NUCLEAR
Experts Fear bin Laden Has Nukes
House Blocks Amendments to National Security Bill
U.S. locates possible weapons labs
Green groups renew bid to stop UK nuke fuel plant
Ex-Utah Nuclear Regulator Sentenced
Czech, Austrian leaders set to meet on nuclear row
IAEA says Czech Temelin n-plant safe to operate
India MPs Protest Alleged U.S. Airspace Violation
How Secure Is Pakistan's Plutonium?
Arab League: Don't Attack Iraq
N.Korea Urged to Tackle Nuke Worries
Putin Thanks Participants in Kursk
B - 52 Bomber Turns 50
Senate Democrats Make Offer on Stimulus Plan
Ex - Utah Nuclear Regulator Sentenced
MILITARY
This war is not just
Alliance claims to have quashed fortress uprising
Alliance rejects U.N. proposal for security force
Afghan Fortress a Formidable Target
Political Solution Sought in Sri Lanka
U.S. to buy 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine
Pakistan Questions Nuke Scientists
2 Pakistanis Linked to Papers on Anthrax Weapons
U.S. Bombs Iraqi Air Defense Site
Iraq rejects demand for arms inspectors
U.S., Russia Agree on Iraq Program
Egypt Denounces U.S. Force on Iraq
U.S. peace efforts continue despite shooting attacks
A Russian Voice in NATO
Hometown proud of CIA officer who gave his life
Spies lead US bombers to strike
U.S. soldiers form quick-reaction force
More U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
C.I.A. Officer Dies in Afghan Prison Riot
Technology Changes Air War Tactics
U.S. soldiers form quick-reaction force
More U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
POLICE / PRISONERS
Ashcroft says al-Qaeda members detained
U.S. requests pilot's extradition
Census Said to Misplace Many Prisons and Dorms
Accusations Against 93 Vary Widely
Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism
Documents Reveal Info on Detainees
Oregon official clears way for questioning
Who Gave Your Rights Away?
FBI v. CIA: Battle in Cyberspace
U.S. offers to train Yemeni special forces
Dems stopped from adding to terrorism package
Limits Sought on Access to Company Data
Experts Fear Bin Laden Has Nukes
ENERGY AND OTHER
Large PV Tender Issued by British Government
Renewable Energy Could Create 1.3 Million Jobs in U.S.
Expansion of electricity plants means more pollution
Gene-altered, cloned livestock are called safe
Gene-altered DNA may be 'polluting' corn
Wormwood the basis for a cancer-fighting pill
Mexico to Go After Leftists' Killers
ACTIVISTS
action to stop nuclear reprocessing plant
Historians, Public Interest Groups Sue to Stop Bush Order
-------- NUCLEAR
Experts Fear bin Laden Has Nukes
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-Bin-Ladens-Nukes.html?searchpv=aponline
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/nukes.htm
LONDON (AP) -- While there is no proof Osama bin Laden has nuclear weapons, a wide range of international analysts say he has been trying to acquire them for years and may have succeeded, or be close.
Even experts who think bin Laden's al-Qaida network does not have an atomic bomb say it's best to assume it does and prepare for its possible use.
The scale and sophistication of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, for which bin Laden is the main suspect, mean nothing can ever again be ruled out, no matter how nightmarish, they say.
``The Sept. 11 attacks certainly take us a lot closer to a nuclear possibility,'' said Paul Wilkinson, an expert on terrorism at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Fanatical terrorists ``might resort to this kind of mass destruction weapon and we have to take that seriously,'' he said.
U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaida, said Tuesday that U.S. officials had identified more than 40 sites in Afghanistan where bin Laden's network may have been researching nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
He said the sites were still being tested for evidence that any weapon of mass destruction had actually been produced.
Many experts fear bin Laden has a ``dirty bomb'' or could quickly construct one. Not capable of producing a nuclear explosion, a dirty bomb would use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a wide area and make it uninhabitable. It could be made from easily acquired low-grade nuclear material, such as isotopes for medicine and industry.
``The problems in finding materials for a dirty bomb practically do not exist,'' said Dmitry Kovchegin of the Center for Policy Studies in Moscow.
Bin Laden has boasted of having weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and other Western governments say there is no evidence he has a nuclear weapon, but officials acknowledge it can't be ruled out.
``Inevitably, it will happen eventually,'' said Dr. Frank Barnaby, a nuclear physicist who specializes in nuclear terrorism studies at the Oxford Research Group, a private think tank in Oxford, England.
Analysts who doubt bin Laden has a nuclear bomb don't think al-Qaida has the skill to develop such weapons. Plans for an atomic bomb found in Kabul, reported recently by the British press, appear to have been an old spoof from a humor journal that al-Qaida may have mistaken for genuine diagrams.
But even the skeptical experts won't rule out the possibility bin Laden has the bomb.
``Making a bomb and getting it somewhere is a low likelihood scenario, but the consequences if they did are extremely high, so that pushes the risk level up. So I would say the risk level is medium,'' said Clive Williams, a terrorism expert at Australian National University.
Experts have worried for years that acquiring or building a nuclear weapon of some kind is a much greater possibility since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Criminals have been caught smuggling nuclear material out of Russia. There are numerous, unverified reports of nuclear weapons being sold or misplaced. Russian officials admit security at their nuclear facilities is often poor. There is concern penniless nuclear scientists might be hired by outsiders to develop weapons.
``Undoubtedly the disintegration of such a huge state as the U.S.S.R. created temptations and it would seem strange if nobody took advantage of them. Such organizations as al-Qaida have enough money and organizing skills to do it,'' said Vladimir Lukin, a vice speaker of the Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
Nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the United States, Russia and the other nuclear powers can only be operated with codes. Even if bin Laden has an ex-Soviet weapon, he is unlikely to have the code to detonate it, experts say.
Analysts are divided over the chances of terrorists building a nuclear bomb. Some say it is easier than generally realized. Others counter that Iraq apparently failed to build a bomb despite a $10 billion effort lasting years.
Barnaby said an atomic bomb can be built fairly easily using highly enriched uranium. Only Pakistan uses this material to build atomic bombs, which is worrisome, he said, because of known links between bin Laden and some former Pakistani nuclear scientists.
But if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, wouldn't he have used it?
Analysts aren't so sure, saying terrorists traditionally build up attacks to heighten terror, so a nuclear attack might be saved for a final blow. The collapse of al-Qaida in Afghanistan could increase the chances, they say.
``They would want to keep things up their sleeves. Terrorists need to escalate attacks. They have to notch it up all the time,'' said Barnaby.
``The next natural move would be a nuclear terrorist act.''
---
CONGRESS
House Blocks Amendments to National Security Bill
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congress-Spending.html?searchpv=aponline
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House handed a victory to President Bush on Wednesday by derailing a Democratic drive to pour billions of extra dollars into anti-terrorism efforts, defense and aid to New York.
The largely party-line 216-211 vote moved the House to the verge of approving a $20 billion package to finance the war in Afghanistan and the battle against domestic terrorism. It also included help for New York and other communities recovering from the attacks that leveled the World Trade Center's towers, damaged the Pentagon and killed thousands of people.
With just four defections, GOP lawmakers rallied behind Bush's threat to veto the legislation if money were added to it. Bush has cast the fight as a test of fiscal austerity, coupling that with a promise to seek more money early next year if needed.
``Congress will respond'' when more money is requested, said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill. ``But we need to be responsible about these things.''
Democrats said now was the time to lay out more money to buy vaccines, hire sky marshals, secure Russian nuclear material, increase food inspections and otherwise thwart terrorists.
``We're going after the snake,'' Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said about the U.S.-led hunt for Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorist leaders in Afghanistan. ``They're going to try to retaliate.''
The vote underlined the strong pull the widely popular Bush has on GOP lawmakers. That influence, plus pressure from party leaders, let them withstand lobbying by unions, mail-order businesses, ports and other groups that stood to benefit from the Democrats' proposal.
Bush won a victory in the Democratic-controlled Senate as well.
Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Democrats would no longer seek extra domestic security spending as part of their economic stimulus legislation. Their domestic security proposal had been a major obstacle to a bipartisan deal on using tax cuts and new spending to prod the slumbering national economy.
That move, coupled with signals of widespread support for a plan to erase Social Security taxes for a month, breathed new life into the economic stimulus bill.
At a morning White House meeting, Bush asked congressional leaders to intensify efforts for compromise. The leaders planned to meet again Wednesday night.
``Hopefully, we'll get this done in the next week or so,'' said Senate Minority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla.
Though Daschle said his party was shrinking its spending demands for domestic security -- and like the House would attach it to a defense bill -- aides said Senate Democrats still wanted about $35 billion overall for anti-terrorism. That amount -- $15 billion beyond what Bush supports -- includes money for bioterrorism and other domestic security programs, defense and aid to New York.
The Senate Appropriations Committee planned to vote on its version of the anti-terror package next Tuesday, signaling a new confrontation with Bush.
The $20 billion in anti-terrorism spending in the House bill was half the $40 billion that Congress approved three days after the attacks. Bush controls half, while the rest must be approved anew and in detail by lawmakers.
Almost from the beginning, Bush threatened to veto spending that would exceed the $40 billion. White House officials renewed that threat Wednesday.
``We look forward to working with the Congress to ensure that the highest priority needs are met in an expeditious manner,'' they wrote to congressional leaders.
The 216-211 tally blocked votes on three Democratic amendments aimed at adding $7.2 billion for protecting drinking water, hiring border guards and other domestic security steps; $6.5 billion for defense; and $9.7 billion to help New York and other communities recover from the attacks.
Before Thanksgiving, New Yorkers from both parties were demanding the extra $9.7 billion for local recovery. They cited a promise they said Bush made to give those communities half the $40 billion.
But in negotiations with the White House led by Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., most Republican New Yorkers settled for an extra $1.5 billion that would be shifted from other funds within the $20 billion package. Democrats remained opposed.
Of the $40 billion, about $11 billion is for New York and the other areas. Administration officials have said the total will reach at least $20 billion with later bills helping jobless workers and providing other aid.
Overall, $21 billion of the $40 billion is for the military.
The $20 billion was attached to a bill providing $318 billion for the Defense Department this year. The measure is $20 billion more than last year's total and equals Bush's request, but it cuts $441 million from Bush's $8.3 billion plan for national missile defense.
-------- afghanistan
U.S. locates possible weapons labs
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Andrea Stone and Deborah Sharp, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/pentagon-usat.htm
More than 40 sites that might have been used to conduct research on chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been identified in Afghanistan, and some are still in Taliban hands, the top U.S. military commander for the region said Tuesday. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, said at a briefing in Tampa where the command is based that no evidence of such weapons has been found. He denied reports that samples of sarin, a deadly gas, had been found.
Franks, who hosted a visit by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said officials would conduct a systematic search of all suspect sites, and he vowed that no biological or chemical weapons would be left in the country. "We'll provide no option on that," he said. "That is non-negotiable."
Franks said U.S. authorities have discovered or have information about laboratories containing "paraphernalia, a variety of chemical compositions and these sorts of things" that could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction. Some of the sites are under the control of the opposition Northern Alliance, but others remain in areas controlled by Taliban forces, who have been harboring terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Franks cautioned that the chemicals and equipment could have had legitimate purposes, such as to produce fertilizer. Samples have been flown to the United States for testing, and the first results could take at least a couple of days, he said.
Bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda terrorist network have long made clear their desire to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, even saying it was a religious duty to do so. Before the attacks Sept. 11 on the USA, satellite imagery showing dead animals in Afghanistan indicated that bin Laden was experimenting with chemical weapons, experts said.
Bin Laden said in an interview this month that he has nuclear weapons, but U.S. officials doubt it.
The discovery of more than 40 possible weapons labs "isn't really a surprise," said Michael Powers, a research associate at the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute. He noted that weapons-making manuals also have been uncovered in Afghanistan. "The key question is what did they find and what was the nature of the activities?" he said. "And, most importantly, how far did they get to producing workable chemical or biological weapons?"
Franks said U.S. forces were "paying very, very careful attention" to the southern city of Kandahar, where the Taliban leadership is based, and an area east of the capital, Kabul, near the Pakistani border. But "they are not the only places we are paying attention to," Rumsfeld added.
Stone reported from Washington, Sharp from Tampa
-------- britain
Green groups renew bid to stop UK nuke fuel plant
Reuters:
28/11/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13453
LONDON - Two top environmental groups have renewed a legal bid to stop Britain opening a controversial 472 million pound ($665.2 million) nuclear fuel manufacturing plant.
Today's bid comes a week after Ireland argued for a United Nations tribunal to issue injunctions to prevent the start of operations at the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Sellafield and to stop ships transporting nuclear material to and from it.
Just 12 days after their initial efforts were defeated in London's High Court, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have gone to the Court of Appeal where they are asking for the decision to be overturned.
The swift move to an appeal hearing is in response to plans by state-owned British Nuclear Fuels, the site's operator, to start up the plant next month.
"The appeal hearing is expected to conclude tomorrow and a judgement should follow in a few days," Mark Johnston of Greenpeace told Reuters.
Earlier this month the groups challenged Britain's decision to approve the start-up of operations at the plant, arguing it was unlawful because significant economic justification for the plant, as required by EU law, was not evident.
They said the government could not demonstrate an economic justification because the construction cost of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was not taken into account by a government-commissioned study which said the plant would deliver net financial benefits of 216 million pounds ($311 million).
A British judge ruled the government had acted within the law when granting start-up approval earlier this year.
Now the groups are asking the Court of Appeal to rule that Britain was wrong to approve the production of the MOX fuel.
The High Court judge in the decision under challenge said manufacture of MOX by BNFL at Sellafield was "the only feasible option now and in the foreseeable future," adding that the cost of setting up such a plant could not be set against the economic benefits.
The Irish government's legal action is based on what it says are contraventions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.
Ireland is worried about maritime pollution from the plant, which is located in Cumbria, and which would discharge low-level radioactive material into the Irish Sea.
Ireland has lawyers in court keeping a "watching brief" on the latest action.
BNFL has said it aims to get the plant operational in late December, pending a decision by the U.N. body and the outcome of an appeal lauched by the green groups.
-------- business
Ex-Utah Nuclear Regulator Sentenced
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 6:11 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30276-2001Nov28?language=printer
SALT LAKE CITY -- The state's former nuclear regulator was sentenced to 21/2 years in federal prison Wednesday for not declaring as income payments he received from a waste storage company.
Larry F. Anderson, former director of the Utah Bureau of Radiation Control, had been convicted on four tax violations in September. He was acquitted of extortion and mail fraud.
Prosecutors alleged Anderson used his job to wrest $600,000 in cash, gold coins and property from Envirocare of Utah, a company that stores low-level radioactive waste. At the time, it had permits pending with Anderson's department.
Anderson didn't think he'd done anything illegal, his attorney Jerry Mooney said. He abandoned a plea agreement in June that would have brought a one-year sentence.
Prosecutor Richard Lambert said the judge clearly thought Anderson's dealings were suspect. "The court specifically found that his money was criminally obtained," Lambert said.
Anderson, 65, must report to prison by Jan. 2.
Envirocare boss Khosrow Semnani earlier pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a false tax return. He paid a $100,000 fine.
-------- czech republic
Czech, Austrian leaders set to meet on nuclear row
Reuters:
28/11/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13459
PRAGUE - Czech premier Milos Zeman is likely to meet Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel in two days time amid prospects the two countries could end a row over the safety of a nuclear plant, a Czech official said yesterday.
The Czech Foreign Ministry said talks would "probably" take place in Brussels and include EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who has overseen efforts to settle the dispute, which has cast a shadow over Czech talks on European Union membership.
Nuclear-free Austria has strongly opposed putting into operation the Soviet-designed nuclear power station at Temelin, 60 km (37 miles) from the Austrian border, saying it was unsafe.
The first of Temelin's two reactors was launched last year, but has been shut down several times since due to minor technical glitches. It was due to be restarted yesterday or Wednesday after repairs.
Following an inspection last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday the plant was safe to operate.
Several top Austrian politicians have questioned the chances of Czech EU entry unless the plant is closed down or upgraded. The Czechs say it is absolutely safe.
The Czech government said yesterday it would hold an extraordinary meeting on the issue on Wednesday, suggesting the two government's positions have come closer.
"Both Prague and Vienna have an interest in a successful negotiation...and I am convinced that an agreement is possible," foreign ministry spokesman Ales Pospisil said.
He declined to give any details, but said negotiations were continuing at "all levels". He said a nod from the countries' governments was a precondition for Zeman and Schuessel to meet and seal any deal.
The Czechs have ruled out the plant's closure, but a compromise might include concessions on some technical improvements.
The $2.6 billion plant is a key asset of power company CEZ, which the government aims to sell to a foreign partner in early 2002.
---
IAEA says Czech Temelin n-plant safe to operate
Reuters:
28/11/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13460
VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's nuclear watchdog, said yesterday that a team of experts dispatched to the controversial Czech Temelin nuclear power station had found the plant safe to operate.
Nuclear-free Austria, whose border lies just 60 km (37 miles) from Temelin, opposes putting the Soviet-designed plant into operation and wants it decommissioned on grounds it is unsafe.
The IAEA gathered a team of nine experts from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom at the behest of the Czech government to review safety issues that had been identified in 1996.
The experts, accompanied by an observer from Austria, visited the site from November 18-23 and concluded that most identified issues had been addressed and resolved, the Vienna-based IAEA said.
There were still a few issues which needed attention.
"These issues, however, are not judged by them to be significant and would not from the experts' standpoint preclude the safe operation of the Temelin nuclear power plant," the IAEA said.
IAEA spokesman David Kyd told Reuters that the review had not been triggered by any recent events and that it was a follow-up to the watchdog's last visit in 1996, when it had recommended improvements.
"Half a dozen issues still need to be resolved, but these are not significant and will be put right," Kyd added, but did not elaborate.
The Czechs have dismissed Austrian concerns about the facility's safety. The first of Temelin's two reactors was launched last year but has suffered numerous minor glitches and has not been fully operational.
Temelin is one of the key assets of power company CEZ , which the government aims to sell to a foreign investor by early next year. It is equipped with Soviet-designed VVER-1,000 reactors and a modified western control system.
The final report from the IAEA's team of experts will be presented to the Czech government in a month's time.
-------- india / pakistan
India MPs Protest Alleged U.S. Airspace Violation
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-attack-india-parliament-usa.html?searchpv=reuters
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian opposition lawmakers Wednesday stormed out of parliament in protest against what they said was unauthorized use of the country's airspace by a helicopter from a U.S. naval ship docked in southern Madras.
About 150 deputies demanded that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee explain how the helicopter was allowed to fly over a nuclear installation near Madras city, an act which they said was a threat to national security.
The nuclear power station is about 45 miles from Madras, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
``When the air traffic control tried to establish contact with the crew of the helicopter flying over Kalapakkam (nuclear installation) for two hours, the crew refused to tell their names and identification,'' said N. Janardhan Reddy, a deputy from the main opposition party, Congress.
``This is a threat to national security,'' he added.
Tuesday, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said India would raise with U.S. authorities the alleged unauthorized use of its airspace by the helicopter which the U.S. embassy in New Delhi said was on a ``training flight to maintain pilot proficiency.''
It is one of two aboard the destroyer USS John Young, part of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which is docked in Madras for refueling and restocking. The ship is the second U.S. naval vessel to come to India recently -- USS O'Brien visited Madras three weeks ago.
The U.S. embassy said it was investigating the matter.
Somnath Chatterjee, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the facilities given to the United States should be withdrawn immediately.
``I want the government to tell us whether this matter was taken up with the United States and what action the government has taken for the violation of our air space,'' Chatterjee said.
The uproar comes at a time when the chief of U.S. armed forces in the region, Admiral Dennis Blair, is visiting New Delhi for meetings with Defense Minister George Fernandes and senior military officials.
The United States has expressed a keenness in building military ties with India, a former Cold War ally of the Soviet Union, after an improvement in relations over the past couple of years. New Delhi was one of the first to offer the United States use of its facilities for its military campaign in Afghanistan.
---
How Secure Is Pakistan's Plutonium?
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By MANSOOR IJAZ and R. JAMES WOOLSEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/opinion/28WOOL.html?searchpv=nytToday
A deeply disturbing picture of terrorist intent has emerged in recent weeks as blueprints for building nuclear weapons have been discovered in the wreckage of abandoned Al Qaeda safe houses. These blueprints and other documents, while largely available in the public domain, sharpen the need for a vigorous American policy to deal with unsecured nuclear, chemical and biological materials. Even if terrorist manufacture of nuclear bombs is unlikely, substantial dangers remain of terrorists using radioactive material in low-tech "dirty" bombs.
The main nuclear security problem posed by Al Qaeda today is access to radioactive materials in Pakistan. However, for a decade we have focused on the former Soviet Union. Since the end of the cold war, approximately 175 incidents of smuggling or attempted theft of nuclear materials there have been thwarted. But the threat remains, as the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Nov. 6, when the last attempt at theft was made.
For Russia, a sensible solution is available - the Nunn-Lugar "cooperative threat reduction" program to improve the security of Russia's nuclear materials, technology and expertise. This week, the House Republican leadership will decide whether to finance the next phase. The program is only 40 percent complete; finishing it will take another quarter of a century at the current rate of funding. It is past time to fully implement and finance this important legislation.
The Nunn-Lugar initiative can serve as a valuable precedent in addressing security problems in Pakistan. Neither Pakistan nor India has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Nor has either country engaged in negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, to protect against theft of fissile materials. This reluctance in India and Pakistan to recognize international norms, however, should not alter our resolve to improve the security of nuclear materials in South Asia.
