------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Meaning of nuclear power linked to finance
Ireland Fails in Bid to Block British Nuclear Plant
Uranium issue shelved
Austria coalition partner rejects Temelin deal
Quality of N. Korea Reactors Insured
Missile Defense Test Postponed
Military to Missile Defense Test Again
Watchdog warns of inadequate nuclear security
Democrats want nuke plant guards to be federal workers

MILITARY
Swiss citizens reject anti-military referendum
Afghan Factions Work on a Draft Agreement
Afghans Say Civilians Are Imperiled by U.S.
Marines Fight Off Afghan Germs
Weapons Seized in Kosovo
Toxic gas measured in cleansed Hart suites
Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S.
Castro calls 'just ideas' best weapons
Greece joins coalition fighting terror
Calls for New Push Into Iraq Gain Power in Washington
Ankara debates possible U.S. operations in Iraq
Sharon declares 'war on terror'
Israel Retaliates With Gunships, Jets
Sharon says Arafat is to blame
Strikes an Apparent Response to Weekend's Wave of Bombings
State of Emergency in Gaza and the West Bank
NATO to consider Putin as a partner
C.I.A. Chief Urges Pakistani to Crack Down on Militants
Spy, Citing Fears, Fights Return to China
Aid pledges unmet
U.S. Making Weapons to Blast Underground Hide-Outs

POLICE / PRISONERS
Security concerns drive rise in secrecy
Canada's Terrorism Bill Raises Familiar Worries
Secret Service to Monitor Super Bowl
Assault on the Constitution
Legal Scholars Criticize Wording Of Bush Order
Police Tear-Gas Crowd After Football Victory

ENERGY AND OTHER
Britain looks to ease small-scale power generation
BMW, Magna to develop clean fuel technology
SENATE DEFEATS ENERGY RIDER WHICH WOULD OPEN ANWR
CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATORS MADE TO PAY
'The War Is Affecting Us All'
German Panel Recommends Imports of Stem Cells
Monkey Eggs Grow Into Embryos in Experiment
Religion Museum in Taiwan Promotes Tolerance

ACTIVISTS
Public comments due Dec. 14th on Final Yucca Mountain Siting Guidelines.
Peace Now calls for Vigil Tonight 7.30 in J'lem during cabinet meeting
Who EU Calling a Terrorist?
Brazil anti-globalization forum to mull war, terror





-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Meaning of nuclear power linked to finance
The true cost of nuclear energy, long fudged by the industry, is emerging, with British taxpayers facing a bill of £35 billion to clean it up

Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Monday, December 3, 2001
Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/1203/hom20.htm

It's really all about power. Although electricity generated by Britain's nuclear power stations is likely to be twice as expensive by 2020 as electricity generated by onshore wind farms, the nuclear industry still manages to wield enormous power where it counts: in Whitehall.

Even last week's announcement that British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) is to be broken up, with £35 billion sterling of its liabilities - including all nuclear fuel reprocessing operations at Sellafield - transferred to a new liabilities management authority, cannot be read as a serious setback.

Although welcomed by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as marking the beginning of the end for reprocessing, the real agenda is to eliminate BNFL's liabilities and prepare the company for partial privatisation by 2005, when a 49 per cent stake in the company is due to be sold off.

Whatever fears the public may have, the nuclear lobby in Britain is used to winning. Only once in its 50-year history has it been rebuffed, and that was in 1996 when the inestimable John Gummer rejected plans by UK Nirex to store radioactive waste in an underground dump near Sellafield.

This was also a victory for the Irish government. After years of turning a blind eye to the expansion of reprocessing facilities in Cumbria, just across the Irish Sea, it put together a formidable case against UK Nirex's plans, not least because the chosen site lay in a geologically unstable area.

Now the Government is trying to block Sellafield's controversial MOX reprocessing plant from going into production on December 20th, as authorised by the British Environment Secretary, Ms Margaret Beckett. One of the real fears, in the wake of September 11th, is that it could become a terrorist target.

As a recent editorial in the Guardian noted, "Sellafield is nearer to Belfast than it is to Glasgow or Sheffield, and the new mixed oxide fuel plant there would be very much closer to the centre of Dublin than it would be to the centre of London". Its neighbours in Ireland, therefore, had legitimate cause for concern.

However, in response to the Government's case before the Law of the Sea tribunal in Hamburg, the British side seemed more concerned about the financial implications of closing Sellafield than about safety considerations or what the Guardian called "the truly terrifying post-September 11th possibilities".

The fact is that Sellafield has never made any money. BNFL lost £210 million sterling last year, of which £66 million was accounted for by the necessary decommissioning of old nuclear installations from the Windscale era, used to produce radioactive plutonium for nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 1950s.

The MOX plant, built at a cost of £472 million sterling, will mix spent uranium with plutonium to produce new fuel pellets for nuclear power stations. It is tacked on to the end of BNFL's £1.6 billion Thorp (thermal oxide reprocessing) plant, which was sanctioned in 1978 with no objection from the government here.

The economic justification for bringing the MOX plant into production five years after it was finished is quite spurious. Characterised by its opponents as "voodoo economics", the alleged "benefit" only adds up if the capital cost of the plant is written off and BNFL's £150 million order book is treated as "future profits".

British Energy plc, which runs most of the country's nuclear power plants, is trying to extricate itself from contracts with BNFL to reprocess spent fuel from its reactors. According to BE, this costs six times more than simply storing the spent fuel underground. At £300 million a year, it says, reprocessing is "uneconomic".

If BE succeeds in abrogating its contracts, BNFL will have to fall back on foreign clients, notably in Germany and Japan, to make the MOX plant viable.

But no firm orders have come in from the Japanese, who are still smarting over the revelation two years ago that specifications for the new fuel had been falsified.

What happened, according to the Observer

--------

Ireland Fails in Bid to Block British Nuclear Plant

December 3, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-03-02.html

HAMBURG, Germany, Ireland's latest attempt to prevent operation of British Nuclear Fuels Limited's controversial mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Sellafield has failed.

In a ruling released today, a panel of judges from the United Nations' International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos) denied Ireland's request for an injunction to prevent start up of the plant and any related marine shipments.

Located on the Irish Sea, the MOX plant is a key component of British Nuclear Fuels Limited's (BNFL) spent nuclear fuel reprocessing business and is due to begin operations this month. UK government approval for start up was granted in October, five years after construction.

Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast of the Irish Sea. There are 3,500 radiation sources on the site kept in 171 special buildings. (Photo courtesy BNFL)

Designed to turn uranium and plutonium from spent fuel into new reactor rods, the MOX plant was completed in 1996 but never started. Operator BNFL has been fighting an increasingly bitter battle to win operating approval since its commercial reputation was savaged in 1999 by a data falsification scandal related to the size of MOX pellets it produced.

Ireland claims the plant will lead to an unacceptable increase in radioactive discharges into the Irish Sea as well as posing security risks. It also argues, as do British green groups, that the UK government has bent European Union law to approve the plant.

Despite ruling against Ireland's request for an injunction, the tribunal agreed that the dispute is valid under UN rules, something the UK government had questioned. They ordered the two countries to negotiate over the next fortnight before reporting back.

The Tribunal ruled that "prudence and caution require that Ireland and the United Kingdom cooperate in exchanging information concerning risks or effects of the operation of the MOX plant and in devising ways to deal with them, as appropriate."

The Tribunal considered that "the duty to cooperate is a fundamental principle in the prevention of pollution of the marine environment," under the Law of the Sea Convention and under international common law.

The Tribunal noted and placed on record the assurances given by the United Kingdom that there will be no additional marine transports of radioactive material either to or from Sellafield as a result of the commissioning of the MOX plant until summer 2002.

Irish Energy Minister Joe Jacob said the ruling would not alter his government's position and that all legal avenues are under consideration, including the possibility of mounting a case before the European Court of Justice. Jacob reconfirmed his intention to proceed with a complaint lodged in June with the Ospar maritime environment protection convention.

Jacob alleged that the UK government had illegally withheld information during deliberations over whether to approve a MOX fuel plant at Sellafield. Similar claims have been made by British environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, who have launched their own legal challenge.

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth last week appealed against a London High Court decision in November rejecting their arguments that government approval for the MOX plant was illegal. A decision on the appeal is expected within the next two weeks.

Duncan Currie, legal counsel for Greenpeace International, said, "The judges have recognized that the UK should not do anything that would aggravate the dispute between Ireland and the UK. The obvious point here is that turning on the MOX plant will certainly aggravate the dispute. The UK should therefore abandon its plans for MOX production to start at the end of the month."

"It also seems impossible to design appropriate measures to prevent pollution of the marine environment which might arise from the operation of the MOX plant once it is commissioned," said Currie.

BNFL declared itself "pleased" that the International Tribunal for the Law Of the Sea (ITLOS) rejected the request of the Irish Government for provisional measures to prevent the operation of the Sellafield Mox Plant (SMP).

"The judgement allows the commissioning of SMP to continue and that is good news for BNFL. It is good news, too, for our workforce and for the community of West Cumbria," BNFL said in a statement. "This means it is business as usual for SMP in the build-up to manufacturing fuel for our customers."

The provisional measures agreed to by the Tribunal will remain in force until the conclusion of international arbitration to be held under the auspices of the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. Hearings are expected to begin in early 2002.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}


-------- depleted uranium

Uranium issue shelved

December 3, 2001
UN Report, By Betsy Pisik,
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011203-83198288.htm

The General Assembly last week refused to authorize a study on the health impacts of the depleted uranium bullets used by the United States during the Persian Gulf war, even though the Iraq-sponsored resolution had been approved by committee weeks before.

The Iraqis have long said that childhood leukemia and other cancers have risen in the southern part of the country, where U.S. forces used the heavy ordnance.

The U.S. mission lobbied fiercely against the resolution, said Ambassador John Negroponte, which was defeated 45-54, with 45 abstentions.

Talking points used by the U.S. diplomats last week stressed that depleted uranium is not carcinogenic, citing studies of industry workers and a NATO committee convened to study the risk. However, it said there are "few studies" of the impact of depleted uranium on humans.

-------- europe

Austria coalition partner rejects Temelin deal

Richard Murphy
Reuters:
3/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13534

VIENNA - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition partners, the far-right Freedom Party, last week rejected an agreement he negotiated with the Czech Republic on the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant.

Schuessel last week accepted Czech assurances about the safety of Temelin, which is 60 km (37 miles) from the Austrian border, in a deal that EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said would "end a blockade of the accession process".

But Austrian Vice-Chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer dashed hopes that the accord between Schuessel and Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman would end a long-running row which threatened the European Union's eastern enlargement plans.

"The agreement is in our view not complete," the Freedom Party leader told a news conference. "It is a step in the right direction but a step which in our view is not enough."

The Temelin issue could seriously destabilise the Austrian coalition or lead to an Austrian veto of Czech membership of the EU. If Austria also presses ahead with a referendum over Temelin, the result may also dictate blocking Czech membership.

The populist Freedom Party, which has the same number of parliamentary seats and cabinet posts as Schuessel's People's Party, has threatened to force a veto of Czech EU membership unless its Temelin demands are met.

Riess-Passer did not explicitly threaten a veto last week and welcomed what she called signs that the Czechs were being more flexible and accommodating.

But she added: "I cannot imagine that operating Temelin is more important to the Czechs than joining the EU."

Asked if her party would continue to oppose Czech EU membership unless Temelin was closed, she replied: "I remain in favour of Czech membership if the Czech government is prepared to recognise that being a member of a community means taking into account the interests of neighbours."

