------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Brazil orders studies into third nuclear reactor
Chinese nuclear 'event'
Waste conversion rumors swirling
Russia Says It Foiled Illegal Sale of Weapons-Grade Uranium
Vattenfall mull swapping Barseback n-plant for gas
A Civil Defense Corps
Congress Urged to Safeguard Nuclear Reactors Against Terrorism
Uranium theft raises nuclear fears
Fallout Shelters Rise in Popularity
DOE proposes vitrification cuts
Weldon's savvy luring attention
Pentagon Presses for a Radiation Drug

MILITARY
Russian raids provide U.S. intelligence
Taliban surrenders stronghold
Kandahar, refuge of misery
Marines Attack Taliban Convoy
Taliban gone, Omar, bin Laden at large
Military campaign to press on after Kandahar's fall
Afghan Leader Says Mullah Omar Will Be Arrested if Found
Zimbabwe Rights Abuses Condemned
Ashcroft Blocks FBI Access to Gun Records
Ford Library documents record role in East Timor
Anthrax Found in Fed's Mail
Navy warnings
U.S. Forces Suspension of Germ War Pact, EU Angry
Bomb-Detector Maker Waits for Orders
Analysis: Turks cool to attacking Iraq
Gaza Stone-Throwers Resist
Israeli F-16s attack Gaza police
Fatah-Hamas Truce Seen
Israeli Helicopters Hit Palestinian Compound
Kyrgyzstan to allow use of airbases
NATO to include Russia on joint council
NATO, Russia To Create New Council
Ashcroft Defends Anti-Terrorism Steps
U.S. apologizes to media
Pentagon Still Scapegoats Pearl Harbor Fall Guys
Vieques moves
Wen Ho Lee Testifies in Lawsuit
UN Rights Head Backs Afghan Probe, Criticizes U.S.
December 7, 1941: A Setup from the Beginning
America Gamely Stumbled Off to War

POLICE / PRISONERS
Constitutional concerns at home
U.S. puts 39 groups on new 'terrorist' list
Ashcroft Defends Antiterror Plan and Says Criticism May Aid Foes
Closed Immigration Hearings Criticized as Prejudicial
Terrorist movements

ENERGY AND OTHER
More renewable fuel use will help US economy - study
Suspected Ebola virus strikes again in Congo
IMF to Lend Pakistan $1.3 Billion Aid for Poverty Reduction
Argentina, Near Default, Seeks IMF Help

ACTIVISTS
Alternative fuels forum in Germany
Greetings from South Africa!



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- brazil

Brazil orders studies into third nuclear reactor

Reuters:
7/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13622

BRASILIA, Brazil - A Brazilian state energy council ordered this week the elaboration of an economic study into a project to build a third nuclear reactor, possibly setting the ball rolling again on the much-delayed expansion of Brazil's only atomic power complex.

The National Energy Council said it authorized state utility Eletrobras and its subsidiary Eletronuclear to carry out budgetary studies on the project to build Angra III at the two-reactor plant Angra, 80 miles (130 km) west of Rio de Janeiro.

Plans to build Angra III have run into tough opposition from environmentalists who argue that Angra, surrounded by tropical forest and beach resorts, has a dangerously high level of shutdowns and insufficient space to store nuclear waste.

The project was taken off the council's agenda in August, signaling that it could be axed. Now the council will decide definitively whether to authorize the reactor's construction once the financial studies are completed, expected for the second half of next year.

Brazil will hold presidential elections in October 2002.

The council also ruled that the controversial project would only go ahead if studies find a long-term solution to store radioactive waste. Analysts say Angra III, if it goes ahead, could cost between $1.7 billion and $2.4 billion to build.

The Brazilian Association of Nuclear Energy, which favors the project, applauded the council's decision this week.

"This was what we wanted," the association's director Everton Carvalho told Reuters.

The construction of alternative power sources took on fresh urgency this year after Brazil ran into an energy shortage following a severe drought that dried up reservoirs that feed hydro-electric plants. Water-driven plants provide about 90 percent of Brazil's energy.

-------- china

Chinese nuclear 'event'

December 7, 2001
Inside the Ring Notes from the Pentagon.
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-18997295.htm

U.S. intelligence agencies have detected new efforts by China on strategic nuclear weapons. The latest evidence comes in intelligence reports that China conducted a nuclear weapons-related experiment at the remote Lop Nur test facility in western Xinjiang province.

The latest nuclear weapons test was an "event" last month that produced no detectable nuclear yield or blast, officials said. It followed several similar tests that were reported in classified intelligence reports in July.

The Chinese conducted three nuclear weapons-related tests at Lop Nur in June and July. Preparations were spotted by U.S. intelligence imagery.

The tests are part of China's aggressive strategic nuclear weapons buildup that includes two new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, the DF-31 and the DF-41, and a new class of ballistic missile submarines outfitted with JL-2 missiles - a naval version of the DF-31.


-------- depleted uranium

Waste conversion rumors swirling

The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky
Friday, December 07, 2001
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11510.htm

Rumors recently surfaced that funding the conversion of hazardous waste into safer materials is no longer a priority.

By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650

A long-awaited, job-producing project to convert about 14 billion pounds of hazardous waste at the Paducah uranium enrichment plant into safer material may face another round of federal funding scrutiny as well as environmental and safety concerns.

Rumors recently surfaced within the nuclear industry that the Office of Management and Budget, Congress' financial arm, has told the Department of Energy that the conversion project is not a funding priority. That is despite a 1998 federal law calling for the work and earmarking about $373 million.

DOE officials, who held an environmental public meeting Thursday night regarding the project, said they were not aware of OMB concerns.

"It's news to me," said Kevin Shaw, program manager for DOE's depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) program in Washington, D.C. "I'll look into it when I get back."

The rumors reportedly have concerned some, if not all, of the three groups of firms that are finalists for the work, which would build facilities at Paducah and its closed sister plant near Portsmouth, Ohio, to convert the UF6 into a safer material. The Energy Department is expected to name a winner this month, perhaps within days.

Ken Wheeler, chairman of a local task force promoting the Paducah plant's resources, said the rumor persists.

"I have not talked with anybody in the administration to confirm it, but I have the same report from two or three sources," he said. "It's frankly not clear to me how that could happen when the law of the land requires the process to move forward. But I guess the OMB is entitled to express a position."

Asked about the rumor, staffers for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, were checking its validity Thursday evening, but could not immediately respond. McConnell wrote legislation for the project, which could create about 150 jobs in each community. DOE hopes some parts of the material, particularly fluorine compounds, can be used commercially to generate about $200 million in revenue during the roughly 25 years of conversion work.

If the OMB has reservations, it would not be the first time. Labor leaders, civic officials and the congressional delegation have repeatedly criticized the OMB and Energy Department for foot-dragging on the cylinder project over budgetary issues. DOE delayed bidding for more than a year before resuming the process in late 2000.

Thursday night's meeting reflected continued concerns by some plant neighbors and watchdog groups about the safety of converting the material, stored in nearly 60,000 cylinders, some of which are rusty and have leaked. About two-thirds are at the Paducah plant, and the rest are at the Ohio plant and another closed enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Some spoke out about the potential for chemical or radiation releases from the cylinders in the event of a large plane crash.

"I live right there by the plant, and I was watching TV and saw what happened there in New York," said Ray English, part of a citizens' group worried about the cylinders. "I was sitting there waiting to hear the big boom at the plant."

DOE officials responded the material in the cylinders is too mildly radioactive for a nuclear criticality accident, but is a chemical threat because it emits hydrofluoric acid when it mixes with moisture in the air.

Gene Hoffman, a retired DOE metals expert from Oak Ridge, asked Shaw to include a large aircraft crash scenario in an environmental impact study for the cylinder project. He said previous studies have only addressed the crash of a small, private plane. Although the risk of a large plane crash is low, it would seriously threaten workers and the public if it happened, Hoffman said.

"My point is, if you don't ever consider it, how can you mitigate the damage?" he said.

Chamber of commerce, economic development and county government officials endorsed the conversion project because of its economic potential and the public safety risk of continuing to store the cylinders. Shaw said the 12-foot-long steel canisters cover about 42 acres at the three sites and, containing dense uranium, have a total weight about a tenth as much as the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

DOE's preferred option of converting the material into uranium dioxide is expected to cost $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion and create several hundred construction jobs. Construction must start by Jan. 31, 2004.

The environmental study will assess worker and public health and environmental impacts of the conversion project. It also will gauge the facilities' construction and effect on local employment, income, population, housing and public services.

A draft environmental impact statement is expected to be issued in June, followed by a 45-day public comment period.

A final statement, preceding a record of decision, is slated for January 2003.

-------- russia

Russia Says It Foiled Illegal Sale of Weapons-Grade Uranium

December 7, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/international/europe/07RUSS.html

MOSCOW, Dec. 6 - The police have arrested seven men accused of trying to sell more than two pounds of highly enriched weapons- grade uranium, Russian television reported today.

The seven, arrested in the town of Balashikha, just southeast of Moscow, were trying to sell a capsule containing uranium 235 for $30,000, NTV television reported. The suspects were charged with illegal handling of nuclear materials, it said.

If confirmed, the seizure would be the first acknowledged case of theft of weapons-grade material in Russia.

In the economic turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian police have regularly seized nuclear materials stolen by people who tried to sell them for profit. But all involved low-active uranium unfit for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Russian officials have repeatedly said that no weapons-grade nuclear materials have been stolen.

The report said the suspects were believed to belong to the Balashikha criminal gang.

The police arrested some of the suspects as they were trying to sell the material at a roadside cafe, and they said those suspects led them to another suspect who kept the uranium in his house. The police report did not give the date of the arrest or provide other details.

A duty officer at the Balashikha police station said he was aware of the case, but gave no details, saying the Federal Security Service - the domestic successor to the Soviet K.G.B. - was handling the investigation.

A spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Moscow, which is in charge of the Russian police force, also referred questions to the security service, where a duty officer refused to comment on the case.

The NTV report featured videotape of the roadside cafe where several of the suspects were arrested, and a local police headquarters. It did not show any officials who could confirm the arrest.

NTV also interviewed Nikolai Shingarev, a spokesman for the Nuclear Power Ministry, who said there were several plants in and around Moscow where such material could be obtained. Weapons-grade uranium is sometimes used in research reactors.

Alexander Koldobsky, a senior researcher at the Moscow Engineering and Physical Institute, told NTV that the quantity of uranium reportedly seized would be insufficient to make a nuclear weapon.

-------- sweden

Vattenfall mull swapping Barseback n-plant for gas

Story by Erik Brynhildsbakken
Reuters:
7/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13616

OSLO - Swedish state utility Vattenfall, struggling to find alternatives after a parliamentary vote to shut its Barseback nuclear reactor, said yesterday a natural gas plant at the same site was the only realistic solution.

"It is difficult to see any proper alternatives to natural gas once Barseback is shut down," Vattenfall information chief Karl Erik Olsson told Reuters.

"The only realistic alternative that has been up for discussion is natural gas."

Sweden, aiming to phase out nuclear power and replace it with renewable sources such as wind and biofuel, has hinted it might delay the planned shut down of the Barseback reactor in 2003 as it has failed to come up with alternative power sources.

The 600-megawatt Barseback facility produces some 3-4 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity a year, and Olsson said a natural gas plant could make use of the infrastructure at the site and be hooked on to the grid without much extra costs.

Sweden's total annual production is about 145 TWh.

Olsson said natural gas, despite its emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), was the most environmentally friendly alternative as an increase in imports would likely come from even more polluting coal-based generation.

"One could make a considerable increase in imports, but the power at hand is Danish, German and Polish coal power," he said.

Sweden decided in 1997 to phase out its nuclear power industry on the condition that electricity prices remained stable and that lost power would be replaced by renewables.

One reactor at Barseback has already been shut down according to plan in 1999, but the government said this autumn that the remaining reactor might continue beyond its 2003 deadline as it saw no other options.

SWEDEN IN KYOTO SQUEEZE

Sweden aims under the Kyoto climate pact to to cut its CO2 emissions by at least two percent from 1990 levels by 2010, but a giant natural gas plant at Barseback would make that a difficult target to reach as nuclear generation is CO2-free.

"One has to remember that natural gas according to the Kyoto deal is dubious because one would go from zero emissions (at Barseback) to at least some emissions," Olsson said. "That might not be very popular."

Barseback is situated at Sweden's southern tip, only some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) away from the Danish capital Copenhagen.

The Danes, which claim they can see Barseback across the Oresund strait on a clear day, regard the plant as a safety risk and has repeatedly called for it to be shut down.

Barseback was formerly owned by Swedish rival Sydkraft , but Vattenfall took over the plant as part of a deal between Sydkraft, Vattenfall and the state when the first reactor was taken off line.

-------- terrorism

A Civil Defense Corps

Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A40
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5979-2001Dec6?language=printer

David Broder's Nov. 21 op-ed column, "Old Idea for a New Era," raised the possibility of reinstating the draft for homeland defense. That reminded me of another "old idea," which might be considered as well: the Civilian Defense Corps.

Back in the early days of the Cold War, the Civilian Defense Corps was established to help in the event of nuclear attack.

Although I was in junior high school then and so I didn't know much about the organization, I remember being part of a cadre of civilian volunteers under the leadership of professionals (firefighters, police, etc.) with the emphasis on recovery in the aftermath of nuclear attack. I held perhaps the lowest-level job of "messenger" (this was before cell phones and the like).

Thousands of civilians, especially retirees like me, would volunteer for homeland security assignments. Isn't it worth considering?

LAWRENCE D. POWERS
Reston

--------

Congress Urged to Safeguard Nuclear Reactors Against Terrorism

December 7, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-07-04.html

WASHINGTON, DC, A House subcommittee reviewing security issues at the America's nuclear facilities was warned Wednesday that there are "unresolved vulnerabilities."

Legislation has been introduced which would federalize security at nuclear power generators and fuel processing plants by directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish a security force for "sensitive" facilities, including the nation's 103 operating nuclear power plants.

The Commission "strongly opposes" the enactment of such legislation, but the head of a concerned citizens' group says immediate anti-aircraft protection at each reactor site is needed to deal with possible attacks by aircraft in terrorist hands.

"Put simply," said Paul Leventhal, founding president of the Nuclear Control Institute, "the nation's nuclear power reactors are vulnerable to attack by terrorists, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other government entities have failed to move decisively to impose the further security measures that are needed to prevent a successful attack and avert catastrophic radiological consequences."

Missouri's Callaway Nuclear Plant operated by the Union Electric Company (Photos courtesy NRC)

The Nuclear Control Institute, a non-profit organization based in Washington and concerned with security against nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, Leventhal was invited by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce" Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to give testimony concerning the security of these power plants.

He spoke also on behalf of the Los Angeles based nuclear policy organization, the Committee to Bridge the Gap. For 17 years, the two organizations have been warning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) "to act responsibly and to protect these facilities adequately," Leventhal said. "We submitted petitions for rulemaking, met with Commissioners and their staffs, submitted scholarly studies. With one partial exception, a truck bomb rule of insufficient effectiveness, our efforts have been repeatedly frustrated."

But now the time has come to act, Leventhal urged. "The horrendous attacks of September 11 have now made NRC foot dragging intolerable. The new threat should now be evident to all, and the country can afford to wait no longer," he said. "The vulnerabilities at these plants can and must be closed, now."

He said the American people "have a right to know the dangers and to demand the prompt corrective actions that we propose to protect nuclear power plants from terrorist attacks and the unthinkable consequences that could follow."

"It is prudent to assume that the terrorist adversary knows that the plants are vulnerable," Leventhal testified. He cited recent trial testimony confirming that Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps "were offering instruction in 'urban warfare' against 'enemies' installations' including power plants."

But under current regulations reactor operators are not required to protect against attacks by an "enemy of the United States," be it a nation or a person, Leventhal pointed out. "In the absence of the federal government taking responsibility for security of these nuclear sites against attacks by 'enemies,' it is clear that protection of the public in this regard is falling through the cracks."

Twenty-five years ago, Congress split the Atomic Energy Commission into two separate agencies in order to end the inherent conflict between promotion and regulation of nuclear energy, Leventhal explained. As a member of the staff of the Senate Government Operations Committee, he was "intimately involved" in preparing the law that created the Nuclear Regulatory Committee and the present day Department of Energy.

Leventhal says the two sides - promotion and regulation of nuclear power - have once again become too close and the regulatory side is too close to the nuclear industry for effective regulation.

The subcommittee heard from NRC Chairman Richard Meserve that since September 11 the commission has maintained a round the clock operation of NRC's Emergency Operations Center. A safeguards team receives "a substantial and steady flow of information from the intelligence community, law enforcement, and licensees that requires prompt evaluation to determine whether to advise licensees about any changes in the threat environment in general or for a particular plant."

Meserve gave the lawmakers an example of threat readiness. "The NRC received information in the early evening in mid-October about an impending air attack on the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant that could not be discounted by the law enforcement and intelligence communities," the chairman said.

"This resulted in immediate notification of the licensee for Three Mile Island, the establishment of a no-fly zone by the Federal Aviation Administration, and the deployment of military assets. Although by early the next morning a determination was made that this threat was not credible, NRC, other federal agencies, and the licensee were obliged to act quickly because no one was able initially to discredit the threat," he said.

Ft. Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska

That level of readiness is not enough for Leventhal who called for anti-aircraft protection at each reactor site to deal with possible attacks by aircraft. "We note the French government has deployed anti-aircraft measures at sensitive nuclear facilities in France. Why has this not been done here, when we are the country that was attacked on September 11?" he asked the subcommittee.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it is clear that a greater threat exists than provided for in the current Design Basis Threat regulations for nuclear power plants.

"The new 'design basis threat,' made manifest by September 11," said Leventhal, "is at least 19 sophisticated and suicidal terrorists attacking from at least four different directions. Mr. Chairman, we ask that this Subcommittee inquire of the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission whether any nuclear power plant today is capable of repelling an attack of that magnitude. If the answer is no, as we suspect it will be, he should be asked why he has not promptly ordered an immediately effective upgrade of the NRC security rules to meet such a threat, and why, in the meantime, he has not advised the President that military protection of these plants is needed to deter and defeat such an attack."

Each the power plants should be protected with at least 30 National Guard personnel to provide a visible show of force and a credible deterrent to attack, Leventhal said. He called for a thorough re-evaluation of all nuclear power plant personnel, including the "hundreds of outside contractors who are onsite during refueling outages and for routine maintenance," for potential security risks and establish "an immediate strict two-person rule to reduce risks of insider attack."

The NRC's Meserve has somewhat different proposals for Congressional action. He says federalizing the security at nuclear facilities could cost over $1 billion a year, and is not needed. In the Commission's view, "the qualified, trained, and tightly regulated private guard forces at nuclear plants should not be replaced by a new federal security force."

The commission is asking Congress to make federal prohibitions on sabotage apply to the operation and construction of nuclear reactors, enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities.

It should be a federal crime to bring unauthorized weapons and explosives into NRC licensed facilities, Meserve said. Some state laws currently preclude private guard forces at facilities regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from utilizing a wide range of weapons, so the commission is asking Congress to authorize NRC guards to carry and use firearms.

Ralph Beedle, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear industry association, told the subcommittee that the nation's nuclear plants are secure right now. "Nuclear plants are the most secure commercial facilities in the United States, even exceeding the protection found at most military installations," he said. "Reactor fuel is protected by a combination of 12 feet of concrete and steel between the exterior of the building and the fuel itself."

"Nuclear power plants assumed the highest level of readiness immediately after the events of September 11," Beedle assured the subcommittee. "Our plants continue to maintain the highest level of security. This heightened state of alert means that the industry has added security posts and expanded the physical barriers where needed, increased patrols of our grounds and perimeters, and restricted access by the general public, among other things."

But this level of increased security is not enough, Leventhal warned, "We must move quickly to prevent attacks on nuclear power plants that could release immense amounts of cancer causing, radioactive contamination over large, densely populated areas. We all would have trouble living with ourselves if the worst happened and we had we not taken every possible step to prevent it. We must act now."

-------

Uranium theft raises nuclear fears

Friday, 7 December, 2001
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1697000/1697907.stm

Russia retains a vast nuclear arsenal Russian police have arrested seven men trying to sell more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of suspected weapons-grade uranium.

If the material is established to be the high-level enriched variety of uranium-235, this will be the first confirmed case of a theft of this kind in Russia itself.

Russian Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Yelnikov said the amount of uranium was too small to make a nuclear device, and that it seemed that the men had got their hands on it by chance.

However the incident is likely to increase international concern over the possibility that nuclear material could fall into the hands of militant groups.

"It looks like they accidentally got their hands on the uranium and were trying to sell it," Mr Yelnikov told the Associated Press news agency.

"It's not like they were trying to sell the material to some Afghan terrorists," he added.

Mr Yelnikov said that most of the suspects, arrested outside Moscow overnight on Tuesday, allegedly belonged to the well-known Balashikha criminal gang.

They apparently tried to sell the uranium for $30,000 to another gang, but as yet there is no clear indication of how they had obtained the uranium in the first place.

Russian nuclear experts are examining the capsule containing the uranium to determine its place of origin and assess it potency.

It is thought it could have come from a nuclear research centre or a production plant.

Nuclear risk

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned recently that the security and regulation of nuclear material in the former Soviet Union was deficient, and called for greater international efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear smuggling.

David Kyd of the IAEA told BBC News Online there had been 175 known cases of attempts to smuggle nuclear material out of former Soviet Republics.

The largest confirmed disappearance of weapons-grade uranium from the former Soviet Union was in Georgia, where in July police arrested three men attempting to sell 1.7 kilograms (3.75lbs) of uranium-235 to buyers in Turkey.

