency, which two years ago created the Office of Environmental Information to work out such difficulties.

The Sept. 11 terror attacks made things that much harder.

"EPA is aware that we need a balance between protecting sensitive information in the interest of national security and maintaining access to the information that citizens can use to protect their health and the environment in their communities, EPA official Elaine Stanley testified.

Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, said he did not see a way to avoid putting most of the EPA information on the Internet "unless you're going to suspend our First Amendment, like we did with the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth amendments in our terrorist bill."

To date, the only information the EPA has removed from its Web site since Sept. 11 deals with risk management plans for industrial plants that handle hazardous chemicals, Stanley said. Those plans are required under the Clean Air Act.

The Clinton EPA's decision to post those plans for some 15,000 plants on the Internet in August 2000 "wasn't just bad, it was colossally bad," Smithson said.

Baumann said, however, portions of those plans revealing accident histories and emergency response plans had already been removed prior to September.

"Removing this information from public view does nothing to reduce the hazard," he said, citing nearly 5,000 facilities in the U.S. that store more hazardous chemicals than those released in a 1984 industrial accident in Bhopal, India. It killed 4,000 people within hours and inspired the first U.S. right-to-know programs about hazardous chemicals.

Stanley, who heads OEI's efforts on information analysis and access, said EPA has developed four criteria since the suicide hijackings to judge how delicately its information should be handled.

Some of its information is now restricted to reading rooms requiring proper identification.

The first criteria, based on "type," includes a plant's location and what types of chemicals it has. The second, "specificity," assesses the level of detail available for a plant. Third, "connectivity," is used to examine how well separate pieces of information can be applied to a particular disaster scenario. And fourth, "availability," accounts for how much control EPA has over the information.

Requiring the chemical industry under law to share information for the public welfare is one thing, said Gary E. Warren, a former deputy fire chief for Baltimore County, Md., and spokesman for the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

"Why on earth we would then turn around and provide that information to any interested party, who is anonymous and untraceable, is beyond me," he said.

-------- business

[Very interesting....]

FEDERAL CONTRACTS

States News Service
Monday, November 12, 2001; Page E09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12834-2001Nov11?language=printer

SETA Corp. of McLean won a $3 billion contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency for global solutions for the defense information systems network.

Litton/PRC of McLean won a contract worth up to $1.45 billion from the Army for computer software and systems engineering support.

Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church won a share of a contract worth up to $400 million from the Air Force for testing and evaluation services.

Science Applications International Corp. of McLean won a share of a contract worth up to $400 million from the Air Force for testing and evaluation services. Titan Systems Corp. of Largo won a share of a contract worth up to $400 million from the Air Force for testing and evaluation services.

Logicon of Reston won an $81.82 million contract from the Interior Department for scientific, engineering, logistic, administrative and acquisition support services.

Interop of Chantilly won a $73.3 million contract from the Interior Department for scientific, engineering, logistic, administrative and acquisition support services.

BAE Systems Applied Technologies Inc. of Rockville won a $58 million contract from the Navy for fleet ballistic missile system integration and logistics support services.

Brace Management of Largo won a share of a five-year contract worth up to $50 million from the Transp