IAEA SAYS TEMELIN SAFE

The Freedom Party would press ahead with plans to force a referendum on the Temelin issue next year, Riess-Passer said.

Austria, which opposes all use of nuclear energy, has long argued that the $2.6 billion Temelin plant, with two Soviet-designed reactors, is unsafe and should be shut.

The deal signed by Schuessel, which he hailed as "an example of good neighbourliness" in Europe, had been preliminary and required the unanimous approval of the coalition, she said.

"Decisions in the government can only be made jointly," the vice-chancellor said.

She dismissed suggestions that by rejecting the agreement, the Freedom Party was putting the future of the centre-right coalition at risk.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world's nuclear watchdog, said earlier this week a team of experts had found Temelin safe to operate.

Temelin is a key asset of Czech energy firm CEZ , which the government aims to sell early next year.

The power station has two Soviet-designed VVER-1,000 reactors and a U.S. control system. The first reactor has been tested since last year, and the second one is being built.

-------- korea

Quality of N. Korea Reactors Insured

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NKorea-Nuclear.html?searchpv=aponline

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A U.S.-led international consortium signed an agreement with North Korea on Monday guaranteeing the quality of two nuclear reactors it is building in the reclusive communist country, South Korean officials said.

The construction of the reactors could be critical to the success of U.S.-led efforts to ensure the North uses its nuclear facilities to produce energy rather than weapons.

The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization is building the reactors in return for the North's agreement in 1994 to freeze its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The United States suspects North Korea amassed enough plutonium to make one or two atomic bombs before the 1994 freeze. North Korea has refused to allow a U.N. nuclear watchdog to investigate the suspicions until the new reactors are completed.

But the completion of the reactors is expected to fall several years behind its 2003 target date because of funding problems and tension on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has even threatened to scrap the 1994 nuclear deal unless the consortium compensates losses caused by construction delays. The U.S.-led consortium, which includes Japan, South Korea and the European Union, has refused.

Monday's agreement was signed in Pyongyang, the North's capital, between Charles Kartment, executive director of the consortium, and Kim Hee Mun, a North Korean government director, said the officials.

Kartman, a former U.S. special envoy in dealing with North Korea, arrived in North Korea Saturday for his first visit to the country this year.

The agreement stipulates the rights and responsibilities of North Korea and KEDO in taking part in quality inspections of the reactors under construction, said Kim Ui-do, a South Korean official of KEDO based in Seoul.

It also guarantees the output of the 2,000-megawatt reactors and the supply of nuclear fuel to be used to start the reactors and other core parts, he said.

When completed, the U.S.-designed light-water reactors would replace the North's Soviet-designed, graphite-moderated reactors, which experts say produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. agency based in Vienna, wants to immediately start inspection of the North's nuclear history before the 1994 freeze, a process that could take three to four years.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and the pro-Western South in 1945. The 1950-53 Korean War ended without a peace treaty.

-------- missile defense

Missile Defense Test Postponed

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bad weather on the California coast frustrated Pentagon efforts to carry out the fifth test of a missile defense system over the weekend.

The test, scrubbed both Saturday and Sunday primarily because of high winds at the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site, was rescheduled for Monday night.

The Pentagon is counting on one more successful test of its missile defense system before adding new technical challenges to the testing program. It was not clear what would happen if the launch could not take place Monday night.

The plan calls for a modified intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a mock warhead to head over the central Pacific Ocean. Twenty minutes later, an interceptor rocket would roar into the night sky from Kwajalein Atoll, hone in on the mock warhead with the help of a radar in Hawaii, and ram into the warhead 144 miles into space.

The device that actually hits the warhead is known as a ``kill vehicle,'' a 120-pound, 55-inch long device that separates from the rocket booster and seeks out the target using its on-board infrared sensor.

Of the first four attempts to intercept a mock warhead in space, two succeeded and two failed.

After the most recent test, in July, scored a direct hit, the Pentagon decided the fifth would repeat the same scenario rather than add complexities or remove any of the test's artificial elements.

Some say the program is too simplistic to reveal much about how well the system would work in an actual missile attack on the United States.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, head of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, told reporters last week that a successful intercept would allow him to increase the realism of the sixth test, now scheduled for February.

One new element for the next test would be additional ``countermeasures'' -- such as balloon decoys meant to confuse the interceptor.

A single, large balloon decoy was to be used in Sunday's test.

The Bush administration has set no target date for fielding a missile defense system that could be used in actual combat. President Bush considers this project an urgent priority and is committing billions of dollars to it.

Each intercept test costs about $100 million.

----

Military to Missile Defense Test Again

By Matt Kelley
Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 3, 2001; 4:15 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50765-2001Dec3?language=printer

WASHINGTON -- Bad weather has twice blocked a scheduled test for the U.S. missile defense program, delaying progress toward more complex and realistic trials of anti-missile systems.

Military officials were set to try again Monday night to knock a dummy warhead out of space over the South Pacific with an interceptor missile.

Critics say the tests are too costly and unrealistic, arguing that long-range missiles are a minor threat. Missile defense backers, including President Bush, say a defense system is needed to counter the threat of hostile nations developing and aiming long-rage missiles at the United States.

Plans for the test called for a modified Minuteman II missile to be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Instead of explosives, its warhead carries sensors to track its progress during the test.

After about 20 minutes, an interceptor missile was to be fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. That missile carries a "kill vehicle" that homes in on the dummy warhead to collide at 15,000 mph and destroy it.

The test is the fifth in the missile defense program. The interceptor knocked down a dummy warhead in two of the four previous tests, including a nearly identical one in July. Each test costs about $100 million.

Russia has objected to the U.S. missile defense program, saying it will eventually violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. That pact bans missile defense systems so that a nation could not develop a shield behind which it could safely launch a missile attack.

Bush and Russian President Valdimir Putin failed to agree on a plan to change or scrap the treaty during their November summit.

-------- terrorism

Watchdog warns of inadequate nuclear security

Louis Charbonneau,
Reuters:
3/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13535

VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) said last week recent cases of illicit nuclear material trafficking showed the urgent need for better protection and control of radioactive material.

In a report to an IAEA board of governors session attended by U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, the United Nations' atomic watchdog said that with nuclear material subject to national protection meausures, application of regulations remained uneven.

In recent years there have been 175 cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, the report said.

"While only a few of these cases involved significant amounts of nuclear material, they demonstrate that security is still inadequate at certain locations and that there is an urgent need for improved protection and control," it said.

Without mentioning any names, the IAEA report said there was lax security in some states, warning that an undetermined number of radioactive sources had become "orphaned" from regulatory control and their present location was unknown.

The robustness of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities when faced with sabotage or acts of extreme violence varied from country to country and facility to facility.

"Agency assessments of facility design and operational measures can contribute to preventing and/or mitigating the impact of malicious acts," the IAEA said, adding that it was revising standards on the construction of nuclear facilities.

The IAEA also plans to upgrade its international emergency response in the event of future radiological disasters. The agency has also offered to review national nuclear emergency response programmes to assess their effectiveness.

IDENTIFYING VULNERABLE LOCATIONS

"We need to urgently identify the most vulnerable locations and see they get the necessary security upgrades," said IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.

"In the long term, we need to ensure all countries have a stringent nuclear security framework in place - with high standards to abide by, state-of-the-art equipment, and people trained in security."

The IAEA said past efforts had focused largely on diversion of nuclear material by states for non-peaceful purposes, with much less attention given to the activities of sub-national groups, such as Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

ElBaradei said the increased security would not come free-of-charge and called on countries to come up with the funds necessary to help the agency be an effective atomic watchdog.

"We have the solutions," said ElBaradei. "Now governments have to come up with the resources."

The IAEA report estimates that the proposed programme upgrades will cost $30-50 million, which would mean an initial 10-15 percent increase in the IAEA's total available resources.

ElBaradei said the agency's budget was underfunded by $40 million due to years of "zero real growth" of the IAEA budget. But funds needed to fight the nuclear terrorist threat would not stop at the $70-90 million the IAEA needed for its own budget.

The necessary global upgrades to meet the full range of possible threats would be in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars and would have to be carried out by individual states and through bilateral and multilateral assistance.

If states come up with the necessary funds, ElBaradei said the enhanced and additional activities proposed in his report should lead to a powerful national and international security framework for nuclear facilities and material.

"If we can establish international standards, effective security systems and oversight in all states, and better monitoring of borders, then we can provide a guarantee that the world will be a much safer place," said ElBaradei.

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

Democrats want nuke plant guards to be federal workers

Chris Baltimore
Reuters:
3/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13536

WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers in both houses of the U.S. Congress unveiled legislation last week to bolster nuclear power plant security by requiring guards at the nation's 103 plants to become federal employees with more extensive screening and training.

If enacted, the House and Senate bills would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to enact tough new security measures such as extensive background checks for guards and the preparation of plans to handle military-style attacks.

Senate sponsors of the bill did not say how much it would cost to convert guards at the 103 commercial plants into federal employees. Congress recently voted to adopt a similar approach with security inspectors at commercial U.S. airports.

The NRC has previously said it is unsure whether U.S. nuclear power plants could withstand the crash of a large airliner, such as the ones hijacked for the Sept. 11 attacks. Nuclear power reactors are typically enclosed in concrete walls of up to 4.5 feet (1.35 meters) thick.

Senate Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Hillary Clinton of New York are sponsoring the Senate version of the bill, as part of the anti-terrorism effort following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

In the House, the bill is championed by Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, a long-time critic of current nuclear plant safety.

"Congress must act to protect the American people from a potential nuclear disaster that could be more devastating than Chernobyl," he said, noting that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has reportedly targeted nuclear plants for attack.

Markey's bill also would require states to stockpile potassium iodide within 200 miles of nuclear facilities. The drug is "the Cipro for nuclear disaster and can prevent thousands of cases of thyroid cancer due to radioactive exposure," he said.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's main lobbying arm, said that plants already have enough safeguards.

The nuclear industry group called the legislation a "political response to a problem that does not exist" and noted that plants are already guarded by "paramilitary" employees who are armed and well-trained.

Nuclear power watchdog groups have urged stricter security such as soldiers and missiles stationed at each nuclear power plant.


-------- MILITARY

Swiss citizens reject anti-military referendum

World Scene
December 3, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011203-26247203.htm

GENEVA - Swiss citizens yesterday rejected a proposal to scrap the country's armed forces, cherished by many as vital protection for the small, neutral Alpine country in the heart of Europe.

The proposal was put forward by a coalition called Switzerland Without an Army under a law that allows anyone to force a referendum by collecting 100,000 signatures from voters. Of those participating, 384,991 persons, or 21.9 percent, voted in favor of the initiative.

The plan would have added the phrase "Switzerland has no army" to the federal constitution, going on to say that the country's national security policy is built around reducing the injustices that lead to conflicts, both within the country and abroad.

Military plane crashes in Russian far east

MOSCOW - A military cargo plane with 18 persons on board caught fire and crashed yesterday in the far east of Russia while attempting an emergency landing, officials said.

A rescue helicopter was sent to the site of the Il-76 airplane crash, but found no survivors before having to give up the search when night fell, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The pilot reported a fire on board at an altitude of 29,000 feet. He said he was preparing for an emergency landing when radio contact with the aircraft broke and the plane disappeared from radar screens, the report said.

The plane fell apart when it attempted to make an emergency landing near Novaya Inya, a village about 65 miles east of Okhotsk in the far east, the Interfax news agency said.

Turkey eases objection to EU defense force

ISTANBUL - Turkey said yesterday talks with British and U.S. officials last week had paved the way toward ending a standoff concerning EU plans for a rapid-reaction force.

The European Union is set to declare the first elements of the force at a summit of leaders in Brussels later this month.