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

Fallout Shelters Rise in Popularity

December 7, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Fallout-Shelters.html?searchpv=aponline

Fearing nuclear terrorism, Americans are building home fallout shelters in numbers unseen since the peak of the Cold War, sometimes even mortgaging homes to cover costs, say shelter makers and designers.

Some corporations are giving the shelters to top executives as a perk, one dealer said.

Gone are the days when defense experts scoffed and neighbors shook their heads and chuckled.

``They're treating me less like a crazy woman than they did before,'' says Dr. Jane Orient, of Tucson, Ariz., who promotes home shelters as head of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.

Walton McCarthy, president of shelter builder Radius Defense and Engineering in Northwood, N.H., says he is making almost four times as many of his egg-shaped, fiberglass underground shelters since Sept. 11 -- roughly one a day. He is planning a bigger factory.

Nuclear engineer Sharon Packer says sales have also quadrupled -- to more than four a month -- at her company, Utah Shelter Systems in Heber, Utah.

``People start calling at 5:30 a.m., and I don't go to bed until 11:30 at night,'' she said.

The idea of family fallout shelters is not new or uniquely American. Switzerland has mandated them in new housing.

In the early Cold War, thousands of Americans built fallout shelters in backyards and basements. The federal government even put out designs.

By the late 1960s, though, a new mindset began taking hold. Elaborate civil defenses, the thinking went, could aggravate tensions by stoking Soviet fears of an American first strike. Besides, how could a personal shelter protect against the apocalypse of nuclear war between superpowers? Shelter builders began to seem like eccentrics, and shelters seemed even more superfluous with the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Then came the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Even if countries are rational enough to keep a finger off the nuclear trigger, how about terrorists?

``What has happened in the current atmosphere is that our opponent is fanatical. He's not rational,'' said Ed York, of Kent, Wash., an authority on home shelter design who specialized in hardening targets against attack for Boeing Co.

Analysts have warned that terrorists would not need to master the complex technology of a nuclear explosion or intercontinental missile guidance. They could pack radioactive material around a core of conventional explosives for a lesser bang -- but lots of contamination.

Such a ``dirty bomb'' attack might well be more survivable with a fallout shelter.

``When you had civil defense in the 1960s, that was ridiculous,'' says physicist Edwin Lyman, who is scientific director at the Nuclear Control Institute, a research group in Washington, D.C. ``Now, in the context of the risks associated with a terrorist who might have a small number of ... radiological weapons, it's not necessarily a bad idea to think if there are procedures that would avert casualties.''

Home shelters vary widely in size, degree of protection, and cost.

Nearly everyone agrees they should provide a radiation barrier of 3-to-4 feet of dirt or at least two of concrete.

Some dealers supply plans for basement shelters that cost as little as several thousand dollars. For maximum protection against biological, nuclear and chemical threats, prices balloon to $40,000 and higher. Such shelters are equipped with air filtration systems and hand-pump toilets, allowing people to hold out from 30 days to several months.

Bill Eckhoff, president of Kleen Air Technologies, in Frisco, Colo., sells a home shelter that comes complete with blast-proof doors, backup diesel generator and decontamination area. The roomy 800-square-foot model can cost more than $300,000.

``We believe if you have to sit through a transition period, why not maintain a quality of life?'' he says.

Sound pricey? He says inquiries have doubled to about 30 a day since Sept. 11.

Many analysts believe that other terrorist threats are more likely than a nuclear attack.

``I would be more concerned about chemical, biological or gas, because they're more in the range of what these groups can do,'' said Milton Copulos, a retired Army intelligence officer who is president of the National Defense Council Foundation, a think tank in Alexandria, Va.

He keeps a supply of bottled water at home. If someone is still nervous, he suggests not a fallout shelter, but a few emergency provisions for a chemical attack -- plastic sheeting, duct tape and bottled oxygen.

State and federal authorities are prepared to shelter emergency personnel and government leaders. However, they downplay the value of home shelters.

``Maybe there are better ways to protect your family,'' says Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

``Evacuation is still the primary protective measure in the event of a nuclear incident,'' adds Don Jacks, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The new federal Office of Homeland Security is not promoting home fallout shelters either, according to spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Most Americans also remain unconverted. Physicist Marcel Barbier of Herndon, Va., who has consulted with government laboratories on radiation safety, put in his own home shelter in 1985 but says neighbors aren't taking his cue. ``The people here need to receive a nuclear bomb on their head before they understand it can happen -- and I hope it doesn't happen,'' he said.

-------- washington

DOE proposes vitrification cuts

Fri, Dec 7, 2001
By John Stang and Annette Cary Herald staff writers
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2001/1207-1.html

PORTLAND -- The Department of Energy wants to avoid converting 75 percent of Hanford's radioactive tank wastes into glass.

That concept was broached in a Nov. 19 memo from DOE cleanup czar Jesse Roberson to DOE's budget office. Todd Martin, chairman of the Hanford Advisory Board, who obtained a copy of the memo, distributed it Thursday at a board meeting in Portland.

The memo shocked board members.

Such a move would drastically change Hanford's plan for dealing with its worst environmental problem, 53 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes in 177 underground tanks.

Hanford has more tank wastes than all other DOE sites combined and is also the only site without a glassification plant.

Roberson's memo addressed DOE efforts to trim its estimate that 70 years and $300 billion are needed to clean up all wastes at nuclear weapons production sites.

The memo lists nine top priorities, including cutting $100 billion and 30 years from current cost and schedule estimates.

Another priority notes, "High-level waste processing is the single largest cost ... in the environmental management program today. Eliminate the need to vitrify at least 75 percent of the waste scheduled for vitrification today. Develop at least two proven, cost-effective solutions to every high-level waste stream ... "

Vitrification means converting the radioactive waste into glass.

The other priorities include shrinking DOE cleanup areas by 40 percent in four years, opening Hanford and the Nevada Test Site to receive mixed low-level radioactive and chemical wastes from other DOE sites, and to "deinventory nuclear materials" at Hanford and three other sites by 2004. The memo did not elaborate on what that would mean.

But it was the proposal to not glassify 75 percent of the wastes that stunned HAB members. State officials learned of the proposal last week and are also disturbed.

"It's clear that the Department of Energy is saying, 'To hell with the Tri-Party Agreement,' " said HAB member Gerald Pollet, representing Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group. The agreement governs Hanford cleanup.

HAB member Greg DeBruler, representing Columbia Riverkeeper, said: "I don't think we have (a DOE) that is reflective of the wishes of the Northwest. We have an agency reflective of the Washington, D.C., Beltway."

Mike Wilson, nuclear waste program manager for the state Department of Ecology, said: "That memo is one of the most troubling things we've seen in a long time."

"It's somewhat disconcerting that this just kind of shows up without folks getting advance notice of a significant shift in policy," said Joe Shorin, an assistant state attorney general for Hanford matters.

In subsequent statements, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., said they also found the proposal troubling.

"It is time for the administration to understand that we will not let them renege on the promise made to clean up Hanford," Murray said.

The administration appears to want to sacrifice the people living near Hanford, which is "morally reprehensible," she said.

Roberson and Bob Card, the undersecretary of Energy, recently confirmed their commitment to completing construction of the first vitrification plant at Hanford and the first phase of vitrification during a meeting with Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said Hastings spokesman Todd Young.

The proposal would not affect plans for the next decade, he said, which would handle 10 percent of the waste.

Looking far to the future, Roberson wants to see if there are less expensive ways to clean up the waste, Young said.

State officials and HAB members cautioned that they don't know the overall context of Roberson's memo.

For example, since it is an internal DOE memo, HAB members and state officials said they don't know whether the 75 percent reduction is a trial balloon or a serious concept.

Also, the Northwest needs to find out whether the number is arbitrary or is backed up by appropriate studies, said Dennis Faulk of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The memo needs to be probed in the context of Hanford's initial and subsequent glassification projects, which run through 2018, Shorin said.

Consequently, HAB members are preparing to send a letter to Roberson to ask for clarification.

The letter also is to address other board concerns, including:

n Roberson recently has taken some decision-making authority from DOE field offices.

That reverses a trend of the late 1990s, when Hastings pushed for more authority for field offices, which are closer to the actual cleanup.

n Signals from DOE Washington, D.C., that top officials may be reassigned. The board wants to keep Keith Klein and Harry Boston as DOE's top Hanford managers because they know the site and its issues well.

-------- us politics

Weldon's savvy luring attention

Friday, December 7, 2001
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/12/07/local/BAER07C.htm?template=aprint.htm

WASHINGTON - The ebb and flow of politics is a wonder to behold.

Take Curt Weldon.

The veteran 54-year-old Delaware County congressman, who lives (at best) in peripheral vision of the public eye, is quickly emerging as someone to watch.

He's suddenly in the swift mainstream of America's hot issues; in fact, he's right on the crest of the wave.

For 15 years, Weldon used a personal pit-bull style to push national security, anti-terrorism and emergency preparedness.

Some said he pushed too hard. A troublemaker. An alarmist.

He went to Russia 27 times. He argued that lax arms-treaty management was sending weapons technology, including nuclear, chemical and biological know-how, to America's Middle East enemies.

He went to disasters, earthquakes, the Oklahoma bombing, and argued that local emergency personnel are ill-prepared to deal with catastrophe.

Three years ago, he pushed for a new system, the National Operations Analysis Hub, to coordinate federal agencies dealing with threats of terrorism.

"People laughed at me," says Weldon. "They said I was just trying to scare people."

Few are laughing now.

On Sept. 11, he says, "the American government let the American people down." He blames the first Bush administration, the Clinton administration and Congress.

Weldon contends unenforced nonproliferation treaties, scaled back "politically correct" intelligence-gathering and poor coordination in communications and info-sharing contributed to the attacks.

"Our agencies don't want to have their data shared," he says. If they did, "that may have been able to impact September 11."

He says that Special Forces a year ago wanted to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden's terrorist cells, but the effort was put off "because in an election year, you don't want a major military operation."

Weldon has war stories: CIA and FBI agents coming to him seeking briefings on info he got from the Army; a former Russian two-star general telling him Moscow has "no idea" where 90 "suitcase nukes" - small atomic devices capable of blowing up a football stadium and radiating a city - are now; clear evidence Russia sent or sold missile technology and more to Iraq, in "gross violation" of arms pacts.

"People don't like to talk about our shortcomings," Weldon told me in his Capitol Hill office; "people like to talk about how great we are."

But these days he gets an audience.

He's third-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee (missed being elected chairman last year by one vote); he chairs the Armed Services Procurement Subcommittee overseeing $83 billion in military spending; he founded the Congressional Fire Services Caucus.

This week, he met with homeland security chief Tom Ridge (rare for a rank-and-file member of the House) to push for closer work with Russia, improved data-sharing, upgraded local emergency services.

"He needs to do all this," Weldon says.

As a former teacher and volunteer Marcus Hook firefighter, Weldon says he wants to use his background, his years of issue work, his "unique position. . .to basically help the country."

The way things are flowing, he could get the chance.

--------

BIOTERRORISM
Pentagon Presses for a Radiation Drug

New York Times
December 7, 2001
By ANDREW POLLACK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/business/07RADI.html

Amid concerns that Middle Eastern terrorists might have procured radioactive weapons, the Defense Department is pressing for approval of a novel drug that could help protect people from radiation.

As fears of terrorism grow, the drug, known as 5-androstenediol, is receiving increased scrutiny along with other experimental treatments and drugs already on the market. The National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy have invited leading radiation experts to a workshop in Bethesda, Md., on Dec. 17 and 18 to review approaches for protecting people from radiation.

The drug is a steroid hormone that appears to strengthen the immune system. It was developed by Dr. Roger M. Loria, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and rights to it are held by Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals of San Diego.

"This is an area that hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention," said Dr. John E. Moulder, professor of radiation oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Working on trying to cure patients of cancer gets you more headlines than working on treating people for nuclear accidents that you hope will never occur."

So far, the Hollis-Eden drug has been tested as a radiation protectant only in mice. In one test, an injection protected 70 percent of mice from a level of radiation that killed all the mice in the control group.

Dr. Thomas M. Seed, leader for radiation casualty management at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, said the drug was his institute's leading candidate for something to give to soldiers in advance of possible radiation exposure. Such a drug would also be useful for civilians, including people responding to an accident at a nuclear power plant, he said.

Since it would be unethical to expose people to large doses of radiation to test the drug's effectiveness, Dr. Seed said he hoped the Food and Drug Administration would approve it under a new rule allowing tests on monkeys or other animals.

American officials have said there is little evidence that Osama bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons. But some experts have said terrorists might try to make a so-called radiological bomb by combining conventional explosives with radioactive material like spent nuclear fuel.

Hollis-Eden has been testing a drug similar to androstenediol as a treatment for AIDS, the idea being to stimulate the patient's own immune system to fight the virus.

For defense use, the drug is aimed mainly at preventing death from intense radiation in the short term by restoring various kinds of infection- fighting immune system cells. Radiation can kill the immune system, leaving victims vulnerable to potentially fatal infections.

Some radiation experts were cautious, saying the Pentagon, hoping to have soldiers function in a nuclear war, had tried many such compounds without success. In some cases the protection afforded was not enough, and some drugs seemed to protect animals but caused bad side effects in people.

The Hollis-Eden drug could have other problems, too. It needs to be injected, which can take time in an emergency. And it would probably not be possible to know of exposure in advance of a terrorist attack.

In addition, Dr. Fred Mettler, chairman of radiology at the University of New Mexico, said that just solving the immune system problems might not be enough because people could still die months later from other types of radiation-induced damage, such as to the lungs.

Dr. David J. Grdina, professor of radiation oncology at the University of Chicago, said it was more important to develop drugs that protect people against cancer from radiation than against the immediate lethal effects. More people are likely to be exposed to sublethal doses of radiation while cleaning up or standing guard at the site of a radioactive attack than might be exposed to lethal doses in the attack itself, he said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving toward stockpiling millions of potassium iodide pills to prevent thyroid cancer in those exposed to radioactive iodide if a nuclear power plant was attacked.

Dr. Grdina is trying to use a drug called amifostine to prevent cancer from radiation. The drug, sold as Ethyol by MedImmune Inc. (news/quote ) of Gaithersburg, Md., is already approved to protect the salivary glands from radiation therapy used to treat head and neck cancer.

Dr. Moulder has found that two drugs for high blood pressure, ACE inhibitors and A2 blockers, protect animals from the kidney failure and lung damage that can occur months after radiation.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Russian raids provide U.S. intelligence

By RICHARD SALE
UPI Terrorism Correspondent
December 7, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/07122001-063245-5633r.htm

The U.S. search for Osama bin Laden, the No. 1 suspect behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, received help from an unexpected quarter -- the Russian military -- U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.

Russian soldiers fighting with the Northern Alliance conducted raids on Taliban compounds and collected documents and other intelligence that shed light on bin Laden's whereabouts, according to intelligence sources.

Earlier reports said the Saudi-born millionaire who heads al Qaida had taken refuge in the cave-riddled hills near Tora Bora near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan.

"The Russians have given the United States the best intelligence we've had on the Taliban and bin Laden since military operations began on Oct. 7," an administration official said. "They have provided the most comprehensive intelligence picture."

Administration officials said Russian troops and military experts fighting alongside the Northern Alliance were a major factor in the opposition force's defeat of the Tailban.

But the Russians also had their own objectives in the Afghan offensive. The officials said the Russians sought out and raided Chechen terrorists with links to bin Laden. Intelligence sources said bin Laden's mujahedin were an elite strike force in Chechnya, the Russian republic where rebels have waged a separatist war against Russia.

"This is not some rogue military effort," said Michael McFaul, research fellow and Russian expert at the Hoover Institution, who says the Russians "changed the combat competence" of the Northern Alliance overnight. "This is coming straight from Russian boss (Vladimir) Putin."

According to Tom Henriksen, a Hoover Institution senior fellow who is another Russian expert, Moscow "accumulated an unmatched storehouse of intelligence on the country" in the years before and during its occupation of Afghanistan.

One U.S. intelligence official told United Press International that the former Soviet intelligence services "had saturated" the population of Afghanistan, including tribes and Islamic resistance movements, often using refugees and sleeper agents to infiltrate groups and gain access to crucial information.

"The Soviets may have been defeated, but they always held the military initiative, and they achieved a tremendous penetration of the Afghan resistance," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said the Russians were able to exploit "traditionalists, nationalists, feuds and mistrust between Afghan resistance leaders, and they also managed deep intelligence penetration and manipulation of the hostile population."

This intelligence, along with intimate and detailed knowledge of "the character and background of chieftains, tribes, routes, paths, even sources of water" has all been placed at U.S. disposal, he said.

Meanwhile, the Russian presence on the ground in the current campaign "is continuing to increase," Henriksen said.

But other experts and administration officials said another motive might lay behind the vigor of Russian assistance: "I think the Russians want to play a major international role in this conflict," said Henriksen.

Still, McFaul believed that the recent unannounced arrival of 12 Il-76 Russian transport planes in Kabul last week deeply surprised the Bush administration. "The Russians stole quite a march. I think it startled people."

"You just don't arrive like that without telling anyone," said Henriksen.

According to U.S. officials, the aircraft carried two specific groups: one whose mission was to establish Russian diplomatic representation, and the other was sent to put in place humanitarian aid efforts directed at central Afghanistan. Russian special forces were included to provide security, they said. The Russian Defense Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have publicly declined to provide details on the number of troops involved.

Speaking at a recent meeting of Russia's Security Council in Moscow, Putin said he ordered the mission at the request of Afghan president and Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former professor of the Afghan State Faculty of Islam, and a Tajik, according to U.S. officials.

"Russia has always recognized the Northern Alliance and Rabbani as president, and it has in no way abandoned that position," said McFaul. No other leader in the coalition "had gone to these lengths," he said.

McFaul said Russia wants to play an influential role in setting up a post-Taliban government for Afghanistan, but realizes "that its hand is weak." He said Russia wanted to avoid "simply being summoned in to sign papers after a post-Taliban government has been formed."

But while some U.S. officials speculated that perhaps what Russia asked of President George W. Bush in exchange for its help was that the United States turn a blind eye to Russian attempts to suppress Chechen rebels, McFaul strongly disagreed: "That's nonsense. This is not the kind of cooperation where Russia said, if I give you this, you have to give me that. This was saying to us: we're getting on board, and we want to be considered a mayor player."

What Russia hopes for "is to demonstrate to Bush that it wants to be part of the West -- a member of NATO, a member of the World Trade Organization. It's a new relation at a strategic level," said McFaul.

--------

Taliban surrenders stronghold

By Willis Witter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 7, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011207-25037900.htm

QUETTA, Pakistan - Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar yesterday gave in to daily U.S. air strikes and the armed rebellion by local tribes and agreed to surrender his last stronghold of Kandahar in exchange for amnesty, a deal the United States quickly disapproved.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington that the Bush administration would not accept any deal that allowed Mullah Omar to remain free and "live in dignity" anywhere in the region.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the surrender agreement was not "sufficiently mature" to lead to a permanent halt in U.S. bombing on Kandahar. The U.S. goal for Kandahar remains to "see that people who ought not to escape do not escape and to encourage surrender," he said.

"We have as our principal objectives seeing that we deal effectively with the senior al Qaeda leadership and the Taliban leadership and that the remaining al Qaeda fighters do not leave the country and go off to conduct additional terrorist attacks on other nations, including the United States, and that Afghanistan not be a nation that harbors terrorists," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Hamid Karzai, chosen at a U.N. conference on Wednesday to head Afghanistan's first post-Taliban government, negotiated the deal yesterday with a delegation of Taliban leaders and military commanders, who traveled 10 miles north of Kandahar to a site occupied by Mr. Karzai and 4,000 anti-Taliban fighters.

"The Taliban have decided to surrender Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul [provinces] to me and, in exchange, we have offered them amnesty and they can go to their homes without trouble," Mr. Karzai told CNN by satellite telephone.

The handover of power - slated to begin today - would achieve a major objective of the U.S.-led war on terrorism by wiping out the last big pocket of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, a country that Mullah Omar turned into a haven for international terrorists, who went on to kill more than 3,000 people in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Mr. Karzai said Mullah Omar would have to renounce international terrorism as one condition to receiving amnesty.

However, the agreement appeared to get off to a shaky start. By late last night, an expected surrender announcement by the Taliban had not materialized. And in Washington, Bush administration officials ruled as unacceptable any amnesty offer for Mullah Omar.

Throughout the two-month air campaign, U.S. officials, including President Bush, equated Mullah Omar with his guest, Osama bin Laden.

"The president believes very strongly that those who harbor terrorists must be brought to justice," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Asked whether Mr. Bush believed that category included Mullah Omar, Mr. Fleischer said, "Yes."

The former Taliban ambassador in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad confirmed that a deal had been struck in which Mullah Omar would be allowed a dignified exit.

"This was the decision of the Amir-ul Momineen, to stop the blood[shed] of people in the city and save the lives of the people from the cruel, criminal bombing," said ex-Ambassador Abdul Salem Zaeef, using the mullah's official title, which translates as "leader of the faithful."

Yesterday's announcement marked a reversal for Mullah Omar, who a week ago vowed to defend Kandahar to the death.

U.S. planes have pounded the city, which is revered by militant Islamists worldwide as the birthplace of the Taliban.

Yesterday, bombs stopped falling on Kandahar, and one local opposition commander, former Kandahar Gov. Gul Aga, claimed control of the airport 10 miles southeast of the city.

Other reports from the region suggested that control of Helmand province had already been turned over to local anti-Taliban groups. Helmand, located to the west of Kandahar city and province, is a rich agricultural region where the runoff from snow-capped mountains makes the desert bloom with fruit and vegetables.