While Islamabad is widely believed to have the material for 25 to 40 medium-yield bombs, most of its nuclear devices are kept in component parts, not as assembled warheads. The storage procedures, quite elaborate prior to Sept. 11, were altered again on Oct. 7 when the American bombing of Afghanistan began. Separately stored uranium and plutonium cores and their detonation assemblies were moved to six new secret locations around the country.
The new storage patterns were designed to allow for rapid assembly and deployment, but attackers will nonetheless find it much more difficult to confiscate Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Even if Al Qaeda obtained radioactive materials from a sympathizer at one of Pakistan's plants for making weapons-grade nuclear materials, as some reports have suggested, the material would still have to be shaped into a fissionable core with detonation switches and delivery housings.
Such a complex effort would be difficult to carry out in an Afghan cave. But we can hardly count on terrorists always being under bombardment in caves.
Pakistan's nuclear command hierarchy, overhauled in 2000, was also revamped on Oct. 7 in the wake of a broad military-intelligence shake-up. Pakistan's president and army chief, Pervez Musharraf, created the strategic planning division and appointed a moderate general, Khalid Kidwai, to oversee Pakistani nuclear assets.
Self-policing, however, is not enough. Since 1990, American sanctions have blocked sale or transfer of any technology that might have a military use - including technologies that would improve nuclear security. American export license controls - and, where necessary, Non-Proliferation Treaty and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty compliance rules preventing United States exports - should be waived to transfer the technology needed to protect Pakistan's nuclear arsenals and materials from unauthorized use.
The Bush administration should make available American vaults, sensors, alarms, tamper-proof seals, closed-circuit cameras and labels to identify, track and secure Islamabad's nuclear materials.
Such precautions would dramatically reduce the probability that even the most devoted bin Laden supporter inside a Pakistani nuclear enrichment facility would get very far in trying to deliver stolen uranium or plutonium to terrorists.
There is a real risk that Pakistan's fanatics might collaborate with Al Qaeda; the plans, recently discovered in Kabul, for a helium balloon armed with anthrax have been attributed to a Pakistani nuclear scientist turned Taliban philanthropist. But the risk is manageable if we can help the Musharraf government focus on this threat, as Russia has done in the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction program.
Unless we follow such a course, we face the very real possibility of terrorist militias obtaining not just blueprints but the materials to fashion and detonate weapons of mass destruction. We also risk sharpening the debate in Pakistani military and political circles about whether its nuclear expertise should be shared with other Muslim countries. It is hard to think of two developments that are less in our interest.
Mansoor Ijaz, a nuclear scientist, is chairman of Crescent Investment Management in New York; his father was an early pioneer in Pakistan's nuclear program. R. James Woolsey, an attorney, was director of central intelligence from 1993 to 1995.
-------- iraq
Arab League: Don't Attack Iraq
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Jordan-Iraq.html?searchpv=aponline
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan and the Arab League appealed to the United States not to attack Iraq, saying Wednesday that such a strike would have dangerous consequences.
Jordan ``rejects the use of force, external interference in Iraq's affairs and meddling with its integrity,'' said Saleh Qallab, a government spokesman and a minister of state.
President Bush warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country ``to prove to the world he's not developing weapons of mass destruction.''
Asked what would happen if Saddam refused, Bush replied: ``He'll find out.''
In Cairo, the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, reiterated Wednesday that any attack on an Arab country would have ``dangerous repercussions'' and would affect the political climate in the region.
``Arab public opinion is completely outraged because of what is happening in the occupied territories, `` Moussa said, referring to the 14 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
``If a country like the United States were to conduct any decisive and final diplomatic effort, it should be directed at (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon,'' Moussa said.
In Jordan, Qallab said in a statement to the official Petra news agency that: ``Any military action will only lead to deterioration, depression, frustration and negative consequences that are extremely dangerous and would surpass the borders of the region.''
As with other Arabs states, Jordan advocates dialogue between Iraq and the United Nations to resolve outstanding issues, Qallab said.
Jordan also wants to see an end to U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Qallab said.
The sanctions can only be lifted if U.N. inspectors determine that Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs and long-range missiles have been dismantled. Inspectors left Iraq ahead of U.S.-British airstrikes in December 1998, and Iraq has barred them from returning.
Iraq is the largest Arab importer of Jordanian food and medicine, bought under an exemption from U.N. sanctions. Jordan depends on Iraq for all its fuel.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, French Defense Minister Alain Richard said he saw no reason for the international military campaign against terrorism to move beyond Afghanistan for the time being.
Richard said France would back military action if there were compelling evidence that a nation was supporting al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. Bin Laden is the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
-------- korea
N.Korea Urged to Tackle Nuke Worries
By JAE-SUK YOO
Associated Press Writer
NOVEMBER 28, 06:06 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=WORLD&PACKAGEID=nkorea&STORYID=APIS7G2CA7O0
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-SKorea-US-Japan.html?searchpv=aponline
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials urged North Korea to join the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and to address concerns about its suspected nuclear weapons program.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, the three countries took ``positive'' note of actions taken by the North following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the officials, who met for two days in San Francisco, said North Korea needs to ``take further steps to confirm its cooperation with international anti-terrorism initiatives and opposition to international terrorism.''
The North, which is included on a U.S. list of nations that sponsor terrorism, called the September attacks ``very regrettable and tragic.'' It also decided to sign two United Nations treaties barring the financing of terrorism and the taking of hostages.
But the hard-line communist country voiced opposition to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, saying it could result in heavy civilian casualties.
The statement by the U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials did not say what further steps that North Korea should take in connection with the war in Afghanistan, but the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Thomas C. Hubbard, said recently that the North Koreans ``have been less than forthcoming in supporting the coalition against terrorism.''
On Monday, President Bush denounced both Iraq and North Korea for their alleged development of weapons of mass destruction. He warned that there would be consequences if they produce them.
The San Francisco statement also mentioned the breakdown of the latest round of North and South Korean talks, and said ``enhanced inter-Korean dialogue was central to efforts to reduce tension and increase stability on the Korean Peninsula.''
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a permanent peace treaty, and the border that divides the two Koreas is the world's most heavily armed.
-------- russia
Putin Thanks Participants in Kursk
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Kursk.html?searchpv=aponline
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday thanked Russian and foreign participants in the complex operation to raise the wrecked nuclear submarine Kursk, saying they contended with both unprecedented technical demands and the nation's hopes.
``There were great, human expectations surrounding this,'' Putin said during a Kremlin meeting honoring senior navy officers, Russian and foreign diving crews and the Dutch consortium that led the salvage operation.
The Kursk's wreckage was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea and brought ashore in October, more than a year after the submarine exploded and sank with 118 men aboard in a disaster that traumatized Russians.
The cause of the disaster remains under investigation.
``Each of the almost 3,000 Russian and foreign experts who took part was perfectly aware of the price of any mistake, even a minor one,'' said Putin, calling the effort ``an example of unique, international cooperation.''
The salvage operation, which cost an estimated $65 million, was unprecedented in naval history. The 18,000-ton Kursk not only was one of the world's largest submarines but also the only nuclear submarine ever salvaged.
Putin -- criticized heavily for an apparently slow response to the Aug. 12, 2000, sinking -- acknowledged that the decision to raise the submarine had been controversial.
``The navy officers tried to dissuade me. Members of the commission can remember the meeting where not one person was in favor of it,'' Putin said, referring to the commission created after the disaster to evaluate the government's next move.
For Russians, ``the lifting of the Kursk was not just a state duty but first of all a moral duty.''
Putin promised that the Russian government would draw ``the necessary conclusions'' from the tragedy.
``We need to ensure safe conditions for sailors and to establish a reliable search-and-rescue service,'' he said. ``The tragic experience of the Kursk and the experience gained during the salvage operation should trigger efforts to create new and more exact international standards for ship construction.''
Russian officials say the disaster was caused by the explosion of a practice torpedo, but they have not determined what triggered that blast.
On Wednesday, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda cited a Russian arms expert as saying radio transmissions intercepted from the Kursk showed the ship's captain saying there was a dangerous torpedo aboard and asking for permission to get rid of it.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
B - 52 Bomber Turns 50
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-B-52-Turns-50.html?searchpv=aponline
SEATTLE (AP) -- When Guy Townsend took the B-52 bomber on its first test flight nearly 50 years ago, he knew it was well-designed. But he never imagined it would still be in use today.
``Never. None of us ever dreamed the airplane would stay in service this long,'' Townsend, 81, said Tuesday. ``Three generations have flown the B-52. By the time it's retired we ought to have two more generations.''
The plane is now being used in Afghanistan after seeing service during the Vietnam and Gulf wars.
The B-52 has never been used for its initial potential: dropping hydrogen bombs on a cold war enemy. But the Air Force has found other reasons to keep it around -- for conventional bombing, photographic reconnaissance and launching missiles.
It was on Nov. 29, 1951, that the first prototype of the B-52 emerged from Boeing 's south Seattle plant, under cover of night and a huge tarp. The tail fin was folded down to help conceal the plane's radical, eight-engine, swept-wing design.
That prototype was damaged during testing and never flew, but it was followed by a second prototype on March 15, 1952, and the maiden flight came a month later. In the first photographs released to the press, its landing gear was airbrushed out to hide its configuration.
In all, eight models of the B-52 were built over the next decade, a total of 744 planes. About 100 H models remain in service. The Air Force says it may retain them until 2040.
The 390,000-pound plane has a 185-foot wingspan and can carry a crew of five at speeds up to 650 mph. It can fly as high as 50,000 feet or as low as 200.
In a fast-changing world of laser-guided missiles and stealth bombers, the plane's longevity is like something out of a much older arsenal, such as the catapult. It has outlasted several other bombers, including the North American B-70 Valkyrie.
``It was a design that had a lot of growth potential,'' said Al Lloyd, a Strategic Air Command historian and former Air Force officer who works for Boeing. ``It was designed to carry nuclear weapons, but it grew as the threat changed, as far as what kind of weapons they could put on it and what kind of electronics can be put on it.''
Townsend, who went on to become a brigadier general, agreed.
``We used to have a big, open flight deck,'' he said. ``That's all full of equipment now. It's doing a beautiful job.''
Others have been less enthusiastic about the bomber's use. During the Vietnam War, it was reviled by the peace movement as an indiscriminate killer.
Since the 1980s, the B-52s have been upgraded with improved electronics, environmental controls, autopilots, radar and the capability to launch cruise and short-range missiles.
Boeing has suggested replacing the eight engines with four more powerful ones, such as those used on the Boeing 757.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Senate Democrats Make Offer on Stimulus Plan
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-attack-economy-democrats.html?searchpv=reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats offered to slash their spending demands on Wednesday to beef up domestic security and said they would consider a Republican payroll tax holiday proposal to help break the impasse over economic stimulus legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said instead of the $15 billion originally sought, Democrats would push for $7.5 billion in spending to beef up security at the nation's transport, mail and nuclear facilities.
``In keeping with our effort to try to accommodate our Republican colleagues and the administration, who have expressed opposition to spending ... we're prepared to offer this as a way within which to move the process forward,'' Daschle told reporters. ``So we're hopeful that this will allow us that opportunity.''
Negotiations on the stimulus package have been stalled since Republicans earlier this month blocked in a procedural maneuver a Democratic stimulus package that included the $15 billion for domestic security measures.
Lawmakers acknowledge that neither the Democrats who control the Senate nor Republicans can muster the 60 votes needed to waive Senate budget rules to pass a partisan economic stimulus plan.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a more than $100 billion economic plan comprised mostly of tax cuts to help boost the economy out of recession, which an influential group of economists said began last March.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday offered a compromise that included the month-long payroll tax holiday. Both workers and businesses, which share the 12.4 percent tax that finances Social Security, would benefit from the break. Self-employed workers would keep the whole amount.
Daschle said Democrats would consider the Republican offer, but not if it meant dropping a Democratic proposal to give a rebate to workers who did not earn enough income to benefit from income tax rebates earlier this year.
Republicans said the offer would replace the proposed rebate and a Republican-backed measure that would refund billions of dollars to companies as part of a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax.
Daschle said offering the payroll tax holiday as a replacement for the cash rebates -- $300 for individuals, $500 for single heads of households and $600 for couples -- was a ''nonstarter.'' But he then quickly said nothing was a nonstarter, adding ``It may be a starter, but not a finisher.''
Daschle said Democrats were anxious to get an economic stimulus plan through Congress before the end of the year because it was the only way to get help to the unemployed quickly. Democrats have been pushing to expand benefits to the unemployed and to subsidize health insurance costs for laid-off workers.
-------- utah
Ex - Utah Nuclear Regulator Sentenced
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Regulator-Sentenced.html?searchpv=aponline
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The state's former nuclear regulator was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison Wednesday for not declaring as income payments he received from a waste storage company.
Larry F. Anderson, former director of the Utah Bureau of Radiation Control, had been convicted on four tax violations in September. He was acquitted of extortion and mail fraud.
Prosecutors alleged Anderson used his job to wrest $600,000 in cash, gold coins and property from Envirocare of Utah, a company that stores low-level radioactive waste. At the time, it had permits pending with Anderson's department.
Anderson didn't think he'd done anything illegal, his attorney Jerry Mooney said. He abandoned a plea agreement in June that would have brought a one-year sentence.
Prosecutor Richard Lambert said the judge clearly thought Anderson's dealings were suspect. ``The court specifically found that his money was criminally obtained,'' Lambert said.
Anderson, 65, must report to prison by Jan. 2.
Envirocare boss Khosrow Semnani earlier pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a false tax return. He paid a $100,000 fine.
-------- MILITARY
This war is not just
By James Carroll,
11/27/2001
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/331/oped/This_war_is_not_just+.shtml
IN RECENT DAYS, sage editorial writers, religious leaders, politicians, liberal pundits, and admired columnists have joined in the Donald Rumsfeld-Condoleezza Rice chorus praising the American war in Afghanistan as ''just.''
The Taliban are described as all but defeated. The ''noose'' around bin Laden grows ever tighter. Afghans are seen rejoicing in the streets, and the women among them are liberated. All because the United States turned the full force of its fire power loose on the evil enemy. Anyone still refusing to sign onto this campaign is increasingly regarded as unpatriotic. Next, we will be called ''kooks.''
Not so fast. The broad American consensus that Bush's war is ''just'' represents a shallow assessment of that war, a shallowness that results from three things.
First, ignorance. The United States government has revealed very little of what has happened in the war zone. Journalists impeded by restricted access and blind patriotism have uncovered even less. How many of those outside the military establishment who have blithely deemed this war ''just'' know what it actually involves? It is clear that a massive bombardment has been occurring throughout Afghanistan, but to what effect? And against whom? Is the focus on the readily targeted Taliban, in fact, allowing a far more elusive Al Qaeda to slip away?
The crucial judgment about a war's ''proportionality,'' central to any conclusion about its being ''just,'' simply cannot be made on the basis of information available at present. And how is this war ''just'' if the so far unprovoked war it is bleeding into - against Iraq - is unjust?
Second, narrow context. The celebrated results that have so far followed from the American war - collapse of the Taliban, liberation of women - are welcome indeed, but they are relatively peripheral outcomes, unrelated to the stated American war aim of defeating terrorism.
And these outcomes pale in significance when the conflict is seen in the context of a larger question: Does this intervention break, or at least impede, the cycle of violence in which terrorism is only the latest turn? Or, by affirming the inevitability of violence, does this war prepare the ground for the next one? By unleashing such massive firepower, do we make potential enemies even more likely to try to match it with the very weapons of mass destruction we so dread? Alas, the answer is clear.
This ''overwhelming'' exercise of American power has been a crude reinforcement of the worst impulse of human history - but this is the nuclear age, and that impulse simply must be checked. This old style American war is unwise in the extreme, and if other nations - Pakistan, India, Israel, Russia? - begin to play according to the rules of ''dead or alive,'' will this American model still seem ''just''?
Third, wrongly defined use of force. This war is not ''just'' because it was not necessary. It may be the only kind of force the behemoth Pentagon knows to exercise, but that doesn't make it ''just'' either. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 could have been defined not as acts of war, but as crimes. That was the first mistake, one critics like me flagged as it was happening.
As perhaps the most savage crimes in history, the terrorists' acts should have been met with a swift, forceful response far more targeted than the present war has been. Police action, not war. The criminals, not an impoverished nation, should be on the receiving end of the punishment.
Instead, a massive war against a substitute enemy leaves the sprawling criminal network intact - perhaps in Afghanistan, certainly in major cities elsewhere. Meanwhile, because of the war, the rule of law at home is being undermined. Because of the war-driven pressure to be ''united,'' the shocking incompetence of US domestic security agencies goes unchallenged.
Early in the war, the highest US officials, including the president and vice president, encouraged the idea that the anthrax attacks were originating with the bin Laden network. The understandable paranoia that consequently gripped the public imagination - an enemy that could shut down Congress! - was a crucial aspect of what led both press and politicians to accept the idea that a massive war against an evil enemy would be both necessary and moral.
Now, the operating assumption is that the anthrax cases, unrelated to bin Laden, are domestic crimes, not acts of war. But for a crucial moment, they effectively played the role in this war that the Gulf of Tonkin ''assault'' played in the Vietnam War, as sources of a war hysteria that ''united'' the nation around a mistake. In such a context, the more doubt is labeled disloyal, the more it grows. The more this war is deemed ''just,'' the more it seems wrong.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.
-------- afghanistan
Alliance claims to have quashed fortress uprising
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/27/uprisings.htm
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) - Dozens of shattered bodies lay in the dusty courtyard of a mud-walled Afghan fortress prison Tuesday after a three-day uprising by Taliban prisoners. The Northern Alliance claimed to have put down the revolt with the help of American airstrikes and special forces, but U.S. military officials said 30 to 40 men still were holding out in the sprawling Qalai Janghi complex. "It is not yet fully under control," Gen. Tommy Franks, who heads the war effort in Afghanistan, told reporters in Florida.
Northern Alliance troops turned back journalists trying to enter the complex outside the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Tuesday night, making it impossible to confirm whether fighting had ended.
But representatives of the international Red Cross said late Tuesday that they were working to arrange for burials Wednesday - an indication the battle had abated.
"The situation is completely under control. All of them were killed," said Alim Razim, political adviser to Gen. Rashid Dostum, the Northern Alliance commander responsible for Qalai Janghi.
The postscript from three days of fighting was grisly; the remains of soldiers from both sides lay around the prison, where non-Afghans who fought alongside the Taliban had been locked up since Sunday.
One television report showed some 60 bodies, believed to be Taliban, scattered across a courtyard. In another spot, a body believed to be that of a Pakistani Talib lay in a ditch, and villagers said he had been strangled with a rope. One man, laughing, picked up the body by its robe and kicked it in the head. Another villager posed over the dead man, holding a knife.
The hundreds of captives at Qalai Janghi - which means "Fortress of War" - held out for days, despite heavy U.S. airstrikes and thousands of Northern Alliance fighters from around the region coming to reinforce local troops. U.S. special forces and other troops believed to be British also participated in the battle and coordinated airstrikes.
By Tuesday night, Razim said his troops had seized the last mortar the prisoners had been using.
The fighting began Sunday when hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans fighting alongside the Taliban were brought to the fortress as part of the weekend surrender of Kunduz, the Islamic militia's last stronghold in the north. Once inside, the men stormed the armory and rose up against their alliance captors.
Five U.S. soldiers were seriously wounded in the battle Monday when a U.S. bomb went astray, exploding near the Americans. They arrived Tuesday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Frankfurt, Germany, spokeswoman Marie Shaw said. She declined to give details of their condition.
five were evacuated, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington. Their identities were not released.
U.S. officials were also trying to learn what happened to a CIA operative who was feared killed in the uprising. It wasn't clear whether he had been captured, killed or injured, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday in Washington.
Early Tuesday, the aerial bombardment on the fortress sent up showers of sparks visible from Mazar-e-Sharif, nine miles away, and appeared to trigger further explosions of ammunition inside the compound. As dawn broke, a loud explosion rattled windows in the city.
Even after the heavy strikes, some prisoners held out throughout much of the day, lobbing mortar shells that landed inside and outside the fortress' turreted walls, kicking up clouds of dust. Clouds of black smoke rose from inside the fortress and tank fire could also be heard mixed in with bursts of machine-gun fire.
Trucks carrying 200 Northern Alliance fighters from more than a province away also arrived at the fortress in the morning - one truck equipped with a Soviet-made anti-aircraft gun in the back.
A tank sat overturned Tuesday on the fortress walls in the area where the bomb hit. The prisoners also took advantage of the huge hole in the fortifications left by the bomb to climb trees and take shots at troops waiting to move in from about 550 yards away.
Desert camouflage-clad U.S. special forces and soldiers who appeared to be British moved in and out of the fort, some carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, others toting guns fitted with laserscopes and making calls with specialized communication equipment.
Razim, the Northern Alliance official, declined to say how many Taliban captives were in the fortress Tuesday, but said that in all, about 450 had been involved in the uprising.
Footage shot by the private Turkish station NTV showed some 60 bodies of Taliban fighters in the courtyard of the fortress, and Northern Alliance soldiers walking past the corpses. Footage shot by Fox News on Tuesday showed a Northern Alliance fighter shot next to a fortress wall; he then rolled down a hill where he was cared for by his colleagues.