EU candidate Turkey holds a veto on the force's automatic use of NATO assets, and has demanded a guaranteed right to join EU-only operations when they do not involve NATO as a whole.

Diplomats said British Foreign Office officials assured Ankara in the three-way talks that the 60,000-strong NATO force, due to be operational by mid-2003, would not be used in any crisis involving Cyprus or the Aegean Sea.

-------- afghanistan

NEGOTIATIONS
Afghan Factions Work on a Draft Agreement

December 3, 2001
By STEVEN ERLANGER
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/asia/03TALK.html

BONN, Dec. 2 - Delegates from the four Afghan factions negotiated here today over a draft of an agreement for a post-Taliban government drawn up by the United Nations. It calls for a 28-member executive administration, an international security force for the capital, and a symbolic role for the former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah.

If the parties can agree on the draft, delegates and diplomats say, the four factions will then propose 15 names each, complete with biographies and suggested portfolios, to the United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is chairman of this conference.

Mr. Brahimi will then produce a proposed executive of 28 names, with ministries, for the delegates to negotiate further, diplomats say. The process is likely to take another day or two, even if nothing goes badly wrong, they say.

A senior American diplomat is now expressing confidence that the conference is more likely to succeed than to fail, producing an interim, broadly based government for Afghanistan that would serve for up to six months.

The draft agreement also calls for a 21-member commission to prepare an emergency loya jirga - a constituent assembly of provincial elders - to meet this spring. The loya jirga would then make adjustments to the interim executive, ratifying a transitional government that would serve for up to two years, while a new constitution is written and a new court system is established.

The factions may yet have serious disagreements over the United Nations draft, particularly regarding the role of the former king, who is 87. The draft gives the king a symbolic role, in opening the loya jirga and presiding over its first session.

But the Rome-based faction loyal to the king may want more of a role for him at the outset of the temporary executive, or it may be willing to trade for a candidate it supports as the prime minister, for instance, the Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, now fighting around Kandahar. He is considered a royalist but perhaps acceptable to the Northern Alliance, which now holds Kabul.

Important Alliance figures like the interior minister, Yunus Qanooni, leading their delegation here, and the foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, are likely to keep their jobs in a new executive, but there may be no role for the titular head of the Alliance, Burhanuddin Rabbani, diplomats and delegates said.

"All the factions seem to be eager to move on to picking names," a Western diplomat said, but most consider that to be the most difficult part of this negotiation. No faction has yet presented its list of names, although the Northern Alliance now seems prepared to do so, the diplomats say.

Originally, the Northern Alliance, a loose collection of minority Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and other groupings, was under firm instructions not to offer its list of candidates here, said the American diplomat, but to have a two-part process, finishing in Kabul.

Under the pressure of the negotiations, that position has now changed, he said, while the other factions agreed to a Northern Alliance proposal simply to name a smaller executive here, scrapping the idea of a larger interim parliament that would bring more politicians to Kabul.

"If the parties get the names in today, I'll be pleased," said James Dobbins, the American special envoy to Afghanistan. "If they don't get them in tomorrow, I'll start to get concerned." He noted that the Alliance was the only faction that needed to check back with its various leaderships in Kabul to coordinate its position.

"We're aiming for a clean text by tomorrow morning," said the United Nations spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi. "But the missing link is the list of names. We're still waiting for the list of names."

The United Nations draft, a seven- page text, also "refers to the need to deploy a multinational force as soon as possible, while stressing that the provision of security rests with the Afghan people themselves," Mr. Fawzi said.

Some of the exile factions say their members will return to Kabul, even to serve in a government, only after some kind of mulitnational force is in position there, to dilute the hold of Northern Alliance troops on the capital.

Diplomats say a force could begin to be sent quickly, once this conference ends and after an authorizing vote by the Security Council. The size and mandate of such a force, which Britain is expected to organize, will not be decided here. "The people sending the forces will determine numbers, depending on circumstances and discussions with those in power in Kabul," a diplomat said.

A senior British diplomat said that "we want the force to bring peace, to be efficient, to be discreet and to be going to leave," so the Afghans do not consider them foreign occupiers. "The point is to make Kabul a neutral city, pending the establishment of an all-Afghan force," the diplomat said.

Asked about the Pentagon's unwillingness to take part in any peacekeeping force or to favor placing peacekeepers anywhere where they could get in the way of the war against Al Qaeda, the British diplomat said, "We think that war-fighting and peacekeeping are part of the same thing, and they don't."

One possible deadline for this conference emerged today. The former German government guest house, the Petersberg, where the delegates are working and staying, is now a private hotel.

While the German government is paying for the full cost of the rooms in the entire hotel for the duration of this conference, a convention of dentists has booked the Petersberg beginning next Friday. "It has to end by then," a diplomat said.

--------

THE DEATH TOLL
Afghans Say Civilians Are Imperiled by U.S.

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By TIM WEINER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/asia/03BOMB.html

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 2 - According to Afghan commanders here in the far eastern part of the country, civilians are being killed in the American hunt for Osama bin Laden.

The commanders, who are pro- American, said that bad intelligence has caused mistakes in American bombing, and some say they sense an American indifference.

Afghan commanders say that four nearby villages were struck this weekend, leaving 80 or more people dead and others wounded. The latest raid, this afternoon, killed eight, they said. The villages are near Tora Bora, the mountain camp where Mr. bin Laden is presumed to be hiding.

A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday that the bombing of civilians near Tora Bora "never happened."

Today, a spokesman for the United States Central Command, which is overseeing the war in Afghanistan, offered a more equivocal statement. "We're aware of those reports and we're looking into it," said the spokesman, Maj. Brad Lowell.

Some of the commanders here dismiss the Pentagon statements. One of them, Hajji Muhammad Zaman, said, "These are innocent people. Hundreds have been killed and injured." He said of the Pentagon: "They have one reply - `Sorry.' It is like a crime against humanity."

Hajji Zaman is the military commander in Jalalabad for the Eastern Shura, which took power from the Taliban here last month.

In the last two days, American bombs and missiles have struck four Afghan villages within 10 miles of Tora Bora, local officials and residents say. Today, people said, a district office building was destroyed in Landa Khel, about 25 miles southwest of Jalalabad.

Eight men guarding the building for the Eastern Shura were killed, Hajji Zaman said. He added that others who came to help were injured in a second strike.

He gave the names of the dead as Zia ul-Hassan, 16; Wilayat Khan, 17; Abdul Wadi, 20; Jany, 22; Abdul Wahid, 30; Hajji Wazir, 35; Hajji Nasser, also 35; and Awlia Gul, 37.

Pentagon officials say that these bombings were not made in error and that the targets were Al Qaeda fighters in military complexes.

The villagers say that no Qaeda members were among them, although Eastern Shura commanders said last week that they had received reports that some Taliban foreign fighters had asked for food, water and shelter from at least one village near Tora Bora in recent weeks.

Hajji Zaman and other Eastern Shura officials said they believed that the strikes were a result of faulty intelligence gathered by American Special Operations forces.

A small number of Special Operations soldiers are performing reconnaissance and intelligence missions in the area surrounding Tora Bora, American officials said.

Surviving villagers say more than 200 of their neighbors and relatives were killed in the three earlier attacks, on Friday night and Saturday morning. The claim has not been confirmed by outsiders.

Ali Shah, 26, of Landa Khel, said, "There is no one in this village who is part of Al Qaeda."

Awajan, 50, a survivor of the Landa Khel attack, said today: "We've given our support to the new regime because we were fed up with the fighting. But they are not able to protect us from this cruelty. We are angry but we are helpless."

Officials declined this morning to take foreign reporters to Kama Ado, Balut and Akal Khan, the hamlets near Tora Bora that were struck. They said the threat of American bombing and the anger of the survivors made a trip inadvisable.

----

Marines Fight Off Afghan Germs

By DOUG MELLGREN,
Associated Press Writer,
Monday December 3 2:58 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011203/wl/afghan_marines_health_1.html

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN (AP) - For U.S. Marines based in the Afghan desert, one of the secrets of waging war in this harsh climate is a lesson most learned from their mothers.

Wash your hands.

The failure of the Soviets to follow that most basic rule of hygiene helps explain why they lost their war in Afghanistan (news - web sites), according to a U.S. military report.

The report says that of 620,000 Soviets who served in Afghanistan, an astounding 75.76 percent were hospitalized, most of them - 88.56 percent - not from war wounds, but from diseases often prevented by basic hygiene.

``No one ever washed their hands,'' U.S. Navy (news - web sites) flight surgeon Cmdr. Steven, of Portland, Ore., said Monday. Military rules prohibit publication of the last names of most troops based at this desert airfield.

Staying clean is a struggle, with no running water, and sand everywhere - a dust storm blew across the base Monday. Until Saturday, there were not even latrines.

And yet eight days after Marines arrived in Afghanistan, ``we have had zero hygiene-related illnesses,'' the surgeon said.

All over the camp and even out on the forward lines, troops routinely strip to the waist in the warm sun and clean themselves as best they can, with bottled water, soap and a towel.

``We all emphasize to the Marines: Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,'' said Capt. Patricia, 26, a Marine Corps engineer originally from Sayre, Pa., Part of her job is to design and build sanitation facilities, including latrines.

``Whenever we set them up, I work closely with medical,'' said Patricia, one of the few women on the base taken over by the Marines just over a week ago.

At the medical center for the forward operating base - a few desert-brown tents and part of a building - doctors talked about the report on Soviet hygiene the health teams had studied before coming to Afghanistan.

The report, published in 1995, is called ``Medical Support in a Counter Guerrilla War: Lessons learned in the Soviet Afghan War.'' The war ended in 1991 with a humiliating retreat after a 10-year campaign.

The report said Soviet troops suffered from poor personal hygiene, including cooks who helped spread disease by failing to wash their hands. There were no proper latrines, soldiers failed to wash themselves or change their clothes, and had poor food and little clean water.

That resulted in the spread of hepatitis, cholera, typhoid and other illnesses that could have been prevented.

The report says the Russian army has studied how the U.S. military kept its troops so healthy during the Gulf War (news - web sites) in 1991.

The base medical center is equipped to treat wounds and perform the emergency surgery needed to keep soldiers alive until they can be flown for more thorough treatment aboard U.S. Navy ships 400 miles away in the northern Arabian Sea.

But doctors here hope for nothing to do: no illnesses, no wounds.

``Somebody said, before we left, 'May you have boredom,''' said another doctor, Lt. Cmdr. Tracy, 33 of Camden, N.J.

-------- balkans

Weapons Seized in Kosovo

WORLD In Brief
Reuters
Monday, December 3, 2001; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47236-2001Dec2?language=printer

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, said it had detained six people during a major weapons search by 3,000 troops across the U.N.-governed Yugoslav province.

The operation, dubbed "Iron Fist," was launched early Saturday to "prevent extremists and criminals from feeling comfortable in any area in Kosovo and to demonstrate KFOR's ability to mobilize large numbers of troops very quickly," the peacekeeping force said in a statement. It was the largest weapons search ever in Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian province, KFOR said.

The peacekeeping force said the sweep also netted five automatic rifles, 13 antitank mines, three antipersonnel mines, four shotguns and 18 hand grenades.

-------- biological weapons

Toxic gas measured in cleansed Hart suites

December 3, 2001
By Arlo Wagner
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20011203-90439816.htm

Cleanup crews yesterday ventured inside the Hart Senate Office Building - where an anthrax-laced letter was opened in the office of Sen. Tom Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, in October - to measure levels of chlorine dioxide after the toxic gas was pumped in to eradicate any last trace of anthrax contamination.