Zabul, the third province to be handed over by the Taliban, lies northeast of Kandahar.

The agreement did not touch on the fate of either bin Laden or the Arabs. But Mr. Karzai has said he wants to rid Afghanistan of foreign fighters, especially the Arabs, many reputed to be religious fanatics obsessed with killing Westerners.

"Give me a gun, and I will kill him," one wounded Yemeni Arab said yesterday when asked to meet with a visiting reporter at the municipal hospital in Quetta.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported yesterday that the Taliban had refused to hand over Kandahar to Mr. Karzai directly.

Instead, it is to be entrusted to Mullah Naqeebullah, a former commander from the anti-Soviet campaign in the 1980s who lives in Kandahar but was not part of the Taliban government, AIP said.

Mr. Karzai's younger brother, Ahmad, told reporters in Quetta that Mullah Naqeebullah had been part of yesterday's surrender talks, but no further details were provided.

Despite difficulties in implementing the accord, Ahmad Karzai said both he and his brother were optimistic that the Taliban would keep its word.

The surrender negotiations began yesterday morning when a delegation of five senior Taliban leaders and several Taliban commanders crossed the front lines to meet Hamid Karzai.

As a show of good faith, they brought along three commanders loyal to Mr. Karzai, who had spent the past two years in Taliban jails, and set them free.

The amnesty offered by Mr. Karzai to Mullah Omar and senior Taliban officials reportedly required that they first hand over their weapons. Mr. Karzai is chief of the influential Popalzai clan, one of the few in Afghanistan that never surrendered to the Taliban.

On Tuesday night, just hours before being selected to lead Afghanistan in a six-month transitional government, he was slightly wounded by an errant U.S. bomb that killed three members of the U.S. Special Forces.

----

Kandahar, refuge of misery

December 7, 2001
By Willis Witter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011207-69476544.htm

CHAMAN, Pakistan - Two months of pounding by American jets and a siege by local tribal forces had turned the Taliban's final refuge, Kandahar, into a scene of acute misery in the days before the hard-line militia's decision yesterday to surrender.

Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, the man chosen to lead the first post-Taliban government in Afghanistan, says he looks forward to rebuilding Afghanistan, but that optimism is lost on the refugees living in camps near the Pakistani border city of Chaman.

Many here spoke of the sleepless nights and empty stomachs that helped persuade Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to give up his spiritual capital without a fight.

"Six or seven times a day, planes came and bombs fell. There were even more bombs at night. People were terrified," said Akhtar Mohammed, 30, a scrap metal dealer.

Others told of growing hunger in the city, especially as fighting around the airport to the east frequently closed the main road from Chaman to trucks filled with international relief supplies.

"Conditions have gotten so severe that most civilians have fled. There just isn't enough food to go around. The Taliban came and unloaded all the relief trucks," said Abdul Ali, 35, a cabdriver who arrived in Chaman after driving the 75-mile route littered with the burned-out shells of cars and trucks hit by U.S. bombs.

Taliban defenses swiftly receded after the fall of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Nov. 9, when the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance took over most of northern Afghanistan and the Taliban surrendered most of the mountainous eastern region to local tribal leaders.

But the Taliban maintained control of Kandahar, the city where Mullah Omar's militant Islamist movement first gained a foothold in the early 1990s before proceeding to assume control of more than 90 percent of Afghanistan.

The tomb of Ahmad Shah, the founder of a Pashtun tribal dynasty that ruled Afghanistan until the 1973 coup against the former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, still dominates the central bazaar in Kandahar, an oasis city of apple and apricot orchards on the edge of the nation's vast southern desert.

Next to the tomb lies a shrine that contains a cloak said to have been worn by the Prophet Muhammad himself. In 1996, Mullah Omar wrapped the cloak around himself in front of a large crowd and proclaimed himself the "Amir-ul Momineen," or "leader of the faithful."

Refugees from Kandahar were surprised to learn that the mullah had decided to hand over the city.

"I saw Mullah Omar about 13 days ago. He was wandering through the city with his companions," said Mr. Mohammed, the scrap metal dealer. "He can't leave Kandahar because it is his city."

At Chaman, hundreds of families camp in the open, in a no-man's land 300 yards wide between Afghanistan and Pakistan, waiting with empty stomachs to be registered by the United Nations and moved to nearby tent cities where food rations are passed out.

Zalmay, a laborer from Kandahar who like many Afghans uses just one name, brought his four children, mother and father to Chaman two days after an air strike killed his wife of 10 years.

"They've had nothing to eat for the past 45 hours," said Mr. Zalmay, a slight man with sunken cheeks and a scraggly beard.

"When night comes and it's time to eat, the children start crying because there's no milk, no food to eat, only water."

Just a few feet away, other recent refugees sit on the floor of a giant white tent, waiting to be registered by officials of the U.N. World Food Program so that they can receive shelter and food rations.

Inside, a little boy clings to his mother quietly, his dust-caked cheeks bearing the trail of recent tears.

U.N. officials say it takes up to three days to register new refugees, with nearly 2,000 arriving daily.

Pakistani officials send those too sick or too injured to wait for the United Nations on to the hospital. Mr. Zalmay's father is being treated for shrapnel wounds there, and is not expected to survive.

----

Marines Attack Taliban Convoy

DECEMBER 07, 06:23 ET
By DAVID MARTIN
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/?SLUG=AFGHANISTAN%2dMARINES

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN (AP) - U.S. Marines attacked a Taliban convoy near Kandahar on Friday, killing seven fighters in their first offensive ground action since setting up base in southern Afghanistan, a Marines spokesman said. No Marines were injured.

Three Taliban vehicles approached a ``hunter-killer'' team of Marines on heavily armed Humvees at 4 a.m., and the Marines attacked from the ground and from the air, said the spokesman, Capt. David Romley.

``The enemy were shot dead,'' Romley said. ``The forces killed were believed to be al-Qaida and Taliban forces.''

Some of the Taliban and al-Qaida forces jumped out of their vehicles, he said. The Marines on the ground destroyed one of the vehicles, and called for air support that destroyed the other two, he said. It was unclear whether the aircraft came from the Marine airstrip or were based elsewhere.

Romley said it was unclear whether the Marines came under enemy fire. He said the bodies of the seven dead had not been recovered.

The specific location of the confrontation wasn't revealed, but Romley said it occurred ``near Kandahar,'' the last city under Taliban control. The city began to surrender to opposition forces on Friday.

Romley said the attack was the Marines' first offensive ground operation since seizing a desert airstrip as Forward Operating Base Rhino on Nov. 25.

Since the Marines seized the desert airstrip, their only combat operation came on their second day, when Cobra helicopter gunships from the base helped warplanes from elsewhere attack a suspected hostile convoy that passed nearby.

But the Marines had announced Wednesday - before the surrender agreement in Kandahar - that they would become more aggressive to prevent the Taliban from escaping or bringing reinforcements into the city.

The Marines also reported enemy forces around the base itself, which went on alert Thursday night after lookouts spotted people both in vehicles and on the ground ``probing the perimeter of the base'' in several locations, Romley said.

The people fired flares in the general direction of the Marines base, and the Marines responded by shooting illumination rounds into the night sky and firing mortars and an automatic grenade launcher into the desert, Romley said.

Small arms fire reverberated through the desert base along with the crisp blast of outgoing mortar rounds. Flares lit up the flat, dusty desert around Camp Rhino. Journalists crouched in trenches could see no incoming fire. However, they heard shouting outside the camp and the sound of gunfire. Helicopters made sweeps overhead in the clear night sky.

Romley said the probing lasted several hours, adding that ``hunter-killer teams'' were sent to search for the enemy. No Marines were hurt in the incident, and it was unclear whether there were casualties among the enemy forces.

Several hours later, the base went back on alert when an unidentified aircraft flew nearby, Romley said. The aircraft was never identified and the base went off alert about 30 minutes later.

Also Thursday, a UH-1N Huey helicopter also crashed near the airstrip, but Romley said it did not appear to be due to enemy action. He said it could have been due to dust, a major problem for the Marines in the desert here.

The crash sent smoke billowing over the base, and the fire gave the night sky a red glow. Two servicemen suffered minor injuries, Romley said, but they were both back at work shortly after the incident.

In all, the base went on alert three times overnight.

``The good thing is everyone is alive this morning,'' Romley said.

On Friday, Base Rhino returned to normal activity. Navy Seabees built up defensive positions around the base, and Marines conducted live-firing exercises several miles away.

The Marines, which U.S. officials have said number about 1,300, include the 15th and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Units, equipped with heavily armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.

Defense Department rules governing the journalists' presence in the camp forbid reporting on exact operational measures.

-------

Taliban gone, Omar, bin Laden at large

December 7, 2001
By SHAHID IQBAL
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/07122001-052456-1831r.htm

QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- In a day of swift developments, Taliban fighters pulled out of their last stronghold of Kandahar Friday while a tribal army entered Osama bin Laden's suspected hideout in eastern Afghanistan.

But the two main targets of the U.S. campaign against terrorism -- bin Laden and Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- are still at large.

At another front in southern Afghanistan, U.S. Marines killed seven Taliban troops in the first ground attacks since they seized a base near Kandahar almost two weeks ago.

A U.S. helicopter also caught fire while landing at this base, injuring two soldiers.

Reports from Kandahar say that almost all Taliban forces have left their former base in southern Afghanistan, causing widespread looting and chaos.

U.S. defense officials in Afghanistan have expressed concern at this haphazard surrender, saying that many Taliban fighters had disappeared with their weapons.

Pashtun tribal forces have reportedly entered Kandahar from two directions. Mullah Naquibullah, a former commander of the Afghan forces who fought against the Soviets in the 1980s, was first to enter the city with his forces.

Witnesses reported machinegun and rocket fires from some parts of the city as forces of another anti-Taliban commander, Gul Agha, entered Kandahar from the airport.

Anti-Taliban forces were also seen firing in the air to disperse those looting U.N. warehouses and private property.

Agha blamed Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from southern Afghanistan who negotiated the deal with the Taliban, for "failing to coordinate the surrender with anti-Taliban forces and prevent the looting." Karzai was appointed the country's first post-Taliban leader at a U.N.-sponsored meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday.

Earlier reports from Kandahar said thousands of Taliban soldiers were leaving the city, taking advantage of a general amnesty Karzai offered on Thursday.

But the militia's reclusive leader, Omar, cannot benefit from this offer.

A strong opposition from Washington to plans for pardoning the one-eyed Taliban leader appears to have excluded him from the amnesty.

The surrender follows an agreement with Afghanistan's new interim administration which hopes to gain support of mostly Pashtun Taliban soldiers by offering them a free passage home.

Leaders of the new administration told journalists in the bordering Pakistani city of Quetta that there is no pardon for the Taliban leader.

Afghanistan's new leader, Hamid Karzai, had earlier asked Omar to "give up terrorism and lay down arms" by Thursday if he wanted to be forgiven. "Since he did not surrender, he cannot be pardoned," Karzai said.

Afghan officials said that retreating Taliban troops were asked to hand over their weapons to Pashtun tribal leaders at two points: the corps headquarters and Kandahar airport.

"Naquibullah and Agha are collecting weapons from the retreating Taliban fighters," an official said.

Talking to journalists in Quetta by telephone, Karzai said the Taliban defectors were "free to go home after giving up their weapons."

Naquibullah is a former commander of the Afghan mujahedin who fought against the Soviet occupation army in the 1980s. Agha is the former governor of Kandahar who was ousted by the Taliban in 1995.

Karzai's brother, Ahmad Karzai, told journalists in Quetta earlier Friday that the interim Afghan administration had advised Naquibullah and Agha to "enter Kandahar as soon as possible."

"We have heard reports of widespread looting and extreme chaos from Kandahar. We need the troops there to control the situation," he said.

He said his brother would not enter Kandahar until the tribal army secures the place and restores peace. "After that he may visit the city briefly on his way to Kabul."

Hamid Karzai, who is still inside Afghanistan, has emphasized that the new Afghan administration had offered no amnesty to foreign Taliban fighters and members of bin Laden's al Qaida network. "They will be accounted for the crimes they have committed against the Afghans, the United States and the international community," said Karzai while referring to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.

Bin Laden is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks that killed more than 3,500 people. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned that there will be no amnesty for these foreign fighters and their Taliban patrons.

On hearing the news that the new Afghan administration might have offered an amnesty to Omar, he told journalists in Washington Thursday that the United States would not recognize such a deal. He said Washington's relations with the new dispensation would "head south" if such a deal came about.

In eastern Afghanistan, anti-Taliban forces captured bin Laden's main base of Tora Bora in the country's White Mountains range. But they failed to find the Saudi-born militant.

Reports from Tora Bora said that anti-Taliban troops had already entered bin Laden's hideout, "searching every cave and every tunnel on the way for Osama and his associates," said Zaman Khan.

A commander of the Eastern Alliance forces, Khan said in some of the caves they faced stiff resistance. He said bin Laden and his men were keeping their families with them and had made elaborate arrangement for a long stay.

"We found heavy weapons, electric generators and other equipment while searching the caves," he said.

Anti-Taliban forces are being helped by U.S. warplanes that pounded the caves throughout Thursday night to take out heavy equipment and blunt al Qaida's resistance.

B-52 bombers were seen targeting al Qaida positions on Friday as well.

In another development, U.S. Marines killed seven Taliban fighters near Kandahar. This was the Marines' first ground offensive against the Taliban since they seized the Camp Rhino base from the Taliban almost two weeks ago.

Some 1,300 Marines are operating in this area, supporting the anti-Taliban forces attacking Kandahar and blocking possible escape routes of al Qaida and Taliban leaders.

"Last evening, we successfully engaged enemy forces near Kandahar, killing seven and destroying three vehicles," said Capt. David T. Romley.

Two U.S. soldiers were injured when a helicopter caught fire while landing at the base. U.S. officials described the fire as "an accident" and said it was "not caused by enemy fire."

----

Military campaign to press on after Kandahar's fall

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 7, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-57746488.htm

The impending fall of Kandahar by no means ends the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, military officials said yesterday, warning that weeks of gritty ground fighting lie ahead to uproot the foreign terrorists in the country.

Kandahar, whose surrender could come as early as today, is the last Afghan city held by the Taliban militia. But even with its fall, Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist army remain at large.

"We still have hundreds, if not thousands, of targets in Afghanistan. If we leave now, those Afghan al Qaeda that remain who have filtered back into society will begin their havoc again," said a Pentagon official. "The Arab al Qaeda will find it harder to operate without Taliban protection, but if we leave they might be able to slip to other countries more easily. We still have a lot of work to do."

An Army officer said that in any ground offensive, such as the opposition effort to take Kabul in the north and Kandahar in the south, advancing forces bypass "residual forces" that must be mopped up later.

"In Afghanistan, they've got caves and protected terrain they can go to," said the officer. "There are pockets scattered all around the country. As the weather gets colder, we have sensors that can find these folks, use intelligence sources and find these guys."

One fear of the Bush administration is that, in the chaotic post-Taliban Afghanistan, the foreign al Qaeda fighters - mostly Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis - will escape across the country's porous borders.

They then could re-emerge in other al Qaeda-friendly countries. Officials say Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are three nations where bin Laden's men could blend into society and help form new terrorist cells.

"With respect to al Qaeda of all levels, you don't want them milling around the country and you don't want them leaving the country because they're just going to go out and kill people in some other country, so they need to be stopped," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday. "It would be premature to suggest that once Kandahar surrenders that, therefore, we kind of relax and say, 'Well, that takes care of that,' because it doesn't."

When the war began, the Pentagon estimated the Taliban militia had at least 4,000 al Qaeda fighters, who were assigned to protect bin Laden and his top people. U.S. officials say they believe at least half that number have been killed by bombing raids and by anti-Taliban opposition forces. Perhaps 700 alone were killed in late November during a prison uprising near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The largest pocket of terrorist fighters lies in the mountainous area known as Tora Bora, on the northeastern border with Pakistan south of Jalalabad. Opposition leaders say about 1,000 warriors are in the hills and cave complexes first dug in the 1980s to help the mujihadeen defeat the occupying Soviet army.

Senior U.S. officials say they are convinced Tora Bora is where bin Laden is hiding. The administration has accused the Saudi exile of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Officials declined to say exactly what types of intelligence reports led them to conclude bin Laden was moving among cave hide-outs there.

But the CIA and the Pentagon had gained access to more intelligence sources since the northern half of the country fell to the Northern Alliance early in November. CIA field officers and special operations forces had interviewed al Qaeda prisoners.

The officers also were working with Eastern Alliance tribes, who claimed bin Laden was seen in the area less than a week ago.

Small pockets of al Qaeda soldiers are scattered around the north. Officials said several of them also left Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and were presumed to be planning a guerrilla war against the new government.

The Pentagon said yesterday warplanes continued recently stepped-up bombing of cave entrances in Tora Bora in an effort to deny hiding places to al Qaeda forces.

Scores of Army special-operations troops have descended on the area to try to find the enemy and direct the strikes. Some Pentagon officials believe bin Laden will be found soon.

"They're able to see the caves that are active," said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "They can see the caves that are not, and we're able to provide much more direct support to them."

-------

Afghan Leader Says Mullah Omar Will Be Arrested if Found

December 7, 2001
By MICHAEL R. GORDON with NORIMITSU ONISHI
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/international/07CND-AFGH.html

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 7 - Taliban forces abandoned Kandahar today, having backed out of a deal to hand in their weapons and leaving chaos in their wake, Afghanistan's new interim leader said.

He was also quoted as saying that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, was missing and would be arrested if he was found.

"The Taliban rule is finished," the new leader, Hamid Karzai, told The Associated Press. "As of today they are no longer a part of Afghanistan."

Mr. Karzai said there was no fighting between rival forces, although some gunfire in the city could be heard. He said that as the Taliban forces fled they ransacked shops, home and businesses, causing chaos among frightened residents.

[The A.P. later quoted witnesses as saying Friday that overjoyed residents ran into the streets pulling down the white Taliban flag and waving pictures of Afghanistan's deposed king.]

Mr. Karzai, speaking to the agency over a satellite telephone from a desert base outside Kandahar, the southern city that was the Taliban's political and spiritual headquarters, said:

"The Taliban ran away with their weapons. Basically they have just run away."

But the Afghan Islamic Press, a private agency based in Pakistan that is close to the Taliban, said Taliban fighters had surrendered their weapons to the new council that took over the city today.

A member of the council, Basheer Ahmed, was quoted by the agency as saying that there had been no resistance and that the transfer of power had been carried out peacefully.

"The Taliban rule has ended in Kandahar," Mr. Ahmed was quoted as saying.

Mr. Karzai told the A.P.: "All of last night they were fleeing the city. I thought they were coming to attack us. But they weren't. They were running away."

Mr. Karzai said Mullah Omar's whereabouts were unknown, adding: "I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism and now the time has run out. He is an absconder, a fugitive from justice."

The surrender of Kandahar, which virtually completes the rout of the Taliban, leaves one essential American war aim unfulfilled: the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, long the Taliban's honored "guest" and the man accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attack on the United States.

In an interview on Thursday, the defense minister of the newly formed Afghan administration that will take office later this month in Kabul said that he had reliable intelligence that Mr. bin Laden was in the rugged eastern Tora Bora region of the country but warned that he might escape.

"We have sources in the area," Gen. Muhammad Fahim said. "Bin Laden is in Tora Bora."

General Fahim added that Mr. bin Laden had decided to retreat to the area not only because there were many hiding places among the caves, tunnels and mountains in Tora Bora but because he would be able to flee across the porous frontier into Pakistan if the American military pressure became too intense. He suggested that Mr. bin Laden still had significant support in Pakistan.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, said in Islamabad on Thursday that Mr. Karzai had made "guarantees" toward Mullah Omar's safety. But Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, insisted that Mullah Omar should not be allowed to go free.

Mr. Karzai had seemed caught between the demands of his American backers, who want Mullah Omar and other top Taliban officials arrested, and the need to win over fellow Pashtuns, who remain angry over American bombing and might regard a handover of Mullah Omar as evidence of Mr. Karzai's excessive indebtedness to the United States.

"I do not think there will be a negotiated end to the situation that's unacceptable to the United States," Mr. Rumsfeld said in Washington. But his stance appeared to stop short of an absolute demand that Mullah Omar be handed over to the United States. "We would prefer to have Omar," he said, adding that there was a lot of confusion about the terms of the surrender.

The goal of the United States is to bring the Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership to justice, he said, but he added, "There are a variety of different ways that can occur, and it will depend on the individual and it will depend on whether or not we get them." He did not elaborate.

The Kandahar agreement to surrender the city followed two days of intense negotiations between Mr. Karzai, who was appointed leader of the interim government on Wednesday at the conclusion of an international conference in Bonn, and senior aides to Mullah Omar.

It allowed Mullah Omar to hand over power to Mullah Naqib Ullah, a former Pashtun warlord with friendly relations with the Taliban, instead of directly to Mr. Karzai, a longtime opponent of the Taliban and a favorite of the Bush administration.

"We have agreed to surrender weapons not to Hamid Karzai but to tribal elders," Mullah Zaeef said at a news conference in Islamabad. "Mullah Omar has taken the decision for the welfare of the people, to avoid casualties and to save the life and dignity of Afghans."

The situation around Kandahar remained tense Thursday, and American forces fired mortars around their forward base near the city to repel what they called an attempt by the Taliban to test their defense. In an unrelated incident, an American helicopter crashed near the base, slightly wounding two marines.

The Taliban's surrender in the north was similarly negotiated, but resulted in widespread confusion and violence, including an uprising at a fort converted to a prison in Mazar-i-Sharif, where more than 180 prisoners were killed.