Outside the fort, an Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of eight Northern Alliance soldiers and about six wounded alliance fighters on Tuesday. The bodies of three escaped Taliban prisoners, who appeared to be Pakistanis, lay in a ditch - including the one who was apparently strangled.
Alliance officers said Monday that about 40 of their troops died in the uprising, along with hundreds of resisters.
---
Alliance rejects U.N. proposal for security force
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/rejected.htm
KOENIGSWINTER, Germany (AP) - The Northern Alliance on Wednesday rejected an outside security force for a post-Taliban Afghanistan, saying the alliance's own forces were sufficient. The issue of security is one of two items to be decided at U.N.-sponsored talks among four Afghan factions that will decide the war-torn country's political future. The other issue is an interim administration.
"We don't feel a need for an outside force. There is security in place," Northern Alliance delegation leader Younus Qanooni told reporters at the talks, which began Tuesday outside Bonn.
However, Qanooni said, if a more extensive security force is needed, it should be comprised of ethnic groups within Afghanistan.
The United Nations has offered three proposals for a security force to ensure peace in Afghanistan once the Taliban are defeated: an Afghan force, a U.N. peacekeeping force and an international security force. Officials have indicated that an international force would be the most realistic.
Qanooni also dampened expectations building at the talks that the exiled former king would head an interim administration, saying he would have a role only if elected by a traditional national council, called a loya jirga.
"We don't believe in the role of a person and personalities. We believe in a system, for example, the loya jirga," Qanooni said. "If the people agree through a loya jirga that the king has a role, of course, no one can deny that."
Delegates from other factions at the conference indicated earlier Wednesday that consensus was growing around the ex-king as head of a transitional administration.
The first goal of the U.N.-sponsored talks, which got off to a positive start Tuesday, is to decide on an interim administration that will run Afghanistan until a loya jirga can convene, possibly as early as March.
Fatima Gailani, an adviser to one of the four groups negotiating at the talks, said Wednesday that the delegates appeared to nearing agreement that former King Mohammad Zaher Shah, 87, would run that administration. Zaher Shah has been living in exile in Rome since being overthrown in 1973.
"The majority, everyone agrees that whatever procedure, he will be the head of it. How much power he will have, we have to discuss this," said Gailani, who is advising the delegation of exiles based in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Deputy U.N. mediator envoy Francesc Vendrell said discussions about the king's role had been so far informal between the factions, and that while there are indications that most of the delegates in the four groups would like to see a role for the king, there was no decision yet.
U.S. envoy James Dobbins also indicated on Tuesday that the four factions at the table accept Zaher Shah as a unifying figure.
No faction favors a return of the monarchy, and Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani strongly opposes the king as head of state. Still, Dobbins said the Northern Alliance has indicated it would accept a symbolic role for the former king.
The delegation of exiles based in Cyprus supports the ex-king as the head of the interim authority, delegate Abdul Qadir Amiryar said Wednesday.
The four delegations were to meet Wednesday afternoon in a working session with the chief U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, following a meeting earlier in the day between the two largest factions, the Northern Alliance and that of the exiled former Afghan king, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
Secluded in a luxury hotel near Bonn, Germany, the groups are under strong international pressure, not only from the United Nations but also from the United States and Afghanistan's neighbors, who have observers at the talks, to come up with a formula for an interim administration to replace Taliban rule and a security force.
Vendrell indicated a measure of impatience with the pace of talks so far. Despite plans, the four groups have not yet met together since agreeing to the agenda on Tuesday.
Vendrell indicated a measure of impatience with the pace of talks so far. Despite plans, the four groups have not yet met together since agreeing to the agenda on Tuesday.
"We have to decide whether we should not help them move along and overcome obstacles," he said, adding that the U.N. will probably "encourage them, prod them."
After heralding a unifying tone at the opening sessions, the United Nations toned down expectations on the talks' second day.
"These talks are not going to be easy. One grain of sand can stop the machine," Fawzi said.
Despite the conflict over the security force, Qanooni called the meetings "positive" and said he expected them to be wrapped up in two or three days.
Western nations hope to use the promise of billions in reconstruction aid as leverage to prod the Afghans toward a historic agreement on a broad-based government, a constitution with full civil rights for women and eventual elections.
Following the transitional administration, tribal leaders convening the initial loya jirga would approve a transitional government to be in place for up to two years, leading to a second loya jirga, which would approve a constitution and set the stage for elections.
Key to any accord is the Northern Alliance, a coalition of warlords that has gained control of much of Afghanistan since U.S. forces began bombing suspected terrorist targets in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
------
Afghan Fortress a Formidable Target
Marines Pursuing Bin Laden May Be Targeting Bomb-Resistant Cave Complex
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24839-2001Nov27?language=printer
JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Its name means "black dust," but Tora Bora's reputation is solid rock: a mountain fortress so impregnable that a decade of Soviet bombing and missile fire was unable to dislodge the Afghan guerrillas who built it as a base in the 1980s.
Now Tora Bora, a redoubt of fortified caves in the freezing White Mountains 30 miles south of Jalalabad, is believed to be the hiding place of up to 2,000 Arab fighters who fled this eastern Afghan city this month when their hosts and allies from the ruling Taliban militia withdrew from the area.
Officials of the new regional government, an alliance of three anti-Taliban militia groups, say their men are experienced enough in mountain warfare to attack Tora Bora, but that they need far more firepower to make a successful assault against the desperate and dedicated Arab fighters.
"They are armed, experienced, disciplined and suicidal. They will fight to the last drop of blood," said Hazrat Ali, the new regional security chief. "If they had wanted to leave or give up fighting, they would have been gone by now. But they have one slogan: to keep Tora Bora or be killed."
Some officials here say they believe Osama bin Laden, the accused Saudi-born terrorist leader, is also hiding in Tora Bora. But no one has confirmed seeing him in the area for many months. Local residents said he long ago abandoned a compound occupied for several years by his guards and relatives in a village south of Jalalabad.
In the past weeks, U.S. military planes have repeatedly bombed Tora Bora to no effect. Now, with the news that U.S. Marines landed early Monday southwest of Kandahar, the southern Afghan city that Taliban leaders have vowed to defend to the death, speculation has arisen here that U.S. ground forces could attack the mountain fortress.
Most regional officials are opposed to having Western troops enter the area and wish the Arabs would simply leave. Ali and other officials said they had sent several groups of delegates to Tora Bora to negotiate the surrender or safe passage of the Arabs, but that these efforts have proven useless.
One senior militia leader, Yunus Khalis, is also said to be holding secret talks with Taliban commanders remaining in the Jalalabad area, urging them to surrender or join the new government. Khalis's son and aide, Mujahid, said he would strongly object to U.S. military forces entering the area or using local airstrips, saying they have "no permission" to do so.
Ali expressed some ambivalence, however, saying, "Whether I am happy about it or not, the Americans have their mission to eliminate the roots of terrorism." But he warned that Tora Bora would be much harder to attack than Kandahar, even for U.S. forces. "One is a city surrounded by land, and the other is in many mountains," he said. "There is a big difference."
Over the past several days, descriptions of Tora Bora have emerged from interviews with security officials, local residents and onetime associates of the Arab fighters who lived openly here during the Taliban's five-year rule.
One Afghan who visited Arab acquaintances at Tora Bora six months ago described a well-stocked complex of caves between two mountain ridges, a steep three-hour walk from the nearest village and virtually invisible from above. He said it contained numerous rooms with immense walls, "just like a hotel," heated by electricity and drawing power from mountain runoff water. According to this visitor, as well as other local residents and officials, the Arabs are regularly supplied with labor, food and other needs by inhabitants of villages near the base of the mountains who are sent into Jalalabad to shop discreetly every few days.
"It is getting very cold there, and they are paying a lot of money to people to work on improving the caves," said Sohrab Qadri, the top intelligence aide to Ali. "We are sure they have village spies who come secretly into the city to buy food and supplies. They know that if we recognize them we will shoot them."
Other local residents said villagers who live near the mountains are frightened by the continued Arab presence, in part because they fear the cornered foreign fighters and in part because they worry Tora Bora will continue to draw U.S. bombing to the surrounding area.
The road from Jalalabad to Tora Bora is heavily guarded by militiamen as far south as the village of Pachir, about an hour's drive from the base of the mountains. After that, residents said, the area is too dangerous for most travelers to risk.
A driver in Pachir said some villagers had seen Arabs in convoys of pickup trucks fleeing south toward the mountains at night after Taliban forces withdrew and militia groups took over Jalalabad. But he said he knew of no one currently working or shopping for the Arabs in Tora Bora.
"Nobody loves the Arabs or the Taliban in my area," he said. "They threatened and tyrannized the people. If you gave them thousands of dollars a day, nobody would work for them."
Residents of Jalalabad are also worried about the rumors of bin Laden's presence in the nearby mountains. Several days ago, one group of anxious townspeople approached some foreign journalists, saying a U.S. bomb had hit a house in their neighborhood.
The bomb turned out to be a projectile dropping leaflets with a photo of bin Laden and Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, and offering a $25 million reward for information leading to their capture. But instead of being relieved, the residents grew even more agitated.
"We have never seen bin Laden or Mullah Omar," insisted Mohammed Zafar, reading one of the leaflets that had landed in the yard. "If the papers fall here, it means the Americans think Osama may be here, too, and the real bombs will follow."
-------- asia
Political Solution Sought in Sri Lanka
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 5:39 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26470-2001Nov28?language=printer
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- The rebel leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgency indicated in a speech that he might consider something less than full independence for the minority he represents.
Tamil rebel leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran on Tuesday urged Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga to find a political solution to the country's 18-year-old ethnic conflict.
"The Tamil national question, which has assumed the character of a civil war, is essentially a political issue," Prabhakaran said in a speech broadcast by the clandestine Voice of Tigers radio to mark his 47th birthday.
He said the civil war could end if justice was done for the minority Tamils - about 3.2 million people. Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean, has a population of about 18.6 million - mostly Sinhalese.
"I call upon the Sinhala people to identify and renounce the racist forces committed to militarism and war and to offer justice to the Tamils to put an end to this bloody war and to bring about permanent peace," he said.
The speech was monitored in northern Sri Lanka, where most of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority live. The 18-year-old insurrection has left 64,000 people dead.
The Tamils accuse the majority Sinhalese of widespread discrimination in education and jobs, a charge the government denies. The majority Sinhalese control the government and the military.
There was no immediate government comment on Prabhakaran's speech.
The government has in the past treated rebel peace proposals with skepticism. In 1995, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam abruptly ended a three-month cease-fire and broke off talks with the government.
"The Tamil people favor a political solution that would enable them to live in their own lands with the right to rule themselves," Prabhakaran said in his speech Tuesday.
Prabhakaran is wanted in Sri Lanka and neighboring India for political assassinations. He founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 1976 and runs the organization with absolute authority.
The rebel leader said that the Sinhalese, Tamils and other communities can coexist in peace and harmony if a political settlement is reached through peaceful means.
"It is the basic political aspiration of the Tamil people. This is neither separatism nor terrorism. It does not constitute a threat to the Sinhala people," Prabhakaran said.
However, he warned that the Tamils would be left with no alternative but to secede and form an independent state if the government could not resolve the conflict through peaceful means.
Prabhakaran also appealed to Sri Lanka, India, Britain and the United States to lift a ban on his group, saying it was not a terrorist organization.
Sri Lanka says his group's sophisticated arsenal includes Stinger missiles purchased from Afghan rebel groups. But its most menacing weapons are human bombs known as Black Tigers who have assassinated former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, former Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and other political and military leaders.
Prabhakaran's fighters typically carry cyanide capsules, prepared to kill themselves to avoid capture or interrogation.
-------- biological weapons
U.S. to buy 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/smallpox.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration signed a contract Wednesday to buy 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine from a British firm, preparing for the possibility terrorists would try to spread the deadly virus. The contract with Acambis Inc. will bring the nation's stockpile to 286 million doses of the vaccine by the end of next year, promising protection for every American should bioterrorists attack with the all-but-extinct virus. ''The risk does exist and we must be prepared,'' said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
The vaccine can be administered four days after exposure to smallpox and still offer protection. For that reason, and because the vaccine can cause some rare but deadly side effects, officials have no plans to resume the routine vaccinations of Americans that ended in 1972.
Thompson said that buying the new vaccine is sure to prompt demand for the shots by some Americans and debate in Congress and at the White House over whether vaccinations should resume.
The government already has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine on hand, and officials are preparing to dilute each of them to create five doses, bringing the total to 77 million. Researchers are studying whether each dose could be further diluted, to get 10 doses from each one.
In either case, the diluted vaccine would only be used if the new doses had not yet been delivered, or if they ran out, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
An additional 54 million doses have already been ordered from Acambis and are expected to be delivered next year.
The new contract will bring another 155 million doses, which are expected by late fall 2002. They will cost the government $428 million, or $2.76 per dose. That's less than the $509 million that the Bush administration has asked from Congress to pay for the new vaccine.
The initial budget request assumed that the government would need to buy 250 million doses, but new research has found that the existing vaccine can safely be diluted, meaning much less new vaccine is needed.
To make the newest batch of vaccine, Acambis has teamed with Baxter International, which will begin brewing doses immediately at an undisclosed European factory, said Acambis spokeswoman Lyndsay Wright. Acambis' own manufacturing will begin soon at a factory in Cambridge, Mass., she said.
"Between the two of us, we have the manufacturing capability," she said.
After the vaccine is manufactured, it must be tested in clinical trials and then approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA promised a sped-up review but vowed not to lower its standards.
Smallpox hasn't occurred in the United States since 1949 and was declared eradicated from the globe in 1980. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a Moscow laboratory hold stocks of the virus, and experts worry that samples could fall into terrorists' hands and be brewed into enough to be used as a weapon.
Bioterrorism experts say a smallpox attack is unlikely, but it could overwhelm communities were it to occur. The virus is highly contagious, and nearly a third of its victims die.
"Obtaining the vaccine represents an important insurance policy," said Dr. D.A. Henderson, who led the global campaign that eradicated smallpox and is now Thompson's top bioterrorism adviser. "This is not because of any particular threat or new threat or anything of that sort. It's simply a prudent thing to do at this point in time."
Thompson added that while the risk of a release of the virus is low, it is real.
"We hope that increasing our smallpox vaccine stockpile would serve as a deterrent to any individual terrorist who would consider using smallpox as a weapon against us," he said.
HHS officials have been negotiating for weeks with several drug makers for the new smallpox contract. Two other companies were in the final bidding, Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline.
Final offers were submitted last week. Thompson said Acambis was chosen because of its experience and because its offer was lowest.
---
Pakistan Questions Nuke Scientists
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Nuclear-Scientists.html?searchpv=aponline
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani investigators are interrogating two nuclear scientists about whether they helped Osama bin Laden make chemical weapons with anthrax, security and intelligence officials said Wednesday.
Six Pakistani officials, all of whom are involved in the investigation, told The Associated Press they have no direct evidence that the scientists were working on anthrax weapons, but that information from U.S. sources in Afghanistan raised their suspicions.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, both of whom worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999, made several trips to Afghanistan and met with bin Laden, but say they were simply doing charity work.
The government refused to comment on a possible anthrax connection. The top government spokesman, Gen. Rashid Quereshi, said only that the scientists are suspected of violating rules that apply to government scientists even after retirement, and of violating travel restrictions.
He said he could give no further details of the investigation until it is complete.
The two scientists were arrested on Oct. 23 in the eastern border city of Lahore. Authorities said last week that they had been released, but Quereshi said Tuesday that the scientists were brought in for further interrogation. No charges have been filed.
The security and intelligence officials said that during the first round of questioning, the scientists had concealed some facts and avoided questions that made them suspicious.
Pakistan asked the U.S.-led coalition to do some checking in Afghanistan, and the reports from those operatives led them to bring the scientists back in for further questioning, the officials said.
They said Pakistan is sharing details of the interrogation with investigators from coalition countries.
The information from Afghanistan included details of the men's ties to the Taliban Agriculture Ministry, which officials suspect of research into chemical weapons including anthrax. The officials gave no further details of the scientists' possible involvement.
The scientists traveled to neighboring Afghanistan several times after their retirement and met bin Laden on two occasions, government officials have said.
The scientists have said they visited Afghanistan on behalf of a charity organization that helped farmers and students. They deny passing nuclear secrets to Afghanistan's now-retreating Taliban regime or to bin Laden.
Officials in Pakistan, which conducted its first underground nuclear bomb tests in 1998, say there is nothing to suggest they revealed nuclear secrets to anyone in Afghanistan.
---
BIOLOGICAL TERROR
2 Pakistanis Linked to Papers on Anthrax Weapons
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By DOUGLAS FRANTZ with DAVID ROHDE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/international/28BALL.html?searchpv=nytToday
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 27 - Pakistan said today that it had detained two retired nuclear scientists after the recent discovery in offices they had used in Afghanistan of documents describing ways to use anthrax as a weapon and other suspicious material.
The scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudry Abdul Majeed, were first questioned in October after American intelligence officers expressed concern about trips the two had made to the Afghan capital, Kabul. They were interrogated about their ties to the Taliban.
After he retired from Pakistan's Atomic Energy Agency in 1998, Mr. Mahmood founded a private relief organization, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, that operated in Afghanistan.
Documents from the organization's Kabul offices examined by The New York Times have been found over the past several days describing the history of anthrax and a Pentagon program to immunize all members of the United States military against anthrax attacks.
Also found were a box of gas masks, a diagram showing a plane shooting down a weather balloon and promotional material from militant Islamic groups. These findings were first reported last week in the British daily The Evening Standard.
Plans for building a balloon and what appeared to be a rocket were found on a piece of paper along with empty steel tubes and parts of a rocket-propelled grenade. A container of helium sat on a work bench.
The diagrams of the balloons seem to show a possible method for slowly dispersing some type of biological or chemical agent from the air. Words scribbled in the diagram appear to say "cyanide."
One diagram found in the Kabul offices show four balloons flying together in tandem with a box around them. The box appears to show how the agent would be dispersed across a wide area.
The house, like others in the Afghan capital apparently used by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, Al Qaeda, seems to have been hastily abandoned when the Taliban fled Kabul two weeks ago. It is not clear who may have been in the house since then.
Referring to the scientists, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, the top Pakistani military spokesman, said today in Islamabad: "Both of them are under detention." He declined to elaborate, but officials said the new detentions related to the discoveries in Kabul.
The first arrest of the scientists last month was linked to American suspicions that Pakistan's nuclear weapons technology could have found its way into the hands of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
An American intelligence official said today that the first interrogation of the two Pakistani scientists has resulted in an assessment that Mr. Mahmood and Mr. Majeed did not know enough to help build a nuclear weapon. "These two guys were nuclear scientists who didn't know how to build one themselves," the American official said. "If you had to have guys go bad these are the guys you'd want - they didn't know much."
Neither of the Pakistani scientists has been charged with any wrongdoing. Their families have said they are innocent and that their interest in Afghanistan was humanitarian. The families have written to government officials protesting their interrogation and earlier detention.
They had been released after the initial questioning in October, but remained under loose house arrest. The new detentions indicate that concern about their activities in Afghanistan have intensified.
Mr. Mahmood and Mr. Majeed worked for the relief organization, whose official purpose was to upgrade roads, build flour mills and carry out other projects to assist Afghanistan. Both spent a considerable amount of time in Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Qureshi, the military spokesman, said of their new detention: "When we have completed the investigation, I'm sure the details will be coming out."
The diagrams in the Kabul offices of the relief organization were detailed. One had an arrow pointing to a balloon and the word "wireless" written next to it, suggesting that some type of communications device might be used as a trigger. Other diagrams had the word "SAM-7" and "Stinger" written near the balloon, suggesting that the two types of anti-aircraft missiles could be fired at the balloon to get it to release it contents.
Nearly all of the information found about anthrax in the house came from the United States military. The copies of the military paper describing the anthrax immunization program and expansion of anthrax vaccine production in Michigan were all from original documents, not documents downloaded from the Internet.
Someone had written a half dozen stars across the top of the Michigan study, suggesting that they found it valuable.
Whoever was conducting the research also effectively mined United States military Web sites for information. Copies of a printout of the first page of a military Web site devoted to better informing Persian Gulf war veterans with related illnesses were found in the house.
The site offers highly detailed descriptions of how Anthrax can be used as a weapon and spread through artillery shells, airplanes and trucks. It lists what size of anthrax dose kills people who have been immunized, and refers readers to more detailed academic studies on anthrax.
The house used by Mr. Mahmood's organization, one of three adjacent structures occupied by Pakistani scientists in the Wasi Akbar Khan section of Kabul, the city's wealthy diplomatic corner, it is an unremarkable two-story cinderblock home.
Books and toys suggest that children recently lived in the house. A young girl's second-grade English literature workbook lay on the living room floor surrounded by mounds of abandoned clothing. There was no hint of the effort underway in the workroom upstairs. Mr. Mahmood was a director-general of nuclear power plants for the Atomic Energy Agency and Mr. Majeed was once director of uranium-enrichment laboratories.
Pakistani officials said earlier that neither man was affiliated with its nuclear weapons program. President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan repeated the denial in a television interview on Monday.
But Pakistani newspapers have reported that Mr. Mahmood was involved in developing the atomic bombs Pakistan tested in its western desert in May 1998. Western intelligence agencies estimate that Pakistan has a stockpile of about 20 nuclear weapons.
Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, a team of American law enforcement and intelligence officials raised the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons in discussions in Islamabad with Pakistani officials.