Authorities believe the toxic gas is crucial in destroying all traces of anthrax spores in the building, which has been closed since Oct. 14. Lab results are not expected for about a week.

All was quiet around the Hart and Dirksen Senate office buildings. Few pedestrians passed by.

"This is the way we like it," said a member of the National Capitol Police stationed near the two office buildings. Officers have been patrolling the area since the anthrax scare more than a month ago.

The officers on guard said they knew nothing about the use of chemicals to nullify anthrax and clear the air. U.S. flags hung in many windows, and lights were on in several offices that police said were unoccupied.

Environmental Protection Agency coordinator Richard Rupert said the first team of workers took photographs and videotapes yesterday. They checked readings and disconnected some equipment as the Hart building was fumigated and cleared of gas.

After the fumigation, sodium bisulfite was pumped into Mr. Daschle's office suite to break down the chlorine dioxide. That site was chosen because it was where the anthrax spores were found in the greatest numbers.

Mr. Rupert said early readings put the level of chlorine dioxide at 800 parts per million, but it quickly dropped to less than 20 parts per million this morning.

The operation is intended to make it safe to reopen the building of 50 offices.

Mr. Rupert says it "went real well, and everyone's in good spirits."

Meanwhile, analysts say spending on anti-terrorism measures is revitalizing the economy of the D.C.-area, including Northern Virginia.

George Mason University economist Stephen Fuller declared, "There is no recession in Washington. The revitalization comes from a rising wave of federal spending that is raising salaries, pouring cash into government installations and delivering a wartime surge of activity."

About $2 billion of a $20 billion anti-terror bill passed last week by the House is designated for the capital area.

Most will be used to rebuild the Pentagon and heighten emergency preparedness across the region.

• This story is based on wire service reports.

----

THE SPORES
Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S.

December 3, 2001
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/national/03POWD.html

The dry powder used in the anthrax attacks is virtually indistinguishable in critical technical respects from that produced by the United States military before it shut down its biowarfare program, according to federal scientists and a report prepared for a military contractor.

The preliminary analysis of the powder shows that it has the same extraordinarily high concentration of deadly spores as the anthrax produced in the American weapons program. While it is still possible that the anthrax could have a foreign source, the concentration is higher than any stock publicly known to be produced by other governments.

The similarity to the levels achieved by the United States military lends support to the idea that someone with ties to the old program may be behind the attacks that have killed five people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently expanded its investigation of anthrax suspects to include government and contractor laboratories as a possible source of the deadly powder itself, or of knowledge of how to make it.

Its high concentration is surprising, weapon experts said, and far beyond what military analysts once judged as the likely abilities of terrorists. Still, experts caution that the emerging evidence is tentative and that it is too early to rule out other possible suspects, be they domestic lone wolves or hostile foreign states like Iraq.

A yardstick for measuring the quality of anthrax emerged almost three years ago when William C. Patrick III, a longtime federal consultant and one of the nation's top experts on biological weapons, wrote a report assessing the possible risks if terrorists were to send anthrax through the mail. Based on the difficulty of developing advanced anthrax, he predicted that the terrorist germs would be one-twentieth as concentrated as what the government developed and what has recently turned letters into munitions.

"The quality of the spores is very good," said a federal science adviser who shared the Patrick report with The New York Times . "This is very high-quality stuff" - equal, he said, in concentration to that produced by the United States military before it abandoned germ weapons.

The high quality, the adviser said, lends credence to the idea that someone with links to military laboratories or their contractors might be behind the attacks. "It's frightening to think that one of our own scientists could have done something like this," he said. "But it's definitely possible."

He said the anthrax sent to the Senate contained as many as one trillion spores per gram, a figure confirmed by an administration official.

A gram is just one-twenty-eighth of an ounce. Yet in comprising up to one trillion spores, a gram of anthrax powder has vast potential to kill. If a lethal dose is estimated conservatively at 10,000 microscopic spores, then a gram in theory could cause about 100 million deaths.

The letter sent to Tom Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader, is said to have held two grams of anthrax - enough, in other words, to make about 200 million lethal doses, assuming it could be distributed to victims with perfect efficiency.

Analysis of the Daschle powder has been hampered by the small amount recovered after an aide opened the letter, and by technical missteps as the investigation got under way, making some conclusions iffy. That is why investigators are taking great care in opening the anthrax-contaminated letter sent to Patrick J. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The aim is to scrutinize the evidence as closely as possible.

Spore concentration is just one factor experts will examine in the Leahy letter, and their findings could significantly alter their picture of the powder. Other factors that reflect the quality of anthrax production include whether the powder has been ground to a size that easily lodges in the lungs and whether it has been treated to make it static free and free-floating. Investigators will look for antistatic additives that might be a possible hallmark of a particular government's weapons program.

Mr. Patrick, in his risk assessment, sketched out both what the American military achieved and what a terrorist might do. His 28- page report, dated February 1999, was written for a federal contractor advising the government on how to handle the growing number of anthrax hoaxes and what to expect if real anthrax were to be sent through the mail.

"When these hoaxes first came up, we assumed none of the bad guys" could achieve high-grade anthrax, said a contractor official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It is unknown publicly exactly how makers of anthrax weapons achieve high spore concentrations, but the black art is said to involve precise drying, sifting, milling and removal of impurities.

In his assessment, Mr. Patrick drew on personal knowledge acquired while working in the nation's offensive biological weapons program from 1951 to 1969, when it was dismantled, at which time he was chief of the division of product development. He won five patents with his colleagues for ways to make biological weapons.

His 1999 report focused on what kinds of contamination terrorist anthrax would cause when a letter was opened and what the requirements for decontamination were.

Mr. Patrick postulated that the concentration of anthrax would be 50 billion spores per gram. "This assumes a dried powder of moderate ability to generate into an aerosol when the envelope is opened," he wrote.

He predicted that an envelope would hold 2.5 grams of anthrax - an amount strikingly close to what is thought to have been mailed to Senator Daschle.

In his report, Mr. Patrick said the American program had achieved a concentration of one trillion spores per gram - what scientists today say is near the theoretical limit of how many of the microscopic spheres can be packed into a tiny space. Today, no terrorist or scientific maverick is known to have published anything that comes close to describing how to make concentrated anthrax powders. Timothy W. Tobiason, a habitué of gun shows who sells a self-published cookbook on how to make germ weapons, including "mail delivered" anthrax, sketches out only the most rudimentary steps.

Experts judge Mr. Tobiason's recipes as flawed in spots and at best capable of producing only low-quality anthrax. His book deals mostly with the production of wet anthrax, though it does suggest a way to grind clusters of dried anthrax into microscopic pieces, which can settle into the lungs.

It is unclear if any foreign nation has achieved high anthrax concentrations. The United States suspects that more than a dozen countries are clandestinely studying biological weapons, with anthrax among the top agents.

Ken Alibek, a former top official in the Soviet germ weapons program who is now president of Advanced Biosystems, a consulting company in Manassas, Va., said that it was routinely possible to create dry anthrax that contained 100 billion spores per gram and that, with some effort, 500 billion was possible.

"The infectious dose," Dr. Alibek said, "can be quite large."

Still, the 500 billion figure is half the concentration that the American government and whoever sent the letters are said to have achieved.

"I don't think they're manufacturing this in caves," Dr. Alibek said of the terror anthrax. "It's coming from another source."

-------- cuba

Castro calls 'just ideas' best weapons

December 3, 2001
AP
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011203-59180000.htm

SANTIAGO, Cuba - Fidel Castro saluted his troops as MiG fighter jets zoomed overhead, just like in the old days. But Cuba's military celebrated its anniversary yesterday with a parade that reflected the diminished firepower of a country that was once on the Cold War's front lines.

Unlike its martial parades of the 1970s and 1980s, when communist Cuba was flush with Soviet weapons it pointedly displayed 90 miles from Florida, the Revolutionary Armed Forces marched on its 45th anniversary without tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, mortars or other big guns.

Instead, there were three combat jets and three helicopter gunships that buzzed by as the parade wrapped up with a crescendo from an army brass band. Fewer than half the 6,040 marchers carried rifles.

The scaled-down ceremony pointed to the shrunken military mission of a country that once supported rebel movements abroad but has been forced to turn inward and nurse its own struggling economy - though its leader has lost none of his revolutionary rhetoric.

"There exists no weapon more potent than profound convictions and clear ideas of what should be done," Mr. Castro, the commander in chief, said in a speech in this southeastern city before the parade.

"For this type of weapon, you don't need fabulous sums of money, only the capacity to create and transmit just ideas and values," he said. "That will make our people more armed than ever."

Sitting next to the 75-year-old leader was his brother, Gen. Raul Castro, 70, Cuba's defense minister and the president's chosen successor. The brothers rarely appear together.

Raul Castro did not speak, but the Communist Party daily, Granma, quoted him Saturday as saying Cuba is a "peaceful nation" that does not need offensive weapons.

For that matter, he said it has acquired no new ones in recent years and has cut troop strength by tens of thousands. The defense budget has nearly halved since the mid-1980s, he said.

He said Cuba's leadership concluded that masses of heavy weapons "wouldn't do much in the case of an armed attack," and both Castro brothers emphasized the importance of civilians in the island's defense.

-------- greece

Greece joins coalition fighting terror

December 2, 2001
By Gus Constantine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011202-67412090.htm

ATHENS - Linked to the West through NATO, the European Union and multiple historical affinities, Greece has responded wholeheartedly to Washington's call for help in the campaign against terrorism.

Through words and actions it has joined the war to rid the world of international terrorism, which on September 11 demolished the twin towers of the World Trade Center, tore a hole in the Pentagon and snuffed out more than 4,000 lives.

"We are doing everything humanly possible to find and bring to justice those who commit such atrocious acts," Minister of Public Order Michael Chrisochoides said in a recent interview.

However, while the Greek government appears to be completely committed to the battle against extremism, the same enthusiasm to join America's effort does not appear to animate the Greek public.

Officials here attribute what some regard as anti-Americanism to a vocal minority whose voice carries out of proportion to its numbers.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks, the Greek government authorized use of its air space and an air base on the island of Crete for the refueling of U.S. aircraft. It also provided to the United States facilities at the Souda Bay naval base on Crete.

In addition, Greece is cooperating in intelligence-sharing and in the investigation of suspect bank accounts that may be linked to terrorist activities worldwide.

It also plans to send two C-130 planes carrying food and other supplies for Afghan refugees, and a surface vessel to the Arabian Sea to be deployed as needed.

Mr. Chrisochoides last year led a delegation to the United States to sign a security-cooperation accord on terrorism and organized crime. He has also instituted a series of security measures to make the 2004 Olympics in Athens safe for athletes and visitors.

He has also augmented the Greek police force to deal with its own fight against a local terrorist group - November 17 - which for the past two decades has struck against a Western or domestic target once every few years, then slipped back into hiding.

Stephanos Manikas, Greece's state secretary, also expressed strong support for the war on terrorism.

"With the Olympics drawing closer, this planned event, which we have tried so hard to bring to the land of its birth, makes us automatic partners in the fight for an environment free of terrorists," Mr. Manikas said in an interview at his office in the Parliament building across from Syntagma, or Constitution Square.

According to a spokesman at the Greek Embassy in Washington, the security plan for the Olympics will cost over $600 million.

Even Theodore Pangalos, the firebrand in the 1970s battle to rid Greece of the colonels who staged a U.S.-backed military coup against a democratic government in Athens, sounded like a hawk when an interview on terrorism turned to the events of September 11.

"Obviously, those who committed this attack that took about 4,000 lives at New York's World Trade Center must be completely destroyed." he said.