In Kabul, General Fahim, the military leader of the Northern Alliance, a movement that has been hostile to Pakistan, expressed hope that the United States would capture Mr. bin Laden, but stressed that a significant number of Arab fighters were in the Tora Bora region and determined to resist.

"The problem is big," he said. "They are resisting and are powerful. It will not be easy to capture them."

But anti-Taliban forces in the eastern area appeared to be advancing, claiming to have taken some of the caves lower in the mountains and to have pushed the Arab forces loyal to Mr. bin Laden back onto higher ground. Fighting was fierce today.

At the Pentagon, senior military officials said Thursday for the first time that a small number of Special Operations forces had moved into the Tora Bora area as advisers to the anti-Taliban forces. Those advisers will be assessing which caves are active, guiding bombs and missiles onto cave entrances, and funneling supplies and weapons to the opposition troops.

"There are Special Forces working with the opposition who are working the cave complex," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon Thursday. "We're able to provide much more direct support for them."

General Fahim said that the United States would need Pakistan's assistance to corner Mr. bin Laden. But he insisted that Pakistan was doing little to control the frontier and charged that Pakistani officials were even aiding the leader of Al Qaeda.

His remarks seemed certain to worsen the already strained relations between the new authorities in Kabul and Islamabad. They are likely to be rejected by the Pakistani government as an effort to discourage Washington from building too close a relationship with the Pakistani government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

"The door to Pakistan is open to Osama bin Laden, General Fahim said. "I can say 100 per cent that Pakistan is close to bin Laden."

General Fahim dismissed suggestions that the winter snows would prevent Mr. bin Laden's escape to Pakistan, saying that local Pashtun tribes in the region recognized no international boundary and have long been making their way through the rough terrain.

-------- africa

Zimbabwe Rights Abuses Condemned

DECEMBER 07, 20:54 ET
By MAYTAAL ANGEL
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=AFRICA&STORYID=APIS7G8N5H80

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - Amnesty International said Friday police and security forces in Zimbabwe are waging a campaign of violence and intimidation against judges, journalists and opposition leaders in the run-up to presidential elections early next year.

Casey Kelso, of Amnesty International in Zimbabwe, told journalists in Johannesburg that President Robert Mugabe's government had created a climate of intimidation and political violence that could prevent free and fair voting in the presidential elections.

``I observed a level of fear that I have not seen before,'' said Kelso, speaking of meetings he held with aid workers and supporters of the political opposition in Zimbabwe. ``Everybody was looking desperately for the outside world to come in and help.''

Kelso accused the government of waging a ``war by proxy'' against its own people and said Amnesty International was appealing to the 14-nation Southern African Development Community to apply pressure on ruling party officials.

Political violence has convulsed Zimbabwe since March 2000 when ruling party militants, encouraged by the government of President Robert Mugabe, began the often violent occupation of white-owned farms. About 60 people have been killed in the political violence.

Mugabe's government ignored court orders to end the occupations and restore the rule of law. It also refused to protect judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, when they were threatened and harassed into resigning. The government has appointed new judges that consistently rule in favor of the government.

The government accused foreign media organizations of being terrorist collaborators for reporting on violence in Bulawayo that also was confirmed by Western diplomats.

The crackdown on the opposition and the press in Zimbabwe is increasing as the country moves closer to presidential elections. Mugabe, 77, who has ruled since independence in 1980, wants another six-year term. He is facing the toughest electoral challenge of his rule.

-------- arms sales

Ashcroft Blocks FBI Access to Gun Records
Critics Call Attorney General's Decision Contradictory in Light of Terror Probe Tactics

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5676-2001Dec6?language=printer

The FBI will not be permitted to compare the names of suspected terrorists against federal gun purchase records, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the Senate yesterday, offering no encouragement to senators willing to guarantee the FBI the authority to do so.

Defending his decision to block the FBI from using gun documents in its terror probe, Ashcroft said the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to purchase a weapon at a gun store.

Some critics charged that Ashcroft's strong opposition to gun control is interfering with his role as the government's top cop. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing him of "handcuffing" the FBI, pressed him unsuccessfully to say why he did not seek access to gun records when he claimed expanded investigatory powers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked Ashcroft whether he wants the power to review gun records in the fight against terrorism, Ashcroft replied that he would not comment on a "hypothetical."

Bush administration officials said information collected by gun stores for use in background checks was not intended for other law enforcement purposes. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration is following a regulation signed in January by Attorney General Janet Reno, who ruled that records can be used only to audit the background check system.

Such regulations are easily changed, countered Clinton administration officials and other critics. They pointed out that Ashcroft has issued an order permitting federal investigators to listen to attorney-client conversations and sought to lengthen the time illegal immigrants can be held before being charged. At his request, Congress has granted many other powers in recent months.

"If their point is just that there's a regulation that prohibits this, there is no doubt whatsoever that the attorney general could, on a moment's notice, issue a revised regulation," said Randolph G. Moss, an assistant attorney general under Reno.

The attorney general's decision to block the FBI's access to the records runs counter to a Justice Department policy advisory issued in 1996. When the FBI asked about access to the gun files, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard L. Shiffrin wrote that the records could be used by law enforcement agencies conducting investigations.

"This document underscores the Justice Department's authority to use the [records] as a tool to combat terror," said former Justice lawyer Mathew Nosanchuk, now at the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based gun control group. "Instead, they are rejecting their own authority and acting as lawyers for the gun lobby. Their arguments are predictable gun lobby arguments, but they are unfathomable law enforcement arguments."

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Ashcroft was criticized by Democrats for overstepping his authority and infringing civil liberties. Then, when some of the same senators said he had not gone far enough in using the gun records, Ashcroft balked.

"I don't want to hear two messages from this committee . . . that you want me to enforce some laws and not other laws . . . or respect some rights and not other rights," Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft is a strong supporter of the National Rifle Association who once voted as a Missouri senator for the "immediate destruction" of the purchase records of people who had been permitted to buy a gun. This year, he proposed reducing the required time for preserving the records to 24 hours from 90 days.

Justice spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said law enforcement authorities may consult the records of buyers who have been disqualified from purchasing a gun. She said the department believes that other customers' records, which include addresses and gun store locations, are off-limits.

The FBI wants access to all records. An agent said yesterday that a record of a gun purchase could give a time and place where a person had been, as well as the prospective purchaser's possible address.

"This is a sticky one for us," the agent said. "The Justice Department sees things differently than we do."

On Sept. 16, the FBI began checking a list of 186 people against the gun records, an FBI spokesman said. The search yielded two matches, or "hits," meaning that the individuals had been approved to buy guns.

But the next day, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh ruled that continued use of the records was prohibited by law. In October, the FBI sought to check a smaller list of names against the gun purchase documents and was again refused, the spokesman said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Ashcroft's position was contradictory and left him feeling "a little befuddled." Ashcroft had been "looking for tools in every direction," Schumer said. But regarding questions about illegal immigrants buying guns, "this administration becomes as weak as a wet noodle."

A senior Justice official said neither the FBI nor criminal prosecutors requested a specific change in the Brady gun control law or its underlying regulations to allow the use of the purchase records.

"Nobody even suggested that this was a critical thing," the official said. "There was no suggestion, no indication and no request that we pursue a regulatory or legislative fix on this. There was no cry of hampering the investigation."

Staff writer Dan Eggen and researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

-------- asia

Ford Library documents record role in East Timor

World Scene
December 7, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011207-996856.htm

President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave the late Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor that left perhaps 200,000 dead, according to previously secret documents made available yesterday.

Mr. Kissinger had maintained that he learned of the plan at the airport as he and Mr. Ford prepared to fly home after meeting Suharto in Jakarta on the eve of the Dec. 7 thrust into East Timor, a former Portuguese colony.

Mr. Kissinger also has argued that any U.S. nod for the action should be seen in its Cold War context - on the heels of the communist victory in Vietnam and amid U.S. fears that other "dominoes" might fall in Southeast Asia..

-------- biological weapons

Anthrax Found in Fed's Mail
Screeners Made Discovery in Trailer Outside Headquarters

By John M. Berry
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6649-2001Dec7?language=printer

A batch of mail delivered to the Federal Reserve Board's Washington headquarters yesterday was found to be contaminated with anthrax spores, Fed officials said last night.

The mail, delivered in a small bin containing approximately 100 to 150 letters, tested positive for anthrax bacteria during a check conducted in a trailer in a courtyard of the Federal Reserve building on Constitution Avenue NW. The trailer is being used as a temporary mail-processing facility as part of the enhanced security put in place after anthrax spores were found in mail sent to Capitol Hill and elsewhere. At the request of the FBI, the Fed will resume testing the bin this morning to determine the extent of the contamination and isolate individual pieces of contaminated mail. As of last night, it was not known whether the bin contained a new letter containing anthrax spores or letters that might have been cross-contaminated with spores while moving through the postal system.

Three Fed employees and three contract employees, all wearing protective suits and using respirators, were in the trailer processing and testing mail when the contamination was discovered, Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith said.

"We're very confident of the protection provided by the suits and the respirators," Smith said. She added, however, that the six workers will consult their physicians about whether they should take antibiotics.

"Since the public reports of anthrax-contaminated mail surfaced, the board has processed all mail through this secure mail-handling facility, and it is not distributed inside Federal Reserve buildings until it has been cleared," so the buildings remained open after the discovery, Smith said.

Pending further testing, all mail delivery to the Fed has been halted, she said.

The two board buildings, which are both entered from C Street NW between 20th and 21st streets, will be open for business today. "However, while the investigation is underway, the board has decided to postpone public events for security reasons," Smith said. "A public board meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday will be rescheduled as soon as possible."

Smith said there is no plan to postpone Tuesday's scheduled meeting of the Fed's top policymaking group, the Federal Open Market Committee, which will decide whether to cut short-term interest rates for the 11th time this year.

Mark Brown, a certified industrial hygienist with Applied Environmental Inc. of Reston, which is working for the Federal Reserve Board under a long-term contract, said all incoming Fed mail was swabbed and tested using field DNA analysis. While it is possible to get a false positive, he said, in this case six tests were conducted and all showed evidence of anthrax contamination.

Most of the mail had some dust on it but "we haven't seen anything interesting or unusual," such as white powder on the mail or in the bin, Brown said.

Until further testing is completed, there is no way to know what strain of the anthrax bacterium is involved or its potency, Smith said. Any individual pieces of mail found to be contaminated will be sent to a military facility for analysis by the FBI, she said.

----

Navy warnings

December 7, 2001
Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-18997295.htm

The Navy Criminal Investigative Service has sent a memo to commanders with advice on how to recognize anthrax-tainted letters and other dangerous mail.

Among the warning signs: "protruding wires, aluminum foil, oil stains or a peculiar odor unprofessional wrapping with several combinations of tape special endorsements such as 'fragile-handle with care' or 'rush-do not delay' fictitious or non-existent return addresses."

The NCIS recommends that mail handlers wear rubber gloves and keep plastic bags nearby to collect suspicious mail.

--------

U.S. Forces Suspension of Germ War Pact, EU Angry

December 7, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-biological.html?searchpv=reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States forced an international conference on germ warfare to break up in disarray on Friday, angering even its European allies.

In a bid to save face, the review conference of the 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention agreed to suspend work for a year until November 2002 after Washington tabled what one European delegate called a ``conference breaker.''

In a last-minute proposal, Washington formally demanded the winding up of a committee that had spent years trying to negotiate a deal to give teeth to a 1972 pact outlawing biological weapons.

The U.S. move, which caught even European Union states by surprise, came just an hour before the formal end of the three-week-long meeting aimed at finding ways to strengthen the 30-year-old pact.

``They have fired a missile at the conference. We are deeply disappointed,'' said one senior European diplomat.

-------- business

Bomb-Detector Maker Waits for Orders
Market Leader InVision Expects Big Business From the FAA

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5626-2001Dec6?language=printer

The Transportation Department hasn't yet ordered $2 billion worth of bomb-detection machines. But when it does, InVision Technologies Inc., a company that has 90 percent of the U.S. market for the devices, is likely to reap much of the benefit.

As one of only two companies certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to sell machines that scan checked luggage for explosives, little-known InVision, based in Newark, Calif., is attracting attention from investors and competitors for its longtime dominance of the baggage-scanning market.

Congress mandated in a recently enacted aviation security bill that all checked luggage must be screened by such devices by the end of 2002.

InVision's stock price has risen from around $3 a share before Sept. 11 to $25.45 yesterday.

Today, the House subcommittee on aviation will discuss the technology and deployment of bomb-detection machines.

InVision was the first company to be certified by the FAA, in 1994, and for several years it was the only company that could sell the explosive detectors used at U.S. airports.

Douglas Boyd, formerly a scientist at the University of California at San Francisco, started the company in 1990 as a spinoff of his firm Imatron Inc., which builds scanners to detect heart disease. Like most other bomb-scanning equipment that uses computed tomography, InVision's device adapts CAT-scan technology used in the medical field to scan luggage for explosives.

Boyd said he was interested in selling the scanners to the U.S. Postal Service and airports, but the Postal Service turned him down.

To separate InVision from Imatron, of which he is chairman, Boyd needed investors. He found Italimprese Group, an Italian public works conglomerate controlled by Eugenio Rendo, to provide $6 million as a venture investment.

Boyd said he met Rendo a few times and that Rendo was encouraged to invest in InVision by Giovanni Lanzara, president of the transportation and engineering department at University of Aquila. Lanzara was on Imatron's board at the time and is now InVision's chairman and a major investor, owning 3 percent of InVision's shares. According to press reports, in 1993 Rendo was arrested and charged with bribing Italian public officials in order to obtain public-sector contracts.

Rendo denied the charges and was not tried, according to documents InVision filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1997.

Rendo could not be reached for comment.

Rendo's company, Harax Holdings SA, was the majority shareholder of InVision when it went public in April 1996. By 1997, when InVision merged with Quantum Magnetics, a company that owned patents for magnetic resonance technology, Harax owned 23 percent of InVision's shares, making it by far the largest shareholder.

In 1998, Rendo sold Harax and now has no connection to InVision, said Boyd and InVision chief executive Sergio Magistri.

There was "upheaval in the Italian business world," Boyd said. "The government decided to freeze assets of many big companies. During this period of introspection," Rendo sold Harax, said Boyd.

With an 18 percent stake, or $61 million, Harax is still InVision's largest shareholder. But little is known about it, according to InVision officials and a search of public records.

Filings with the SEC state that Harax is a privately held holding company based in Luxembourg and controlled by Arsene Kronshagen. A man reached by telephone yesterday in Luxembourg who identified himself as Kronshagen said he was a lawyer and declined to comment on Harax or InVision.

Boyd and Magistri said they do not know much about Harax. Boyd described Harax as a "passive investor." Both said they do not talk to Harax officials much.

Since the aviation security act became law, several security equipment companies have asserted that they make better bomb detectors than those used in U.S. airports. But the FAA has not certified any of the equipment.

Ralph S. Sheridan, chief executive of American Science and Engineering Inc., a Billerica, Mass., firm that produces bomb scanners for the U.S. Customs Service, claims that InVision and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., the other FAA-certified company, have machines with very high false-positive rates -- about 20 percent.

A false positive means that while the machine is scanning a bag, it will alert the machine operator to investigate further.

Sheridan said his technology, which scans for organic material, is also needed. "Even our equipment is not a silver bullet. Ultimately, you have to go to a multilayer" system of security, he said.

InVision's Magistri said criticism from competitors is unwarranted because his company has met FAA standards and others have not.

"People somehow forget that we thought about this and worked in the highest level with agency specialists for four years before getting to the standards," he said. "Are the standards perfect? Nothing in this world is perfect."

Magistri said his firm is talking to 20 companies about subcontracting manufacturing of the equipment to meet the deadline in the aviation security law. But it is still waiting for the FAA to place its orders.

Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

-------- iraq

Analysis: Turks cool to attacking Iraq

December 7, 2001
By DERK KINNANE ROELOFSMA
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/06122001-114954-7605r.htm

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Depending on who you listen to Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Ankara this week a) a calming effect on Turkey's political leadership or b) disappointed Powell in his quest for support in taking the war on terrorism to Iraq and angered the Turks so much they threatened to end U.S. use of a key airbase on their territory.

The base is at Incirlik in southern Turkey from where U.S. and British air patrols take off to protect the Kurdish safe haven in Northern Iraq.

The 'a' version is what Powell and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem gave out at a joint press conference Wednesday. The 'b' account comes from a well-informed diplomatic source in a Western capital who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to what was said at the press conference, Powell told the Turks President Bush had not made up his mind about what to do with Saddam Hussein. So no U.S. military intervention in Iraq is imminent. This was reassuring to the Turkish government.

Still, hints of the brushed out tension could be detected in Cem's answer to a question from a journalist. Terrorism is an enemy wherever it is, he said, adding, "But of course, nobody would like to see trouble in his own neighborhood."

Trouble in the Turks' neighborhood is what they fear Washington has in mind. It became apparent some weeks ago that the Bush administration might well be contemplating Iraq as the object of Phase Two of the war on terrorism. The Turks quickly made it clear U.S. military intervention there would bring them serious problems.

Most of all, Ankara worries that the 3.5 million Iraqi Kurds, who at present have a de facto autonomous zone in Northern Iraq, would take advantage of a power vacuum to establish an independent Kurdish state. This, they fear would stimulate separatist movements among their own 12 million Kurds.

The strength of Turkish feelings, as reported by the anonymous diplomat, is all the more striking, as ties between Washington and Ankara are historically strong.

For Washington, Ankara's cooperation in a military intervention in Iraq would be highly valuable, as it was during the Gulf War, when Turkey was a launching pad for allied action against Saddam.

However, if the anonymous diplomatic source is to be believed, the Turkish government wants nothing to do at any time with possible U.S. military action against Saddam.

In Washington, the belief is that Bush has decided to do something about Iraq, but not decided what it will be. Some administration appointees, lead by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, are calling for military intervention -- a replay of the Afghanistan offensive -- to topple Saddam: U.S. airstrikes, employment of special forces but the bulk of ground operations carried out by local insurgents.

Other administration insiders favor the air strikes and the use of special forces to seek and eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction rather than change regime.

The United States at first sought to justify action against Iraq on the basis of the regime's terrorist links with Osama bin Laden and his Qaida organization. According to a recent reliable report there were the talks between a member of al-Qaida and Iraqi diplomats in Prague about blowing up the headquarters there of Radio Free Europe.

Then there is the camp near Baghdad where the fuselage of a Boeing 707 is used to train Islamist militants in how to hijack planes. But opponents of U.S. intervention have dismissed the evidence as insufficient and merely circumstantial.

Another reason to go after Saddam emerged as the U.N. Security Council took up, as it does every six months, renewal of sanctions imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Under U.N. resolutions, Saddam should admit inspectors to check that he is not developing weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical or biological. Iraq expelled the last inspectors in 1998. Last week, Bush called for the inspectors to be readmitted and, as expected, Saddam promptly refused.

A U.S. 'public diplomacy' campaign might arouse international concern over the danger of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and make continued Iraqi refusal into a trigger for American action. But that, the Turks have said, won't wash.

A senior Ankara official told the Turkish Daily News, "We will be looking for a United Nations resolution on terrorism and the enhancement of the majority of the coalition for such a strike (on Iraq)." The News inferred that this meant Ankara would not consider the arms inspection issue a sufficient reason to support U.S. intervention.

There are things that can be done to overcome opposition to America bringing down Saddam. One is to provide assurance that the countries of the region will not unduly suffer economically.

Saddam has circumvented the restrictions imposed under the U.N. 'food for oil' program sufficiently for Iraq to once again be an economic magnate.

According to Shaikh Muhammad Muhammad Ali, a Shiite Iraqi member of the leadership council of the Iraqi National Congress, the umbrella organization for Iraqi opposition groups, Syria has increased trade with Iraq from $200 million annually to currently $3.5 billion. Egypt has a $4 billion annual turnover with Baghdad. Jordan receives oil at prices below the world market level. Yemen and Iran also benefit from doing business with Saddam, not to mention Turkey with hundreds of tankers a day bringing in cheap petroleum products from Iraq.

Iraq's neighbors are asking themselves what will happen to their U.N. food for oil contracts and deals outside U.N. control if Saddam goes and sanctions end.

Shaikh Muhammad told United Press International by telephone from London that while it is evident the Bush administration is preparing to do something about Saddam, it will be a matter of weeks or months before it will be clear just what it is Bush intends to do.

The vagaries and uncertainties in the meantime feed doubts in the minds of concerned governments.

A highly regarded Washington specialist in the area, who asked not to be identified, said that doubts about American determination are at the heart of the Turkish, and Egyptian, refusal to go along with U.S. intervention. Other, politically savvy individuals from the Middle East say much the same thing.

The people of the region remember what happened in 1991 after Operation Desert Storm ended and a ceasefire was signed; how the best Iraqi troops, the Republican Guard, were left in tact by the allied forces; how Saddam was allowed to retain his helicopter gunships and use them to suppress risings by the Kurds and Shi'ite Arabs. The risings were in response to President George Bush Sr's calls to Iraqis to rise against Saddam Hussein.

Operation Desert Storm didn't only leave Saddam Hussein in power. It left a huge credibility gap about U.S. reliability. As one Iraqi defector told The Observer of London recently: "If the Iraqi people realize that this time the West is seriously targeting the regime, even the supposedly most loyal security and military units will run away. No one wants a rerun of 1991. Just drop some bombs on his palaces so we know you mean business."

-------- israel

Gaza Stone-Throwers Resist
Arafat's Police Forces Pull Back From House of Sheik

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A46
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5737-2001Dec6?language=printer

GAZA CITY, Dec. 7 (Friday) -- The Palestinian boys lined up to throw stones at armed authorities. There was nothing strange about that -- stone-throwing has been a trademark of Palestinian protest for 15 years.