The papers and blackboard drawings found in a Kabul house appear to describe the Taliban's notions for dispersing biological and possibly chemical agents by balloons and other methods. Those concepts are backed up by rudimentary calculations and information from Department of Defense Web sites and at least one report prepared for the United States military on anthrax vaccines.
The report, prepared by Science Applications International Corporation, a private research firm with contracts with the Pentagon, was not classified, said Zuraidah Hashim, a spokeswoman for the firm, in Frederick, Md. It was titled "Renovation of Facilities and Increased Anthrax Vaccine Production at the Michigan Biologic Products Institute."
"This report was not a how-to manual of any kind," Ms. Hashim said. "It was not a report that gave instruction of how to produce anthrax or anthrax vaccine." Instead, Ms. Hashim called it "an evaluation report" on the institute's vaccine program.
The papers also contained copies of Web pages with information on anthrax. An internet search on phrases on the pages quickly led to Department of Defense and other sites with relatively detailed information on anthrax and biological weaponry.
One page correctly explains the difference between cutaneous, gastrointestinal and inhalation anthrax and shows a photograph of former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen at a press conference holding a five-pound bag of sugar, which the caption indicates is the amount of anthrax needed to destroy half the population of Washington, D.C.
The drawings on a wallboard are more difficult to interpret, but they appear, in part, to illustrate the dispersal of an agent by balloons. Why the Taliban considered that concept is unknown, but terror experts said it was far from an ideal method.
For one thing, said Dr. Ashok Gadgil, a biological terror expert and senior staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, agents released outdoors would be so widely dispersed as to be useless in many circumstances. Pinpoint release of the agents over, say, a city, would be difficult with a balloon.
"It's a very poor way to release something that you hope to release at a particular urban site," Dr. Gadgil said. "It doesn't sound like a very good game plan."
-------- iraq
U.S. Bombs Iraqi Air Defense Site
Reuters
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25244-2001Nov27.html
U.S. warplanes attacked an air defense target in southern Iraq yesterday in response to continuing Iraqi threats against U.S. and British jets patrolling a no-fly zone, the Defense Department said.
The announcement, which came as Baghdad rejected a call from President Bush to allow U.N. arms inspectors back into Iraq, said only that an air defense "command and control system" had been struck.
----
Iraq rejects demand for arms inspectors
November 28, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011128-76898472.htm
Iraq yesterday rejected a demand from President Bush that it allow weapons inspectors back into the country, but the United States sought to lower expectations that it will attack Iraq as part of its anti-terror military campaign.
At the same time, after failing to get Russia's consent for "smart sanctions" against Iraq before the current sanctions expire on Friday, Washington obtained Moscow's commitment to revise the embargo after six months, U.S. officials said.
U.S. warplanes attacked an air-defense target in southern Iraq yesterday, but the Pentagon said the incident had nothing to do with Mr. Bush's comments on Monday and was in response to continuing Iraqi threats against American and British jets patrolling a no-fly zone there.
A day after Mr. Bush said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "will find out" the consequences of not allowing weapons inspectors back into his country, the White House yesterday remained vague about how it might deal with Baghdad in the future.
"The president left that for Saddam Hussein to figure out," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters. "If Iraq is not willing to let arms inspectors into their country, they continue to violate an agreement that they promised to keep."
Mr. Fleischer said "the president is focused on phase one" of the campaign against terrorism. "Anything that may come subsequent to that would be something the president would discuss at the appropriate time - if and whether that would come to be," he said.
A defiant Baghdad said yesterday it's not afraid of U.S. threats and is ready to defend itself against any attack.
"Anyone who thinks Iraq can accept an arrogant and unilateral will of this party or that is mistaken," an Iraqi government spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency.
U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, shortly before the United States and Britain began four days of air strikes to punish Saddam for refusing to cooperate with them. Baghdad has said it would allow inspectors back in only if sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war are lifted.
At the United Nations yesterday, the United States and Russia agreed to keep the current U.N. oil-for-food program in place for six more months, after which a carefully scrutinized list of civilian goods will be allowed into Iraq.
"There is a consensus on a draft resolution on the concept of a goods-review list, which will be put to a vote by the Security Council on Thursday or Friday," said a U.S. diplomat familiar with the draft.
"Between now and May 31 we'll work on refining the items on the list and the procedures of implementing it to make sure that components of weapons of mass destruction don't get in," he said.
The United States had initially proposed a four-month "rollover period," but Russia insisted on a half-year, the diplomat said. An annex to this week's resolution containing the list of goods will be adopted by the Security Council on June 1, 2002, he added.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov spoke on the phone about the sanctions program on Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Some of Washington's closest allies yesterday echoed Mr. Bush's demand that inspectors return to Iraq but warned against widening the U.S.-led military campaign against Afghanistan without clear evidence of state involvement in the September 11 attacks.
"This is a military campaign specifically directed against those responsible for the mass murders of September 11," junior Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw told the House of Commons in London. "There is no evidence of any state involvement, and in the absence of such evidence those military objectives remain as they have done all along."
In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that "the statement by the U.S. president is natural and goes in the right direction."
However, a senior French diplomatic source was quoted by wire reports as saying that France believes U.S. military action should be limited to Afghanistan.
Some of these concerns were echoed by countries in the Middle East.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said a U.S. attack on any Arab country as part of its war on terrorism would be a "fatal mistake."
In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reporters that "striking against any Arab country will be the end of harmony within the international alliance against terrorism."
The U.S. military's Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said yesterday's air strike was on a target at An Nasiriah, about 170 miles southeast of Baghdad.
"This action was taken to reduce the threat to the coalition aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone and has no connection with 'Operation Enduring Freedom,'" in Afghanistan, the Central Command said in a statement.
----
U.S., Russia Agree on Iraq Program
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 2:16 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25905-2001Nov28?language=printer
UNITED NATIONS -- The United States and Russia have reached a compromise to renew the U.N. humanitarian program in Iraq for another six months, a deal that could lead to an overhaul of sanctions against the oil-rich nation next year.
The compromise hinged on Russia's agreement to approve a new list of goods that would need U.N. review before shipment to Iraq, a key feature of an earlier U.S.-British proposal to overhaul sanctions. The United States in turn agreed to Russia's long-standing demand for "a comprehensive settlement" of the sanctions issue - including steps that would lead to lifting the 11-year-old military embargo.
A draft resolution incorporating the agreement was circulated to all 15 Security Council members on Tuesday night. The council was to hold closed-door consultations Wednesday, and was expected to approve a resolution before the program expires at midnight Friday.
The draft calls for a six-month extension of the program, which allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil on condition that the proceeds are spent primarily on food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.
It also says the council will adopt a list of dual-use and military-related goods that would need approval from the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq. The council must act within the next six months so the list can be put to use starting June 1.
The list was part of a U.S.-British sanction overhaul plan that would tighten the military embargo on Saddam Hussein's regime and clamp down on oil smuggling, while allowing more civilian goods into Iraq. The plan was shelved in early July, when Russia threatened a veto.
Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the Security Council and a major beneficiary of contracts to purchase Iraqi oil and to sell humanitarian supplies to Iraq, saw the list as a threat to its commercial interests.
In the compromise - reached after high-level contacts between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell - Moscow agreed to adopt a list. The other 14 council members have already agreed on a common list.
The United States agreed to support Russia's call to clarify a contentious 1999 Security Council resolution that would ease sanctions in return for Baghdad's cooperation with weapons inspectors. Diplomats called it an important concession.
The United States has maintained the resolution needs no clarification, and that Baghdad must allow weapons inspectors into the country before sanctions are lifted, a demand repeated Monday by President Bush.
Iraq has rejected the 1999 resolution, insisting it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and would only consider allowing inspectors back into the country after sanctions are lifted.
It was unclear how Saddam's government would respond to the U.S.-Russia agreement.
Earlier Tuesday, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad al-Douri said that Baghdad would only accept a simple, six-month extension of the oil-for-food program, "without adding anything to it."
Bush's warning Monday has focused attention on the sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. They can only be lifted if U.N. inspectors determine that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been dismantled along with its long-range missiles.
Responding to a question about possible responses to Bush's warning, al-Douri said, "We hope that the option is a peaceful solution." He expressed an interest in establishing "normal relations between Iraq and the United States."
His comments were in sharp contrast to a statement from a government spokesman in Baghdad, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency, who said his country wasn't afraid of U.S. threats and was prepared to defend itself.
----
Egypt Denounces U.S. Force on Iraq
By Barry Schweid
AP Diplomatic Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 4:52 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29737-2001Nov28?language=printer
WASHINGTON -- Egypt urged the United States on Wednesday not to use military force against Iraq or any other Arab country in its campaign against terrorism.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said any punishment for defying the United Nations and not permitting the inspection of suspect weapons sites should be meted out in other ways.
Iraq should respect U.N. resolutions, but the resolutions do not authorize a military attack as punishment, the Egyptian minister said.
And using force against Iraq, he said, "would have a negative impact" in the Arab world and in the United States itself.
Maher was in Washington for meetings on Thursday with Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of Congress. He said President Hosni Mubarak had sent him to register Egypt's solidarity with the United States against terrorism.
"While Afghanistan may require the use of force, it should not become the rule," Maher said in a question-and-answer session at the Brookings Institution, a private research group.
President Bush on Monday told Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back and warned "he'll find out" the consequences if he does not yield.
Bush deflected questions about whether Iraq would be next in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. "First things first," the president said.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would advise people in the Middle East "to listen carefully to what the President said."
"The President said the Iraqi regime should allow the U.N. inspectors back in to complete their very, very important work," Powell told reporters.
However, Powell then underscored that "a full range of options" was open to the United States and the international community.
"We'll keep trying to get rid of these programs of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein has been working on for the last 10 years," he said.
Officials within the administration are in the midst of a debate over whether to take military action against Iraq. Powell is generally considered to be less hawkish than some senior Pentagon officials.
Maher said he understood the United States would not use force against Iraq. Asked how he knew that, the foreign minister, a former Egyptian ambassador to Washington, said it was his "intuition." Jordan and the Arab League also appealed to the United States not to attack Iraq, saying such a strike would have dangerous consequences.
Jordan "rejects the use of force, external interference in Iraq's affairs and meddling with its integrity," said Saleh Qallab, a government spokesman and a minister of state.
On the Israel-Palestinian dispute, Maher said Powell's description of Israel in a speech last week as an occupier was unprecedented and welcomed by the Egyptian government.
"For the first time, the United States has put its finger on the source of our problems," he said.
At the same time, Maher accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government of defying the United States with attacks on Palestinians.
He said that Sharon was intentionally trying to provoke the Palestinians to strike back, giving him an excuse not to move ahead with peacemaking.
"We hope the United States will take a tough stance, refusing this provocation and defiance," he said.
Meanwhile, Congress is looking into reports that North Korea is providing Egypt with long-range missiles.
In Cairo, Mubarak vehemently denied the report, suggesting Israel may be behind it in an attempt to undermine U.S.-Egyptian relations.
"This is totally false and incorrect," Mubarak told Egypt's Middle East News Agency. "I have repeatedly said that we are not endeavoring to obtain these kinds of weapons and we do not plan to do so because we do not have aggressive intentions."
The Bush administration plans to sell Egypt 53 advanced Harpoon Block II satellite-guided anti-ship missiles in a $400 million arms deal, a congressional source said Tuesday.
Two senior members of Congress, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, have questioned the U.S. deal as a potential threat to Israeli ships. Presumably, the missiles could reach land targets, as well.
The deal was outlined in a classified memorandum to Congress in early November, said a congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
-------- israel
U.S. peace efforts continue despite shooting attacks
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001/11/28/israel.htm
JERUSALEM (AP) - U.S. envoys toured Israeli settlements and other West Bank friction points Wednesday, a day after three Israelis were killed and 17 wounded in Palestinian shooting attacks.
The mediators, retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, are holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to revive a truce deal, but their mission has been clouded by violence.
On the envoys' first full day in the region, two Palestinian gunmen went on a rampage in the northern Israeli town of Afula, killing two Israelis and wounding 14 before being shot dead by security forces. Later Tuesday, a Palestinian fired at a convoy of Israeli troops and settlers in the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli woman and wounding three other people, including a baby, before being gunned down.
Palestinian militant groups said they would keep up the attacks. A masked activist of the Islamic militant group Hamas told about 1,500 supporters Wednesday to "stick with the holy war." During the funeral for the Gaza gunman killed in Tuesday's attack, he said the aim of diplomatic efforts "is to force our people to bow down."
On Wednesday, Zinni and Burns toured the West Bank by car in a tour arranged by the U.S. consular officials, and without Palestinian or Israeli escorts.
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem would not disclose the itinerary.
Consulate spokeswoman Pat Kabra said the visitors would be coming across Israeli settlements, but that she did not know whether settlements would be the focus of the trip. During the trip, the U.S. convoy toured the West Bank's Jordan Valley, a Palestinian security official said.
Later in the day, Zinni and Burns were to meet with Palestinian experts who have prepared maps, slides and video clips on Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscation and Israeli blockades that have severely disrupted life in the Palestinian areas in the past 14 months of fighting. Israel has said the barriers are necessary to prevent attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.
Finally, the envoys were to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The two were to join Arafat for Iftar, the meal at dusk that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israelis and Palestinians are far apart on what is needed to go ahead with a truce deal negotiated earlier this year by CIA chief George Tenet.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insists on a week without Palestinian attacks before he will meet Israel's obligations, including an Israeli troop pullback, a lifting of the closures and, further down the road, a freeze in settlement activity.
On Tuesday, while on a helicopter tour of Israel and the West Bank narrated by Sharon, the envoys witnessed from the air the aftermath of the Afula attack. Zinni said the bloodshed highlighted the need for a truce. However, in a later meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Zinni reportedly brought up settlement expansion and spoke of the need for gestures to the Palestinians.
The Palestinians say Sharon's demand for a week of calm is a ploy to get out of keeping his promises, especially a settlement freeze. They want to begin immediately with the implementation of the truce plan.
The truce plan had the Palestinians stopping attacks, arresting suspected militants, cracking down on violent groups and confiscating weapons.
If a truce is established, the mediators would work to implement the report of an international commission headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, calling for a cooling-off period, confidence-building measures and peace talks.
-------- nato
A Russian Voice in NATO
New York Times
November 28, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/opinion/28WED1.html?searchpv=nytToday
Just a few months ago the idea of giving Russia a role in NATO management would have seemed far-fetched. The cold war was receding, but not quite that fast. Then came Sept. 11, and with it a potentially historic shift in Russia's relations with the West. Last week NATO's top official proposed a partnership with Russia that would let Moscow help shape alliance decision-making in certain areas of shared concern. It is a bold idea. While those specific areas need to be more precisely defined, combating terrorism, limiting the spread of advanced weapons and managing peacekeeping responsibilities are likely candidates.
The NATO offer, made with Washington's approval and conveyed by the organization's secretary general, Lord Robertson, is a critical step toward Russia's realignment with the West. Striking the right balance between giving Moscow a meaningful voice and preserving NATO's freedom of action on issues like military intervention and membership expansion will require complicated discussions. Though relations between NATO and Russia have improved in recent years, Moscow has had no say in NATO decision-making and has sometimes felt aggrieved by alliance policies.
In some matters that will continue to be the case. Unlike NATO members, Russia will not be able to block any policy it opposes. Washington clearly would not accept a Russian veto over NATO military action in a future European conflict like the 1999 war in Yugoslavia. New arrangements with NATO, however, could well ease Russian objections to the expansion of the alliance into the former Baltic republics of the old Soviet Union, a step likely to be considered next year. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has recently argued that if Russia's own relations with NATO improved sufficiently, Moscow's concerns about expanding the alliance would largely melt away.
NATO was born after World War II as an anti-Soviet military alliance. Since the disintegration of the Soviet empire a decade ago, NATO has been evolving in new directions and taking on responsibilities like peacekeeping in the Balkans and support for America's war against terrorism. Moscow has sent its own peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo and encouraged its Central Asian allies to open airfields to American forces bound for Afghanistan.
The new arrangement under discussion would help formalize such cooperation and give Moscow the kind of decision-making role it is entitled to on issues that legitimately concern it. It would also demonstrate that Mr. Putin's efforts to cooperate with the West and his support for Washington since Sept. 11 are paying dividends in increased international influence for Russia.
Strengthened coordination between Moscow and NATO is part of a larger picture. Earlier this month, President Bush and Mr. Putin announced plans for steep cuts in offensive nuclear weapons. Though they achieved no breakthroughs on missile defense, there is still time in the months ahead to bridge their remaining differences. With patience and persistence, the two leaders have a chance to reorder relations and achieve the kind of cooperation both have declared to be their ultimate goal.
-------- spy agencies
Hometown proud of CIA officer who gave his life
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/spann.htm
CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann grew up in a small Alabama town where he was a "tough as nails" gridiron warrior who dreamed of serving his country, according to those who knew him. Spann, the first American acknowledged killed in combat in Afghanistan, lived with his wife, Shannon, daughters ages 9 and 4, and a 6-month-old son in Manassas Park, Va., near the CIA's headquarters. In his hometown of Winfield, Ala., population 4,500, his father, Johnny Spann, described him as a young man who shunned the limelight but knew early on that he wanted to join the CIA or FBI.
"Even at 16 he was the only one in their class who knew what he was wanting to do and what he was going to do when he got out of school," Johnny Spann said Wednesday outside his home.
"He told me he felt he would be able to make the world a better place for us to live," he said. "We recall him saying someone has got to do the things that no one else wants to do. That's exactly what he was doing in Afghanistan."
People in Winfield remember Spann, 32, as goal-oriented.
"Just knowing Mike, he'd want to do something for his country and his people," said Joe Hubbert, Spann's high school football coach. "If he had to make a sacrifice, he's the type of individual that would do it."
Spann's minister also remembers him as "tough as nails."
"I've known him since 1982, when he was just a kid in school," said James Wyers of Winfield Church of Christ. "We knew then that he had a desire to serve his country. In fact, he'd talked about the CIA or something like that as early as then."
After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama, Spann served in the Marines for 8 years before joining the CIA in 1999.
"This a city that is extremely proud of him," said Tracy Estes, a family friend and editor of Winfield's biweekly newspaper, The Journal Record. "We're very sorrowful that it had to end like this, that he had to give his life for his country. But this has brought the war home to our young people here in Winfield."
As Spann's father recalled, "His favorite words to me were, 'This is the right thing to do, Daddy.' He was always like that."
--------
Spies lead US bombers to strike
BY ROLAND WATSON AND MARTIN FLETCHER,
UK Times
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2001
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001540008-2001551500,00.html
AMERICAN bombers attacked a Taleban compound near Kandahar after being told that Mullah Muhammad Omar was there last night.
The intelligence was received and the strike ordered while Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, was visiting the military's Central Command headquarters in Florida. Mr Rumsfeld, who watched a live video feed of the attack, said he had no names of those at the compound, but "it clearly was a leadership area. All of the indicators demonstrated it was a nontrivial leadership activity. Whoever was there is going to wish they weren't."
General Tommy Franks, commander of the US military operation, had earlier disclosed where the Pentagon believes Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders are hiding: the area around Kandahar where Mullah Omar, the Taleban supreme leader, heads a garrison of about 5,000, and a larger area of mountainous territory between Kabul, Jalalabad and Tora Bora. Mr Rumsfeld also said the military were receiving a lot of intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden and his cohorts. "There's no question that the reward money is an incentive," he said.
General Franks went on to say that bin Laden's foreign supporters holed up in Kandahar were seeking a way out and that the presence of a US Marine base near by would add to the pressure on the city.
The general also said that the Pentagon had identified 40 sites in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda terrorists may have been developing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
He said that a "great deal" of chemical samples and laboratory paraphernalia had been found flown to the US for analysis: "If there's anything there we will find it. We will not leave weapons of mass destruction in this country."
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U.S. soldiers form quick-reaction force
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/reaction.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A small team of U.S. soldiers has assembled outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to serve as a quick-reaction force in the event of renewed Taliban resistance, officials said Wednesday. The force is comprised of no more than two dozen soldiers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. One official said the numbers might be increased.
The soldiers are members of the 10th Mountain Division, which has had about 1,000 of its soldiers providing security at an air base across the border in southern Uzbekistan for several weeks, the officials said.
The rapid-reaction force apparently was not in the area when Taliban prisoners staged a bloody prison revolt Sunday. The CIA confirmed Wednesday that one of its officers, Johnny "Mike" Spann of Winfield, Ala., was killed in the riot. He was the first American known to be killed in Afghanistan since U.S. bombing began Oct. 7.
U.S. military personnel also are surveying airfields near Mazar-e-Sharif and Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, in anticipation of using them to expand the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies, officials said.
Bagram's airfield might eventually be used to launch combat operations, they said, although it was not clear whether that would be by strike aircraft like Air Force F-15s or by ground troops.
Several hundred Army and Air Force special operations forces have been inside Afghanistan for weeks, working in small teams linked with opposition forces in northern and southern parts of the country.
The only other U.S. ground troops known to be in Afghanistan are Marines setting up a base near the southern city of Kandahar.
More Marines and equipment arrived at the base Wednesday, bringing the number to between 750 and 800, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. The Pentagon has said that number may increase to about 1,100 Marines, whose purpose is to deny southern escape routes for Taliban and al-Qa'eda fighters.
Pentagon officials, meanwhile, said leaflets dropped by American planes over Afghanistan are helping persuade some Taliban troops to give up their fight.