"Liberty and democracy cannot survive if the political system comes under attack from such extremism."

The interviews were conducted as part of an invitation to Greece by the local journalists federation to their counterparts of Greek ancestry worldwide.

The bitter criticism of American foreign policy by a minority reflects generalized grievances that span the whole post-World War II era. Members of this minority have taken to the streets to express disapproval of what they perceive as the arrogance of American power.

They call the U.S. response to the September 11 attacks excessive, and suspect sinister motives behind the U.S.-led attacks in Afghanistan, such as a plot to establish a foothold in oil-rich Central Asia or to sweep away all opposition to American predominance in the world.

Variations of these themes were expressed on several occasions during the eight-day visit to Greece.

On Nov. 8, upon arriving at the Athens Plaza Hotel across from Constitution Square, one could hear loud and prolonged chants of "America, out of Afghanistan."

On the square the next morning, one passer-by said, "The protests were called because the root causes of Middle East frustration are not being addressed by America.

"It is simply countering force with force." Another expressed concern that "this furious American reaction could plunge the world into a general war."

These views, in one form or another, were also expressed on Nov. 17 during a parade to mark the 28th anniversary of a 1973 student uprising at Athens Polytechnic Institute against military rule. The revolt was crushed by the ruling colonels, but at the cost of a score of student deaths.

The parade has nothing to do with the shadowy terrorist group, which has appropriated the date for its own name.

This year, as the parade neared its end in front of the U.S. Embassy, a group of anarchists pelted police with stones and shouted for an end to the war in Afghanistan.

On a weekend trip to Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, uneasiness was expressed over "a war whose end cannot be clearly foreseen."

"If America succeeds in destroying the terrorist bases in Afghanistan, that's fine," said a elderly man fishing at the city's magnificent waterfront. "But I'm worried that it won't."

Although the Greek government insists that anti-American views are limited to a boisterous few, their voices could be heard across the Atlantic by those tuned in to the Aegean scene.

In a Wall Street Journal article headlined, "Third Worldism: Is Greece a Western Nation?" writer Takis Michas castigated both of Greece's major political parties, the ruling Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) and its conservative counterpart, New Democracy, for adopting a passive stance on anti-Americanism.

While conceding that both parties expressed grief for the terrorist attacks and pledged support, Mr. Michas said, "the polls show [the parties´] ability to influence public opinion is minimal."

"Today Greek nationalism, encompassing large sections of all political parties, has become identical with anti-Americanism," he wrote.

Yet today, the government of Prime Minister Costas Simitis courts European Union respectability. Consequently it has moved Pasok from the left to the political center, and distances itself from anti-American attitudes.

Its foreign minister, George Papandreou, exudes an aura of reason and moderation, even going so far as to initiate a dialogue with Greece's historical enemy, Turkey.

Mr. Papandreou's recent efforts to promote peaceful change in Yugoslavia during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic was undertaken, according to Greek sources, not for any ideological or religious affinities but because of concern that violence might produce further balkanization of southern Europe.

-------- iraq

Calls for New Push Into Iraq Gain Power in Washington

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and ALISON MITCHELL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/middleeast/03IRAQ.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - When President Bush told Saddam Hussein last week to submit to weapons inspections or else, he bolstered the spirits of a coalition of conservatives, cold warriors and Iraqi exiles determined to persuade the administration to overthrow the Iraqi leader once and for all.

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, this loose-knit group with ties to power centers in research institutes, law firms and magazine meeting rooms, and to the White House, has been steadily sounding the drums for an American military campaign against Iraq.

If this coalition once looked like it was fighting a fringe battle, its members now say their viewpoint is gaining ground. They say that the debate inside the administration is no longer over whether to go after Mr. Hussein, but how.

"It strikes me," said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, assessing the state of play inside the Bush administration "that the Saddam-is-evil-and-dangerous wing seems to be winning." He made clear he shared that wing's views.

The campaign by the outsiders had its genesis in the Persian Gulf war. It is part of a broader battle inside the Republican Party's foreign policy establishment, pitting proponents of cautious realism against champions of military activism who believe that America has the right and the obligation to project power and win wars.

"It's something that has been percolating for the past decade," said Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. "It sprang from the failure to eliminate Saddam at that time."

Inside the administration, the guiding principle is to move cautiously in the absence of consensus.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell insisted today on the CBS program "Face the Nation" that Mr. Bush had made no decisions about the next phase of the war on terrorism.

But there are differences. On one side, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, retired Gen. Wayne A. Downing, the president's counterterrorism chief, and I. Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, favor a robust military strategy that would put the Iraqi opposition in power, officials say.

On the other side, Secretary Powell, his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, and retired Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the new Middle East envoy, insist on working with the allies to force Mr. Hussein to accept international inspections of his weapons sites. At the same time they would streamline punitive economic sanctions against Iraq. Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is believed to be not quite in either camp.

But the outsiders are formidable warriors. They come armed with credentials derived from years in government, an ability to articulate their message in the media and access to power. Even in the world of Washington politics, their connections are unusually strong.

The group includes a former spymaster, an array of Iraqi exiles and veterans of the last three administrations. In some cases, they are publicly expressing the views that their friends inside the administration cannot. In others, they are continuing old battles.

The outsiders work through various power centers, including the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and such opinion journals as The Weekly Standard. But much of their campaign is ad hoc.

"There is no organization, no secret handshake, and if there are any meetings or planning sessions, nobody invites me," said R. James Woolsey, a lawyer and former director of central intelligence who has rankled many senior administration officials with his point-blank assertions that Mr. Hussein is tied to a series of terrorist plots.

Mr. Woolsey portrays his role modestly, saying: "I'm just practicing law. If the press calls, I answer the phone. If someone asks me to be on CNN, I go."

Perhaps the group's most important power base is the Defense Policy Board, a bipartisan group of national security experts that meets in a room just outside the office of the secretary of defense. Its 18 members include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown; Adm. David E. Jeremiah, the former deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Defense and Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger, Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Woolsey.

Under the chairmanship of Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and perhaps the most influential of the outsiders, the board has assumed a quasi-official status.

Mr. Woolsey was asked by the Defense Policy Board to undertake a semiofficial fact-finding mission on Iraq's potential involvement in the terror attacks.

In September, the secretary of defense's office of protocol invited Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi who heads the London-based Iraqi National Congress, and Khidhir Hamza, a former director of Iraq's nuclear weapons program, to brief the policy group.

"Rumsfeld was in and out of the meetings and he offered a general statement of support for us," said Francis Brooke, the Washington adviser to the exiles who also attended the meeting. "He said, `We're with you. Don't worry.' He and Ahmed are good friends."

Neither Secretary Powell nor George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, who have grave reservations about Mr. Chalabi's leadership, knew that the Iraqis were there, senior administration officials said. "It's outrageous that these guys were there," said one senior administration official. "They could end up influencing policy."

But Mr. Perle has tirelessly promoted the Iraqi National Congress as part of a strategy that would have the American military occupy southern Iraq, create a new government of Iraqi exiles and protect them until Mr. Hussein is overthrown.

He argues that Afghanistan provides a template. "The Northern Alliance could not have taken an inch of territory until we supplied them with ammunition," he said. "And no one has supplied the Iraqi opposition."

Dov Zakheim, the comptroller in the Pentagon, and Douglas Feith, an under secretary of defense, have both worked for Mr. Perle. Mr. Perle helped Mr. Woolsey get a job on the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1969. Mr. Perle and Mr. Wolfowitz are close friends and former protegé of Albert Wohlstetter, the godfather of the cold war hawks.

Indeed, Mr. Perle is so omnipresent that Mr. Rumsfeld this weekend on CNN called him "very bright, very talented," but noted: "He is not a government official. He does not speak for the president. He does not speak for me."

Another outsider is Laurie Mylroie, a writer who is the leading proponent of the theory that Mr. Hussein was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Senior officials in the C.I.A. and State Department say there is no evidence to support her theory.

Initially, the outsiders feared that Mr. Bush would confine his attention to Afghanistan. So after the Sept. 11 attacks, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard (and Vice President Quayle's chief of staff), gathered nearly four dozen signatures on a letter to Mr. Bush arguing that the campaign must include an overthrow of the leadership in Baghdad, even without specific evidence linking Iraq to the attacks.

Among the signers were conservative Republicans but also staunch pro-Israeli Democrats, like Martin Peretz, the editor of The New Republic, and former Brooklyn congressman Stephen J. Solarz.

Now, Mr. Kristol says, there's no need for letters to the president: "You can't look at Bush's face when he lays out goals about terrorism and think he does nothing about Iraq."

----

Ankara debates possible U.S. operations in Iraq

By Peter Sisler
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 3, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011203-28632876.htm

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey, an important ally in the war on terrorism, is expected to urge Secretary of State Colin L. Powell not to expand the war to Iraq when he visits tomorrow during a trip to Europe, Central Asia and Russia.

Despite the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, speculation about a U.S.-led attack on Iraq is uppermost on the minds of Turkish policy-makers and commentators, who fear a war on their southern border would have devastating economic consequences on their country.

The seriousness of the debate was underscored last week when Iraq's ambassador to Ankara, Farouk Yahya Hijazi, was abruptly recalled to Baghdad.

U.S. officials and recent media reports have claimed that Mr. Hijazi, a former chief of the dreaded Iraqi intelligence service Mukhabarat, met with Osama bin Laden in Kandahar in 1998. Mr. Hijazi denied the charges when he left Ankara on Friday and said he was departing after a normal diplomatic rotation of three years.

But informed sources said Mr. Hijazi's departure was partially a result of pressure on Ankara from Washington, which felt the ambassador should not be a part of the diplomatic community when Mr. Powell makes his first visit to Turkey.

The Turkish media has given prominence to comments by former CIA Director James Woolsey that Turkey should be given a stake in the oil-rich Kurdish provinces of northern Iraq in return for Ankara's military assistance in toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit faced a question last week about the possibility of a Turkish return to Mosul eight decades after the British annexed the province to Iraq amid the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Mr. Ecevit reiterated his adamant opposition to any U.S. operation in Iraq but said he was waiting to hear from Mr. Powell on the U.S. position toward Baghdad.

Defense Minister Sabahattin Çakmakoglu last week indicated a possible softening in the official line on Iraq, saying Turkey could review its policy against an attack on Iraq. "If new conditions arise, new evaluations might have to be made," he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Turkey has stepped up security measures on the rugged Iraqi border to control the region and to stop any flood of refugees if Washington does decide to unleash an attack on Baghdad.

The Turkish Second Army was increasing patrols and taking other measures to halt any influx of refugees similar to the one that took place following the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Turkey also has committed 90 special forces troops to the war effort in Afghanistan and is prepared to send a peacekeeping force numbering nearly 3,000, if needed. The Bush administration has said it is premature to deploy a U.N.-sponsored peacekeeping force while the military campaign is still underway.

"We have indicated that we would consider favorably the use of Turkish troops for peacekeeping, but no such request has come," said Huseyin Dirioz, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

"Our concerns are that Turkish troops play a role" in ensuring stability in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Ismail Cem has indicated Turkey could play an important role as an intermediary between Afghanistan's Northern Alliance and Pakistan, which have traditionally been at odds with each other.

Turkey has strong links to elements in the Northern Alliance, particularly the warlord in Mazar-e-Sharif, Rashid Dostum, while also maintaining close ties to Islamabad.