But the targets were unusual. They were Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's police and not the customary Israeli soldiers.

Thursday was tense and strange in Gaza, the biggest city in the suffocating, sandy, coastal Gaza Strip that is home to more than 1 million Palestinians. Late Wednesday and early Thursday, Palestinian police had tried but failed to put under house arrest Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the infirm and nearly deaf spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known by its Arabic acronym Hamas. One of Yassin's defenders died when police exchanged gunfire with young men in the crowds outside the spiritual leader's home; two other Hamas supporters were wounded.

Arafat ordered Yassin's arrest under pressure from Israel -- backed by the Bush administration -- to lock up members of Hamas and other groups that carry out terrorist attacks in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that if Arafat fails to round up everyone to his satisfaction, Israeli troops and planes will attack Palestinian territory.

Early this morning, Israel resumed military operations that had been suspended since Wednesday. Fighter jets dropped at least two bombs on Palestinian security offices in Gaza, injuring 18 people. The Israeli army said the attack targeted the "Palestinian security apparatus that supports and aids terrorist operations. The army will continue its operations in order to defend the safety of Israeli citizens and soldiers."

Thursday's scenes showed the difficulties that Arafat faces in deciding how far to go to meet Sharon's demands. They also demonstrated Arafat's decline in stature among Palestinians unlike any other recent event. Police eventually retreated from Yassin's home, but clashes continued. Thursday morning, the boys threw stones, and the police threw a few back and beat some of the demonstrators with long wooden batons. Thursday afternoon, defenders lounged around Yassin's house and pledged to protect their leader. Police and plainclothes agents kept a respectful distance a few blocks away.

Yassin was back in his house Thursday morning, after being removed temporarily by his bodyguards, but he was neither receiving visitors nor venturing out of his house.

"It is wrong to arrest our fighter, our leader, our symbol, Sheik Yassin," said a man who hesitated to give his name, then identified himself as Abdullah Ibn Islam. "The Palestinian people favor attacking Israel, because Israel started this battle. We must hit, because if we just take it, we will disappear."

Palestinian officials said Arafat's security forces have detained 120 militants from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hamas claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings last weekend, which killed 25 Israelis in Jerusalem and Haifa, and said it was avenging the assassination of one of its leaders by Israel.

Palestinians have resisted arrests in several places. Frequently, enraged neighbors simply pour into the street to stop the police from arresting others. Here in Gaza, several top Hamas militants are in hiding.

Yassin is a special case. By all accounts, he is as popular as Arafat in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has made gains throughout Palestinian-controlled areas at the expense of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. But at 65 and unable to walk, Yassin is an unlikely candidate to challenge Arafat's leadership.

In the mid-1990s, when Israel withdrew troops from major Palestinian cities, Hamas's following shrunk to the point of insignificance. Many Palestinians were outraged in 1996 and 1997 when Hamas militants killed scores of civilians in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Hamas officials could not appear on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza without fear of verbal, if not physical, assault.

Then, Israeli withdrawals ended under former prime ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Construction of Jewish settlements soared. Support for Hamas grew.

The current 14-month-old uprising has brought Hamas a new wave of support. Palestinians complain that when Palestinian civilians die at the hands of Israeli troops, there is little pressure on Sharon to desist, much less make arrests. Hamas's "armed operations" inside Israel appear to provide macabre comfort to thousands of Palestinians.

Hamas's aid to poor Palestinians also underpins its popularity. The organization receives money largely from charities based in Saudi Arabia. The Bush administration has frozen accounts of a U.S.-based organization it alleges funnels money to Hamas.

"We are ready to defend Sheik Yassin to the death. We boys are ready. We are unhappy at the arrests. Not just this one, but all of them," said a young man nicknamed Abu Yahya, who stood in an alleyway outside Yassin's house.

The mini-uprising evidently alarmed Arafat, who is currently lodged in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Fatah, the PLO's main faction, organized a demonstration at his seaside offices here. If the demonstration was meant to show that Arafat was still highly esteemed, it failed. No more than 3,000 people showed up, most of them university professors, students in the Fatah Youth Organization and street urchins.

Even the pro-Arafat marchers expressed reservations about the roundups. "We are against the arrests," said Ghassan Jabala, a Fatah Youth member and vice president of Gaza University's student council. "I believe it is just a temporary measure by Arafat, who is accused on all sides."

Ghassan Abu Karsh, a political science professor, said Arafat "was forced to do a job to defend the whole people. In any case, it is better for the people arrested. They will be safe from the Israelis."

----

Israeli F-16s attack Gaza police

By Saud Abu Ramadan
United Press International
December 6, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/06122001-050151-7283r.htm

Despite promises to the contrary, Israeli F-16 warplanes Friday shelled Palestinian Authority civil police headquarters causing severe damage to several buildings in the city.

Palestinian sources said that three Israeli army F-16 warplanes flew over the city in the predawn hours and fired two rockets at the police training section at the PA civil police headquarters in Remal neighborhood in western Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses said that Palestinian ambulances and fire engines rushed to the site, put of fire and rescued four Palestinian police officers and six children who were slightly injured.

Many windows of nearby houses were smashed and shrapnel flew into houses. The two nearby Islamic and Al Zahar universities were also damaged.

A Palestinian television report said that despite Israeli promises to the Palestinian Authority that Israel would halt air strikes on Palestinian security installations, the F-16 warplanes shelled the police training section.

The area hit by two rockets is the section for the anti-riot police force that has been arresting Palestinian militants.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources reported that four Israeli army tanks earlier entered the village of Abasan east of the Khan Younis town in southern Gaza Strip.

Sources said that the tanks used heavy fire and Israeli troops broke into several houses in the village looking for Palestinian suspects.

The sources also said that in the western side of Khan Younis, Israeli troops opened up on Palestinian houses causing severe damage, although no injuries.

The new Israeli assaults came just hours after a trilateral Palestinian-Israeli-U.S. security meeting was scheduled for Friday morning to try to stem the recent outbreak of violence in the region, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told reporters in Ramallah following meetings on Thursday with U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher that Zinni had succeeded in getting the parties to resume security talks.

An aide to Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer confirmed the planned meeting to United Press International later Thursday. No details of the venue were made available by either side.

The so-called Higher Security Committee has been the main channel for arranging "on the ground" co-operation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces. Representatives of the U.S. CIA attend its deliberations.

Palestinian West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub told reporters that the Palestinian side will have only one subject on its agenda for the trilateral security meeting and that will be "to lift the siege imposed (by Israel) on the Palestinian areas" -- a series of security closures and restrictions on movement that the Israelis say are designed to prevent terrorist attacks.

Arafat and Zinni met in Ramallah earlier Thursday and the two discussed security issues in light of the recent wave of violence.

The same outburst of violence prompted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to send his foreign minister Ahmed Maher to Jerusalem and Ramallah for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

A series of suicide bombings claimed 25 lives in Israel last weekend. The Israelis struck back at Palestinian targets with fighter-bombers and helicopter gunships on Monday and Tuesday, killing two and wounding scores.

The Israelis Wednesday said they would suspend their attacks to give Arafat the opportunity to crack down on extremists who claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings, but Israeli troops continued their re-occupation of several Palestinian towns.

There were continued clashes Thursday between Palestinian security forces and supporters of the militant Islamic group Hamas, following an attempt Wednesday by the Palestinian Authority to place the group's founder and spiritual leader, the blind quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, under house arrest.

Masked youths threw stones at police and fired shots into the air outside the Yassin residence in Gaza City. One Hamas supporter died of gunshot wounds received Wednesday.

Placing Yassin under house arrest is the boldest and most visible step in a campaign launched by Arafat to convince Israel and the United States he is serious about reigning in militants. But he has complained that Israeli measures make his task near impossible.

"It is hard to make arrests while Israel carries out air strikes and restrict the movement of the Palestinian security forces," he told reporters in Ramallah.

Nonetheless, he added, "We have arrested some of them in the last few days and we are continuing with this work. Nothing more or less," he said.

Palestinian security officials said at least seven activists from Arafat's own Fatah movement had been arrested, in addition to more than one hundred others from the Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Israel accuses members of these four organizations of terrorism.

In Damascus, Hamas Politburo member Moussa Abu Marzouk said the arrests were the result of Israeli and U.S. pressures and warned that they could damage Palestinian unity.

Abou Marzouk told UPI that the arrests "serve foreign interests ... because the detainees are not agents to Israel or others but rather are carrying their duty of defending Palestinian territories and sacred places."

"They should have been honored instead of being arrested," he concluded.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Maher that Israel was not personally targeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, would not bomb his jails, and would allow free movement to Palestinian security elements, according to an Israeli official.

The issues were on the table because on Tuesday, Israel fired missiles att Arafat's compound in Ramallah while he was working in his office, in May, Israel rocketed Nablus jail, in an apparent attempt on the life of a Hamas leader held there, killing at least 12 policemen, and Israel has repeatedly attacked security officials as well as their installations.

After meeting Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Maher went to the West Bank town of Ramallah and conferred with Arafat.

He was scheduled to return to Egypt Thursday night.

(With reporting by Joshua Brilliant from Jerusalem.)

--------

THE MIDEAST
Fatah-Hamas Truce Seen;
Israel Continues Retaliatory Strikes

New York Times
December 7, 2001
By JAMES BENNET
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/international/07GAZA.html

GAZA CITY, Friday, Dec. 7 - Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction and the extremist group Hamas appeared to have achieved a fragile truce Thursday, after clashes extended into the morning and left a young Hamas activist dead.

As they monitored Fatah's actions, members of Hamas were asking the same question as American and European diplomats: Could Mr. Arafat be serious about cracking down on the organization?

"They are afraid, what will be the next step?" said Ghazi Hamad, editor in chief of the Hamas weekly The Message, which Mr. Arafat shut down during his last major move against the group, in 1996.

Officials of Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinians here and in the West Bank, insisted that they were pushing ahead with arrests of anyone who violated the cease-fire with Israel, and advocated a violation.

In an interview Thursday night, the director of national security in Gaza said that any military operation apart from the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, was illegal. "We consider all those organizations that have military power as illegitimate," said the officer, Lt. Abd al-Razak al-Majaydah.

He said security forces in Gaza had arrested 35 militants, out of more than 100 said to have been arrested here and in the West Bank. They were also searching for the two senior political leaders of Hamas here, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi and Mahmoud al-Zahar.

But the passion exhibited by Hamas activists Thursday contrasted sharply with a lackluster, made-for- television Fatah rally for Mr. Arafat, underscoring the challenge he faces as he navigates between home- grown political threats and overwhelming international pressures.

Israeli officials continued Thursday to dismiss most of the arrests as inconsequential. Backed by the United States and European nations, the Israeli government stepped up its demands that Mr. Arafat crush violent organizations after three Hamas suicide bombings last weekend killed 25. Hamas said it had acted in revenge for the killing by Israeli forces on Nov. 23 of its senior West Bank military leader.

Israel continued its retaliatory strikes today, bombing the Palestinian Authority's police headquarters. At least 18 people were wounded.

The Israeli Army said in a statement reported by Reuters that today's strikes by F-16 warplanes were aimed against "Palestinian Authority bodies that support and aid terrorist activity."

Late Wednesday night, the Palestinian police - controlled by Mr. Arafat - placed Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, under house arrest here. Lieutenant Majaydah said they acted after Sheik Yassin gave an interview to the television network Al Jazeera in which he indicated that the Palestinian Authority was not respected. "We cannot lay down our arms," he said in the interview.

Summoned to the sheik's defense over the loudspeakers of mosques, hundreds of Palestinians, some of them masked and armed, crowded into the muddy, fetid streets surrounding his house, witnesses said.

The crowd threw stones, witnesses said, and then the police opened fire over their heads and straight at them, killing one, Muhammad Selmi, who was shot in the back. Two others were wounded in the melee. Lieutenant Majaydah said that there had been random shooting and that he did not know who had shot Mr. Selmi, about 20 years old, whom he identified as a bodyguard of the sheik.

He said he was concerned that violence could erupt again during Mr. Selmi's funeral scheduled for this morning.

White plastic chairs were lined up Thursday outside Mr. Selmi's home, which flew a green Hamas flag, but the family was not receiving condolence calls. A man who identified himself as Mr. Selmi's uncle said the family was investigating the killing and would not open its home "until we take our revenge."

Thursday morning, lighter clashes continued, as the police, carrying shields and three-foot sticks, chased stone-throwing youths through the streets. Some of the officers scooped up stones and hurled them back at the retreating youths.

By the early afternoon, the two sides appeared to have compromised, at least temporarily. The police stayed two blocks from the sheik's home - dozens of them, carrying semiautomatic rifles, idled in the streets Thursday - and the sheik, who is paraplegic, agreed to a self-imposed home arrest.

"Of course, he's very angry, but he said it's a stage and it will pass," said an armed guard at the sheik's door. "The sheik didn't want any confrontation between the police and the people. He's against the use of weapons against Palestinians."

The sheik's 29-year-old son, Abed el-Hamid, said the police had told his father that they were trying to protect him, though they did not say from what. "We don't know what they mean," he said.

Asked what his father thought of the arrest, he said, "At a time that the Israelis are shelling, it's not a good time to be arresting activists." He was referring to air attacks by Israel earlier this week, against Palestinian police buildings and other targets, that killed two and wounded more than 100.

Scores of young men and boys hovered outside the sheik's house Thursday, displaying a mood that was by turns festive and furious. Asked if he had gotten any rest on Wednesday night, one 27-year-old man who would not give his name replied, "The Jews came here, and you want us to sleep?" Asked whom he was referring to, he said, "The Palestinian Authority is now the Jews."

The terms of the sheik's arrest were that he would give no interviews, make no telephone calls and receive no visitors outside his closest family. He has eight daughters and three sons, but the steady parade of visitors in and out of his simple home seemed to exceed even the potential universe of in-laws.

Palestinians fired mortar shells Thursday at an Israeli settlement just north of here. The Israeli Army returned fire, killing one man whom it called a terrorist but Palestinian officials identified as a member of the Palestinian navy who was not involved in the attack.

Across town, a crowd of more than 1,000 people marched to Mr. Arafat's headquarters, by the sea. The rally had been organized by Fatah as a show of strength. The organization bused in supporters, many of them employees of the Palestinian Authority, and distributed yellow Fatah flags and posters of Mr. Arafat.

Supporters densely packed the area in front of a stand for photographers and camera operators. But beyond that area, the crowd thinned out quickly, and there was a noticeable absence of applause and chanting.

"Maybe the people who didn't come are sick, or they can't make it," said Seham Hamad, 37, who works at the ministry of agriculture and expressed disappointment at the turnout. She strongly opposed the Hamas bombings. "They can kill soldiers, who are attacking children, but not civilians," she said.

In a statement read to the crowd, Mr. Arafat urged Palestinians to stand against "everyone who is trying to undermine our national goals," the accusation the Palestinian Authority has recently leveled at Hamas.

But even at the rally, some expressed reservations about the arrests. "I support Abu Amar as long as he's fair," said Muhammad Biltagi, 16, using Mr. Arafat's nom de guerre. "I'm not with him when it comes to arresting people." He said such arrests were "what Israel wants in order to stop the intifada."

Mr. Hamad, the editor of the Hamas weekly, said that given the international pressure, Mr. Arafat had "no option" but to make the arrests, but also "no justification" to persuade his people. "Arafat is really in a crisis," he said.

"Arafat can't lose Hamas," he said. "If he opens a new front against Hamas, many, many people will stand against him."

--------

Israeli Helicopters Hit Palestinian Compound

December 7, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast.html

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli helicopter gunships struck a Palestinian government compound in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, driving home Israel's demand that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat do more to rein in militants.

The missile attack in the early hours devastated the Rafah offices of the Palestinian intelligence services and Force 17, Arafat's elite bodyguard unit, hours after a new round of U.S.-brokered security talks aimed at halting the spiraling violence.

The were no immediate reports of casualties. A Palestinian official said the compound had been evacuated in anticipation of the attack, the latest Israeli retaliation after Palestinian suicide bombers killed 25 people in Israel last weekend.

During the three-hour security talks near Tel Aviv, brokered by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, Israeli security chiefs rejected a Palestinian request that they ease the pressure in the occupied territories.

Israel says it will keep up its strikes until Arafat acts against militants threatening the Jewish state's security in a 14-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation.

``It was a difficult meeting,'' an Israeli official told Reuters. ``We were firm in raising our contention that the Palestinians are arresting only second- and third-rate terrorists, rather than going for the main culprits.''

Palestinian security chiefs briefed Arafat on the meeting afterward but made no comment on the outcome. Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior aide to Arafat, said only that another meeting had been scheduled for Sunday.

DEBATE OVER ARRESTS

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accused Arafat of making token arrests in response to Israeli and U.S. demands for a crackdown on militants.

A U.S. Embassy statement issued after the security meeting said the session focused on ``practical steps to combat terror and violence.''

In a rare interview with Israeli television, Arafat said on Friday night he was doing all he could to arrest militants. He said he had so far arrested 17 people on the list of 33 given to him by Zinni, along with ``dozens of others.''

When the TV interviewer suggested the United States saw the arrests as a sham, Arafat became visibly agitated: ``Who cares about the Americans? The Americans are on your side and they gave you everything. Who gave you the planes?...Who gave you the tanks?...Who gave you all the money?''

The Israeli army said the Rafah strike came in response to ongoing Palestinian mortar attacks against Israeli settlements and military targets in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian security services whose offices were hit ``had direct or indirect responsibility for the mortar attacks,'' an army statement said.

A Palestinian security official rejected the charge.

``The security services which were hit had been working to spread security and stability in the Palestinian territories and to maintain the cease-fire,'' said Major-General Abdel-Razek Al-Majaydeh, Palestinian Authority public security chief.

VIOLENCE CONTINUES

The Israeli army said in a statement it killed two Palestinian gunman near Adik village in the West Bank late on Friday afternoon. The army said soldiers intercepted the men when they came armed to a road in the area where there have been numerous shooting attacks.

Mustafa al-Malki, governor of the Palestinian town of Qalqilya, accused the army of assassinating the two men, who he said were wanted activists from Arafat's Fatah faction.

``Undercover Israeli units waited for them, and when they approached the soldiers opened fire and killed them outright,'' the governor said.

At least 750 Palestinians and 222 Israelis have died since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000.

-------- kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan to allow use of airbases

December 6, 2001
UPI
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/06122001-055618-3985r.htm

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, The parliament of the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan voted Thursday to allow the United States and other members of the international anti-terrorist coalition to use the country's airbases for both humanitarian and military operations for one year.

The legislature voted 46-6 in favor of the motion after Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev assured lawmakers the move would boost the republic's own security.

Akayev said Kyrgyzstan had no right to reject requests made by the United States and the international community to gain access to Kyrgyzstan's strategically placed airbases for operations in neighboring Afghanistan.

"Kyrgyzstan supports the counter-terrorist operation and is interested in restoring peace in Afghanistan," Akayev said.

Requests to use Kyrgyz airfields, including Manas international airport near the capital Bishkek, have come from Canada, France, Italy, Australia and South Korea, as well as from the United States.

-------- nato

NATO to include Russia on joint council

December 7, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011207-99797.htm

The 19-member North Atlantic alliance, eager to enhance ties with Moscow, yesterday decided to create a NATO-Russia council in which Russia would be the 20th member but would have no veto power - a formula Secretary of State Colin L. Powell termed "NATO at 20."

The limited integration left Moscow dissatisfied, prompting a warning that NATO would become obsolete unless Russia was integrated into the alliance decision-making process on an equal footing. The current format of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, "19-plus-one," was formed in 1997.

Although the North Atlantic Council (NAC), NATO's political body, said the new council would "identify and pursue opportunities for joint action," it made clear that "NATO will maintain its prerogative of independent decision and action at 19 on all issues consistent with its obligations and responsibilities."

Mr. Powell, who represented the United States at the NAC meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, said NATO at 20 would not limit the alliance, but "we are leveraging NATO with the inclusion of Russia."

"Let me stress, however, that as we strengthen ties with Russia, it is not becoming a NATO member," he said at a press conference after the meeting. "There is an opportunity for greater consultation and coordination , for us to present our current concerns to Russia, and for Russia to respond to those concerns and to give us their perspective."

A State Department official later said that Russian membership in the alliance was "not under discussion" and Moscow's role would be strictly consultative.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who initially proposed forming a joint "forum," also had said that the joint council was not a road to membership.

But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who was to meet today with his NATO counterparts, said yesterday he favored "new mechanisms that would give all countries, in this case Russia and NATO member states, equal rights in discussing problems, making decisions and implementing them."

Then Moscow would "be ready to cooperate with the alliance in tackling the tasks they face, namely strengthening European and international security and stability and resisting the new challenges and threats the international community is facing," he said in an interview with Romanian media circulated in Moscow by the Interfax news agency.

"NATO, its aims and tasks have to change to meet the present conditions," he said. "Otherwise, the alliance will remain a structure not corresponding with the actual situation."

Although NATO and Russia pledged to put behind their hostile past and work together at a 1997 summit in Helsinki, the first joint council, which was set up during that meeting, failed to produce meaningful results.

Moscow was at odds with the alliance during the 1999 air campaign against Serbia over Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's treatment of the ethnic Albanian majority in the southern province of Kosovo.

However, Russia became a particularly important partner of the United States in its war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. The Soviet Union had fought a decade-long war in Afghanistan, where Washington was waging a military campaign against the Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

Some differences of opinion remained within NATO about how involved Russia should be in decision-making, with the United States insisting on a step-by-step approach in terms of Russia's integration and its cooperation with the alliance.

