------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Atomic Archive
Chronology of Nuclear Standoff
Report on Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Accidents
China Has a Muted Response to Bush Move on Missile Pact
India Tests Improved Missile
Missile Defense Rocket Destroyed
Missile Defense Glance
Nine Romanian workers exposed to high radiation
Take This, Terrorist Boogeyman
Transcript: Bush Withdraws From ABM Treaty
Russia regrets plan to scrap missile treaty
Text of Putin's ABM Statement
Powell Doubts New Nuclear Arms Race
ABM Withdrawal A Turning Point In Arms Control
Bush Pulls Out of ABM Treaty: Aides Recount Road to Deadlock
ABM Treaty Glance
Today in Congress
Coast Guard to Decide on Cove Point Project Safety Next Year
NEVADA: NUCLEAR WASTE SITE REQUEST
Nuke industry presses Bush to move on Yucca plan

MILITARY
Report: bin Laden surrounded in Tora Bora
Marines Inspect Kandahar Airport
Troops of U.S. and Britain Set Up Camp in Kandahar
Fewer Bombs Dropped on Afghanistan
Heavy Bombing Resumes After Second Cease-Fire Breakdown
Weekly notes - Somalia
Army Working on Weapons-Grade Anthrax
U.S. Recently Produced Anthrax in a Highly Lethal Powder Form
CDC Gets Pentagon's Anthrax Vaccine
Military quickly going through inventory of bombs
Royal Air Force Push for Test of New Smart Bombs in Labrador
Czech resolve
Terrorism Fight Hurts Drug War
Gunmen Storm India's Parliament
Deadly Shootout at Indian Parliament
Israel Cuts Off Contact With Arafat
China's Capital Orders TV Crackdown
New Tack on Vieques
House Boosts Spy Funds
Cuban Spy Ringleader Gets Life
Concrete-Piercing Bombs Hammer Caves

POLICE / PRISONERS
Bush Invokes Executive Privilege
Fragile Freedoms
Police powers reduced
F.B.I. Faulted in Nuclear Secrets Investigation
FISH POACHERS NABBED BY SATELLITE DATA
Text of Osama Bin Laden Tape
2 leaders of Jewish group arrested in bombing plot
Indonesia to Begin War on Terror

ENERGY AND OTHER
Enron Wind set for Irish order, sees big profits
Coalition Calls for Reforms in Hydropower Licensing
ANTI-TERRORISM ASSESSMENTS CRAFTED FOR POWER PLANTS
LOUD NOISES COULD GIVE WHALES THE BENDS
CARBON CAPTURE COULD BENEFIT AIR, OCEANS
Survey: Hunger, homelessness increase

ACTIVISTS
Some good news on nuclear weapons
Argentines protest new fiscal measures
Urfer to serve 5 months



-------- NUCLEAR

Atomic Archive

AtomicArchives.com
http://www.atomicarchive.com/main.shtml

This site explores the complex history surrounding the invention of the atomic bomb - a crucial turning point for all mankind. AJ Software & Multimedia presents this site as an online companion to its CD-ROM, Atomic Archive.

Follow a timeline that takes you down the path of our nuclear past, from the 1920s to the present. Read biographies of A-bomb father Robert Oppenheimer and other key scientists of the nuclear age. See the Trinity Test through Enrico Fermi's eye as you read his first hand account of that history making event. Examine maps of the damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and summaries of arms-control treaties. You'll also find a gallery of exclusive photographs and animations of nuclear physics.

1938 December- Enrico Fermi receives the Nobel prize for the discovery of transuranic elements (actually fission of uranium) and departs for the "new world" December 22, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (later Lise Meiter and Frisch) conclude that the identification of barium implies that the uranium nucleus has been fissioned by neutrons.

1942 December 2- First nuclear chain reaction at Chicago's Stagg Field by Enrico Fermi. Learn more...

1946 December 31- Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) takes over nuclear weapons program from the U.S. Army.

1979 December 26- U.S.S.R. invades Afghanistan; SALT II Treaty removed from consideration by the Senate. Learn more...

1986 December- First 10 MXs/Peacekeeper ICBMs become operational.

1987 December 8- President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev sign the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Learn more... http://www.atomicarchive.com/ACTreaty.shtml

-------

Chronology of Nuclear Standoff

December 13, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuke-History-Chronology.html?searchpv=aponline

A chronology of events in the nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union:

December 2001: President Bush alerts congressional leaders that he will withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty.