-------- israel

Sharon declares 'war on terror'

The Associated Press
12/03/2001
USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001/12/03/sharon-waronterror.htm

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a "war on terror" Monday and said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was directly responsible for attacks on Israel over the weekend. Israel will act with all the means at its disposal, Sharon said in a televised address. He spoke just before a Cabinet meeting that was to decide how to retaliate to suicide bombings in two Israeli cities and a shooting that killed 26 people, mostly Israelis, over the weekend. Earlier Monday, Israeli helicopter gunships struck a security compound near Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City, and Israeli F16s struck Arafat's offices and a police station in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Sharon did not say exactly what further steps would be taken, but he said Israel would wage on "war on terror" comparable to the United States' campaign against Osama bin Laden.

"Just as the United States acts in its battle against world terror, under the brave leadership of President Bush, just as it acts with all its strength, so shall we do," he said, "with all the means at our disposal."

Arafat, he said, is "responsible for all that has happened."

"Arafat is the main impediment to peace and stability in the Middle East," he said. "Arafat will not succeed in deceiving the government I head. ... Arafat has chosen the path of terror ... to try to make diplomatic gains through murder."

Israel will "chase after those responsible for terror: Those who carry it out, and those who assist, and they will pay the price," Sahron said.

Sharon did not comment on efforts by the Palestinian Authority to arrest Islamic militants. About 110 members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups have been rounded up in a sweep that began Sunday.

----------

Israel Retaliates With Gunships, Jets

By Ibrahim Barzak
Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 3, 2001; 12:43 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49854-2001Dec3?language=printer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli helicopter gunships struck a security compound near the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with missiles Monday, destroying two of his helicopters, in retaliation for weekend suicide bombings by Islamic militants.

In the West Bank, Israeli F-16 warplanes struck a Palestinian police building in the northern town of Jenin, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military spokesman was checking the report.

The Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were no casualties in the Jenin strike, because the building had been evacuated. It was the first time Israelis have used F-16 warplanes against Palestinian targets in several months.

Also, Palestinians reported hearing a large explosion in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Witnesses said the explosion was in a house and one person was injured. No further details were immediately available.

The strike in Gaza also hit an underground fuel depot, sparking a fire that sent a pall of thick smoke over the city. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held emergency meetings to decide the scope of the response to the anti-Israeli attacks, which killed 26 people.

Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, the Israeli military spokesman, said the assault hit two helicopters that Arafat "doesn't use, but they were symbols of his mobility and freedom."

Arafat, who travels between the West Bank and Gaza Strip by helicopter, was in the West Bank city of Ramallah at the time of the attack.

The White House on Monday pressed Arafat to take action against Islamic militants. "Obviously, Israel has a right to defend herself and the president understands that clearly," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said after the Gaza strikes.

Arafat must show "he will take action that is enduring and meaningful against the terrorists," Fleischer said.

But the Palestinians - who launched a sweep against militants after the weekend bombings - said Israel's strikes only undermine their capability to stop militant violence.

The Palestinians are trying to bring calm, Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said, "but the Israelis are not helping us, they are always destroying our efforts."

President Bush apparently did not seek to persuade Sharon to hold back when they met Sunday, before the Israeli leader rushed home. Arafat "must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice," Bush said Sunday.

The strike by at least 10 missiles destroyed two of Arafat's Russian-made helicopters, one in the landing pad and another in a hangar. Security officials at the scene said the fuel depot and some nearby buildings were also hit. Ambulances raced through the city, sirens blaring. Shifa hospital in Gaza reported it received 10 injured people.

Eight helicopters hovered over Gaza for about an hour, the noise of exploding missiles and the exchanges of submachine gunfire mixing with mosque calls to the traditional prayer that marks the end of the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The strike came despite the Palestinians' biggest sweep in five years against Hamas - the militant group that claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks - and Islamic Jihad. Palestinian officers arrested security forces have arrested some 110 Hamas and Jihad activists since Sunday.

Aryeh Mekel, an Israeli government spokesman, said the attack was to send "a message to Arafat that the current situation can't continue and we expect him to act against the terror."

Sharon, who returned to Israel on Monday, was to address the nation later in the day. It was not yet known whether this was only the start to Israel's response. Israel has struck near Arafat's headquarters several times in the past as a warning following flare-ups during the past 14 months of violence.

Israeli hard-liners were pressing for a larger campaign against the Palestinian Authority, with some calling for Arafat to be expelled from the Palestinian territories, to which he returned in 1994.

Sharon's Cabinet, which was expected to approve harsh retaliation, but stop short of crushing Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian suicide bombers struck two cities within 12 hours over the weekend: Two bombers killed 10 people and injured 150 in a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem late Saturday, then another bomber in a public bus in Haifa killed 15 people Sunday. A shooting Sunday killed an Israeli in Gaza. Three suicide bombers were killed in the Jerusalem and Haifa attacks.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops barred Palestinians from entering and leaving their towns in an intensified blockade. At a checkpoint outside Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets to keep back about 150 Palestinians trying to get through the barrier, paramedics said.

A Palestinian was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops near Tulkarem late Sunday, and a Palestinian farmer was shot dead early Monday as he walked toward his field. The Israeli military said troops shot a Palestinian man they suspected was trying to plant a bomb.

"We are at war," said a banner headline in the Yediot Ahronot daily, accompanied by two rows of photos of the bombing victims, including 10 teen-agers killed in Jerusalem.

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said 110 Hamas and Jihad members had been arrested, including two Hamas leaders in Gaza, Ismail Hanieh and Ismail Abu Shanab.

The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was placed under house arrest and ordered not to speak to reporters, said the security officials.

Arafat declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian areas and gave orders to confiscate illegal weapons. In the West Bank town of Nablus, about 1,000 activists marched to commemorate one of the Haifa bombers, despite a police ban.

But Israeli officials were dismissive of the sweep. A senior Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those rounded up since Sunday include "very few, if any" of the 108 militants Israel has been demanding Arafat arrest for alleged involvement in bombings and shootings.

The past 14 months of fighting have killed more than 230 on the Israeli side and more than 780 people on the Palestinian side.

Palestinian officials have said they could not be expected to take harsh action against their own people when Israel was killing dozens of suspected militants in targeted attacks and imposing heavy security closures.

----

Sharon says Arafat is to blame

December 3, 2001
AP
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/nobyline-2001123105155.htm

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli helicopter gunships struck a security compound near Yasser Arafat's headquarters with missiles today, destroying two of his helicopters. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a war on terrorism and blamed the Palestinian leader for anti-Israeli attacks.

Israeli F-16 warplanes struck in the West Bank city of Jenin, hitting police building, Palestinian officials said. The strikes were Israel's first retaliation for Palestinian suicide bombings in two Israeli cities and a gun attack that killed 26 people over the weekend.

In a televised address, Mr. Sharon did not say what further steps would be taken but announced a ``war on terrorism'' and said Arafat had chosen ``a strategy of terror.''

``Arafat is responsible for everything that is happening,'' Mr. Sharon said ahead of a Cabinet meeting that was expected to decide on the Israeli response.

The Palestinians, who launched their biggest sweep of arrests against Islamic militants in five years, said the Israeli strikes only undermined their capability to crack down.

The Palestinians are trying to bring calm, Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said, ``but the Israelis are not helping us, they are always destroying our efforts.''

The White House backed Israel's strikes. ``The President's point of view is Israel is a sovereign power,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. ``Israel has a right to defend itself.''

Mr. Fleischer again called on Mr. Arafat to do everything in his power to combat terror.

The strike in Gaza city wounded 10 people, hospital officials said. Around 10 missiles pounded near Mr. Arafat's seaside headquarters and hit an underground fuel depot. The resulting fire sent a pall of thick smoke over the city. Two of Mr. Arafat's Russian-made helicopters were destroyed, one in the landing pad and another in a hangar.

Ambulances raced through the city, sirens blaring. Eight helicopters hovered over Gaza for about an hour, the noise of exploding missiles and the exchanges of submachine gunfire mixing with mosque calls to the traditional prayer that marks the end of the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The use of F-16s in the Jenin strikes were the first time the war planes have been used against Palestinians in months. The Israeli military spokesman said Israel attacked Arafat's offices and a police building in the city. Palestinian officials said there were no injuries because the buildings had been evacuated.

In Bethlehem, an explosion was heard in a house. Witnesses said it was apparently a case of a Palestinian militant preparing a bomb, which went off prematurely. One person was reported injured.

Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, the Israeli military spokesman, said Mr. Arafat's helicopters were hit because ``they were symbols of his mobility and freedom.''

Mr. Arafat, who travels between the West Bank and Gaza Strip by helicopter, was in the West Bank city of Ramallah at the time of the attack.

President Bush apparently did not seek to persuade Mr. Sharon to hold back when they met yesterday, before the Israeli leader rushed home. Mr. Arafat ``must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice,'' Mr. Bush said yesterday.

Since the weekend attacks, Palestinian security officials said they had arrested 110 activists from Hamas - which claimed responsibility for the attacks - and Islamic Jihad. Among those arrested were two Hamas leaders in Gaza, Ismail Hanieh and Ismail Abu Shanab.

The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was placed under house arrest and ordered not to speak to reporters, said the security officials.

Mr. Arafat declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian areas and gave orders to confiscate illegal weapons. Still, In the West Bank town of Nablus, about 1,000 activists marched to commemorate one of the Haifa bombers, despite a police ban.

The Palestinians have said in the past they cannot crack down heavily on militants while Israel conducts a policy of assassinating activists and of limiting movement in the West Bank. Shaath, however, said the weekend attacks had forced the Palestinian security forces to act.

But Israeli officials said they were skeptical of the seriousness of the sweep.

Aryeh Mekel, an Israeli government spokesman, said today's strikes were to send ``a message to Arafat that the current situation can't continue and we expect him to act against the terror.''

Israeli hard-liners were pressing for a larger campaign against the Palestinian Authority, with some calling for Arafat to be expelled from the Palestinian territories, to which he returned in 1994.

Palestinian suicide bombers struck two cities within 12 hours over the weekend: Two bombers killed 10 people and injured 150 in a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem late Saturday, then another bomber in a public bus in Haifa killed 15 people Sunday. A shooting yesterday killed an Israeli in Gaza. Three suicide bombers were killed in the Jerusalem and Haifa attacks.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops barred Palestinians from entering and leaving their towns in an intensified blockade. At a checkpoint outside Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets to keep back about 150 Palestinians trying to get through the barrier, paramedics said.

A Palestinian was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops near Tulkarem late yesterday, and a Palestinian farmer was shot dead early today as he walked toward his field. The Israeli military said troops shot a Palestinian man they suspected was trying to plant a bomb.

The past 14 months of fighting have killed more than 780 people on the Palestinian side and more than 230 on the Israeli side.

----

Strikes an Apparent Response to Weekend's Wave of Bombings

By JAMES BENNET
December 3, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/03CND-MIDE.html

JERUSALEM, Dec. 3 - Israeli missiles landed near the headquarters of the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in Gaza today in an apparent response to a third suicide bombing in Israel in just over 12 hours.

The Israelis said one helicopter had been hit by the missiles, although other reports said two helicopters had been destroyed. Mr. Arafat was believed to have been in Ramallah in the West Bank at the time of the attack.

A Palestinian cabinet minister, Saeb Erekat, said he had asked the United States to force Israel to halt what he said was a bombardment of Gaza City.

The attack came after Palestinian security forces said today that they had made more than 100 arrests after a suicide bomber struck on a bus in Haifa, but Israelis scoffed at the moves.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to address the nation this evening after returning today from a meeting in Washington with President Bush. He was then due to convene a special session of the security cabinet to decide how Israel would reply to a string of bombings that has left at least 25 people dead in less than two days.

Some Israeli government ministers spoke openly of removing Mr. Arafat from power.