"We're happy about that," Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem told a Pentagon news conference.
Stufflebeem said planes continue to drop leaflets with a number of messages, including those giving information on humanitarian aid, wanted posters on Taliban and al-Qa'eda leaders and some to prompt defections in the few remaining parts of the country where fighters are still resisting opposition forces.
"We are starting to see some success from those," Stufflebeem said. "In having interviews with those who are detained, there is information that is coming forward that they are having a positive effect."
The Pentagon also reported that U.S. airstrikes damaged a compound believed used by senior Taliban or al-Qa'eda figures but it was unclear whether any were killed.
"They had a confluence of intelligence which led us to believe there was senior leadership in the building," said Clarke.
"We do not have names, we don't have a sense of exactly who was in there. We do not have any sense that Omar was there," she said referring to Taliban head Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Stufflebeem said about 10 bombs dropped from an Air Force B-1B bomber struck the compound. At the Pentagon news conference he showed video of the strike as recorded by an Air Force F-16 accompanying the bomber.
------
More U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-Marines.html
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN (AP) -- Marines tested their firepower Wednesday in the desert outside their southern Afghan base, which was looking more and more like a major U.S. outpost with each new plane or helicopter arriving with troops and equipment.
The arrivals included support troops to improve communications, hygiene and other facilities, said Capt. Stewart Upton, public affairs officer for the Marine task force in Afghanistan. As the troops hurried to build the base, a few found time to put up reminders of home: Pictures of American flags that appeared to have been drawn by children were posted on the compound walls.
At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that by Wednesday between 750 and 800 Marines had deployed at the base since troops seized its airstrip late Sunday. The commander of the U.S. war effort, Gen. Tommy Franks, has said up to 1,100 troops could be stationed at the base, located within striking distance of the Taliban's last stronghold, Kandahar.
Task force commander Gen. James Mattis walked the front lines on Wednesday, inspecting conditions and chatting with the troops.
A platoon along the camp perimeter fired 81mm mortars into the desert to test and calibrate the weapons. The mortars flew about 1 1/2 miles before exploding with earthshaking blasts, sending plumes of dust into the sky.
As the rounds were fired, other Marines dug mortar pits -- large holes in the sand where they work, live and sleep. Temperatures dip to near freezing at night, but under the desert sun Marines wielding pickaxes are hot enough to remove their shirts.
Franks said Tuesday in Florida that the ``forward operating base'' was intended to bring troops physically closer to ``the core objectives we seek'' -- the Taliban militia, which once controlled most of Afghanistan, and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Among the Marines' missions, Franks said, would be watching roads for fleeing Taliban.
The United States hold al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
``It's a terrible thing that happened,'' said Cpl. Michael R. Shelton, 20, of Louisville, Ky. ``I hold a personal grudge against al-Qaida and bin Laden. I am here to seek justice for what they have done.''
On Wednesday, Capt. David Romley, a public affairs officer, said the night had been quiet on the base's perimeter. Helicopters and C-130 aircraft landed through the night to bring in reinforcements.
``There were no engagements on our perimeters, however we continue to flow in additional personnel, equipment and ordinance,'' Romley said.
The task force has seen one military engagement since their deployment. Cobra helicopter gunships attacked a column of Taliban vehicles Monday night after high-flying aircraft bombed the convoy. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said Wednesday the convoy had been identified as belonging to the Taliban.
The deployment, dubbed Operation Swift Freedom, is made up of troops from the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units, which normally number more than 4,000, plus other troops forming Task Force 58. The two units are based on six ships now in the northern Arabian Sea, and troops were being flown in from the ships and from secret air bases on land.
The Associated Press was allowed to deploy with the Marines on the condition that it did not report on troop strengths, mission plans, the location of the base or on other secret material.
---
C.I.A. Officer Dies in Afghan Prison Riot
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/international/28CND-CIA.html
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 - The Central Intelligence Agency said today that one of its officers was killed in the Taliban prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif on Sunday, the first American death in Afghanistan since the United States' military campaign began.
Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann, a 32-year-old former Marine who served in the C.I.A.'s Directorate of Operations, the agency's clandestine espionage arm, was killed inside the fortress where Taliban prisoners were being held and questioned, C.I.A. Director George Tenet said in a written statement.
It is rare for the intelligence agency to acknowledge the death of one of its officers and even rarer for the C.I.A. to issue a news release naming and describing the mission of an officer killed in the line of duty. It was widely known that an American had been killed in the Mazar-e-Sharif prison uprising and his association with the C.I.A. was an open secret.
The incident at the prison has been shrouded in confusion and chaos since it began last weekend, but Mr. Tenet said that the Taliban prisoners, after surrendering, attacked and killed Mr. Spann and anti-Taliban guards. "Their pledge of surrender, like so many other pledges from the vicious group they represent, proved worthless," Mr. Tenet said.
Mr. Spann is believed to be the first C.I.A. officer to die in an American military operation since the Vietnam War, and underscores the scope of the agency's role in Afghanistan.
Since the American campaign began, C.I.A. officers have provided training, logistical backing and intelligence support to both United States special forces and the anti-Taliban rebels. Many of the officers in the field are paramilitary operatives, believed to be from the C.I.A.'s Military Special Programs Division inside the Directorate of Operations. Others are said to be from the agency's Counterterrorism-Center, which has orchestrated the C.I.A.'s investigation of Al Qaeda for years.
Other agency case officers play more traditional roles in the region, working through liaison relationships with both the rebels in Afghanistan as well as the intelligence services of Pakistan and other nations.
Four other Americans, all military personnel, have been killed in connection with the fighting in Afghanistan. All died in accidents outside the country, including two in a helicopter crash in Pakistan.
Two C.I.A. officers died in the line of duty in 1998, but the agency has not identified them or described the circumstances of their deaths.
Since the agency's creation, 78 C.I.A. officers and employees have died or have been killed in the line of duty, agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said. Each has a star on the wall in the lobby of the agency's main building. Slightly more than half of the stars include names. The identities of the rest are secret.
-------- us
Technology Changes Air War Tactics
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25340-2001Nov27.html
Air Force and Navy pilots are "inventing tactics" in the air war over Afghanistan with new technology designed to improve the accuracy of munitions and speed the flow of targeting data to strike aircraft, Air Force Gen. John P. Jumper said yesterday.
Briefing reporters at the Pentagon for the first time since he became Air Force chief of staff in September, Jumper said new data systems have linked "streaming video" from unmanned Predator drones to AC-130 gunships.
Another new data system enables B-52 bombers to receive targeting data en route to Afghanistan from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, he said, allowing the lumbering bombers to fly close air-support missions against "emerging targets" previously flown by A-10 assault aircraft.
Jumper added that new laser targeting pods on F-16 fighters enable pilots to automatically strike targets designated with lasers by ground forces.
"I gauge our success by how happy General [Tommy R.] Franks is, and I think he's very happy with some of the stuff we've been able to produce for him," Jumper said, referring to the overall commander of the war in Afghanistan.
At the same time, however, Jumper acknowledged the existence of significant new strains on the Air Force, given its heavy commitments overseas and at home, where Air Force fighters are flying combat air patrols over New York, Washington and other cities.
"Is this causing problems? You bet," Jumper said, explaining that Air Force planners are still trying to determine whether fighters must be in the air at all hours over the United States, or can fulfill the new homeland defense mission simply by remaining on alert status.
Jumper also said the war in Afghanistan has led him to order two new increases in the production rate of the Pentagon's latest smart bombs, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which are guided by signals from Global Positioning System satellites.
While JDAMs were first used in the war in Kosovo in 1999 and launched exclusively from B-2 bombers, Jumper said, they are being launched for the first time from numerous aircraft over Afghanistan, including B-52s and F-15Es.
--------
U.S. soldiers form quick-reaction force
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/reaction.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A small team of U.S. soldiers has assembled outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to serve as a quick-reaction force in the event of renewed Taliban resistance, officials said Wednesday. The force is comprised of no more than two dozen soldiers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. One official said the numbers might be increased.
The soldiers are members of the 10th Mountain Division, which has had about 1,000 of its soldiers providing security at an air base across the border in southern Uzbekistan for several weeks, the officials said.
The rapid-reaction force apparently was not in the area when Taliban prisoners staged a bloody prison revolt Sunday. The CIA confirmed Wednesday that one of its officers, Johnny "Mike" Spann of Winfield, Ala., was killed in the riot. He was the first American known to be killed in Afghanistan since U.S. bombing began Oct. 7.
U.S. military personnel also are surveying airfields near Mazar-e-Sharif and Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, in anticipation of using them to expand the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies, officials said.
Bagram's airfield might eventually be used to launch combat operations, they said, although it was not clear whether that would be by strike aircraft like Air Force F-15s or by ground troops.
Several hundred Army and Air Force special operations forces have been inside Afghanistan for weeks, working in small teams linked with opposition forces in northern and southern parts of the country.
The only other U.S. ground troops known to be in Afghanistan are Marines setting up a base near the southern city of Kandahar.
More Marines and equipment arrived at the base Wednesday, bringing the number to between 750 and 800, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. The Pentagon has said that number may increase to about 1,100 Marines, whose purpose is to deny southern escape routes for Taliban and al-Qa'eda fighters.
Pentagon officials, meanwhile, said leaflets dropped by American planes over Afghanistan are helping persuade some Taliban troops to give up their fight.
"We're happy about that," Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem told a Pentagon news conference.
Stufflebeem said planes continue to drop leaflets with a number of messages, including those giving information on humanitarian aid, wanted posters on Taliban and al-Qa'eda leaders and some to prompt defections in the few remaining parts of the country where fighters are still resisting opposition forces.
"We are starting to see some success from those," Stufflebeem said. "In having interviews with those who are detained, there is information that is coming forward that they are having a positive effect."
The Pentagon also reported that U.S. airstrikes damaged a compound believed used by senior Taliban or al-Qa'eda figures but it was unclear whether any were killed.
"They had a confluence of intelligence which led us to believe there was senior leadership in the building," said Clarke.
"We do not have names, we don't have a sense of exactly who was in there. We do not have any sense that Omar was there," she said referring to Taliban head Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Stufflebeem said about 10 bombs dropped from an Air Force B-1B bomber struck the compound. At the Pentagon news conference he showed video of the strike as recorded by an Air Force F-16 accompanying the bomber.
------
More U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
November 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Attacks-Marines.html
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN (AP) -- Marines tested their firepower Wednesday in the desert outside their southern Afghan base, which was looking more and more like a major U.S. outpost with each new plane or helicopter arriving with troops and equipment.
The arrivals included support troops to improve communications, hygiene and other facilities, said Capt. Stewart Upton, public affairs officer for the Marine task force in Afghanistan. As the troops hurried to build the base, a few found time to put up reminders of home: Pictures of American flags that appeared to have been drawn by children were posted on the compound walls.
At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that by Wednesday between 750 and 800 Marines had deployed at the base since troops seized its airstrip late Sunday. The commander of the U.S. war effort, Gen. Tommy Franks, has said up to 1,100 troops could be stationed at the base, located within striking distance of the Taliban's last stronghold, Kandahar.
Task force commander Gen. James Mattis walked the front lines on Wednesday, inspecting conditions and chatting with the troops.
A platoon along the camp perimeter fired 81mm mortars into the desert to test and calibrate the weapons. The mortars flew about 1 1/2 miles before exploding with earthshaking blasts, sending plumes of dust into the sky.
As the rounds were fired, other Marines dug mortar pits -- large holes in the sand where they work, live and sleep. Temperatures dip to near freezing at night, but under the desert sun Marines wielding pickaxes are hot enough to remove their shirts.
Franks said Tuesday in Florida that the ``forward operating base'' was intended to bring troops physically closer to ``the core objectives we seek'' -- the Taliban militia, which once controlled most of Afghanistan, and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Among the Marines' missions, Franks said, would be watching roads for fleeing Taliban.
The United States hold al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
``It's a terrible thing that happened,'' said Cpl. Michael R. Shelton, 20, of Louisville, Ky. ``I hold a personal grudge against al-Qaida and bin Laden. I am here to seek justice for what they have done.''
On Wednesday, Capt. David Romley, a public affairs officer, said the night had been quiet on the base's perimeter. Helicopters and C-130 aircraft landed through the night to bring in reinforcements.
``There were no engagements on our perimeters, however we continue to flow in additional personnel, equipment and ordinance,'' Romley said.
The task force has seen one military engagement since their deployment. Cobra helicopter gunships attacked a column of Taliban vehicles Monday night after high-flying aircraft bombed the convoy. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said Wednesday the convoy had been identified as belonging to the Taliban.
The deployment, dubbed Operation Swift Freedom, is made up of troops from the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units, which normally number more than 4,000, plus other troops forming Task Force 58. The two units are based on six ships now in the northern Arabian Sea, and troops were being flown in from the ships and from secret air bases on land.
The Associated Press was allowed to deploy with the Marines on the condition that it did not report on troop strengths, mission plans, the location of the base or on other secret material.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS
Ashcroft says al-Qaeda members detained
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Kevin Johnson and Toni Locy, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/27/custody.htm
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft said for the first time Tuesday that members of al-Qaeda, the terrorist network believed to be behind the Sept. 11 attacks, are among the 603 people now in federal custody and charged with criminal offenses or immigration violations. Ashcroft declined to say how many suspected terrorists have been arrested. He would not say whether they are believed to have been directly involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, or what charges they might face. But he indicated that the U.S. government's "deliberate campaign" of arresting suspects in other crimes and detaining immigration law violators has helped prevent additional terrorist attacks here.
"I don't want to ... be more specific in terms of al-Qaeda membership," Ashcroft said. "A number of the individuals that are being detained are suspected terrorists."
Senior law enforcement officials said later that no one in federal custody has been charged as a co-conspirator in the attacks, which were carried out by 19 suicide hijackers. Ashcroft's claim of al-Qaeda arrests came as he gave the U.S. government's most detailed account of how many people it has arrested or detained as part of the Sept. 11 probe:
- As of Tuesday, 548 people were being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on immigration violations such as expired visas. Most of them, according to INS records, are from the Middle East or the countries of Pakistan, India and Turkey.
- An additional 104 people have been charged with a variety of criminal offenses. Fifty-five of them are in federal custody, many of them charged as accomplices for unwittingly helping some of the hijackers get IDs fraudulently or giving other assistance before Sept. 11.
Until Tuesday, the government had provided little information about the number of people who had been arrested or detained. The last tally was more than 1,100. The new figures indicate that more than 400 people either have been released or are free on bail. Ashcroft's release of the new figures came on the eve of Senate hearings into the government's treatment of potential suspects. Civil libertarians say authorities have been unduly aggressive with suspects and potential witnesses.
Ashcroft "needs to take the next step and release all basic information so the Congress and the public can evaluate whether the Justice Department's practices amount to preventive detention," said Lucas Guttentag, director of the immigrants' rights project at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Also troubling to some members of Congress and immigrant groups is a Justice Department plan for investigators to interview 5,000 people, all of them Middle Eastern men, to try to learn more about terrorist activity.
From Los Angeles to Boston, U.S. prosecutors last week put the finishing touches on procedures they will use to contact and question the men, who are ages 18 to 33 and arrived in the USA after January 2000. Most of the nation's 96 federal jurisdictions are dividing the interviews among FBI agents, state troopers and other local officers.
Ashcroft disputed the idea that authorities are conducting a racially based roundup. "We are being as kind and as fair and as gentle as we can," he said.
Not everyone agrees. Some critics say the interviews seem heavy-handed and could spark resentment in heavily Arab communities. On Monday, the US attorney in Detroit seemed to reflect that concern when he said that because of the large number of names on his list, he is sending letters to the 700 men in his area and asking them to contact his office and arrange an interview.
"It may have been more effective if (Justice) had more of an educational outreach to those communities and their leaders first," said Steven Ladik, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "They may have been able to gather more valuable intelligence that way than (by) surprising someone with a knock on the door."
---
U.S. requests pilot's extradition
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Ellen Hale, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/28/extradite-usat.htm
LONDON - The United States began formal proceedings here Tuesday to extradite an Algerian pilot who allegedly trained four of the suicide hijackers who helped carry out the Sept. 11 attacks. Lotfi Raissi, 27, who authorities believe met with some of the hijackers in a Las Vegas strategy meeting before the terrorist attacks, lives in London and has been jailed in Britain since Sept. 21. A senior U.S. law enforcement official said that Tuesday's extradition request was just the start of a process that could become more complicated if U.S. authorities plan to charge Raissi with offenses punishable by death.
European nations, including Britain, have been opposed to the U.S. use of the death penalty and have been reluctant to turn over suspects who could face it.
Although investigators claimed in earlier hearings that Raissi was unquestionably involved in the attacks, none of the charges leveled against him in court Tuesday were related to the assaults or would warrant the death penalty.
Instead, prosecutors requested his transfer to U.S. custody based on two charges that Raissi falsified information when he applied for a pilot's license in the USA.
As prosecutors were moving to transfer custody of Raissi, a federal grand jury in Arizona issued a new 11-count indictment alleging that he helped Redouane Dahmani, 26, prepare a fraudulent application for asylum status in the USA.
Raissi's request for bail was denied by the British court, and a hearing on the extradition request will be held Dec. 14.
At a hearing soon after his arrest, prosecutors claimed that videotapes showed Raissi with Hani Hanjour, the pilot U.S. officials believe was at the controls of the jet that crashed into the Pentagon. Raissi traveled to the USA several times and visited an aviation school in Arizona at the same time as Hanjour, prosecutors said.
Instructors at flight schools in Arizona have said they saw Raissi at the schools with Ziad Samir Jarrah, thought to be one of the hijackers aboard the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Richard Egan, Raissi's lawyer, has continued to insist his client is innocent, but he said Tuesday that he fears Raissi might wind up facing the military tribunals that President Bush has proposed to try terrorist suspects.
Meanwhile, in Belgium, police rounded up two more people Tuesday for questioning about a fake passport scheme that could shed some light on the assassination in early September of Ahmed Shah Massood, leader of the Northern Alliance. Massood's murder, by two suicide bombers posing as journalists, is suspected to be part of the overall al-Qaeda terrorist attack strategy. Passports found on the killers' bodies were apparently stolen from Belgian consulates in France or the Netherlands, according to Belgian authorities.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson in Washington and wire services
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Census Said to Misplace Many Prisons and Dorms
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By JANNY SCOTT
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/national/28CENS.html
There are two basic mistakes you can make in a census: You can miscount people, and you can put them in the wrong place.
The Census Bureau appears to have done the counting part pretty well in 2000. But the putting-them-in- the-right-place part, some demographers say, is something else again.
Across the country, demographers and planners say the Census Bureau appears to have misplaced entire populations of dozens of prisons and college dormitories. They say the bureau inexplicably removed those populations from census tracts or blocks where the facilities had sat for decades, and deposited them somewhere else.
In New York State, for example, 2,192 inmates at Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the town of Beekman, landed mysteriously in Milan, a smaller town some 27 miles to the north, said Warren A. Brown, a professor of sociology at Cornell University.
In California, the inmates of Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City turned up outside the city limits, the city manager said. The city discovered the problem, he said, when a quarterly payment it receives from the state plummeted because the 2000 census showed the city's population had shrunk.
In Minnesota, the inhabitants of the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone turned up down the road "in a tract that should have almost no one in it," said Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer. And the tract that houses a state prison in St. Cloud was listed as having no population at all, he said.
"I think this is the tip of the iceberg," said Robert Scardamalia, chief demographer for the New York Department of Economic Development. "I think if they did a nationwide analysis, they'd find an unacceptably high number of errors. That's my speculation."
"The supreme irony," said Professor Brown, "is the census did a really good job on the hard-to-count population this time around. And they fumbled the ball on the easy-to- count. What could be easier than counting somebody in a prison?"
Census Bureau officials say any problems are few and relatively insignificant. They note that the bureau did not miss the people; it simply placed some on the wrong side of the street, for example. One official, Preston Jay Waite, said the number of these complaints from communities - 85 so far - was no surprise.
"All I'm saying is I'm not shocked at the level of appeals," Mr. Waite, the bureau's associate director for the decennial census, said of the official challenges filed with the bureau concerning prison and other institutional populations. "If anything, I'm surprised that it's not higher than it is. But it's still early."
The population in question is the so-called group-quarters population, the 7.778 million people who were living in prisons, dormitories and similar facilities at the time the census was taken. The bureau counts people in group quarters separately from the rest of the population.
When in March the bureau began releasing data from the 2000 census, planners started noticing unexpected shifts in the population counts in a number of places. When they looked to see what might explain surprise increases or drops, some began to suspect problems in the allocation of group quarters.
Lindsay Carille, a junior planner for the Department of Planning and Development in Dutchess County, N.Y., said the official count for one census block in the town of Milan had leaped implausibly to more than 2,000, from zero in 1990. She and others say they believe the Green Haven prison population ended up there.
In Ithaca, N.Y., where Cornell University and Ithaca College have dormitories, the population count for one census block jumped to 5,882, from only 110 in 1990, said Thomas Mank of the Tompkins County Planning Department. The count for another block, he said, dropped to 2 from 1,100.
In Crescent City, Calif., David Wells, the city manager, said the city's quarterly allocation of state revenue shrunk after the 2000 census. With the Pelican Bay prison population misplaced, he said, the city's official population count was down. So the city was supposedly entitled to less state money. It took special state legislation to restore the full sum, he said.