NATO's newest members and former Soviet allies in Central and Eastern Europe, which joined the pact in 1999, also have urged caution in welcoming Russia.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan yesterday warned against moving too quickly toward defining a hard and fast relationship that would carry risks of discord.

"We need time to think it through to decide which issues should be discussed only in the framework of 19, and which in the framework of 20," he was quoted by wire reports as saying. "What I'm asking for - and there are several ministers who share this view - is, yes I'm in favor, but don't rush us."

----

NATO, Russia To Create New Council

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
Associated Press Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; 8:41 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7751-2001Dec7?language=printer

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO and Russia agreed Friday to forge what Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov called "a profound change" in their relations, creating a new council to work out joint action on issues ranging from civil emergencies to missile defense.

NATO officials insisted that the alliance will not be hampered by the new cooperation, and that if a decision cannot be reached with Russia, NATO's ruling council will make the decision without it.

"There is no issue more important to the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area than the further development of a confident and cooperative relationship between us," NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson told Ivanov.

The 19-nation alliance wants to take advantage of Moscow's cooperation in the fight against terrorism to pursue "opportunities for joint action at 20," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

Besides the struggle against terrorism, Russia and NATO suggested they could work together in such areas as crisis management, nonproliferation, arms control, theater missile defense, search and rescue at sea, military-to-military cooperation and civil emergencies.

Ivanov said Russia is not interested in joining the alliance.

"Russia has no interest in queuing up for membership," he said. But he said Moscow did want to work closely with NATO. "The Russian side has the political will to do it."

On Thursday, the ministers told their ambassadors at NATO headquarters to start working out details of a new arrangement for regular discussions with the Russians, and ways to include them in decision-making while retaining NATO's ability to act on its own.

"The precise nature and scope of this mechanism will require substantial work over the coming months," Robertson said, but the plan is to have it in place by the next meeting of allied foreign ministers May in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Since 1997, meetings have been held under something called the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, a forum originally created to ease Moscow's fears about NATO enlargement. But both sides say the council has never been satisfactory and more often than not the alliance uses it to inform Russia of positions it already has taken.

Robertson said that Russia will not be able to veto NATO decisions on the new council.

"We are not abandoning our principles or prerogatives," Robertson said on the second day of NATO's foreign ministers' meeting. "This is about working together mor wn whether Moscow liked it or not, Robertson said "the answer is more in chemistry than in arithmetic."

-------- propaganda wars

[The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC has a compelling exhibit of Hitler's use of radio to tell lies and enflame the emotion and fear triggered by the the Reichstag fire. Emergency laws were passed which allowed his storm troopers to sweep away people's rights and intimidate neighbors into silence. Watching recent developments, this administration appears to have studied Hitler's moves carefully. Of course, the same players have had time to fine-tune the propaganda since the Gulf War. Let's hope people can see through the rhetoric to the lies this time. Write legislators: http://prop1.org/prop1/lobby.htm. et]

Ashcroft Defends Anti-Terrorism Steps
Civil Liberties Groups' Attacks 'Only Aid Terrorists,' Senate Panel Told

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5655-2001Dec6?language=printer

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft resolutely defended the Justice Department's anti-terrorism tactics yesterday, telling a Senate committee the measures are necessary to prevent future attacks and suggesting that criticism of them aids the terrorist cause.

Peppered by congressional skepticism but bolstered by overwhelming public support in recent weeks, Ashcroft appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to champion Bush administration strategies since the Sept. 11 attacks. The methods include the detention of hundreds of foreign nationals and plans to try alleged terrorists and their accomplices before military tribunals.

Ashcroft accused unidentified critics of exaggerating or mischaracterizing administration policies, saying the Justice Department "has sought to prevent terrorism with reason, careful balance and excruciating attention to detail."

"We need honest, reasoned debate, not fear-mongering," Ashcroft said. "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to . . . enemies and pause to . . . friends."

Ashcroft's bold language prompted protest from interest groups, who, along with some in Congress, have criticized government tactics as civil liberties infringements. But Judiciary Committee members were circumspect in comparison, confining most questions to specific policy issues and appearing reticent to pick a public fight with an attorney general leading a popular anti-terror campaign. The most spirited debate centered not on terrorism but on gun policy, as several Democratic senators criticized Ashcroft for preventing the FBI from checking whether some of the hundreds of people detained in the post-Sept. 11 investigation had sought to purchase guns in the United States.

Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who has complained about a lack of Senate input into the anti-terror program, said he planned to continue offering congressional guidelines for conducting military tribunals, despite little apparent support for the idea among Senate and House leaders.

"This is not a question of whether you are for or against terrorists," Leahy said after the hearing. "Everyone is against terrorists. This is about whether we are adequately protecting civil liberties."

Civil liberties advocates were similarly unhappy with Ashcroft's suggestions that skepticism about the anti-terror plan is unwarranted while the nation is at war.

"It is sad that the attorney general treats honest criticism as un-American and unpatriotic," said Georgetown University law professor Samuel Dash, a Democrat who served as the Senate Watergate Committee's chief counsel. "These are fear tactics that chill debate. President Nixon also treated critics as enemies."

Committee Republicans rallied around their former colleague. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the ranking GOP member who helped Ashcroft win his contentious confirmation last January, praised Ashcroft's performance since Sept. 11 and decried the "hysterical concerns" of some detractors.

"Certainly the American people are not watching us quibble about whether we should provide more rights than the Constitution requires to the criminals and terrorists who are devoted to killing our people," Hatch said. "They are interested in making sure that we protect our country against terrorist attacks."

Ashcroft, a conservative former U.S. senator whose appointment as attorney general was bitterly opposed by Leahy and most other Senate Democrats, has emerged as one of the key figures in the Bush administration's war on terrorism.

He pushed Congress to quickly approve legislation in October that expanded the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to tap phones, monitor Internet traffic and conduct other forms of surveillance in pursuit of terrorists.

Ashcroft has also issued administrative rules allowing the monitoring of privileged communications between attorneys and detainees who are suspected terrorists; ordered prosecutors to seek interviews with more than 5,000 young, mostly Middle Eastern men visiting the United States; and has presided over a broad national effort to detain hundreds of foreign nationals accused of immigration violations or minor crimes -- but has refused to identify most of them or reveal information about many of their cases.

The government also has threatened to deport or jail illegal immigrants who decline to cooperate with authorities, while offering visas and potential citizenship to those who provide information on terrorist networks.

The measures have proven popular with the public, which, polls show, overwhelmingly favors military tribunals and aggressive detention policies. But the effort has prompted rising condemnation from civil liberties groups, Arab American organizations and a vocal minority in the House and Senate. Yesterday's appearance before Leahy's panel was the latest in a string of public appearances and interviews in which Ashcroft responded to the criticism.

In his testimony, Ashcroft said the monitoring of attorney-client communications, which applies to just 16 federal prisoners, requires the government to notify the targets beforehand and prohibits use of the information by prosecutors or law enforcement agents except to forestall an imminent terrorist attack.

Ashcroft also rejected complaints that some detainees do not have adequate legal representation or have been prevented from seeking counsel. One man detained for nearly two months, Yemeni citizen Ali Maqtari, testified earlier this week that he was allowed minimal contact with his attorney and family, and was threatened by investigators while in custody. Authorities say he is innocent. But Ashcroft, holding a "terrorist manual" allegedly used by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, warned that terrorists are instructed to concoct stories of mistreatment and otherwise use the nation's open society to their advantage in planning and staging attacks. "In this manual, al Qaeda terrorists are now told how to use America's freedom as a weapon against us," Ashcroft said. "We are at war with an enemy that abuses individual rights as it abuses jetliners. It abuses those rights to make weapons of them with which to kill Americans." Ashcroft strongly defended Bush's order allowing military tribunals, though he referred specific questions about how the courts would be run to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who would oversee the system.

In offering a promise of "full and fair proceedings," Ashcroft joined administration officials who have sought to reassure lawmakers that the tribunals would be used in narrow circumstances involving alleged war criminals. But Ashcroft also acknowledged that the order can be applied to any noncitizen, allows proceedings to be held in secret and provides for indefinite detention of alleged war criminals. Nonetheless, criticism of the plan is overblown, Ashcroft said, and "charges of kangaroo courts and shredding the Constitution give new meaning to the term 'the fog of war.' "

But while several Democratic senators, including Russell Feingold (Wis.) and Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), expressed misgivings about some the anti-terror tactics, there were relatively few heated exchanges between them and Ashcroft. In response to his suggestion that criticism might aid terrorists, Feingold asked Ashcroft for "assurance that you do not consider the hearings that we have been holding . . . as . . . somehow aiding the terrorists by eroding national unity."

Ashcroft responded: "I did indicate that we need reasoned discourse as opposed to fear mongering. And I think that's fair. This is the place where reasoning and discourse take place."

Staff writer Jim McGee contributed to this report.

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U.S. apologizes to media

December 7, 2001
Washington Times
Around the Nation
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-79011928.htm

The Pentagon yesterday apologized to the media for the military's refusal to allow coverage in Afghanistan of troops killed and injured by an errant U.S. bomb and promised to ease restrictions on reporters.

"We fully believe that you should be allowed to cover the bad things as well as the good things," Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters.

"We take it very, very seriously. We are looking into actual constructive steps we can take to improve the situation going forward," she added. "So our apologies for the screw-ups."

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Pentagon Still Scapegoats Pearl Harbor Fall Guys

By Robert B. Stinnett
Independent Institute,
December 7, 2001
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/011203Stinnett.html

As we remember the roughly 2,400 persons killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor -- the worst one-day loss of American lives prior to Sept. 11th of this year -- recently declassified U.S. military documents authored more than 60 years ago compel us to revisit some troubling questions.

At issue is American knowledge of Japanese military plans to attack Hawaii prior to Dec. 7, 1941. The first question is whether President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his top military chieftains provoked Japan into an "overt act of war." The second question is whether Japan's military plans were obtained in advance by the U.S. but concealed from the Hawaiian military commanders, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter Short. Both Kimmel and Short were relieved of their commands, blamed for failing to ward off the attack, and demoted in rank after the Japanese raid.

The latter question was answered in the affirmative last year on October 30, 2000, when President Bill Clinton signed a defense appropriations bill containing congressional findings that both Kimmel and Short were denied crucial military intelligence.

However, despite the numerous pardons he issued shortly before leaving office, President Clinton deferred to the Pentagon's long-standing policy against posthumously restoring the commanders to their 1941 ranks. Nonetheless, the congressional findings should be widely seen as an exoneration of years of blame assigned to Kimmel and Short.

But the other important question remains, looming ever larger in the inevitable comparisons made between Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11th: Does the blame for the Pearl Harbor disaster revert to President Roosevelt?

Before Walt Disney Studios released the movie "Pearl Harbor" earlier this year, the film's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, commented on claims of FDR's foreknowledge by saying "That's all b___s___."

Yet Roosevelt believed that provoking Japan into an attack was the only option he had to overcome the powerful America First non-interventionist movement. Though Germany had conquered most of Europe, and her U-Boats were sinking American ships in the Atlantic Ocean, Americans wanted nothing to do with "Europe's War."

However, Germany made a strategic error. She, along with her Axis partner, Italy, signed the mutual assistance treaty with Japan, the Tripartite Pact, on September 27, 1940. Ten days later, Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum, a U.S. Naval officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, saw an opportunity to counter the U.S. anti-war movement by provoking Japan into a state of war with the U.S., and triggering the mutual assistance provisions of the Tripartite Pact.

Memorialized in a secret memo dated October 7, 1940, McCollum's proposal called for eight provocations aimed at Japan.

President Roosevelt acted swiftly, and throughout 1941, implemented the remaining seven provocations.

The island nation's militarists used the provocations to seize control of Japan and organize their military forces for war against the U.S., Great Britain, and the Netherlands. During the next 11 months, the White House followed the Japanese war plans through the intercepted and decoded diplomatic and military communications intelligence.

At least 1,000 Japanese radio messages per day were intercepted by monitoring stations operated by the U.S. and her Allies, and the message contents were summarized for the White House. The intercept summaries from Station CAST on Corregidor Island were current -- contrary to the assertions of some who claim that the messages were not decoded and translated until years later -- and they were clear: Pearl Harbor would be attacked on December 7, 1941, by Japanese forces advancing through the Central and North Pacific Oceans.

As I explained to a policy forum audience at The Independent Institute in Oakland, California -- which was telecast nationwide by C-SPAN on July 4th last year -- my research shows that not only were Kimmel and Short cut off from the Japanese communications intelligence pipeline, so were the American people. The coverup lasted for nearly 59 years.

Robert B. Stinnett is Media Fellow at The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. and the author of Day of Deceit: the truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (Free Press).

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Vieques moves

December 7, 2001
Washington Times
Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-18997295.htm

The Bush administration, trying to get a deal with Congress on the future of the Vieques, Puerto Rico, bombing ranging, is promising lawmakers that it will, if necessary, extend its deadline for ending Navy and Marine Corps training by May 2003.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, responding for President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, wrote a letter recently to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, reiterating the commitment.

We obtained a copy of the note that, while restating policy, does emphasize the position that if no suitable replacement is found, then the Navy and Marine Corps can continue training on Vieques past the president's May 2003 deadline.

Mr. Wolfowitz says a decision to extend training, which is now restricted to dummy ordnance only, will be left up to Navy Secretary Gordon England and Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations.

"Until a suitable alternative is established, Vieques remains an important element in the training of our forces deploying to fight the war," he said.

The Navy is now searching for alternative East Coast sites for Atlantic Fleet carrier battle groups.

In a letter first disclosed by The Washington Times, Adm. Clark and Gen. James Jones, the Marine commandant, have asked Mr. England to allow the next deployed battle group to practice with real ammo in January on Vieques. They cite the open-ended global war on terrorism.

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Wen Ho Lee Testifies in Lawsuit

By Richard Benke
Associated Press Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; 9:34 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7954-2001Dec7?language=printer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee testified that he was a scapegoat for Energy Department security lapses and never knew why.

Former Energy Department counterintelligence chief Notra Trulock is suing Lee, claiming the Taiwanese-born scientist defamed him with allegations that Lee was targeted because of his race. Lee made his comments Oct. 10 in a deposition under questioning by Trulock's lawyer.

Lee denied making any statements about Trulock and said under questioning he didn't know whether he was singled out for selective prosecution, ethnic profiling or racial discrimination.

"Even today I don't know why I was investigated by the government," Lee said, testifying for the first time since his release from jail last year.

Referring to his only previous public statement about the case - the CBS-TV "60 Minutes" episode aired Aug. 1, 1999 - Lee emphasized Trulock was not mentioned then. "I don't even think about Mr. Trulock."

Lee acknowledged telling interviewer Mike Wallace: "They want to find out some scapegoat. They think I'm the perfect (one) for them to, to blame me."

"I don't know who started investigation on me. I'm telling Mr. Wallace I think part of the reason, my best explanation of this, is probably because I'm Chinese," he said during a seven-hour long deposition which was sealed for weeks for classification review. "But I don't know who start this."

Lee, a former nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was indicted Dec. 10, 1999, on 59 felony counts for transferring nuclear weapons data to unsecure computer terminals or computer tapes. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months.

He was not charged with spying, and denied giving information to China. He eventually pleaded guilty in September 2000 to one felony count of downloading sensitive material.

The judge in the case said prosecutors misled him, and he apologized to Lee. Then-President Clinton also said Lee's imprisonment "just can't be justified." Lee has sued the government for allegedly leaking information to the media that made it appear he had spied.

One of his attorneys, Brian Sun, said Thursday that Lee's reticence about ethnic profiling was understandable since the government never turned over its evidence relating to selective prosecution.

"We were seeking the evidence," Sun said. "There was a plea resolution two days before that evidence was due. We don't know because we never did get access to the evidence."

Lee's criminal attorneys, Mark Holscher and John Cline, had cited statements by DOE intelligence officials Robert Vrooman and Charles Washington as evidence that Lee was racially singled out - and as reason for disclosure of whatever other evidence might exist.

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UN Rights Head Backs Afghan Probe, Criticizes U.S.

December 7, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-afghan-rights.html

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights chief Mary Robinson on Friday backed calls by human rights groups for an international inquiry into the killing of 600 prisoners in Afghanistan and expressed concern about other reported massacres as the Taliban fell from power.

``I support the idea of there being an inquiry...There are very worrying concerns about prisoners, about the sequences of events that lead to the death of some 600 people in a context such as Mazar-i-Sharif,'' Robinson told a news conference.

Hundreds of Taliban and foreign al-Qaeda prisoners were killed this week after staging a revolt at Qala-i-Janghi fortress near the strategic northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The suppression of the revolt, using U.S. air strikes, Northern Alliance tanks and U.S. and British special forces, has led to a call by Amnesty International and others for a probe.

Reports from aid workers had sparked concern about ''situations when territory has changed hands, prisoners are found dead with their hands tied behind their back; these kinds of incidents show a need for more careful scrutiny,'' she said.

Robinson said an investigation could be led by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and her staff in Afghanistan was already ``mapping out patterns of massacres.''

She also expressed concern about the ``substantial toll of deaths and injuries'' among Afghan civilians caused by U.S. bombing, and destruction of hospitals and old people's homes.

The former President of Ireland also criticized an order by President Bush to set up military tribunals for suspects held in connection with September 11 attacks as potentially eroding a range of detainees' rights including protection from arbitrary arrests and a right to fair trial.

She questioned the U.S. administration's ``trust me'' attitude with its anti-terrorism measures, which she said circumvented the system of checks and balances of a democratic society.

CRITICAL OF U.S.

Robinson also said that criminal trials of those suspected of masterminding the September 11 attacks should be held either before U.S. domestic courts or a new international tribunal.

On Thursday, U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft defended secret military trials and other new steps authorized by the administration during a congressional hearing.

Robinson, asked about the round-up of thousands of foreigners in the United States, said there were ``reasons for concern,'' adding: ``It is a very broad-sweep approach.''

Regarding eavesdropping on conversations between some suspects and their lawyers, she said that international human rights law allowed some exceptions or derogations in times of public emergency but stressed they should be ``very limited.''

``It is all about what are the kinds of safeguards. I am unhappy that there are not safeguards built into the military order which the President has issued and the language is vague and worrying,'' Robinson said.

``One of the strengths of democracy is eternal vigilance,'' she added. ``In that sense, no, it is not enough to say 'trust me' as a government.''

But she welcomed civil libertarian groups and others questioning the U.S. order amid ``healthy democratic debate.''

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December 7, 1941: A Setup from the Beginning

By Robert B. Stinnett
Honolulu Advertiser
December 7, 2000
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/001207Stinnett.html

As Americans honor those 2403 men, women, and children killed -- and 1178 wounded -- in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, recently released government documents concerning that "surprise" raid compel us to revisit some troubling questions.

At issue is American foreknowledge of Japanese military plans to attack Hawaii by a submarine and carrier force 59 years ago. There are two questions at the top of the foreknowledge list: (1) whether President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his top military chieftains provoked Japan into an "overt act of war" directed at Hawaii, and (2) whether Japan's military plans were obtained in advance by the United States but concealed from the Hawaiian military commanders, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter Short so they would not interfere with the overt act.

The latter question was answered in the affirmative on October 30, 2000, when President Bill Clinton signed into law, with the support of a bipartisan Congress, the National Defense Authorization Act. Amidst its omnibus provisions, the Act reverses the findings of nine previous Pearl Harbor investigations and finds that both Kimmel and Short were denied crucial military intelligence that tracked the Japanese forces toward Hawaii and obtained by the Roosevelt Administration in the weeks before the attack.

Congress was specific in its finding against the 1941 White House: Kimmel and Short were cut off from the intelligence pipeline that located Japanese forces advancing on Hawaii. Then, after the successful Japanese raid, both commanders were relieved of their commands, blamed for failing to ward off the attack, and demoted in rank.

President Clinton must now decide whether to grant the request by Congress to restore the commanders to their 1941 ranks. Regardless of what the Commander-in-Chief does in the remaining months of his term, these congressional findings should be widely seen as an exoneration of 59 years of blame assigned to Kimmel and Short.

But one important question remains: Does the blame for the Pearl Harbor disaster revert to President Roosevelt?

A major motion picture based on the attack is currently under production by Walt Disney Studios and scheduled for release in May 2001. The producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, refuses to include America's foreknowledge in the script. When Bruckheimer commented on FDR's foreknowledge in an interview published earlier this year, he said "That's all b___s___."

Yet, Roosevelt believed that provoking Japan into an attack on Hawaii was the only option he had in 1941 to overcome the powerful America First non-interventionist movement led by aviation hero Charles Lindbergh. These anti-war views were shared by 80 percent of the American public from 1940 to 1941. Though Germany had conquered most of Europe, and her U-Boats were sinking American ships in the Atlantic Ocean - including warships - Americans wanted nothing to do with "Europe's War."

However, Germany made a strategic error. She, along with her Axis partner, Italy, signed the mutual assistance treaty with Japan, the Tripartite Pact, on September 27, 1940. Ten days later, Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum, a U.S. Naval officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), saw an opportunity to counter the U.S. isolationist movement by provoking Japan into a state of war with the U.S., triggering the mutual assistance provisions of the Tripartite Pact, and bringing America into World War II.

Memorialized in McCollum's secret memo dated October 7, 1940, and recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the ONI proposal called for eight provocations aimed at Japan. Its centerpiece was keeping the might of the U.S. Fleet based in the Territory of Hawaii as a lure for a Japanese attack.

President Roosevelt acted swiftly. The very next day, October 8, 1940, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet, Admiral James O. Richardson, was summoned to the Oval Office and told of the provocative plan by the President. In a heated argument with FDR, the admiral objected to placing his sailors and ships in harm's way. Richardson was then fired and in his place FDR selected an obscure naval officer, Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, to command the fleet in Hawaii. Kimmel was promoted to a four-star admiral and took command on February 1, 1941. In a related appointment, Walter Short was promoted from Major General to a three-star Lieutenant General and given command of U.S. Army troops in Hawaii.