President Bush has thought all along that Mr. Arafat is "capable of doing much more than he has ever done and now the burden is on him even heavier to show it," Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said today.

"What's new and different is the severity of the violence that rocked Israel over the weekend and the outrage that the world feels about the murder of all the innocents in Israel," Mr. Fleischer said. "It's important that Chairman Arafat move beyond where he has been before - to take concrete actions, to show that this is not the way of the future and it should not be the way of the present."

Mr. Fleischer said the United States wants to see peace talks. But he added, "Obviously, Israel has a right to defend herself and the president understands that clearly."

Israeli troops further tightened travel restrictions on Palestinians today, blockading towns on the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, suspending any due process in making arrests.

At what appeared to be a dangerous pivot point between peace and all-out conflict, President Bush grimly condemned on Sunday what he called "the horrific acts of murder" in Israel.

"This is a moment where the advocates for peace in the Middle East must rise up and fight terror," Mr. Bush said on the South Lawn of the White House before meeting with Mr. Sharon. "Chairman Arafat must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice."

The Bush administration has in the past demanded that Israeli forces not invade Palestinian-controlled territory, but Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Sunday that the administration would leave it to the Israeli government to choose a proper response.

"We're not about to tell Mr. Sharon what he should do," Mr. Powell said on the CBS television program "Face the Nation." But, he said, "we've always said to both sides, `You better think about the consequences of what happens the next day or the day after.' "

The attack on Sunday in Haifa - which burst the sides and top of the No. 16 bus and scattered belongings, blood and body parts along a 100-yard route before it crashed - followed a coordinated assault on a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem Saturday night, in which two suicide bombers and a car bomb killed 10 Israelis.

The Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks in Haifa and in Jerusalem, saying it was seeking to avenge the killing by Israelis on Nov. 23 of its senior West Bank leader, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.

The wave of violence since then is reminiscent of a series of terrorist attacks in February and March of 1996, after Israeli forces killed another Hamas leader, Yahya Ayyash.

At the time, Mr. Arafat arrested many leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, in a move Israelis cited Sunday as evidence that he can crack down on violence when he chooses to. But Mr. Arafat was much stronger politically then than he is now.

In a separate attack on Sunday morning, Palestinian gunmen opened fire along a road to two settlements in the northern Gaza Strip, killing another Israeli. The two men then entered an Israeli shooting range, where they were killed by soldiers, the Israeli army said.

A Palestinian was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Tulkarem late Sunday, and today a Palestinian farmer was shot dead as he walked toward his field. The Israeli military said troops shot a Palestinian man they suspected was trying to plant a bomb.

The Bush administration's new envoy in Israel, Anthony C. Zinni, who is in the country seeking a truce in the 14-month conflict, was staying in a Jerusalem hotel Saturday night near the scene of the bombings. On Sunday, when he went to lay a wreath at the site, he was jeered by dozens of Israelis. "Zinni go home!" they chanted.

In a statement, Mr. Zinni called the attack "the deepest evil one can imagine."

Mr. Bush's demand for action from Mr. Arafat notwithstanding, some Israeli officials said it was past time to expect help from the Palestinian leader.

"On a day like this we are allowed to say that what is good for the Americans is also good for us," Limor Livnat, the minister of education, told Israeli television.

"We should make a strategic decision as the Americans did. It is not enough to eliminate a terrorism leader; they are doing everything to topple the terror regime. We, too, will have to topple the terror regime."

Mr. Arafat's top security officials in the West Bank and Gaza promised to move immediately against people and organizations undertaking terrorist attacks. "The Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are trying to destroy our dream, our national project," Jibril Rajoub, the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security in the West Bank, said in an interview. "We will not let them do so."

He promised that the Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, would "deal with these people according to our national interest and responsibility," adding, "There will be no compromise with these people."

But referring to comments by Israeli officials in favor of expelling Mr. Arafat or attacking the Palestinian Authority, he warned, "Destroying the Palestinian Authority will lead to war."

Sari Nusseibeh, the representative of the Palestinians in Jerusalem, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Arafat recognized that attacks like the one in Haifa on Sunday "will lead to the point of undermining his own authority." But he said that Mr. Arafat "is not in control" of those who carry them out. And while Mr. Arafat was trying to stop the violence, Dr. Nusseibeh said, he needed to demonstrate to his people that they would gain something from such actions.

Right now, he said, "we live in a state of war, and people feel like more or less anything or everything is legitimate in such a state of war."

Shimon Kabesa, the driver of the No. 16 bus, told reporters from his hospital bed that the bomber overpaid for his ride. The driver said that when he called the man back for change, he evidently detonated a bomb strapped to his waist. It was just after noon.

Giora Bernstein was driving the No. 17, about nine feet behind No. 16 as it pulled away from a stop and headed down a hill in a neighborhood of the seaside city where Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs live side by side. "I heard a strong boom," Mr. Bernstein said. "There was a huge flame that came out from underneath and enveloped the bus. When the smoke cleared, there wasn't a bus, just some things on the ground and two bodies."

Assad Abu Sheeban, 33, was outside his home in Haifa when he heard the blast up the street and saw the bus careering downhill, out of control. He saw a body tumble from the bus, he said, and heard passengers screaming as it rolled through a traffic light, jumped a sidewalk, crushed a guard rail and finally crashed into a large rock.

"I didn't think twice," said Mr. Sheeban, interviewed holding an orange garbage bag containing his bloodied clothes. "I ran up to help and started to take people out. There were people without hands, without heads. There were hands on the sidewalk."

More than 40 people were wounded in the attack. Some were treated for shock, while more than a dozen were listed in critical condition.

After the Haifa attack Mr. Bernstein, who is 43, said, "I always think that I could now be in a bag." He was hospitalized for shock, but he said he intended to return to work as a bus driver. "It's not more dangerous to be in a bus than to be walking in Haifa, in a market or a bank," he said.

Asked what Israelis and Palestinians should do after such violence, Mr. Bernstein said, "We have to talk."

----

State of Emergency in Gaza and the West Bank

December 3, 2001
New York Times
By JAMES BENNET
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/middleeast/03MIDE.html

HAIFA, Israel, Dec. 2 - The third Palestinian suicide bomber in just over 12 hours struck on a city bus here today, killing himself and 15 others and prompting Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, to order arrests of suspects, as Israeli government ministers spoke openly of removing him from power.

The Israeli government tightened its already formidable blockade of Palestinian cities and villages, after a string of terrorist bombings that has left at least 25 dead in less than two days.

By late tonight, Palestinian officials said they had already acted, arresting dozens of militants after the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza, suspending any due process in making arrests.

At what appeared to be a dangerous pivot point between peace and all-out conflict here, President Bush met today in Washington with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Mr. Bush grimly condemned what he called "the horrific acts of murder" in Israel.

The Bush administration has in the past demanded that Israeli forces not invade Palestinian-controlled territory, but Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the administration would leave it to the Israeli government to choose a proper response.

"We're not about to tell Mr. Sharon what he should do," Mr. Powell said on the CBS television program "Face the Nation." But, he said, "we've always said to both sides, `You better think about the consequences of what happens the next day or the day after.' "

The attack today - which burst the sides and top of the No. 16 bus and scattered belongings, blood and body parts along a 100-yard route before it crashed - followed a coordinated assault on a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem Saturday night, in which two suicide bombers and a car bomb killed 10 Israelis.

The Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility today for the attacks here and in Jerusalem, saying it was seeking to avenge the killing by Israelis on Nov. 23 of its senior West Bank leader, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.

The wave of violence since then is reminiscent of a series of terrorist attacks in February and March of 1996, after Israeli forces killed another Hamas leader, Yahya Ayyash.

At the time, Mr. Arafat arrested many leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, in a move Israelis cited today as evidence he can crack down on violence when he chooses to. But Mr. Arafat was much stronger politically then than he is now.

In a separate attack today, Palestinian gunmen opened fire along a road to two settlements in the northern Gaza Strip this morning, killing another Israeli. The two men then entered an Israeli shooting range, where they were killed by soldiers, the Israeli army said.

The Bush administration's new envoy here, Anthony C. Zinni, who is in the country seeking a truce in the 14- month conflict, was staying in a Jerusalem hotel Saturday night near the scene of the bombings. Today, when he went to lay a wreath at the site, he was jeered by dozens of Israelis. "Zinni go home," they chanted.

In a statement, Mr. Zinni called the attack "the deepest evil one can imagine."

President Bush, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House today, said, "This is a moment where the advocates for peace in the Middle East must rise up and fight terror." He said, "Chairman Arafat must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice."

Mr. Bush's demand for action from Mr. Arafat notwithstanding, some Israeli officials said it was past time to expect help from the Palestinian leader. "On a day like this we are allowed to say that what is good for the Americans is also good for us," Limor Livnat, the minister of education, told Israeli television. "We should make a strategic decision as the Americans did. It is not enough to eliminate a terrorism leader; they are doing everything to topple the terror regime. We, too, will have to topple the terror regime."

Mr. Arafat's top security officials in the West Bank and Gaza promised to move immediately against people and organizations undertaking terrorist attacks. "The Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are trying to destroy our dream, our national project," Jibril Rajoub, the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security in the West Bank, said in an interview. "We will not let them do so."

He promised that the Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, would "deal with these people according to our national interest and responsibility" adding, "There will be no compromise with these people."

But referring to comments by Israeli officials in favor of expelling Mr. Arafat or attacking the Palestinian Authority, he warned: "Destroying the Palestinian Authority will lead to war."

Sari Nusseibeh, the representative of the Palestinians in Jerusalem, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Arafat recognized that attacks like the one here today "will lead to the point of undermining his own authority." But he said that Mr. Arafat "is not in control" of those who carry them out. And while Mr. Arafat was trying to stop the violence, Dr. Nusseibeh said, he needed to demonstrate to his people that they would gain something from such actions.

Right now, he said, "we live in a state of war, and people feel like more or less anything or everything is legitimate in such a state of war."

Shimon Kabesa, the driver of the No. 16 bus, told reporters from his hospital bed that the bomber overpaid for his ride. The driver said that when he called the man back for change, he evidently detonated a bomb strapped to his waist. It was just after noon.

Giora Bernstein was driving the No. 17, about nine feet behind No. 16 as it pulled away from a stop and headed down a hill in a neighborhood of this seaside city where Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs live side by side. "I heard a strong boom," Mr. Bernstein said. "There was a huge flame that came out from underneath and enveloped the bus. When the smoke cleared, there wasn't a bus, just some things on the ground and two bodies."

Assad Abu Sheeban, 33, was outside his home here when he heard the blast up the street and saw the bus careering downhill, out of control. He saw a body tumble from the bus, he said, and heard passengers screaming as it rolled through a traffic light, jumped a sidewalk, crushed a guard rail and finally crashed into a large rock.

"I didn't think twice," said Mr. Sheeban, interviewed holding an orange garbage bag containing his bloodied clothes. "I ran up to help and started to take people out. There were people without hands, without heads. There were hands on the sidewalk."

More than 40 people were wounded in the attack. Some were treated for shock, while more than a dozen were listed in critical condition.

After the attack today, Mr. Bernstein, who is 43, said, "I always think that I could now be in a bag." He was hospitalized here for shock, but he said he intended to return to work as a bus driver. "It's not more dangerous to be in a bus than to be walking in Haifa, in a market or a bank," he said.

Asked what Israelis and Palestinians should do after such violence, Mr. Bernstein said, "We have to talk."

-------- nato

NATO to consider Putin as a partner

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011203-29646872.htm

BRUSSELS - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other NATO foreign ministers will take a new look this week at the way the alliance does business with Russia.