"A number of federal and state formulas are based on total population," said Mr. Gillaspy, the Minnesota demographer. "So when you have 500 or 1,000 people who are misallocated, it's a fairly substantial issue. For the nation as a whole, it might not be that big of a deal. But for that community, it's a huge issue."
It is unclear how many such problems exist. Since July 1, when it began accepting challenges under its new "count question resolution" program, the Census Bureau has received 161 challenges, Mr. Waite said. Eighty-five involve group quarters, and nearly all have yet to be processed.
In New York, Mr. Scardamalia, the state demographer there, said there were so many questions about the counts that he and others had begun looking more closely. Randomly examining areas with colleges and prisons, he said, they quickly found several dozen anomalies, including "what appeared to be some pretty gross errors."
Concerned, he asked the bureau to delay the release of other census data scheduled to be made public, a suggestion the bureau did not follow. He said the bureau should plan to correct and reissue not just the population counts but related data on race, age and the like.
Mr. Waite, the Census Bureau official, said the bureau would investigate every challenge. If a population was misplaced, the agency will correct the counts and notify the communities in writing, he said. Those letters, he said, can be shown to other government agencies as proof of the corrected counts.
But he said the bureau did not have the resources to change all the other census data attached to those population numbers - the data on age, race, household composition, income and so on. "The only thing we will send back is that 47 people were added," he said. "We will not show them detailed characteristics about those people."
As for how mistakes might have occurred, he said agencies might have given the bureau incorrect addresses - the address of an administrative office, say, rather than that of a particular institution. Or census workers may have failed to go out and verify the address, or may have made clerical errors.
"The unfortunate aspect of it is that it does raise a lot of quality issues," Mr. Gillaspy said. "Rightly or wrongly, it's not a confidence builder. It sort of lowers your confidence in the whole thing. And that's sad. Because a great deal of effort went into the rest of the census."
-------
THE CHARGES
Accusations Against 93 Vary Widely
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By TAMAR LEWIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/national/28SUSP.html?searchpv=nytToday
The federal criminal charges against 93 people in the terrorist investigation range from relatively minor counts that seem to have only the most tenuous connection to terrorism to a few that involve actions that would raise suspicions in any climate.
The names, released yesterday by Attorney General John Ashcroft, do not include 11 whose files are sealed. Still, in the cases he disclosed, it seems that the investigation led federal authorities to people of Middle Eastern descent, who turned out to be committing unrelated crimes.
By far the largest group on the list are the 22 men arrested in seven states as part of a scheme in which a former employee of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation illegally sold truck-driving licenses to men of Middle Eastern descent or permits that allowed them to transport hazardous materials.
The investigation began before Sept. 11, and despite federal authorities' initial fears that the permits were part of a plot to use trucks packed with hazardous waste in a terrorist act, no evidence was found linking the scheme to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or any other terrorist plot. All but one of the men have been released.
Also on the list were two men arrested last month at Kennedy International Airport on charges they tried to smuggle $140,000 in cash to Yemen, most of it hidden in boxes of honey. The arrests came just days after federal officials froze the assets of several honey businesses in Yemen, saying they were tied to Osama bin Laden. The two men, Ali Alfatimi and Basam Nahshal, are still being detained.
Three more men on the list were indicted in New Jersey for conspiracy to embezzle, according to Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the United States Attorney's office in Newark. The men, Hussein and Nasser Abduali and Rabi Ahmed, were charged with conspiring to buy, receive and possess $43,270 worth of stolen corn flakes. All three have been released pending trial.
Most of those on the list are charged with making false statements or having falsified documents. Among them are Karim Koubriti and Ahmed Hannan, both arrested in Detroit, and indicted on charges of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. According to their passports, the two came to the United States last year from Morocco, and obtained driver's licenses in both Ohio and Michigan, apparently using false documents.
The list includes four Salvadorans from Virginia charged with helping the hijackers who crashed a jet into the Pentagon obtain fraudulent state identification cards. As with the others charged with providing help to the terrorists, though, there is no evidence that those four were anything but unwitting accomplices to the attacks.
Even where the individual charged may have been connected to the terrorists, his wrongdoing may be unrelated. For example, federal authorities have sought the extradition of Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian pilot who is thought to have trained some of the hijackers, and who was arrested near his home in Britain on Sept. 21. Mr. Raissi is charged in the United States with making false statements on his application to the Federal Aviation Authority for a pilot's license - but his wrongdoing apparently consisted of failing to mention a knee operation and lying about a 1993 theft conviction.
While the charges outlined on the list describe suspicious behavior, most show no apparent connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.
For example, Raza Nasir Khan - a Pakistani who visited, and videotaped, the World Trade Center a few days before the attacks - was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms after a search of his home uncovered five guns. A federal affidavit said that Mr. Khan had a handheld global positioning system and had sought maps of an area near a nuclear plant in New Jersey.
There are plenty of others whose connection to the attacks seem tenuous at best, including Salam Ibrahim El Zaatari, a Lebanese art student with an expired student visa. He was picked up at the Pittsburgh airport in late October, bound for Beirut, after a random security check found an Exacto knife in his briefcase and news clippings about the Sept. 11 attacks in his bag. Mr. Zaatari, 21, remains in custody, charged with trying to board a plane with a concealed weapon.
Nabil Sarama, a Palestinian, was arrested Sept. 16 in Florida after police found him near a pay telephone that had been used to make bomb threats and charged with making a false statement to obtain a permanent residency card. Mr. Saram was found to have identification cards from three states and a kit that could make a dozen box cutters.
---
Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism
Detention of Suspects Not Effective, They Say
By Jim McGee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24919-2001Nov27?language=printer
Until Sept. 11, the FBI employed a distinctive strategy for fighting terrorists: By using informants and wiretaps, the bureau monitored suspected cells -- sometimes for years -- before making any arrests. The theory was that only such long-term investigations reveal useful information about potential plots.
Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, that strategy has undergone a wholesale revision. Under the new approach, the FBI will focus chiefly on preventing terrorist acts by rounding up suspects early on, before they get a chance to act.
The aggressive FBI dragnet -- championed by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft -- has provoked much commentary and criticism for its impact on civil liberties. Now, in a series of on-the-record interviews, eight former high-ranking FBI officials have offered the first substantive critique of the Ashcroft program, questioning whether the new approach will have the desired effect.
The executives, including a former FBI director, said the Ashcroft plan will inevitably force the bureau to close terrorism investigations prematurely, before agents can identify all members of a terrorist cell. They said the Justice Department is resurrecting tactics the government rejected in the late 1970s because they did not prevent terrorism and led to abuses of civil liberties.
"It is amazing to me that Ashcroft is essentially trying to dismantle the bureau," said Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former FBI executive assistant director who was the primary architect of the FBI anti-terrorism strategy during the 1980s. "They don't know their history," he said, "and they are not listening to people who do."
Former FBI director William H. Webster said Ashcroft's policy of preemptive arrests and detentions "carries a lot of risk with it. You may interrupt something, but you may not be able to bring it down. You may not be able to stop what is going on."
In the past, Webster said, when the FBI identified a person or group suspected of terrorism, agents neutralized the immediate threat of violence. Then they began a long-term investigation using informants, surveillance or undercover operations, "so when you roll up the cell, you know you've got the whole group."
Ashcroft declined to be interviewed for this article, as did FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker defended the change in tactics as part of a wartime mobilization at the department prompted by the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The world is different and the priorities are different," Tucker said. "I understand this is not the traditional way the FBI handled things. But that's the priority."
A senior Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that none of the changes ordered by Ashcroft would have enabled the FBI to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. After two months of intensive investigation, the FBI has concluded that the 19 suspected hijackers acted alone in the United States as a self-contained terrorist cell whose mission was planned and funded overseas.
"There was not a lot of the plot we could have jumped on here," the official said.
Webster and others say Ashcroft's conviction that FBI counterterrorism operations require radical surgery ignores a record that, though not widely known outside the bureau, includes 131 prevented terrorist attacks from 1981 to 2000.
"We used good investigative techniques and lawful techniques," said Webster, who left the FBI in 1987 to take over the helm at the CIA. "We did it without all the suggestions that we are going to jump all over the people's private lives, if that is what the current attorney general wants to do. I don't think we need to go that direction."
Many of the prevented attacks were potentially catastrophic, with targets that included a 747 airliner, a gas pipeline, a crowded movie theater and a visiting world leader, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"Interdiction [of planned terrorist attacks] became an investigative-planning tool, and we were rather successful at it," said former FBI assistant director Kenneth P. Walton, who established the first Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York City.
The sharp increase in FBI intelligence wiretaps and terrorism investigations after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing led to the prevention of 15 attacks in 1997 and 10 in 1998, FBI documents show.
"We lived to prevent a terrorist act," Robert Blitzer, former chief of the FBI's counterterrorism section, said. "That was our whole program. We prevented many acts of terrorism."
But not the ones on Sept. 11, which came at a time when the FBI was reeling from high-profile embarrassments, from misplaced FBI laptops and guns to a much-criticized investigation of Wen Ho Lee to the treason of former FBI agent Robert P. Hanssen.
FBI management reforms were under consideration even before Ashcroft announced his new strategy in a series of carefully orchestrated public statements over the past two months. The key elements include:
• Arresting and jailing "suspected terrorists" on minor criminal or immigration charges. "It is difficult for a person in jail or under detention to murder innocent people or to aid or abet in terrorism," Ashcroft said on Nov. 13.
• Cutting short long-term criminal terrorism investigations when agents detect the possibility of new violence. "Even though this may hinder a criminal investigation, prevention of terrorist attacks, even at the expense of a prosecution, must be our priority," Ashcroft said on Oct. 29.
• Deploying hundreds of state and local police officers to conduct voluntary interviews of 5,000 Middle Eastern men who are legal residents in the United States, based on their age and the country issuing their passport.
• Shifting control of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country from the FBI to presidentially appointed local U.S. attorneys.
Although none of the former officials interviewed for this article questioned the value of fine-tuning FBI operations in light of Sept. 11, they contended that Ashcroft's new policies will weaken the FBI's primary strategy for penetrating terrorist cells.
"It's the Perry Mason School of Law Enforcement, where you get them in there and they confess," Walton said of the plan to interview 5,000 Middle Eastern men. "Well, it just doesn't work that way. It is ridiculous. You say, 'Tell me everything you know,' and they give you the recipe to Mom's chicken soup."
While Revell and others said the 5,000 interviews may have a short-term deterrent effect, they said the tactic is problematic. "One, it is not effective," Revell said. "And two, it really guts the values of our society, which you cannot allow the terrorists to do."
Through years of trial and error, the FBI has found that intelligence-gathering rarely deterred terrorist acts unless it was combined with long-term criminal investigations that employed informants, undercover agents and electronic surveillance.
In virtually every case in which the FBI prevented a terrorist attack, these sources said, success depended on long-term investigations, whose hallmarks were patience and letting terrorist plots go forward.
"You obviously want to play things out so you can fully identify the breadth and scope of the conspiracy," said James Kallstrom, former chief of the FBI office in New York, who oversaw two large investigations of the al Qaeda terrorist network. "Obviously, the most efficient and effective way to do that is to bring it down to the last stage."
Former FBI assistant director John Otto described a case in which a long-running FBI investigation in Chicago of a Serbian nationalist terrorist cell prevented the deaths of nearly 300 Serbian American children attending a Christmas party at a church. An informant tipped off an agent to the plot.
"Long-term successful investigations are our forte," Otto said. "I don't think there is ever a need to get away from them. Look at the track record over time."
Although there are inherent risks, the ex-officials said there is no known case in which an FBI decision to let a bombing plot unfold resulted in injury or death.
Former FBI deputy director Floyd I. Clarke said he sympathized with Ashcroft's desire to take aggressive preventive measures, but said most preventions arise from methodical investigations. He cited one case in which FBI agents found out where a terrorist cell stored its explosives.
"We did not want to just go and arrest them and grab the explosives," he said, "because we knew they were connected with other groups."
Instead, FBI agents entered the building surreptitiously, rendered the explosives inert and sat back and waited. "Eventually, we ended up taking down a whole cell of people," Clarke said. "You try to make sure you have got as complete a picture as you can."
After the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, the FBI quickly arrested several Middle Eastern men with ties to the radical Islamic religious leader Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, who was based in New Jersey. The bureau came under pressure to arrest or detain Abdul Rahman and others around him on immigration charges. But the FBI resisted.
"We wanted to take the whole cell down and get him off the street for the rest of his life," said Blitzer, the former counterterrorism chief, "not just allow him to be deported some place where he could continue on as the kind of terrorist leader he had been."
The FBI inserted a confidential informant into Abdul Rahman's inner circle and began intensive electronic surveillance. Within two months, the informant reported a second plot.
In June 1993, agents raided a warehouse in Queens, N.Y., where they surprised five Islamic fundamentalists. The men were bent over large mixing barrels and stirring a porridge of bomb-making chemicals, which they planned to use to blow up the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and other New York landmarks.
"We had to let the information develop," said former FBI assistant director William Gavin, who oversaw the investigation. "Taking them off the street at an early stage of the investigation, I don't believe would have afforded us the opportunity to discover and resolve the intent to blow up the tunnels."
----
Documents Reveal Info on Detainees
By Larry Margasak
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 8:44 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27068-2001Nov28?language=printer
WASHINGTON -- A Palestinian with a kit to make box cutters and a Pakistani interested in hunting near a nuclear facility are among 603 people detained by U.S. terrorism investigators, government documents show.
Others were held for alleged violations with no obvious connection to past or future attacks, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Attorney General John Ashcroft revealed Tuesday the government was detaining 603 people. He insisted the actions removed suspected terrorists from the streets and nabbed members of Osama bin Laden's network.
"We will use every constitutional tool to keep suspected terrorists locked up," Ashcroft told a news conference. He went beyond previous statements that some 1,100 people had been detained since Sept. 11 and that a majority remained in custody. He said 104 people have been charged with federal crimes in the probe.
Overseas, the investigation made progress with the arrest in Hamburg, Germany, of a man who held a bank account used by hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi. Prosecutors identified the man as Mounir El M.
In his most detailed public accounting yet, Ashcroft released the names of those facing federal charges but he refused to provide names for the hundreds held on immigration violations.
"I am not interested in providing, when we are at war, a list to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida network of the people we have detained that would make any easier their effort to kill Americans," the attorney general said.
One lawmaker pressing for more disclosures wasn't satisfied.
"I continue to be deeply troubled by (the Justice Department's) refusal to provide a full accounting of everyone who has been detained and why," Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said.
Several former high-ranking FBI officials interviewed by The Washington Post suggested the Justice Department was resurrecting tactics the government rejected in the late 1970s because they did not prevent terrorism and led to abuses of civil liberties.
One of the officials, former FBI Director William H. Webster, said Ashcroft's policy of pre-emptive arrests and detentions "carries a lot of risk with it. You may interrupt something, but you may not be able to bring it down. You may not be able to stop what is going on."
One of those detained, Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah, a 23-year-old San Diego college student from Yemen, originally was held as a material witness, meaning he may have information important to the investigation. He was arrested and taken to New York City for grand jury testimony about his acquaintance with a Sept. 11 hijacker.
Abdoulah was returned to San Diego and charged with immigration violations. While a federal magistrate has granted Abdoulah his release on $500,000 bail, he remains in custody because property pledged for bail money is still $125,000 short, said his lawyer, Kerry Steigerwalt.
Steigerwalt has his own problems in defending his client. "The evidence has not been totally revealed by prosecutors," he said. "I don't know the strength of the case."
The lawyer's job is further complicated because of a new Justice Department policy to monitor conversations between detainees and their lawyers.
"There is a camera position right above us recording our entire encounter," Steigerwalt said of his meetings with Abdoulah in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. "This certainly has had a chilling effect on what we discussed."
Another case involves a Pakistani man who took video footage of the World Trade Center a few days before the Sept. 11 attacks. Raza Nasir Khan was accused by federal agents in Wilmington, Del., with being an illegal immigrant who possessed firearms, documents show.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms affidavit also alleged the Pakistani man requested maps of a hunting area near a rural Salem County, N.J., nuclear power plant and had a handheld global positioning system device.
The magistrate who ordered Khan held said she didn't see any connection to terrorism. In fact, few of the hundreds of pages of supporting documents provided to Congress mentioned a connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
In northern California, an Immigration and Naturalization Service affidavit alleged that Nabil Sarama, a Palestinian, made a false statement to obtain a permanent residency card. Sarama was arrested Sept. 16 in Orlando, Fla., after police found him near a pay phone that had been used to make bomb threats, the documents alleged.
A search of his suitcase, the affidavit said, turned up a kit capable of making between eight and 12 box cutters - like the weapons used by the Sept. 11 hijackers. He also had a California Department of Motor Vehicles identification card, a Georgia driver's license, four Florida identification cards and a Palestinian Authority passport.
Government computer records show that between 1994 and 2001, Sarama entered the United States on at least five occasions through at least five ports and also used passports from Israel and Jordan.
Many of the court papers given to Congress charged individuals with non-terrorist crimes, including child pornography, Social Security fraud, illegal firearm possession, credit card fraud and immigration violations. One alleged possession of more than $40,000 worth of stolen Kellogg's cereals.
Ashcroft disclosed that the 603 people in custody consisted of 55 held on federal criminal charges and 548 on immigration violations. Forty-nine others who have been charged with crimes are either being sought or have been released on bond, officials said.
Ashcroft did not mention some key suspects, including Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, arrested aboard a train in Texas. Authorities said the two were carrying box cutters, cash and hair dye, and had shaved their bodies of hair as was recommended by hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta.
Also left off his list was Zacarias Moussaoui, a French-Algerian, detained in Minnesota after raising suspicions by seeking training on how to fly large jetliners.
----
Oregon official clears way for questioning
Around the Nation,
Washington Times,
November 11, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011128-96501964.htm
SALEM, Ore. - The Oregon attorney general cleared the way yesterday for state police and prosecutors to question foreign visitors as part of the federal terrorism investigation, a step made after Portland police refused to do the interrogations.
Attorney General Hardy Myers said state law doesn't forbid his agency or state police "from conducting such interviews as part of a criminal investigation to identify and apprehend people who have conspired, or are conspiring, to commit crimes."
Portland police have refused a request from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to interview foreign visitors on grounds that it would violate state privacy laws
------
Who Gave Your Rights Away?
by Harry Browne,
November 28, 2001
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/browne11.html
Many conservatives, liberals, and libertarians are protesting the numerous invasions of your liberty that Congress and the Bush administration have imposed during the past two months.
But without realizing it, many of the protestors brought these invasions on themselves.
THIS IS AMERICA?
I do share their concerns, however.
First, Congress rammed through an "anti-terrorism" bill that violates the civil liberties of all Americans, not just terrorists.
The new law allows federal officials to search your home when you're not present and not even tell you your home has been searched. You could come home one day and find your computer, file cabinets, and legal papers have disappeared. You'd naturally think it was a burglary, but the burglars would be government employees (shades of Watergate).
Warrants can be issued in secret, and you may not be allowed to see a warrant - or contest it - covering a search of your property.
This is America?
Government officials can go into any company anywhere and search records of your purchases and credit history, discover the websites you've visited, or monitor your email - without evidence of a crime and without telling you, and they can order the companies not to tell you about the search.
Then the Bush administration, apparently invoking the divine right of kings, decided that people can be tried and executed by secret courts (using secret evidence not available for you to refute), that government agents can eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations, and that federal agents can conduct searches without judicial oversight.
This is America?
And understand that the so-called "War on Terrorism" is only two months old. This is just the beginning. What's still to come?
In previous wars, citizens were imprisoned for speaking out against the government, newspapers were closed for protesting the war, private publications were censored, and people of foreign ancestry were put in concentration camps. We have a lot to look forward to.
DON'T BE DECEIVED
The press implies that the new civil-liberties invasions will apply only to terrorists.
Not true.
They apply to you, because anyone can be suspected of being a terrorist - including you. In fact, the new definition of "suspected terrorist" includes people speaking out against government policies.
And if law-enforcement officials are to decide whose civil liberties will be denied, one of them may become convinced you're connected to the terrorists in some way, try you in a secret court, sentence you, imprison you, and even execute you - with no opportunity for you to appeal the verdict or your sentence.
This is America?
An administration official told The Washington Post, "The U.S. Constitution doesn't protect . . . anyone hiding and planning acts of violence." But what he meant was, "The U.S. Constitution doesn't protect anyone we suspect of hiding and planning acts of violence." They don't know who's actually guilty until after a civil, public trial - conducted with all the traditional rules of evidence. What they have arrogated to themselves is the power to decide whether or not you will be protected by the Constitution.
This is America?
If you're not frightened by this, you're simply not paying attention.
WON'T BE LIMITED TO A FEW PEOPLE
Have you been told that some of these invasions apply only to aliens - or some other small group of people?
Don't be reassured. When has any invasion of liberty not been expanded to cover all people eventually?
The clearly unconstitutional RICO laws were supposed to apply only to organized crime - but hardly a single Mafia kingpin has been prosecuted using RICO, while abortion protestors and stockbrokers have been jailed by these laws. The clearly unconstitutional asset-forfeiture laws were only to nab big-time drug dealers, but all across America the property of innocent people has been seized.
It's only a matter of time until every new oppression applies to all Americans.
WHY THIS HAPPENED
I said that many of those protesting these invasions brought this on themselves. How? It's very simple.
Attorney General John Ashcroft justified the unconstitutional police-state tactics by saying, "I think it's important to understand that we are at war now."