Throughout 1941, FDR implemented the remaining seven provocations. He then gauged Japanese reaction through intercepted and decoded communications intelligence originated by Japan's diplomatic and military leaders.

The island nation's militarists used the provocations to seize control of Japan and organized their military forces for war against the U.S., Great Britain, and the Netherlands. The centerpiece - the Pearl Harbor attack - was leaked to the U.S. in January 1941. During the next 11 months, the White House followed the Japanese war plans through the intercepted and decoded diplomatic and military communications intelligence.

Japanese leaders failed in basic security precautions. At least 1,000 Japanese military and diplomatic radio messages per day were intercepted by monitoring stations operated by the U.S. and her Allies, and the message contents were summarized for the White House. The intercept summaries were clear: Pearl Harbor would be attacked on December 7, 1941, by Japanese forces advancing through the Central and North Pacific Oceans. On November 27 and 28, 1941, Admiral Kimmel and General Short were ordered to remain in a defensive posture for "the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act." The order came directly from President Roosevelt.

As I explained to a policy forum audience at The Independent Institute in Oakland, California, which was videotaped and telecast nationwide over the Fourth of July holiday earlier this year, my research of U.S. naval records shows that not only were Kimmel and Short cut off from the Japanese communications intelligence pipeline, so were the American people. It is a coverup that has lasted for nearly 59 years.

Immediately after December 7, 1941, military communications documents that disclose American foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor disaster were locked in U.S. Navy vaults away from the prying eyes of congressional investigators, historians, and authors. Though the Freedom of Information Act freed the foreknowledge documents from the secretive vaults to the sunlight of the National Archives in 1995, a cottage industry continues to cover up America's foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor.

~ Robert B. Stinnett has worked as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune and the BBC, and is the author of the book, Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (Free Press, 2000). This article is adapted from his presentation before the Independent Policy Forum held earlier this year at The Independent Institute in Oakland, California. Click here to order copies of this Independent Policy Forum transcript, audio tape, video, and/or the book, Day of Deceit.

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America Gamely Stumbled Off to War

By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5813-2001Dec6?language=printer

After the sneak attack, crowds gathered outside the White House and sang "God Bless America." Soldiers armed with machine guns guarded government buildings. The FBI began rounding up suspicious foreigners. And the head of the Secret Service stared nervously at the sky, watching for suspicious aircraft.

It was Dec. 7, 1941, 60 years ago today. Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor, and the West Coast was in a state of panic.

In Los Angeles, an antiaircraft battery blasted away at enemy bombers that were not actually there.

In Seattle, authorities ordered all lights extinguished to fool Japanese pilots, and mobs enforced the blackout by smashing store windows that had been left illuminated -- and, incidentally, looting the stores.

In San Francisco, Army Gen. John DeWitt swore that a flock of 15 enemy planes had buzzed the city and he became irate when citizens expressed skepticism because the phantom planes had dropped no bombs.

"Why bombs were not dropped, I don't know," DeWitt said. "It might have been better if some bombs had dropped to awaken this city. . . . If I can't knock these facts into your heads with words, I will have to turn you over to the police to let them knock them into you with clubs."

In the three months since Sept. 11, 2001, a time of anthrax panics and fear of flying, we tend to look at wartime America through the rosy haze of nostalgia, seeing a land of stalwart, courageous, patriotic heroes. But the truth is far more interesting. Despite the legend of the "Greatest Generation," there was just as much chaos, fear, bickering, folly, drama and comedy in the first few months after Pearl Harbor as there is now.

And just as many screw-ups. Maybe more.

Eager for a Fight

On Dec. 8, recruiting offices across the country were swamped with patriots eager to fight the Japanese.

"I just want to take one good shot at them," Welzey Hensley told The Washington Post as he waited in line at a Navy recruiting office in Washington. "I don't mind giving my life for my country. We wouldn't be here today if it weren't for people who have done that."

Liquor stores were as crowded as recruiting offices. Drinkers haunted by bad memories of Prohibition hoarded hooch for the sober times ahead. Grocery stores were packed with shoppers who picked the shelves clean.

"A Ford station wagon left a Connecticut Avenue store so grossly overloaded with canned foods," wrote David Brinkley in "Washington Goes to War," that "the rear end sagged down and rubbed on the tires, causing black smoke and a horrible odor as it crept slowly toward Chevy Chase."

Across the nation, inquiring reporters searched for the mood of America and found the people confident.

"I feel certain we can whip the pants off them," said Irene Noble, a Los Angeles candy store clerk.

"It won't take long," said John Zimmerman of Brooklyn, "and the United States will be on top, just like Brooklyn was in the National League."

"It's best to have war now," said Army Pvt. Salvator Castiglione, "while we're prepared for it."

Actually, the country was woefully unprepared. In the past year, America's first peacetime draft had put hundreds of thousands of men in uniform, but the Army was so short of weapons that some soldiers trained using wooden guns and throwing fake grenades. And now, a large portion of the Pacific fleet had been sunk at Pearl Harbor and the country was at war with Japan, and within days, also Germany and Italy.

Soon, Nazi U-boats were sinking American ships within sight of New York and Miami. In February, a Japanese submarine fired shells at the California coast at the very moment that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was reassuring Americans in a radio chat.

The prospect of air raids terrified Americans. The city of Gary, Ind., tested a plan to shield its steel mills from enemy planes by shrouding the city in a cloud of dense smoke. In Boston, the gilded dome of the Massachusetts State House was covered with dull gray paint to make it less conspicuous.

In Washington, the Army was ordered to set up antiaircraft batteries on government buildings. Unfortunately, there were more buildings than batteries, so some ended up defended by ersatz cannons made of wood.

Across the country, cities held air raid drills and citizens turned off their lights or covered their windows with thick black curtains. The Office of Civilian Defense issued helpful instructions: "If bombs start to fall near you, lie down. . . . Should your house be hit, keep cool."

Washington's first air raid drill was scheduled for Dec. 21, 1941. Newspapers and radio stations publicized the event for days and people waited eagerly for the blast of the siren. When the big moment arrived, a city official flipped the switch and . . . silence.

Well, not quite silence. Folks standing nearby could make out a slight squawk. But the World War I-era horn was so ancient and rusted that all it could do was creak and wheeze.

He's No Rudy

In anticipation of war, FDR had appointed Fiorello LaGuardia, New York's colorful mayor, to head the Office of Civilian Defense. This was roughly equivalent to George W. Bush appointing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as director of homeland security, except that LaGuardia did not project Ridge's air of solid implacability. On Pearl Harbor day, he attempted to calm the public by riding through Washington in a police car, its siren wailing as LaGuardia hollered, "Calm! Calm!"

This performance failed to calm Washingtonians. Nor were New Yorkers reassured by their mayor's frequent predictions that the city would soon be bombed. LaGuardia seemed to believe that he could best serve the cause of civil defense by getting photographed wearing funny hats.

Aides urged FDR to fire him, but the president couldn't bear to can his old friend. So he moved LaGuardia to a symbolic position and appointed James M. Landis, dean of the Harvard Law School, to run the agency. Landis was appropriately colorless. So was his prose.

At a press conference, FDR cracked up when he read Landis's official instructions on how to black out federal offices: "Such obscuration can be obtained either by blackout construction or by terminating the illumination."

Laughing, reporters asked FDR if his press secretary had written that.

"No," the president replied. "The dean of Harvard Law School wrote it."

There was a new slang term for such bureaucratic language -- "gobbledygook" -- and the bureaucrats were producing it by the pound. In the spring of 1942, Sen. Millard Tydings of Maryland charged that government agencies were bombarding each of America's major newspapers with nearly 17 pounds of official press releases every week.

That's a lot of press releases. But there were a lot of government agencies. America was attempting to transform a still-depressed civilian economy into a war machine that could train, equip, feed and transport millions of soldiers across two oceans. That huge task spawned many agencies, each known by its initials -- WPB, WSA, WMC, OCD, ODT, OPA, OPC.

Nobody could keep track of all these initials, not even the people who ran the agencies. At a press conference, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes was asked about a new ruling from the OPC -- the Office of Petroleum Coordination.

"I can't speak for the OPC," he said.

The reporters looked confused. An aide informed Ickes that he was the director of the OPC.

"I'm all balled up on all these initials," Ickes replied, speaking for millions.

Our 'Concentration Camps'

"Personally, I hate the Japanese, and that goes for all of them," wrote Henry McLemore, a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. "Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and give 'em the inside room at the badlands."

With that screed, McLemore summed up what was soon to become official American policy toward Japanese Americans.

When the war began, the United States was home to about 900,000 "enemy aliens" -- a category that included non-citizens born in Axis nations. Most were German or Italian immigrants.

"I don't care so much about the Italians," FDR told his attorney general. "They are a bunch of opera singers. But the Germans are different. They may be dangerous."

Early in the war, the feds rounded up about 5,000 Germans and Italians suspected of sympathizing with the Axis. Most were released within a year.

Japanese Americans did not fare so well. Whites on the West Coast, terrified by the prospect of invasion, demanded that Japanese Americans be evacuated. The demand came not only from bigots like McLemore but also from California Attorney General Earl Warren, who would later become a famously liberal Supreme Court justice. Warren urged the feds to remove all Japanese Americans from California, even those born in the United States.

On Feb. 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the War Department to remove Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Within a few months, 112,000 were interned behind barbed wire in what FDR himself later called "concentration camps."

Incredibly, these citizens remained patriotic. In 1943, when the Army announced that it would accept Japanese American soldiers, more than 17,000 enlisted, many taking their Army oath while still imprisoned in the camps. Most were sent to fight the Nazis, and they became famous for their bravery, earning 3,000 Purple Hearts and hundreds of other medals.

"No combat unit in the Army," wrote legendary war cartoonist Bill Mauldin, "could exceed them in loyalty, hard work, courage and sacrifice."

Hollywood Joins the Battle

After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush urged Americans to support the war on terrorism by buying and flying. "Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots," he said. "Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed."

In the months after Pearl Harbor, the government asked Americans to do a lot more than that. It urged men to enlist and, if they didn't, it drafted them. All told, 16 million Americans served in the military during the war, two-thirds of them draftees. Those serving included the rich and the famous -- Joe DiMaggio, Joe Louis, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Lyndon Johnson, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.

Bandleader Glenn Miller was killed in action. So were the sons of Sen. Leverett Saltonstall, FDR aide Harry Hopkins and Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy.

To conjure up a contemporary equivalent, picture Ben Affleck and Derek Jeter serving in Afghanistan, plus Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Adam Sandler and Al Gore's son killed in combat.

On the home front, government agencies issued an unrelenting stream of demands on the country's 120 million civilians: Buy war bonds. Grow vegetables in "victory gardens." Conserve rubber. Save scrap metal. And turn in your bacon fat (which contained a chemical used to make gunpowder).

The scrap metal drives brought in some odd items, including two iron deer from Walt Disney's front lawn, a rowing machine donated by the governor of Massachusetts, suits of armor used in the Broadway play "The Vagabond King" and 14 tons of copper stills confiscated from moonshiners in West Virginia.

When voluntary conservation measures didn't work, the government began rationing goods in the spring of 1942: sugar, gas, tires and shoes, two pairs a year for civilians.

Even rationing failed to prevent periodic shortages of everything from cigarettes to diapers to paper. When people grumbled about it -- and they did -- some wag would answer with the question that stopped all complaints: Don't you know there's a war on?

Of course, they knew. There was no way to escape the war. It was everywhere. Newspaper headlines screamed of battles. Factory walls howled wartime slogans: "Loose Lips Sink Ships!" and "We Can Do It!"

Ads touted even the most peaceful of products as weapons of war: Pepsi provides energy to defense workers: "American energy will win!" Soft-Tuff Scot paper towels prevent flu outbreaks in defense plants! Ads for Flit bug spray showed a toy soldier zapping Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini: "Flit Gives 'Em the Blitz!"

Pop culture, too, was conscripted into wartime service. "What America needs today is a good 5-cent war song," said Rep. J. Parnell Thomas. "The nation is literally crying for a good, peppy marching song, something with plenty of zip, ginger and fire."

Within weeks, America's songwriters responded with "Taps for the Japs," "You're a Sap, Mr Jap" and "Goodbye Mama, I'm Off to Yokohama." Irving Berlin, author of "God Bless America," turned out a rousing ditty called "I Paid My Income Tax Today."

Meanwhile, the motion picture industry took out full-page ads to explain the wartime role of movies: "Just as it is the job of some industries to provide the implements that will keep 'em flying, keep 'em rolling and keep 'em shooting, so it is the job of the Motion Picture Industry to keep 'em smiling."

They kept 'em smiling with so many patriotic movies that, by Memorial Day of 1942, Bette Davis was bored silly.

"Right now, there are too many 'message' pictures," she said. "Also, there are too many war and Nazi pictures. It's sex -- or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof -- that the public wants."

Women in Wartime

The story swept across America in March 1942, spread by people who swore it was witnessed by a friend or a relative or a friend's relative:

This woman's sitting on a bus, talking, and she says, "My husband has a better job than he ever had and he's making more money." Then she says, "So I hope the war lasts a long time."

Another woman hears that and she gets up and slaps the first woman. She says, "That is for my son who was killed at Pearl Harbor." Then she slaps her again and says, "This is for my boy in the Philippines."

The story was reported as fact in several newspapers and as a rumor in Time magazine. It may never have happened but, as historian William Manchester later wrote, "its widespread acceptance told wartime America something about itself: For tens of millions, the war boom was in fact a bonanza, a Depression dream come true, and they felt guilty about it."

By then, the war was pumping $300 million a day into the U.S. economy. It gave thousands of Americans, including many black Americans, the first decent jobs they'd ever had. The war did what the New Deal never could: It ended the Depression.

"We are the only nation in this war," observed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, "that has raised its standard of living."

With millions of men off fighting, many of America's new jobs went to women. More than 250,000 worked in defense plants and thousands more poured into Washington to become "government girls" -- clerks and typists in the expanding war bureaucracy.

They had money to spend but not much to spend it on. There was a shortage of nylon stockings, so they painted fake seams down the backs of their legs with an eyebrow pencil. There was a shortage of men, too, so they sang along with a popular song called "They're Either Too Young or Too Old."

The presence of so many unattached women scared some men. Rep. Earl Wilson suggested a 10 o'clock curfew for the "government girls." His suggestion was met with a barrage of fire from Washington's female workers.

"No congressmen can tell me when I should go to bed," one told a reporter.

The war, as Wilson soon learned, was liberating American women.

Breaking the Cease-Fire

On the day after Pearl Harbor, pundits, politicians and editorial writers across America solemnly announced that the time for national unity had arrived and the era of petty partisan bickering was over.

It was inspiring. It was uplifting. It lasted about a month.

At a press conference in January, FDR launched into a rambling denunciation of the rich of Washington -- "people who live in 20-room mansions on Massachusetts Avenue." He called them "parasites" and hinted that the feds might confiscate their mansions for the war effort.

"I hope Cissy won't take that personally," he added. Then he said, "I hope she will."

He was referring to Cissy Patterson, owner of the right-wing Washington Times-Herald, who lived in a Massachusetts Avenue mansion with more than 20 rooms. She did take it personally, and her paper charged that Washington's real parasites were "the New Deal bureaucrats and bubble-headed social engineers intent on bringing socialism to America."

So much for national unity. Soon, partisan bickering, also known as democracy, was back with a vengeance as pols battled over everything from the poll tax to the fate of the New Deal. Time magazine described the cacophony over the problems of war production:

"Everybody blamed somebody else. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold blamed 'monopoly.' The pinko Nation and New Republic blamed capitalism in general. Columnist Westbrook Pegler blamed CIO strikes. . . . Anti-New Dealers blamed New Dealers and vice versa. Congressmen blamed the OPM and vice versa."

The American people, busy collecting scrap metal and saving bacon fat for the war effort, watched this bickering with their usual cheerful chagrin.

"It is proper and seemly to save fat for Uncle Sam," a Manhattanite wrote in a letter to the New York Daily News, "but I don't think we need fear any real fat shortage. If we actually get hard-pressed, we can always fall back on the greatest fat concentration in human history. This huge resource is stored up in Washington, under the hats of assorted politicians and blunderers who are messing things up with such conspicuous success."

Caustic, quarrelsome and lovably loopy, the world's greatest democracy marched off to war.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Constitutional concerns at home

EDITORIAL
Washington Times
December 7, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-house-200112718448.htm

As he has consistently done since September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft, testifying yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, made a strong and compelling case for much of the Bush administration's effort to bring terrorists to justice and prevent future acts of barbarism on American soil. Unfortunately, however, he did little to explain the procedures the administration plans to put in place to ensure that the military tribunals ordered by President Bush do not become "kangaroo courts." And, in response to questions about the administration's unwillingness to make public the names of roughly 500 non-citizens jailed on immigration violations and other criminal charges, Mr. Ashcroft did little to clarify the confusing and seemingly contradictory explanations coming from the administration.

Mr. Ashcroft did eloquently describe the vicious nature of Osama bin Laden's terror network. He held up a copy of an al Qaeda terrorist manual, which the Justice Department will soon post on its web site. The manual (first made public during the trial earlier this year in which four al Qaeda terrorists were convicted in the 1998 bombings of two United States embassies in Africa) includes a section instructing terrorists how to manipulate the judicial process if they are arrested. As Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff did before the panel last week, Mr. Ashcroft called attention to passages in the manual instructing al Qaeda operatives how to sneak hidden messages out of jail to terrorists on the outside. This, Mr. Ashcroft said, is why the administration is seeking authority to monitor telephone conversations involving a limited number of al Qaeda suspects and their lawyers (between 12 and 16 of the 158,000 individuals in federal prison today). The attorney general emphasized that his department would institute strict safeguards to ensure that officials monitoring these conversations confined themselves to looking for evidence of planned terrorist activity and did not share extraneous information with prosecutors.

Mr. Ashcroft was much less persuasive on other matters. Regarding the administration's controversial plan for military tribunals, he would only say that critics were poorly informed and that "every action" taken by the Justice Department or the tribunals would be "carefully drawn to cover a narrow class of people." Beyond that, Mr. Ashcroft referred most of the specific questions about tribunals to the Department of Defense, which is apparently several weeks away from presenting concrete proposals. Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold pressed Mr. Ashcroft on the government's refusal to release the names of the aforementioned 500 incarcerated individuals. Why, Mr. Feingold wanted to know, has the administration offered seemingly contradictory explanations, saying that:

a) the information must be kept secret because U.S. security would be compromised if bin Laden learns which of his goons are in custody;

b) confidentiality laws to protect inmates' privacy bar the government from releasing that information; and

c) inmates and/or their families are free to go public with the fact that someone is incarcerated? Mr. Ashcroft had no persuasive answer, and one suspects that none exists.

Despite Mr. Ashcroft's best efforts, the administration has failed thus far to make the case for military tribunals and keeping detainees' names secret.

----

U.S. puts 39 groups on new 'terrorist' list

December 7, 2001
Washington Times
Around the Nation
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-79011928.htm

The State Department said yesterday it had put 39 groups, charities and companies on a newly created "terrorist-exclusion list," giving authorities the power to deport members or deny them visas.

Most of the groups already were on other U.S. lists of "terrorist organizations" and subject to financial controls, but were not specifically subject to U.S. visa restrictions.

The list, which is required under the USA Patriot Act signed by President Bush on Oct. 26, includes groups and companies from Afghanistan, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Uganda and Yemen.

Homeland security means sharing costs

State and local governments will have to share the burden for the nation's homeland-defense system, Tom Ridge said yesterday, though the federal government will make a significant down payment on the bill.

"We can't do it all. Responsibilities and costs have to be shared," Mr. Ridge, director of homeland security, told a group of news executives before meeting with state lawmakers. "But the federal government is prepared to step up and make a substantial down payment."

Mr. Ridge would not release details about how much the Bush administration thinks needs to be spent on improvements for public health, law enforcement and communications.

----

THE SENATE HEARING
Ashcroft Defends Antiterror Plan and Says Criticism May Aid Foes

New York Times
December 7, 2001
By NEIL A. LEWIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/politics/07CIVI.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - In forceful and unyielding testimony, Attorney General John Ashcroft today defended the administration's array of antiterrorism proposals and accused some of the program's critics of aiding terrorists by providing "ammunition to America's enemies."

Emboldened by public opinion surveys showing that Americans overwhelmingly support the administration's initiatives against terrorism, Mr. Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists."

He said that people who were hoping that the kind of attacks that occurred on Sept. 11 would not be repeated "were living in a dream world." Holding up what he said was a training manual for Al Qaeda, Mr. Ashcroft said that "terrorists are taught how to use America's freedoms as a weapon against us."

The Democratic critics on the committee were careful in their questioning and most laced their remarks with some support for the administration, even for the proposal thought to be the most controversial, the establishment of military tribunals to try terrorists. But they also sought to show the potential for abuse raised by the broad scope of the presidential order on tribunals and called for more Congressional involvement in drafting such initiatives.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who has been the Senate's most resolute critic of the administration's antiterror proposals, quickly took on Mr. Ashcroft over his testimony that criticism of the administration "gives ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends." He asked the attorney general if the series of Senate hearings culminating in today's session was somehow aiding the enemy.

Mr. Ashcroft blandly replied that he welcomed the Senate hearings as proper oversight. "We need reasoned discourse as opposed to fear- mongering," he said. "This is the place where reasoning and discourse take place."