Since September 11, the allies believe they have detected a new, more cooperative Russia under President Vladimir Putin, a potential partner rather than the confrontational adversary of old.

NATO's secretary-general, Lord George Robertson, went to Moscow recently to discuss bringing Russia into the fold - not as a member of the 19-nation alliance, but as a full partner in deciding some major issues of European security.

How to do this will be discussed Thursday and Friday at the foreign ministers' meeting.

"We have an important opportunity to recast NATO's relationship with Russia," said Nicholas Burns, the American ambassador to NATO. "NATO and Russia are increasingly allied against threats such as international terrorism. NATO must reflect these new realities and evolve accordingly."

Some see this as letting the fox in the hen house, allowing Russia to begin gnawing at the alliance from within, accomplishing through stealth what it failed to do through confrontation. Others believe it is pure pragmatism, a recognition of the reality that there is more for both sides to gain through cooperation.

The NATO members are still discussing what form this new relationship should take, but what most likely will emerge is a new structure within the alliance in which Russia sits as a full participant on selected issues.

The new partnership will not give Russia a veto, NATO officials insist. If the new consultative body fails to reach consensus between NATO and the Russians, the alliance's North Atlantic Council can still meet and come to a decision as it always has.

The consideration of a new approach comes four years after NATO and Russia created the Permanent Joint Council, which was to be a forum for discussing issues of mutual interest. In reality, it became an exercise in informing the Russians what the alliance had already decided, not the decision-making entity the Russians had envisioned.

In a joint statement at their recent summit in Crawford, Texas, Mr. Putin and President Bush spoke of "opportunities for an entirely new mechanism, joint decision-making and coordinated action."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested a new "Russia-North Atlantic Council," and Canada, Germany and Italy have made similar suggestions.

Whatever accommodation is reached with Russia, NATO's core mission as a collective defense organization would not change, said Mr. Burns. "Russia will not have a veto over alliance decisions."

The allied foreign ministers are expected to approve the new approach to Russia at their meeting this week and instruct the permanent representatives on the North Atlantic Council to work out the details.

When the alliance has decided its own position, it will be taken to the Russians for further discussion.

The allies hope this can be accomplished by early next year.

Some observers see the proposed new relationship as less than momentous.

"I don't think it goes as far as some people think it does," said Gordon Adams, director of security policy studies at George Washington University in Washington. "I see it as a series of tactical moves, not a shift in the tectonic plates."

Jakub Godzimirski, a Russia watcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said there are no new factors that point to real change. The Russians still oppose American plans for missile defense and NATO's intention to bring in new members from the former Soviet bloc nations of Eastern Europe, he noted.

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C.I.A. Chief Urges Pakistani to Crack Down on Militants

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By DOUGLAS FRANTZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/international/03CND-STAN.html?searchpv=nytToday

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 3 - George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, urged the president of Pakistan in a weekend meeting to go further in cracking down on militant clerics and other extremists, government officials said today.

The American push against pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan comes at a time when President Pervez Musharraf appears to have gained new confidence in his ability to restrain the country's outspoken clerics and religious parties. Neither the clerics nor the parties have succeeded in igniting anything approaching widespread outrage over Pakistan's assistance to the American-led coalition.

The request to increase the pressure was delivered by Mr. Tenet during a two-day visit to Islamabad in which he also outlined aspects of the next phase of the war in Afghanistan in meetings with General Musharraf and top officers of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The C.I.A. chief said the United States plans to put more intelligence operatives into southern Afghanistan, and he sought tactical help for an assault on a mountain base in eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden is suspected of hiding, said the government officials, who spoke on condition that their names not be used. American officials confirmed that Mr. Tenet visited Pakistan and met with Mr. Musharraf and intelligence officials. They declined, however, to provide any information about the topics that were discussed.

But other officials said privately that the talks were the strongest attempt to date by the C.I.A. chief and his team to push Pakistan to rein in religious militants and monitor the activities of pro-Taliban elements outside and inside Pakistan's government.

American officials have expressed concerns in recent weeks not only about militant clerics, but about the possibility of widespread pro-Taliban sentiments within the Pakistani military and intelligence service.

A number of specific individuals, mostly from Pakistan's militant religious parties, were identified and discussed, the officials said. They stressed that Pakistani intelligence officials were still formulating plans to step up surveillance on a range of people and that no decision had been made on arrests.

Mr. Tenet may have been pushing on an open door. General Musharraf instructed his security chiefs last week to come up with plans to curb religious militancy.

Among the steps being considered by the military government are restrictions on recruitment of volunteers to fight in Afghanistan and a ban on military training for students in Pakistan's thousands of religious schools, according to the Pakistani press and government officials.

Thousands of Pakistani men were sent by the religious schools and parties to fight alongside the Taliban in recent years as it battled for control of Afghanistan and later for survival against the American-led coalition and the Northern Alliance.

Pakistan's apparent receptiveness to Mr. Tenet's message and its independent steps toward controlling dissent underscore how the political landscape has changed since General Musharraf first aligned his country with the American-led coalition against his former allies, the Taliban.

In his first television address to the nation in mid-September, the Pakistani leader devoted most of his time to trying to allay the anticipated anger toward turning against the radical militia next door. He stressed that he had acted to protect Pakistan's security, including its nuclear weapons stockpile, which he referred to as strategic assets.

But the anticipated widespread protests and potential instability did not materialize. The militant religious parties proved unable to provoke widespread public outrage and even the muted anti-American and anti-Musharraf demonstrations have fizzled to almost nothing in recent weeks.

As a result, General Musharraf has taken several steps to align Pakistan more closely with the American-led coalition and he has responded positively to numerous American demands in recent weeks.

The government shut down the Taliban's embassy in Islamabad, the militia's last foreign outpost, after American pressure. General Musharraf also indicated a willingness last week to negotiate with the Northern Alliance, which has been anathema to Islamabad for a decade.

In addition, Pakistan has been quietly expanding the use of three isolated military bases by American Special Operations forces. C.I.A. officials told their Pakistani counterparts over the weekend that they would need more help on the ground in the coming weeks.

One of the most pressing requests was for more information about the former mujahedeen base in the mountainous Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan, where some people think Mr. bin Laden may be hiding.

A senior Pakistani official briefed on the talks said the Americans wanted help in formulating plans to block exits from the remote region and information about how to reach the maze of elaborate caves and tunnels that may be the suspected terrorist leader's last refuge.

Mr. Tenet and members of his team also described plans to expand the covert war in southern Afghanistan by increasing the number of operatives working there.

The C.I.A. agents are expected to stage a variety of missions aimed at helping track down members of the Qaeda network and providing more money to buy the loyalty of anti-Taliban forces and secure defections from Taliban commanders, the officials said.

Helping the American intelligence agency underscores Pakistan's determination to cast its lot with the coalition, but it has not eased all of the suspicions about the Pakistani military and intelligence community among the Americans. Substantial elements of both the military and intelligence service are known to remain strongly pro-Taliban and to resent Pakistan's growing alliance with the United States.

But Lt. Gen. Ehsan ul Haq, appointed by General Musharraf as director of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in October, is regarded as a moderate who is respected by American intelligence officials and appears willing to cooperate with them, officials said.

Mr. Tenet left Islamabad Saturday and flew to Germany, where he boarded the plane that carried the body of Johnny Michael Spann, the C.I.A. officer killed last week in a prison revolt in northern Afghanistan. The plane arrived in the United States on Sunday.

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Spy, Citing Fears, Fights Return to China

New York Times
December 3, 2001
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/national/03SPY.html

Bin Wu, a former Chinese spy, has an immigration problem. He wants to stay in this country, where his brief tenure as a double or triple agent ended in 1992 with his arrest and conviction for shipping military goods to China.

But American immigration officials have a long memory. They want to send Mr. Wu back to China, where, he and Amnesty International say, the Chinese will surely torture and execute him.

"They will kill one to warn a hundred," Mr. Wu said in a statement he filed in an immigration case he is fighting in Oakdale, La. He is being detained in a federal prison by immigration officials until an immigration judge rules on his case, possibly as soon as Thursday, when a hearing is scheduled.

Chinese espionage may seem like a relic of the last war. But legal experts say Mr. Wu's immigration case provides a sample of the kinds of complex questions percolating toward immigration judges in scores of cases linked to the war on terrorism.

"Since Sept. 11, you are going to see more of these kinds of cases - which are really national security cases - being handled as immigration cases," said Arthur C. Helton, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who is an expert on immigration law.

Immigration courts, a division of the Justice Department that is separate from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, occasionally wade into the province of diplomats and intelligence agencies. Critics have long argued that such complex issues are beyond the capacity of the immigration judges, who are administrative officials dealing more often with simpler questions, like whether a person's visa has expired.

But whether or not the immigration judges are equipped, the administration's use of immigration procedures to detain hundreds of people in the terrorism investigation means that there will be many more of the judges trying to unravel tangled foreign loyalties, said Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration law expert at the University of Colorado.

The murky world of Chinese espionage, Mr. Motomura said, presents layers of complexity that are similar to questions likely to arise, for example, about the loyalties of Afghan immigrants.

Mr. Wu's case would be difficult for any legal system to unravel. After his federal court trial eight years ago in Virginia, he was convicted of shipping military goods to China in violation of an American embargo.

Some defense lawyers said they concluded that the Chinese wanted the items, the night vision scopes that the American military used effectively during the Persian Gulf war, to sell to Iraq.

But it was never clear whether Mr. Wu was really working for the Chinese, who he says forced him into espionage after he came to their attention because he was a pro-democracy activist, or for the Americans, for whom he says he was an enthusiastic double agent, supplying the details of Chinese spying in this country.

At his trial in 1993, Mr. Wu's defense lawyer, James O. Broccoletti, described him as "a man without a country." Mr. Broccoletti said in an interview recently that he could not be sure whether Mr. Wu had really double-crossed his American or, perhaps, his Chinese handlers.

"As to whether or not he was a triple agent," Mr. Broccoletti said, "there were very few clear answers in that case."

Mr. Wu, an ambitious former philosophy professor, moved to this country from China in 1990. He had a short burst of activity, which included driving a flashy maroon Mercedes and taking payments from the F.B.I. and the Chinese.

His spy career ended with an arrest by customs officials in 1992. He completed serving his sentence in July. Since then, Mr. Wu has been terrified of deportation, said his lawyer, Theodore N. Cox. "I beg for the I.N.S.'s mercy," Mr. Wu said in his statement.

He is not eligible for asylum because of his felony conviction, so he has based his claim on a United Nations convention against torture and other "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment.

A spokesman for the immigration service, Russell A. Bergeron Jr., would say only that Mr. Wu's felony conviction made him subject to deportation.

But James R. Lilley, a former ambassador to China and a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, said American officials are often skeptical of claims of feared torture because many immigrants make that claim to stay in this country. "They probably wouldn't touch the guy," Mr. Lilley said.

Feng Xie, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said all espionage charges are "dealt with according to law" and that Chinese law forbids torture of prisoners.

But James H. Zimmerman, a China specialist for Amnesty International, said China's human rights record should raise alarm among immigration officials about what might happen to Mr. Wu. The group says more than 27,000 people were sentenced to death in China in the 1990's and suspected spies have been among the victims.

Mr. Wu's small spy story began long before the war on terrorism. But Mr. Motomura, the University of Colorado immigration expert, said Mr. Wu's fate is likely to be shaped by the sweeping events.

"After Sept. 11," Mr. Motomura said, "immigration judges are going to be less willing to compromise security and more willing to send people back even if they are going to face possible torture."

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Aid pledges unmet

December 3, 2001
UN Report, By Betsy