And there you have it. As Randolph Bourne said, "War is the health of the state." Once you grant the government war-making powers, you grant the politicians the power to do anything they want. After all, you can't put your own personal liberty ahead of the good of the Fatherland, can you?
Congress didn't declare war. There were none of the usual pre-war negotiations to try to avoid going to war. We're not even at war with any specific nation. But just utter the magic word "war" and all your rights can be stolen from you.
So if you hollered for war, you hollered to have your rights taken away from you.
Who gave your rights away? You did - if you supported the idea that the politicians should be free to do anything they want to satisfy a national lust for revenge.
Isn't it time to start taking back your liberty?
----
FBI v. CIA: Battle in Cyberspace
U.S. Agencies Battle Each Other on the Internet
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001
NewsMax.com
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/28/142513.shtml
The U.S. government is struggling to rebuild its image after it failed to discover the plot to attack America on Sept. 11.
The FBI and CIA, two agencies charged with law enforcement and intelligence operations, have taken the most heat for the failure. Both agencies had few areas of cooperation prior to Sept. 11.
Now the FBI and CIA have suddenly discovered conflicting roles inside cyberspace.
The FBI recently was forced to reveal another part of its Cyber-Knight project, an effort by the agency to monitor all Internet communications.
Last year the FBI was forced by privacy advocates to reveal that it had a new software program called Carnivore designed to monitor Internet e-mail. The Carnivore system is reportedly installed not on home personal computers but on Internet Service Provider computers, allowing the agency to siphon off data from suspected customers.
The FBI is reportedly using a new and improved version of Carnivore, a software program designed to monitor secure e-mail over the Internet. The new FBI program, called Magic Lantern, is described as key logger software designed to steal the pass phrase used to start the popular encryption program PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy.
A key logger program is designed to capture keystrokes - what a user keys in - and then store the data in a separate location for later retrieval by a hacker. The FBI plans to use Magic Lantern to capture PGP information to crack encrypted e-mail and intercept Internet data.
Magic Lantern Flaws
Magic Lantern reportedly can be sent in a fashion similar to several virus programs, either as an attachment via e-mail or downloaded from an infected Web site. However, the Magic Lantern program may also be mistaken for a virus program.
The sudden discovery of Magic Lantern caused a flurry of activity from computer software producers. Anti-virus software maker McAfee Associates denied a recent report that it was working with the FBI to ensure its software would not stop the Magic Lantern program. McAfee spokesman Tony Thompson denied it had any contact with the FBI on Magic Lantern.
According to an official statement by the anti-virus maker, "Network Associates/McAfee.com anti-virus programs will continue to protect our customers' computers from any program that intrudes into their system against their desires or without the knowledge of our customer."
Magic Lantern is also not perfect. Magic Lantern suffers from another flaw in that it is not designed to stop other popular computer encryption programs such as Softwar Pcypher and Mystx public key encryption systems.
These encryption software utilities do not use pass-phrase technology and are immune to Magic Lantern-type attacks. E-mail and data scrambling is done with the mouse using data keys that can be stored on offline diskettes, zip drives or CD disks.
CIA Triangle Boy
Yet, as the FBI struggles to introduce its new system to monitor the Internet, the CIA is working to develop a software program that thwarts government monitoring.
The CIA is a major sponsor of SafeWeb, a company that distributes a free program called Triangle Boy. Triangle Boy allows users to surf the Web anonymously. Citizens inside dictatorships are using the program to avoid monitoring by the oppressive regimes.
Triangle Boy operates much like a mail forwarding service. Each user request to view a Web page is scrambled and randomly sent to another machine, which actually performs the request, returning the data to the original user. Triangle Boy is very popular inside China, and the Chinese government is working hard on ways to counter secure access to the Internet.
SafeWeb reportedly receives hundreds of e-mails a day from grateful Triangle Boy users worldwide. However, SafeWeb's growing audience in China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Syria is in direct conflict with FBI efforts to monitor potential terrorist communications.
Despite the concerns, Triangle Boy's developer, SafeWeb's CEO Stephen Hsu, claims terrorists would not use the program.
"A terrorist would be crazy to use SafeWeb," stated Hsu, who noted that the CIA backs his company.
Yet Triangle Boy can be abused, and software vendors have rushed to develop new programs designed to counter the CIA's secure Internet browser.
Porn or Politics?
"I knew that if I knew about Triangle Boy, anybody who was really interested in porn would know about it too," stated Ed Miller, a security operations manager at Computer Sciences Corp.
Filtering vendor 8e6 Technologies, whose customers include major companies such as Computer Sciences Corp., recently developed a way to block Triangle Boy. 8e6 Technologies declined to comment on how its X-Stop filtering system disables Triangle Boy.
"Several IT (information technology) people at the universities and schools that I consult for did extensive research into this," noted Eric Gerlach, a Network Integration Consultant for Southwestern Bell Telephone.
"I have a few insights and an easy fix for it," noted Gerlach.
Ironically, many inside the computer security field declined to describe ways to stop Triangle Boy - not for technical reasons but for political reasons.
Software experts are usually anxious to publish flaws inside Microsoft operating systems or other major software packages. Yet this is not the case for Triangle Boy.
"Normally, I'm all for publishing flaws in software, but on this one I have to vote against," stated one computer security expert located in the Netherlands.
"The Chinese finally have access to the Internet. The flaws could be used by the Chinese government to block the Internet once again."
-------- terrorism
U.S. offers to train Yemeni special forces
By Eli J. Lake
UPI State Department Correspondent
November 28, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/28112001-065734-5182r.htm
The U.S. government is offering to train Yemeni counter-terror forces, a senior State Department official told United Press International on Wednesday, in a move that could mean a U.S. military presence in an Arab country once considered unfriendly.
In an interview, the official, who asked not to be identified, said, "We've offered to work with their special forces in training and planning." When asked if the United States has offered to actually send Special Forces to the country, this official declined to comment saying the United States would offer "whatever assistance is required and acceptable."
The warming relations between Washington and Sanaa is seen by analysts as yet another by-product of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon and the subsequent U.S.-led offensive against international terrorism that has created new alliances as well as undermining some old ones.
On a visit to the Washington on Tuesday, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had talks with President George W. Bush and top U.S. officials. The main topic was the role Yemen could play in the campaign against Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network, and the fight against terrorism.
U.S. Special Forces for the Central Command are headquartered in nearby Qatar. The special-forces "A-Team" are specialists in training members of foreign armed forces and have been present in Afghanistan since October, working with the Northern Alliance.
While numerous al Qaida cells are located in Yemen, U.S. officials are particularly concerned that members of bin Laden's network will attempt to cross the border into Yemen en route from Afghanistan through Pakistan. Bin Laden's network is the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Saleh assured the Bush administration that Yemen had strengthened its border guards and has begun to interrogate and in some cases detain suspected terrorists inside the country, according to the State Department.
"The Yemenis already have measures in effect that require non-Yemenis to come to Yemen directly from their host country," this official said. This is particularly important given the multinational makeup of al Qaida, so -- for example -- Egyptian members cannot reach the country from Saudi Arabia.
This official said it was difficult to quantify the precise number of al Qaida cells operating in Yemen. "It's hard to put a number to it. Al Qaida recruits are not card-carrying members. They reach out to family members or friends who are involved in specific operations like the USS Cole."
But this official went on, "You've got a number of active cells that need attention and then you have to watch a larger number of sympathizers. It's not like Afghanistan where you have thousands of fighters, it's probably akin to what you had in Hamburg (Germany) or the United States."
In addition to offering military training, the United States is also sharing some intelligence with the Yemeni. "They have their sources and we have ours," the official said. This relationship was underscored Tuesday in a meeting between Saleh and CIA Director George Tenet.
At the same time, the State Department would like to see more cooperation from the Yemeni government in terms of counter-terrorism.
"They were cooperative from the beginning on security," this official said. "On the counter-terrorism side that is a work in progress and it takes time to build understanding and progress."
This official said the United States would like to see "practical steps to close down the al Qaida network," adding "we do not want al Qaida to operate in Yemen, to recruit, to plan, to train or to stage operations. We want to close off any operational space they have."
----
Dems stopped from adding to terrorism package
USA Today
11/28/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/nov01/2001-11-28-antiterror.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House handed a victory to President Bush on Wednesday by derailing a Democratic drive to pour billions of extra dollars into anti-terrorism efforts, defense and aid to New York.
The largely party-line 216-211 vote moved the House to the verge of approving a $20 billion package to finance the war in Afghanistan and the battle against domestic terrorism. It also included help for New York and other communities recovering from the attacks that leveled the World Trade Center's towers, damaged the Pentagon and killed thousands of people.
With just four defections, GOP lawmakers rallied behind Bush's threat to veto the legislation if money were added to it. Bush has cast the fight as a test of fiscal austerity, coupling that with a promise to seek more money early next year if needed.
"Congress will respond" when more money is requested, said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill. "But we need to be responsible about these things."
Democrats said now was the time to lay out more money to buy vaccines, hire sky marshals, secure Russian nuclear material, increase food inspections and otherwise thwart terrorists.
"We're going after the snake," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said about the U.S.-led hunt for Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorist leaders in Afghanistan. "They're going to try to retaliate."
The vote underlined the strong pull the widely popular Bush has on GOP lawmakers. That influence, plus pressure from party leaders, let them withstand lobbying by unions, mail-order businesses, ports and other groups that stood to benefit from the Democrats' proposal.
Bush won a victory in the Democratic-controlled Senate as well. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he would slice his party's plan to add $15 billion for domestic security to half that amount. That is on top of an underlying $20 billion in anti-terror spending.
Daschle said he would remove the domestic security package from economic stimulus legislation, where it had been a major obstacle to a bipartisan deal on using tax cuts and new spending to prod the slumbering national economy.
That move, coupled with signals of widespread support for a plan to erase Social Security taxes for a month, breathed new life into the economic stimulus bill.
At a morning White House meeting, Bush asked congressional leaders to intensify efforts for compromise. The leaders planned to meet again Wednesday night.
"Hopefully, we'll get this done in the next week or so," said Senate Minority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla.
The Senate Appropriations Committee planned to vote on its version of the anti-terror package next Tuesday.
The $20 billion in anti-terrorism spending was half the $40 billion that Congress approved three days after the attacks. Bush controls half, while the rest must be approved anew and in detail by lawmakers.
Almost from the beginning, Bush threatened to veto spending that would exceed the $40 billion. White House officials renewed that threat Wednesday.
"We look forward to working with the Congress to ensure that the highest priority needs are met in an expeditious manner," they wrote to congressional leaders.
The 216-211 tally blocked votes on three Democratic amendments aimed at adding $7.2 billion for protecting drinking water, hiring border guards and other domestic security steps; $6.5 billion for defense; and $9.7 billion to help New York and other communities recover from the attacks.
Before Thanksgiving, New Yorkers from both parties were demanding the extra $9.7 billion for local recovery. They cited a promise they said Bush made to give those communities half the $40 billion.
But in negotiations with the White House led by Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., most Republican New Yorkers settled for an extra $1.5 billion that would be shifted from other funds within the $20 billion package. Democrats remained opposed.
Of the $40 billion, about $11 billion is for New York and the other areas. Administration officials have said the total will reach at least $20 billion with later bills helping jobless workers and providing other aid.
Overall, $21 billion of the $40 billion is for the military.
The $20 billion was attached to a bill providing $318 billion for the Defense Department this year. The measure is $20 billion more than last year's total and equals Bush's request, but it cuts $441 million from Bush's $8.3 billion plan for national missile defense.
------
PUBLIC DISCLOSURE
Limits Sought on Access to Company Data
New York Times
November 28, 2001
By ALISON MITCHELL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/politics/28DISC.html?searchpv=nytToday
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - The Bush administration is seeking to limit the public's access to information that private companies voluntarily provide to the government about critical infrastructure systems like energy, telecommunications and banking to help protect against terrorist attacks.
In a letter to a telecommunications security group written several weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, President Bush said he supported a "narrowly drafted exception" to the Freedom of Information Act to encourage companies to share information about their vulnerability to "information warfare and malicious hacking."
Paul Kurtz, a senior director of the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, said today that the White House would back the exception for any industry that shares data about critical threats. "We need to give them some protection," he said at a conference on homeland security sponsored by Aviation Week magazine.
He said that in the war against terror, unlike the cold war, the government might not get the first warning of an attack. "It might come from the private sector," he said.
Critics argue that the exemption - as it is currently drafted in several bills on Capitol Hill - is too broad and will cover more than sensitive information.
Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate that would carve out the nondisclosure provision to the Freedom of Information Act. The legislation would also grant a narrow exception to companies from antitrust laws so they can discuss common security problems.
`If there is a button a terrorist can push to destabilize a whole infrastructure, we don't have the right to know where the button is and how to set it," said Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the bills. "But we do have the right to know that the vulnerability exists and whether government is doing something about it."
While an array of industries have said they want to work with the government, they have expressed reservations about providing data that could be obtained by their competitors or by terrorists through requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Senator Robert F. Bennett, a Utah Republican who is a lead sponsor of the legislation, said in an interview that the nondisclosure provision is needed "because we are under attack." He estimated that at least 80 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure was in the private sector.
"If the private sector does not tell government analysts what's going on," he said, "that's the same thing as trying to run a war without any intelligence from 80 percent of the battlefield."
Attorney General John Ashcroft said this week that the F.B.I. issued a warning to its field offices that terrorists might attack natural gas supplies if Osama bin Laden were killed or captured in Afghanistan.
A debate over just what balance to strike between the public's right to know and the nation's heightened security needs has been simmering for weeks as government officials have been removing information from their agencies' Web sites.
Gone from Internet sites is data like the location and operational status of nuclear power plants, maps of the nation's transportation infrastructure and information about chemicals used at industrial sites.
In a memorandum last month, Mr. Ashcroft also described a new standard for federal agencies in reviewing freedom of information requests. He called a "well-informed citizenry" essential to government accountability. But he also said the administration was "equally committed to protecting other fundamental values that are held by our society. Among them are safeguarding our national security, enhancing the effectiveness of our law enforcement agencies, protecting sensitive business information and, not least, preserving personal privacy."
The drive on Capitol Hill to provide a Freedom of Information Act exception to encourage information-sharing between government and industry grew in part out of the Year 2000 concerns about computer vulnerability.
"Information regarding a cyber threat or vulnerability is now shared within some industries, but it is not shared with the government and it is not shared across industries," said Representative Thomas M. Davis III, Republican of Virginia, when he introduced the House version of such legislation this summer.
---
Experts Fear Bin Laden Has Nukes
By Barry Renfrew
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; 1:43 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25839-2001Nov28?language=printer
LONDON -- While there is no proof Osama bin Laden has nuclear weapons, a wide range of international analysts say he has been trying to acquire them for years and may have succeeded, or be close.
Even experts who think bin Laden's al-Qaida network does not have an atomic bomb say it's best to assume it does and prepare for its possible use.
The scale and sophistication of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, for which bin Laden is the main suspect, mean nothing can ever again be ruled out, no matter how nightmarish, they say.
"The Sept. 11 attacks certainly take us a lot closer to a nuclear possibility," said Paul Wilkinson, an expert on terrorism at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Fanatical terrorists "might resort to this kind of mass destruction weapon and we have to take that seriously," he said.
U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaida, said Tuesday that U.S. officials had identified more than 40 sites in Afghanistan where bin Laden's network may have been researching nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
He said the sites were still being tested for evidence that any weapon of mass destruction had actually been produced.
Many experts fear bin Laden has a "dirty bomb" or could quickly construct one. Not capable of producing a nuclear explosion, a dirty bomb would use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a wide area and make it uninhabitable. It could be made from easily acquired low-grade nuclear material, such as isotopes for medicine and industry.
"The problems in finding materials for a dirty bomb practically do not exist," said Dmitry Kovchegin of the Center for Policy Studies in Moscow.
Bin Laden has boasted of having weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and other Western governments say there is no evidence he has a nuclear weapon, but officials acknowledge it can't be ruled out.
"Inevitably, it will happen eventually," said Dr. Frank Barnaby, a nuclear physicist who specializes in nuclear terrorism studies at the Oxford Research Group, a private think tank in Oxford, England.
Analysts who doubt bin Laden has a nuclear bomb don't think al-Qaida has the skill to develop such weapons. Plans for an atomic bomb found in Kabul, reported recently by the British press, appear to have been an old spoof from a humor journal that al-Qaida may have mistaken for genuine diagrams.
But even the skeptical experts won't rule out the possibility bin Laden has the bomb.
"Making a bomb and getting it somewhere is a low likelihood scenario, but the consequences if they did are extremely high, so that pushes the risk level up. So I would say the risk level is medium," said Clive Williams, a terrorism expert at Australian National University.
Experts have worried for years that acquiring or building a nuclear weapon of some kind is a much greater possibility since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Criminals have been caught smuggling nuclear material out of Russia. There are numerous, unverified reports of nuclear weapons being sold or misplaced. Russian officials admit security at their nuclear facilities is often poor. There is concern penniless nuclear scientists might be hired by outsiders to develop weapons.
"Undoubtedly the disintegration of such a huge state as the U.S.S.R. created temptations and it would seem strange if nobody took advantage of them. Such organizations as al-Qaida have enough money and organizing skills to do it," said Vladimir Lukin, a vice speaker of the Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
Nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the United States, Russia and the other nuclear powers can only be operated with codes. Even if bin Laden has an ex-Soviet weapon, he is unlikely to have the code to detonate it, experts say.
Analysts are divided over the chances of terrorists building a nuclear bomb. Some say it is easier than generally realized. Others counter that Iraq apparently failed to build a bomb despite a $10 billion effort lasting years.
Barnaby said an atomic bomb can be built fairly easily using highly enriched uranium. Only Pakistan uses this material to build atomic bombs, which is worrisome, he said, because of known links between bin Laden and some former Pakistani nuclear scientists.
But if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, wouldn't he have used it?
Analysts aren't so sure, saying terrorists traditionally build up attacks to heighten terror, so a nuclear attack might be saved for a final blow. The collapse of al-Qaida in Afghanistan could increase the chances, they say.
"They would want to keep things up their sleeves. Terrorists need to escalate attacks. They have to notch it up all the time," said Barnaby.
"The next natural move would be a nuclear terrorist act."
-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Large PV Tender Issued by British Government
November 28, 2001
Solar Access News
http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story.jsp?storyid=1180
LONDON, England, UK, 2001-11-28 [SolarAccess.com] The British government has called for tenders to install large-scale solar power on public buildings across the country. Energy minister Brian Wilson has announced a £3 million Large-Scale Building Integrated Photovoltaic Field Trial Tender.
The Department of Trade & Industry says the initiative could lead to the construction of 12 to 15 solar-powered large public sector buildings, which could take be schools, universities, hospitals, leisure centres, museums or churches. The integration of PV with buildings is viewed as one of the most promising applications of solar electric technology. The buildings provide a ready support for PV panels, which can form an integral part of the building envelope to provide weatherproofing and a source of some daylight.
If the electricity generated on the building is consumed inside, transmission power losses are eliminated. While BIPV has been demonstrated on a few buildings in the U.K., it is rarely used due to high capital costs and the poor return from the value of power it generates. As the cost of PV continues to fall and concern over climate change increases, officials in Britain expect BIPV to become more mainstream in sustainable architecture.
"This money demonstrates the government's continuing commitment to the development of solar power," says Wilson. "If a green revolution is to take place, then solar energy must move from hi-tech business parks into everyday lives."
The money being offered will provide 80 percent of the capital costs of an average PV installation larger than 20 kW peak. The maximum government support will be limited to £300,000 per building or £4/Wp, whichever is lower. The scheme will complement the government's solar housing trial, which has already provided £5.4 million for 540 homes nation-wide and, together, constitute the majority of the £10 million set aside in March to enable the U.K. to "achieve a solar PV demonstration program in line with those of our main competitors."
"I want to see tens of thousands of roofs covered by solar panels over the next ten years, rivaling the large programs in Germany and Japan," but Wilson notes that developers and manufacturers of solar equipment in Britain must invest in the future of the industry.
Proposals are required by January 11.
----
Renewable Energy Could Create 1.3 Million Jobs in U.S.
November 28, 2001
Solar Access News
http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story.jsp?storyid=1136
WASHINGTON, DC, US, 2001-11-15 [SolarAccess.com] Development of policies on renewable energy and energy efficiency could create 1.3 million new jobs in the United States by 2020, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
A total of 750,000 new jobs would be created over the next nine years, according to 'Clean Energy: Jobs for America's Future.' Gross domestic product would increase by US$23 billion by 2010 and increase to $43.9 billion (net) by 2020.
"This study shows that a responsible approach to energy policy can help us meet the challenge of climate change while still benefitting the economy and creating new jobs," says WWF's Brooks Yeager. "A serious and sustained national effort to improve the energy efficiency of our cars, trucks and buildings will offer us a better future with sustainable economic growth and allow us to conserve irreplaceable wilderness refuges for future generations."
A related benefit would be an additional $220 increase in annual wage and salary earnings per household by 2010, increasing to $400 per household by 2020.
The study is based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy's EIA energy outlook, and economic and employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"Our national choices regarding the production and use of energy have serious implications for our environment," notes the study. "At every step of the process from extraction, to refining, transport and combustion, fossil fuels have negative impacts on land and water-based ecosystems. In addition to these well-known effects, it is now clear that over-reliance on fossil fuels is a major cause of climate change."
The WWF study examines a Renewable Portfolio Standard as one policy to address the issue of energy supply, economic, employment, energy security and environmental concerns, but concedes that "some industries within the energy sector would not share in the economic benefits from this transition, as the economy's reliance on carbon-intensive fossil fuels declines."