Some of the sharpest questioning came over the Justice Department's refusal to provide the F.B.I. with information about whether any of the more than 1,200 people who have been detained in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks had sought to purchase guns. The New York Times reported today that some F.B.I. and other law enforcement officials were frustrated by the Justice Department's decision to block its investigators from examining records of gun buyers' background checks to determine whether any of the detainees had purchased guns.

"Why is the department handcuffing the F.B.I. in its efforts to investigate gun purchases by suspected terrorists?" asked Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Mr. Ashcroft said that he believed the law that created the national directory of gun purchase applications could not be used for anything other than an audit of the system.

"I believe we did the right thing in observing what the law of the United States compels us to observe," he said.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, suggested that Mr. Ashcroft's reasoning was incorrect and the decision reflected the administration's opposition to gun control. "You're looking for new tools in every direction and I support most of those," Mr. Schumer said. "But when it comes to the area of even illegal immigrants getting guns and finding out if they did, this administration becomes as weak as a wet noodle."

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said that Mr. Ashcroft was exquisitely sensitive to the Second Amendment's right to bear arms while he was arguing for flexibility on other constitutional guarantees. Mr. Kennedy later said that it appeared that the attorney general was "putting the interests of the gun lobby above above the nation's public safety in the battle against terrorism."

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the committee, aimed his criticism largely at the administration's unwillingness to consult with Congress on several of its initiatives including the military tribunals, the order allowing authorities to monitor conversations between some terrorist suspects in jail and their lawyers and the planned questioning of some 5,000 men, mostly from the Middle East, now living in this country.

"The division of power and the checks and balances built into our system help sustain and earn the public's confidence in the actions taken by the government," Mr. Leahy said, pleading for a more active role for Congress. He said that it was always difficult to raise questions about the behavior of the executive branch in wartime. "But whether the administration's recent actions are popular or unpopular at the moment - well, that's not the issue."

Mr. Leahy said Congressional oversight was not "as some have mistakenly described it, to protect terrorists. "It is to protect ourselves as Americans and protect our American freedoms."

Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the committee, said in response that there was sometimes too much Congressional oversight. He dismissed complaints that the Congress had not been consulted, saying: "It's not that we don't have a solemn obligation to assess the department's actions to ensure that they are both effective and sufficiently protective of our civil liberties. But do any members of this committee really believe that in this time of crisis, the American people, those who live outside the capital beltway, really care whether the president, the secretary of defense or the attorney general took the time to pick up the telephone and call us, prior to implementing these emergency measures?"

Mr. Leahy said that some of the concerns about the military tribunal order had been allayed by comments over the last several days by administration officials who suggested it would be used more narrowly than its scope would allow.

"This oversight process already has contributed to clarifying the president's order to establish military tribunals," he said.

"It now seems, following these hearings, that the president's language that ostensibly suspends the writ of habeas corpus and the language providing for secret trials and the expansive sweep of the president's November 13 order were not intended," Mr. Leahy said, referring to the recent comments, some made publicly by administration figures and others attributed anonymously to officials.

Nonetheless, he asked Mr. Ashcroft to consider a proposed bill he provided today that would incorporate some of those understandings in the law while giving Congress a role in the enterprise. Mr. Ashcroft looked back at Mr. Leahy but did not respond.

The only explicit assurance Mr. Ashcroft gave about the scope of the tribunals was that they would be used only for war crimes. In defending the tribunals, he said, "When we come to those responsible for this, say who are in Afghanistan, are we supposed to read them the Miranda rights, hire a flamboyant defense lawyer, bring them back to the United States to create a new cable network of Osama TV or what have you, provide a worldwide platform from which propaganda can be developed?"

Mr. Ashcroft also provided a warning for John Walker Lindh, the American captured in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taliban, saying that while he would not be tried by a military tribunal, "I would say very clearly that history has not looked kindly upon those that have forsaken their countries to go and fight against their countries, especially with organizations that have totally disrespected the rights of individuals, that make women objects of scorn and derision, that outlaw education."

In his testimony, Mr. Ashcroft provided updated numbers for those who had been arrested in connection with the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. He said that federal criminal charges had been brought against 110 people, 60 of whom are in jail. The department has named most of them. There are also 563 people detained on immigration charges; their names have not been released.

Mr. Ashcroft's comments describing criticism of the administration as aiding the enemy produced angry rebuttals from several civil liberties groups. In one example, Ralph G. Neas, the president of People for the American Way, said Mr. Ashcroft was trying to intimidate his critics into silence.

"Smothering dissent is not the American way," Mr. Neas said.

--------

SECRET TRIALS
Closed Immigration Hearings Criticized as Prejudicial

New York Times
December 7, 2001
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/national/07DETA.html

Under a rule imposed without public announcement soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, immigration courts from coast to coast are conducting scores of hearings in secret, with court officials forbidden even to confirm that the cases exist.

The rule was imposed in an internal memorandum by the country's chief immigration judge on Sept. 21. His action is provoking complaints that even as the country debates secret military tribunals, the administration has already closed an entire category of legal cases without giving critics a chance to challenge the order's constitutionality.

Lawyers for immigrants say that the secrecy order casts suspicion on their clients without any disclosed evidence, bars relatives from locked courtrooms and sometimes means that lawyers are accompanied into court by armed officers.

The memorandum, from Judge Michael J. Creppy, a Justice Department employee, said the secrecy was necessary because Attorney General John Ashcroft had "implemented additional security procedures" for certain cases in the Sept. 11 inquiry.

The secrecy rule has received some attention on Capitol Hill and in news accounts on ABCNews.com and elsewhere. But Nadine K. Wettstein, legal director of a Washington immigrants' rights group, the American Immigration Law Foundation, said that in the two months since Judge Creppy's memorandum, scores of secret hearings had been held with little public reaction.

Ms. Wettstein said critics were frustrated that the hearings had been overshadowed by the controversy over military tribunals.

"I appreciate that there's a lot of concern about the military tribunals, but it's speculative," she said. "But this is happening right now, and it's happening all over the country."

Judge Creppy's memorandum said immigration courts were required in some cases "to close the hearing to the public and to avoid discussing the case" or otherwise disclosing information.

Immigration judges are under a Justice Department unit separate from the immigration service. They rule on such questions as whether a person should be deported for violations like expired visas. The terrorism investigation has led to proceedings against more than 560 people.

Richard L. Kenney, a spokesman for Judge Creppy, said the rule was based on a regulation predating Sept. 11 that provides immigration hearings "shall be open to the public," but permits judges to close them "to protect witnesses, parties or the public interest."

Asked why the Sept. 21 memorandum was necessary, Mr. Kenney referred questions to the Justice Department, where a spokesman, Dan Nelson, said, "We're conducting the largest investigation in U.S. history, and we're using all legal authority to do so."

Critics said the policy threatened the rights of immigrants.

"We don't want to have Star Chambers," said Angelo N. Ancheta, an immigration specialist at Harvard Law School. "Everyone recognizes there are important national security issues here, but we still have a Constitution."

Ms. Wettstein said her organization was considering challenging the new procedures in court. She said it could not verify whether all of the immigrants in the secret proceedings had access to lawyers, as the Justice Department has asserted.

Last year, an immigrant who had been held for three years under a 1996 antiterrorism law that permits the arrest or detention of noncitizens without identifying their accusers or informing them of the evidence against them was ordered released after a ruling that such detention violated due process. Lawyers for immigrants in some of the closed proceedings said the secrecy suggested to immigration judges that clients had been tied to terrorists even without evidence.

"There's a presumption of guilt despite what our Constitution says," said Michael G. Moore, a lawyer from Springfield, Mass.

Michael J. Boyle, a Connecticut lawyer who appeared at a closed hearing in Memphis last month, said that he was never told why the hearing was closed, but that the secrecy appeared to convince the judge that Mr. Boyle's client was linked to terrorism.

"The atmosphere was tainted," Mr. Boyle said. He said investigators have since told his client that there is no evidence linking him to terrorism.

After Judge Creppy's memorandum, the immigration courts' central office in Falls Church, Va., sent detailed instructions to the judges around the country. The instructions said the special cases had to be handled by judges with security clearances, in closed courtrooms with "no visitors, no family, no press."

Requests for information from anyone other than a lawyer for an immigrant, the instructions said, must be made in writing under the Freedom of Information Act. That process can take months or years.

"This restriction," the instructions continued, "includes confirming or denying whether such a case is on the docket."

The instructions also said that court administrators should buy large rubber stamps to label records of proceedings with "Do not disclose contents of this record."

Several immigration law experts who typically support the immigration officials said they were troubled by what they had heard.

David A. Martin, a former general counsel of the immigration service, said the rule permitting judges to close proceedings probably provided an adequate legal basis for secrecy.

But Mr. Martin said it would have been better to have continued with case-by-case rulings on whether immigration hearings should be public. "The rule of law," he said, "operates best in public."

-------- terrorism

Terrorist movements

December 7, 2001
Washington Times
Inside the Ring
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011207-18997295.htm

U.S. intelligence officials tell us terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization were recently detected in Yemen, where the group carried out the deadly October 2000 suicide bombing against the destroyer USS Cole.

Yemen is known as a terrorist haven, although the government says it has taken steps to root them out. Al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan may end up operating out of Yemen.

Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih told London's Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat that al Qaeda terrorists have been identified in Yemen by U.S. officials. "There are some suspects - two or three of them - and their names are revealed," Mr. Salih said in the interview, published Sunday. "They are currently under the surveillance of Yemeni security departments, and they will be arrested."


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

More renewable fuel use will help US economy - study

Story by Randy Fabi
Reuters:
6/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13595

WASHINGTON - A four-fold increase in renewable fuel use in the United States by 2016 would add $6.6 billion to the U.S. farm economy and 300,000 new jobs, while modestly raising consumer food prices, an industry study said yesterday.

The study, prepared by three pro-ethanol groups, was released the same day Senate Democrats unveiled an energy bill that called for a significant increase in renewable fuels.

The National Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association and the National Biodiesel Board said they hoped the study would bolster congressional support to require all motor fuel contain more ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuels.

Supporters promote renewables as a clean, environmentally friendly fuel that can be produced by surplus U.S. grain.

New legislation offered by Senate Democrats would increase the amount of renewable fuels to 2 billion gallons per year beginning in 2003, rising to 5 billion gallons annually by 2012. Current demand is about 1.9 billion gallons a year.

"The Congress is engaged in an important debate about how to stimulate our economy and reduce our growing dependence on imported oil," said Bob Dinneen, president of Renewable Fuels Association. "Implementing a (renewable fuels standard) is a win-win on both issues."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle plans to have the Senate debate the broad energy package, which includes conservation and oil production measures, when lawmakers return from their holiday recess in January. A vote could be held as early as mid-February.

Two other bills in the Senate and House of Representatives have also been introduced in Congress that would establish a renewable fuels standard.

Critics say higher renewable fuel use would drive up gasoline prices. Fuel prices have fallen recently as a result of the slowing U.S. economy. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline is about $1.11 per gallon, while cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline sells for $1.16 a gallon.

The industry-funded study did not specifically address the gasoline issue. But, John Urbanchuk, vice president of AUS Consultants and author of the study, said a renewable fuels standard would have a moderate impact on fuel prices.

BOOST TO FARM INCOME

The study called for an even higher requirement for renewable fuels, increasing from 1.2 percent of all U.S. motor fuels in 2002 to 4 percent by 2016. This translates into an additional 6.9 billion gallons of renewable fuels annually.

The study projected corn and soybean prices would jump more than 11 percent between 2002 and 2016 because of increased ethanol and biodiesel demand. That would be good news for farmers, who have struggled with low grain prices for the past four years.

Corn demand for ethanol production would increase from 652 million bushels in 2002 to nearly 2.5 billion bushels in 2016, the study said.

Soybean use was seen at 318 million bushels at the end of the 15-year period, up from next year's 51 million bushels estimate.

Consumer food prices would increase by 1.4 percent in 2016 due to higher costs of corn, soybeans and other commodities, the study said.

The study also said an increase in ethanol would cut U.S. dependence on imported oil to 65 percent by 2016, compared with the 70 percent now projected by the Energy Department.

-------- health

Suspected Ebola virus strikes again in Congo

World Scene
Washington Times
December 7, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011207-996856.htm

KINSHASA, Congo - Medical specialists from the World Health Organization flew to central Congo yesterday to investigate the deaths of 17 persons with Ebola-like symptoms, state radio said.

The deaths began Nov. 17 in Dekese, a small village about 435 miles east of Congo's capital, Kinshasa, U.N. officials said.

At least 30 persons - including the 17 dead - exhibited symptoms similar to Ebola, said Dr. Auguy Ebeja, who was with the international medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders.

-------- imf / world bank

IMF to Lend Pakistan $1.3 Billion Aid for Poverty Reduction
Was Discussed Before Sept. 11, Officials Say

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page E10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6125-2001Dec6?language=printer

The International Monetary Fund agreed yesterday to extend $1.3 billion in loans to Pakistan to alleviate poverty.

The new package is a continuation of earlier aid to Pakistan that was focused more on cutting the nation's debt than at reducing its poverty. The IMF's vote of confidence opens the door for further aid and debt relief from Western nations.

Fund officials said that they were willing to provide new credit because Pakistan has improved its economic fundamentals and that the deal was being developed before Pakistan became a crucial ally in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nonetheless, the new package may give grist to critics of the organization who claim the IMF uses aid money to advance the political interests of the United States, which has greater representation on the IMF board than any other nation because it contributes the most money to the fund.

"Where they are now with us is where they would have been absent the unfortunate events of September 11," said William Murray, a spokesman for the IMF. Murray did say the deterioration in Pakistan's economy since the attacks affected the size of the aid package. Its textile and other exports to the West have fallen sharply amid the uncertain political environment in the region and slowing world economy.

"The reason we're supporting them is because we see them doing the right things, and they are," James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, the IMF's sister organization, said yesterday.

Pakistan can borrow $1.3 billion over three years, starting with a $109 million installment immediately. The money is to be repaid over 10 years at an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent.

A more detailed announcement of the terms Pakistan must meet to continue receiving installments of the loan will be released today, Murray said.

When the IMF last month announced a $10 billion aid package to Turkey, another ally in the war on terrorism, that nation's economy minister acknowledged that Turkey's political decisions were a factor in receiving aid. He stressed, though, that the nation's success in meeting economic goals as a more important reason.

Until two months ago, Pakistan had never met IMF loan conditions. IMF officials characterize the package as a reward for improving its economic underpinnings. But Pakistan still faces big problems, including foreign debt of $38 billion, which is almost three times the value of its annual exports.

The Bush administration -- and particularly Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill -- has generally expressed reluctance to give IMF assistance to countries unless the money will clearly be used effectively.

Treasury Department officials did not immediately return calls last night seeking comment on the aid package. Murray, the IMF spokesman, declined to comment on the politics of negotiations over the loans.

The administration has sought -- and largely received -- the support of Pakistan in its war on the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan, which it alleges sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network.

Separate from IMF funding, the United States recently gave $600 million in foreign aid to Pakistan partially as a reward for its cooperation in the Afghanistan war.

----

Argentina, Near Default, Seeks IMF Help

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page E10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5284-2001Dec6?language=printer

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 6 -- One day after the International Monetary Fund said it would withhold a $1.24 billion loan installment from Argentina, the government signaled that it could no longer guarantee full payment of its foreign debt and sent an emergency team to Washington for high-level talks with IMF officials.

Argentina's debt crisis -- which economists have described as the largest and perhaps the most painfully prolonged in history -- appears to be entering a critical phase. In a desperation move to pay its expenses, the government today seized $3.2 billion of its citizens' retirement savings. Last weekend, a run on the nation's banks prompted the government to partially freeze bank accounts.

Now, the holders of Argentine bonds -- which represent a quarter of all emerging-market debt and are widely held in the United States -- are likely to feel the pinch. Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, who is leading the mission to Washington, said today that the government would call for broad renegotiation of its $132 billion debt and could guarantee full repayment only to creditors that participated in a debt swap launched last month.

That program, in which billions of dollars' worth of government bonds are being exchanged for new ones with far lower interest rates, has been described by Wall Street analysts as tantamount to default because creditors are getting less than they are owed. Nevertheless, many investors have taken Argentina up on the offer, fearing worse terms later if they don't.

Without IMF money, bondholders who haven't yet exchanged debt -- almost all of which are foreign investors -- would be paid "as resources come in," Cavallo said.

Cavallo suggested before leaving for Washington tonight that the IMF pave the way for debt restructuring talks by agreeing to lower interest rates on the billions of dollars of Argentine debt it currently holds. In that way, Cavallo said, the IMF could set an example for private foreign creditors to do the same.

The IMF said yesterday that it would hold back a $1.24 billion loan installment, part of an $8 billion bailout announced in August, because Argentina will not meet targets for controlling its budget deficit. Though Argentina has made deep cuts to try to meet targets -- slashing pensions and state workers' salaries and declining to prop up its health care system -- a four-year recession has continued to drain government resources.

Argentina's debt crisis is unlike any other in recent history. Nations such as Russia and Ecuador quickly reached their breaking points and entered into clear-cut defaults, declared moratoriums on payments and renegotiated terms with creditors. But analysts have watched Argentina, once the IMF's darling and one of Washington's top examples of free-market success in Latin America, limp toward financial collapse for almost a year as unemployment and poverty have soared.

Though Argentina has desperately struggled to avoid the taint of default, fearing that it would spark an even deeper recession, most economists now agree that without IMF cash, a default is inevitable.

"If we hear Cavallo right, he is saying he will honor guarantees on the debt that has been recently swapped, but not necessarily on the rest," said Martin Redrado, chief economist for Buenos Aires-based Fundacion Capital. "Though he doesn't like to use the word default, that's what it is."

Worse for Argentina, which for a decade has pegged the peso to the dollar at 1-1 ratio to tame hyperinflation, would be a devaluation. As political and economic crises here led to the flight of foreign capital and a local run on the banks, the Central Bank's capacity to defend the peg has been severely weakened. And because Argentines earn in pesos but incur debts in dollars, a devaluation would be likely to cause widespread bankruptcies.

The government says it would adopt the U.S. dollar as its local currency before devaluing. But some economists question whether Argentina has enough cash left to replace all the pesos in circulation with dollars while still insuring deposits in local banks.

Though the fallout from Argentina's crisis has so far been limited, some analysts say a currency crisis here could spark a new wave of economic trouble in Latin America and beyond. Today, emerging-market currencies around the world lost ground on news of the IMF decision.


-------- activists

Alternative fuels forum in Germany
Energy Exchange to Host AF Forum in Germany

From: "Gary Vesperman" <vman@skylink.net>
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 07:39:27 -0800

The Energy Exchange, Ltd. recently announced that its Global Alternative Fuels (AF) Forum 2002 will be held February 12 and 13 at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Stuttgart, Germany. The company said the forum is designed to provide attendees with the opportunity to "hear and debate the latest industry developments in new innovative fuel technologies for the commercial and private sectors."

The first day of the conference will feature a session examining "existing and alternative fuel power sources for vehicles," which will be lead by Methanex Corporation fuel cell manager Blair Heffelfinger and Iqara Eco-Fuels general manager Jan Chmiel.

Later in the day, officials from Norsk Hydro, Linde Gas, and Dynetek Europe will lead a session focused on "infrastructure issues for alternative vehicle fuels." The discussion will cover such topics as public and depot-based refueling infrastructures and the use of hydrogen as a transportation fuel.

The second day of the conference will open with a session examining "alternative vehicle concepts." Officials from Ford's Think division, EvoBus, Fiat Research Center and Renault will compare electric and hybrid electric vehicles to fuel cell-powered vehicles, and will discuss NEFLEET -- a fleet experiment featuring Mercedes-Benz fuel cell buses.

This session will be followed by a second session centered on "developing technologies for future automotive concepts." The session will be lead by officials from the World Fuel Cell Council, XCELLSiS, Nuvera Fuel Cells, Inc. and the ZSW Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research.

The conference will close with an "optional site visit" to an XCELLSiS research facility located in Nabern.

Contact: Energy Exchange, phone +44-0-1242-529090, e-mail c.hodson@theenergyexchange.co.uk. e-mail c.hodson@ theenergyexchange.co.uk

http://www.theenergyexchange.co.uk

----

Greetings from South Africa!

Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001
From: Muna Lakhani <muna@iafrica.com>

Hullo everybody!

Please allow me to introduce myself - my name is Muna Lakhani, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. I am a member of Earthlife Africa, a volunteer based environmental and social justice group of activists, operating since 1988. (www.earthlife.org.za)

I am one of the co-ordinators of our Nuclear Energy Costs the Earth Campaign - we are fighting:

1) a proposed Radioactive Waste Smelter at Pelindaba (a few kilometers from communities, townships and the Cradle of Humankind, the world heritage site.) Major cities, such as Pretoria and Johannesburg are within the impact zone...

2) The proposed Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme of Eskom (our electricity utility) and NECSA (Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA), a demonstration unit proposed at our only nuclear site at Koeberg, near the beautiful city of Cape Town

3) a proposed fuel plant for the PBMR, also for Pelindaba, including the threat of between 2 and 40 trucks PER DAY carrying either enriched uranium or fuel "pebbles", and even larger numbers of trucks carrying a wide range of chemicals, some of which are extremely toxic..

The problems to date are all familiar, I am sure - bad process, misleading information, raising hopes of government with promises of jobs and foreign income.. etc etc...

We are working very hard at trying to change the proposed nuclear development path here, and your good wishes and support will be most welcome - we are fairly up to speed on most issues, but more information is always welcome!

Eskom's partners are Exelon (from the USA) and the recently insolvent BNFL (from the UK)...

Look forward to us all helping rid the world of the nuclear menace!!

Forward to a clean and safe future, Forward!

kind regards to all...

Muna


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