In addition to job creation, adoption of the WWF energy recommendations would allow the United States to reduce its carbon emissions by 8.5 percent by 2010 (compared with a projected increase of 20 percent) and by 28 percent by 2020 (compared with a 36 percent rise). Twenty percent of electricity generation in 2020 would come from wind, solar, biomass and geothermal, while oil consumption would decline by 8 percent by 2020 rather than increase by 31 percent, saving money and reducing vulnerability to oil price shocks.
Overall dependence on fossil fuels would decline 15 percent by 2020 rather than increasing by 40 percent, and homes and businesses would accumulate savings of $600 billion in that period. Each state would experience a positive net job impact, with California benefitting the most at 140,000 new jobs by 2020. The study applies a Renewable Portfolio Standard that starts with a 2 percent requirement in 2002, growing to 10 percent in 2010, and 20 percent in 2020. It assumes a subsidy to grid-connected generation, in order to introduce solar PV technology into the generation mix.
The policies "would serve national interests in reducing American demand and, therefore, dependency on oil," the document explains. "The study shows that these policies also create more jobs and offer greater economic benefits than can be generated by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite the unsubstantiated claims of drilling proponents."
-------- energy
NAFTA commission says planned expansion of electricity plants means more pollution
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Tom Cohen,
Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/11/11282001/ap_45681.asp
TORONTO - Bush administration plans for hundreds more electricity generating plants will substantially increase emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, a North American environment commission said Monday.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which monitors the environmental affects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, estimated carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. electricity sector could increase from 14 percent to 38 percent by the year 2007. Emissions from the electricity sector now account for 35 percent of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
The commission called for better coordination of environmental policies among NAFTA members Canada, Mexico, and the United States to prevent increasing electricity production from bringing jumps in harmful emissions, executive director Janine Ferretti told a telephone news conference.
The commission is hosting a symposium in San Diego this week on the North American integrated electricity market. It believes uncoordinated policies among the three countries could create pollution havens in North America, harm efforts to decrease overall pollution, and contribute to trade disputes.
Under the U.S. energy policy first outlined by Vice President Dick Cheney, building hundreds of new plants would be the preferred way to meet growing energy needs. Shifting from coal plants, the most polluting form of electricity generation, to natural gas and nuclear plants would help hold down increases in unwanted emissions, according to the U.S. policy.
However, increased production in the U.S. market since deregulation came more from coal plants, according to Paul Miller, one of the authors of a commission study.
Findings from Miller's study are contrary to goals of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been rejected by the United States as harmful to the U.S. economy.
Delegates from 165 countries recently agreed to rules that would put the 1997 Kyoto agreement into effect. The protocol obliges industrialized countries to cut or limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
Countries may offset the requirements by properly managing forests and farmlands that absorb carbon dioxide, known as carbon sinks. They can earn further credits by helping developing countries avoid carbon emissions.
To take force, the accord must be ratified by 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the United States not participating, ratification by virtually all other industrial countries is essential to meet that target.
Canada, which supports the Kyoto agreement but has yet to ratify it, announced Monday it would spend more than $280 million on new measures intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
-------- genetics
Gene-altered, cloned livestock are called safe
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/science/2001-11-28-clone.htm
WASHINGTON - Biotechnology experts defended the safety of genetically engineered and cloned livestock at a scientific workshop Tuesday. Consumer advocates countered with calls for increased regulation of such creatures.
A National Research Council committee heard presentations at the meeting. The Food and Drug Administration had asked the NRC, chartered by Congress to advise the public on scientific matters, to define "science-based" risks to human health involving gene-altered, or transgenic, animals.
Speakers concentrated on two types of genetically engineered creatures in their presentations.
- Bioreactors: animals prized for proteins in their milk or other products useful in agriculture, such as semen from a cloned prize bull.
- Food sources: animals such as growth-gene-enhanced fish, or pigs nursed by a sow bred with a gene that lets it make more milk.
Two presenters - one from Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass., which made headlines this week with claims of a cloned human embryo - offered data about their herds of cloned cattle suggesting the creatures were perfectly normal and healthy. The other, Michael Bishop, the head of Infigen Inc. of DeForest, Wis., released data on 120 live calf clones. Analysis shows milk taken from the cows is "identical" to normal cow's milk and is safe for human consumption, said Bishop, who drinks it regularly. A genetic analysis on the cows and 50 cloned pigs, some clones of clones, showed no oddities as well.
"For transgenic animals, the proof is in the pudding," said molecular geneticist Perry Hackett of the University of Minnesota-St. Paul.
Hackett suggested that scrambled genes, a characteristic seen in some studies of cloned animals, occur commonly in nature with no negative effect. Animal husbandry has produced gene-altered domestic animals for centuries, he said, suggesting that genetically engineered animals should be regulated like other farm animals.
However, biologist Michael Hansen of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, warned that not enough is known about the health effects of genetically engineered foods. The FDA currently asks biotech firms to prevent such animals from entering the food supply. Hansen called on the agency to label all genetically engineered or cloned fish, poultry and meat for consumers.
Safety analyses on biotech animals need to go beyond looking at the individual animal and look broadly at environmental effects from the creatures, adds Jean Fruci of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Some portion of the public will otherwise be continually suspicious of the animals, she suggests.
---
Gene-altered DNA may be 'polluting' corn
USA Today
11/28/2001
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/healthscience/science/biology/2001-11-28-biofood-mexico.htm
DNA from genetically modified corn has mysteriously turned up inside native varieties grown in a remote mountain area of Mexico, prompting concerns of "genetic pollution" of indigenous crops.
Researchers Ignacio Chapela and David Quist of the University of California-Berkeley, in a letter published in today's issue of the journal Nature, report that they found traces of transgenic material in samples of native corn from four fields in the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
The finding is "particularly striking" because Mexico has had a moratorium on genetically modified corn since 1998, the researchers write. It's not clear if cross-pollination occurred before 1998 or more recently as a result of "loose implementation" of the moratorium, they say.
Plants that are genetically engineered to resist herbicides or to produce their own insecticides threaten to reduce the variety of plant life within the region, says Chapela, just by being better able to survive than more fragile native plants. "The probability is high that diversity is going to be crowded out by these genetic bullies," he says.
Also of concern is the chance that herbicide resistance could jump into weedy relatives, creating superweeds that can't be controlled, he says. Plants genetically engineered to produce a natural insecticide have "been shown to have potentially very bad effects on insects and the microbes in the soil," he says.
The researchers compared the Oaxaca seeds with non-genetically modified seeds of the same varieties grown in Peru, and with seeds gathered in the same part of Oaxaca in 1971, before the advent of biotechnology. None of these showed evidence of transgenic DNA, but in the modern Oaxaca samples, four out of six had traces of a cauliflower mosaic virus that is commonly used in genetically engineered crops.
The study highlights the core of the controversy surrounding the use of biotechnology in agriculture, says Michael Khoo of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Examples like this show it's an uncontrolled experiment, and then you get uncontrolled results. It's one of the fundamental risks of biotechnology."
He says "genetic pollution poses new problems" that should be monitored by regulatory agencies. "This is the point where we should take a pause and assess what kind of contamination has been done and what should be done to stop it. We should not be going forward on an experiment when we have no idea of the parameters."
Val Giddings of the Biotechnology Industry Organization says the real question is what effect, if any, would result from mixing biotech corn with native varieties. "If there's any impact at all, it's likely to be positive. There are zero human health implications, zero environmental impact implications," he says.
Corn breeder Major Goodman of North Carolina State University in Raleigh believes the mixing of biotech and native varieties occurred when migrant farm workers carried seeds from the USA back to Mexican fields. Biotech corn won't endanger Mexican varieties, he says.
"The disservice that is happening here is that U.S. corn is being taken to Mexico and it will not grow well there," he says. "This is good Midwestern corn. It is good in the Midwest. It is terrible elsewhere."
-------- health
Wormwood the basis for a cancer-fighting pill
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Environmental News Network
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/11/11282001/s_45678.asp
A nontoxic pill that could be taken on an outpatient basis to combat breast cancer or leukemia sounds like a fantasy, but the treatment is becoming a reality due to the investigation of a University of Washington research team into an ancient Chinese remedy for malaria.
Two bioengineering research professors at the University of Washington have rediscovered wormwood as a promising potential treatment for cancer among the ancient arts of Chinese folk medicine.
Research professor Henry Lai and assistant research professor Narendra Singh have exploited the chemical properties of a wormwood derivative to target breast cancer cells with surprisingly effective results. A study in the latest issue of the journal Life Sciences describes how the derivative killed virtually all human breast cancer cells exposed to it within 16 hours.
"Not only does it appear to be effective, but it's very selective," Lai said. "It's highly toxic to the cancer cells but has a marginal impact on normal breast cells."
Environmental risk factors for cancer are many. Lifetime exposure to the female hormone estrogen and estrogen-mimicking chemicals such as some pesticides and herbicides has been linked to an increase in breast cancer risk. In 1991, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the pesticide DDT as a possible human carcinogen, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified DDT as a probable human carcinogen.
The manufacture of PCBs, the oily liquids or solids used as coolants and insulators, was stopped in the United States in 1977 because of concerns that exposure increases the risk of cancers, but PCBs are still found in the environment.
Most Americans are exposed every day to air toxins emitted by motor vehicles, substances that the EPA says have been proven to cause cancer in humans. "Benzene, says the EPA, "is a known human carcinogen, while formaldehyde; acetaldehyde; 1,3-butadiene; and diesel particulate matter are probable human carcinogens." The EPA has now classified 1,3-butadiene, a gas used commercially in the production of resins and plastics, as a known human carcinogen.
The use of the bitter herb wormwood is nothing new. Used for centuries to rid the body of worms, it is also an ingredient in the alcoholic beverage absinthe, now banned in most countries.
Artemisinin, the compound that Lai and Singh have found to fight cancers, isn't new either. It was extracted from the plant Artemesia annua L., commonly known as wormwood, thousands of years ago by the Chinese, who used it to combat the mosquito-borne disease malaria. The treatment with artemisinin was lost over time but rediscovered during an archaeological dig in the 1970s that unearthed recipes for ancient medical remedies.
Now widely used in Asia and Africa to fight malaria, artemisinin reacts with the high iron concentrations found in the malaria parasite. When artemisinin comes into contact with iron, a chemical reaction ensues, spawning charged atoms that chemists call free radicals. The free radicals attack cell membranes, breaking them apart and killing the single-cell parasite.
About seven years ago, Lai began to hypothesize that the process might work with cancer, too.
"Cancer cells need a lot of iron to replicate DNA when they divide," Lai explained. "As a result, cancer cells have much higher iron concentrations than normal cells. When we began to understand how artemisinin worked, I started wondering if we could use that knowledge to target cancer cells."
Lai devised a potential method and began to look for funding, obtaining a grant from the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the UW patented his idea.
The thrust of the idea, according to Lai and Singh, was to pump up the cancer cells with maximum iron concentrations, then introduce artemisinin to selectively kill the cancer.
In the current study, after eight hours, just 25 percent of the cancer cells remained. By the time 16 hours had passed, nearly all the cells were dead.
An earlier study involving leukemia cells yielded even more impressive results. The cancer cells were eliminated within eight hours. A possible explanation might be the level of iron in the leukemia cells. "They have one of the highest iron concentrations among cancer cells," Lai explained. "Leukemia cells can have more than 1,000 times the concentration of iron that normal cells have."
The next step, according to Lai, is animal testing. Limited tests have been done in that area. In an earlier study, a dog with bone cancer so severe it couldn't walk made a complete recovery in five days after receiving the treatment. But more rigorous testing is needed.
If the process lives up to its early promise, it could revolutionize the way some cancers are approached, Lai said. The goal would be a treatment that could be taken orally on an outpatient basis.
"That would be very easy, and this could make that possible," Lai said. "The cost is another plus: At $2 a dose, it's very cheap. And with the millions of people who have already taken artemisinin for malaria, we have a track record showing that it's safe."
Whatever happens, Lai said, a portion of the credit will have to go to unknown medical practitioners, long gone now. "The fascinating thing is that this was something the Chinese used thousands of years ago," he said. "We simply found a different application."
-------- human rights
Mexico to Go After Leftists' Killers
Law: Fox will name special prosecutor and open files on 1970s-'80s disappearances.
By JAMES F. SMITH
LOS ANGELES TIMES
November 28 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-000094748nov28.story
MEXICO CITY -- Fulfilling a key campaign pledge, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Tuesday that his government will prosecute and punish officials who are found responsible for killing hundreds of leftists in the 1970s and '80s.
Speaking in the courtyard of a former jail once filled with political prisoners, Fox also said that security files from that era will be opened, allowing public scrutiny for the first time of human rights abuses during the government's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents.
Earlier Tuesday, the National Human Rights Commission disclosed the results of a long-delayed report on the disappearances of activists and guerrillas in that period, when the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, controlled almost every aspect of Mexican life. The commission found evidence that in at least 275 out of 532 reported cases, police or security forces had snatched and later killed the leftists. In 97 other cases, there were signs of forced disappearance but no proof; in the remaining 160 cases, no evidence was found to explain the disappearances.
In every confirmed case, the missing people were tortured--and no formal charges were ever brought against the insurgents, the study found.
The rights report doesn't mention names of suspected rights violators. But commission President Jose Luis Soberanes said the investigation identified 74 "public servants" from 37 government agencies who are believed to have been involved in the disappearances.
The report's findings were by far the most explicit evidence of the former government's responsibility for the disappearances, after decades of denials that rights violations occurred.
After he listened to the report's conclusions in a ceremony at the notorious Lecumberri Prison, Fox announced the creation of the post of special prosecutor to investigate the disappearances and prosecute where appropriate. A five-member civilian commission will advise the special prosecutor.
Fox ordered his attorney general and defense minister to cooperate fully, an important element because the army was blamed in many of the fatal disappearances and has until now declined to allow civilian jurisdiction over its members.
"We are changing the way power is exercised in Mexico," Fox said. "We are taking a great step toward the consolidation of the rule of law, and we are laying the foundation to eradicate permanently impunity in our nation."
With his response, Fox fulfilled at least in part his pledge to create a mechanism to find out the truth about human rights violations under past governments. Rights groups had denounced his inaction on the issue in the year since he took office, and the criticism grew louder with the still-unsolved slaying last month of prominent human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa.
Most human rights groups welcomed Fox's initiative as a useful start.
Edgar Cortez, head of the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center in Mexico City, said the naming of a special prosecutor should mean not only that the truth is documented, "but that those responsible will be taken to court and judged and punished."
He said the commission's report demonstrated that the disappearances "were a state policy designed to violate human rights. We are not talking about individual responsibilities."
Sergio Aguayo, a longtime rights activist, said Fox's initiative "has the potential to become a watershed in the defense of human rights and the battle against impunity in Mexico. But we have to see who is named special prosecutor."
Among the disappeared were many hard-line Communist rebels who carried out attacks on army and police patrols as well as kidnappings for ransom. The groups were routed by the mid-1980s, although small rebel groups persist today.
The government-funded National Human Rights Commission, created by then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1989, had long been dismissed as a toothless body. The report on the disappeared got underway in 1990 but languished for years.
But in 1999, legal and constitutional changes gave the commission more autonomy, and newly named President Soberanes injected energy into the body. The probe resumed in earnest in January 2000, well before Fox's victory six months later.
Although the 2,500-page report provides details on all the cases, no copies were available Tuesday except to Cabinet dignitaries. Commission officials said the report will be ready for distribution in a day or two.
But Soberanes read a chilling excerpt from the testimony of one detainee, identified only as T-300: "They dragged [my husband] by his hair and put him in the trunk. Then they did the same with me, taking me to another car and binding my eyes so we didn't see where we were going. . . . They made me strip completely."
She describes the gruesome torture and sexual abuse she endured. And she retells one agent's threat: "Do you know what we do with the likes of you? We kill you. But slowly. You die when we get in the mood. You are going to beg us to kill you."
The passage concludes: "They tortured my daughter Tania, 14 months old, in my presence, mistreating her and applying electric shocks on her entire body."
Soberanes said the archival research uncovered the truth about an event Sept. 8, 1974, in which the government said 44 guerrillas were killed in a shootout during the rescue of a kidnapped senator. In fact, investigators found that only one person was killed in the clash and that the rest were interrogated and killed by their captors.
National Security Advisor Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, a former leftist activist who joined Fox's campaign to help end the 71-year reign of the PRI, said the presidential order ensures that there is "no more impunity, no more disappearances and no more illegal detentions."
Fox said he had considered suggestions on creating a truth commission such as those in Argentina, Chile and South Africa but that the Mexican Constitution doesn't allow for such an ad hoc institution.
He added that whereas most truth commissions were designed to find out the truth but not produce legal judgments, a special prosecutor could go further by actually bringing perpetrators to justice.
Fox said the security archives from the 1970-85 period will be transferred to the national archives. "This information can be consulted by any interested party, in terms of the applicable legislation," he said.
The rights report said the security archives contain 80 million file cards and 40,000 pages of documents relating to "detentions, interrogations, searches, roadblocks, tortures and forced disappearances."
The president added that a separate civic commission would be created to study the issue of whether reparations should be paid to the families of the disappeared.
Mariclaire Acosta, a lifelong activist who joined Fox's government as a roaming ambassador on human rights, called the report and Fox's response "a fundamental step toward consolidating our democracy, building a state of law based on human rights and achieving reconciliation among all Mexicans."
She noted that rights violations continued after 1985 and that she has been informed of two forced disappearances this year. But she said Fox opened a process of accountability.
"For the first time in our history, the chief of state has given a clear instruction in reply to an investigation by a body defending human rights and has begun a process of openness and transparency and investigation," Acosta said. "This is unprecedented in our history, and it should be celebrated."
The investigation found the worst abuses by far in the coastal state of Guerrero, home to the resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa but also of fierce inland poverty. Of the 532 cases investigated, 332 came from Guerrero, where some of the toughest guerrilla organizations emerged.
Rafael Aguirre of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
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Environmental groups, Irish Republic take action to stop nuclear reprocessing plant
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/11/11282001/ap_45689.asp
LONDON - Environmental groups asked Britain's Court of Appeal Tuesday to block the opening of a nuclear reprocessing facility in northwestern England.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are appealing a decision by the High Court earlier this month that the government had made "no error of law" in granting approval for the Sellafield facility in Cumbria to begin production of mixed-oxide fuel.
The two groups argue that the government took a "distorted" view last month when it decided to allow the plant to begin operations. The groups cite a European Union directive requiring governments to ensure that the economic, social, and other benefits of new processes which create radiation outweigh any detriment to health before they give the go-ahead for such operations.
Lawyers for the groups also argue that errors made in calculating whether the plant would be financially viable invalidate the government's decision to permit the operation to go ahead.
The groups say the plant could lead to pollution and also become a target for terrorists or nuclear thieves.
The plant, which turns spent plutonium and uranium into mixed plutonium and uranium oxide (MOX) fuel, was completed in 1996 but has never been opened. The go-ahead was held up for financial reasons and after operator British Nuclear Fuels admitted to falsifying records.
The hearing before three appeal judges is expected to end this week.
On Nov. 9, the government of the Irish Republic also began legal steps to prevent the opening of the plant. Ireland has called for the creation of an international arbitration tribunal to resolve the dispute and asked the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to suspend the British government's decision, pending conclusion of the arbitration.
Campaigners on Ireland's east coast have alleged for years that citizens suffer a higher-than-average incidence of cancer, which they blame on the Sellafield site, which is less than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the Irish coast.
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Historians, Public Interest Groups Sue to Stop Bush Order
Say New Restrictions on White House Files Violate Presidential Records Act
"Bush Order Attempts to Overturn the Law, Take the Power Back"
National Security Archive
November 28, 2001
From: NSARCHIVE <mevans@GWU.EDU>
http://www.nsarchive.org/news/20011128
Washington D.C., 28 November 2001- Today the National Security Archive at George Washington University joined the American Historical Association (AHA) and other scholars and public interest groups in filing suit to stop implementation of President Bush's November 1st executive order 13,233 which limits public access to presidential records. For a copy of the complaint and related documents, see www.nsarchive.org and www.citizen.org .
Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group (lead attorney Scott Nelson), the plaintiffs include the Archive, the AHA, the Organization of American Historians, Vanderbilt University Professor Hugh Graham, the University of Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, Public Citizen and the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The legal brief filed today in U.S. District Court in Washington argues that the Bush executive order violates the Presidential Records Act and asks for a declaratory judgment preventing the Archivist of the United States from implementing the order. The suit also requests the court to compel release of 68,000 pages of records from former President Reagan's files that have been withheld at the direction of the Bush White House since January despite the direct requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
"The Presidential Records Act of 1978 was meant to shift power over White House documents from former presidents to professional government archivists and ultimately to the public," commented National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton. "But the Bush order attempts to overturn the law, take the power back, and let presidents past and present delay public access indefinitely."
Among other successful cases, the National Security Archive and Public Citizen Litigation Group brought the 1989 lawsuit that overcame the legal resistance of three administrations (Reagan, Bush I, Clinton) to save the White House e-mail for posterity. The Archive currently has Freedom of Information Act requests pending at the Reagan Presidential Library (Simi Valley, California) and the Bush Presidential Library (College Station, Texas) for records covered by the November 1st executive order.
The documents are available at the following URL:
http://www.nsarchive.org/news/20011128
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