November 2001: During a U.S. summit, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasize their shared commitment to nuclear arms reductions, but fail to reach a compromise on Bush's plans for a national missile defense, which would violate the 1972 ABM Treaty. Putin vows that the issue would not harm relations between the two nations as it had in the past.

October 2001: The Pentagon announces it has put off several missile defense tests scheduled for the fall to avoid being accused of violating the ABM Treaty. Bush and Putin also hold separate talks following the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders, in preparation for their November summit.

August 2001 - September 2001: Several Bush administration Cabinet members and officials meet intermittently with their Russian counterparts but have little success in breaking down Russian opposition to the notion of scrapping the ABM Treaty.

July 2001: Bush and Putin agree to tie U.S. plans for building a missile defense shield to talks on reducing both nations' nuclear stockpiles.

May 2001: Bush declares, ``We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world.''

2000: President Clinton decides not to authorize work to begin on deploying national missile defense.

1997: Members of a congressionally chartered panel chaired by Donald Rumsfeld are named to examine missile threats to the United States.

1993: President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign START II treaty.

1991: Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the START I Treaty. Soviet Union disbands.

1989: Berlin Wall falls. Soviet Union cuts conventional forces in Europe.

1987: President Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty, which bans ground-launched, medium-range nuclear missiles.

1986: An agreement to drastically reduce strategic nuclear arms collapses at the Reykjavik summit because of Soviet opposition to American Strategic Defense Initiative development.

1983: Reagan announces during a nationally televised speech that the United States will embark on an extensive research and development program to examine the feasibility of a missile defense program.

1982: Soviets and United States begin Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START).

1979: In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter withdraws the SALT II treaty from Senate consideration.

1972: President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I agreement, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1968: President Johnson says the United States and Soviet Union will discuss limits on strategic nuclear arsenals and ballistic missile defenses. Talks are canceled when Moscow invades Czechoslovakia in August.

1962: Cuban missile crisis.

1961: Berlin Wall built. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails.

1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first earth-orbiting satellite.

1950s: Cold War accelerates.

1949: The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

1945: The United States drops atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II.

Sources: Associated Press reports, Center for Defense Information and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

-------- accidents

Greenpeace Report on Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

From: donmoniak@earthlink.net
11/15/01
http://www.bredl.org/press/2001/riskybusiness.htm

NUCLEAR REACTORS THREAT TO HOMELAND SECURITY GOVERNMENT DOWNPLAYS THE RISK

This is based on Greenpeace report released today and announced in news release at:
http://WWW.GREENPEACEUSA.ORG/media/press_releases/01_11_15text.htm

For download of Greenpeace report authored by Jim Riccio, go to:
http://WWW.GREENPEACEUSA.ORG/nuclear/

If you would like a copy of the news release and/or the report sent to you electronically I can do that upon request.

The report is in the following sections:

Risky Business: The Probability and Consequences of a Nuclear Accident (124 KB)

Executive Summary http://WWW.GREENPEACEUSA.ORG/nuclear/riskybusiness_summarytext.htm

Appendices to the Report:
Maps: (75-100 kb)
Appendix A: United States Nuclear Reactor Locations, Ownership and Licensing (22 kb)
Appendix B: Consequences of a Nuclear Accident for US Nuclear Power Plants (17 kb)

-------- china

China Has a Muted Response to Bush Move on Missile Pact

New York Times
December 13, 2001
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/13CND-CHIN.html?searchpv=nytToday

BEIJING, Dec. 13 - Using muted language, China registered its displeasure today with the Bush administration's announcement that it is withdrawing from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

"We have taken note of the reports and express our concern over them," said Zhang Qiyue, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, at a regularly scheduled news briefing today. "It is of crucial importance to maintain the international disarmament and arms control efforts."

China has been staunchly opposed the United States withdrawal ever since the Bush administration first floated the idea this year.

The opposition stems in part from the fact that withdrawal from the ABM treaty is seen here as a prelude to the Bush administration's plan to create a global missile defense system to intercept incoming bombs - a system that China fears would include Taiwan. China considers the island to be part of its rightful territory.

"China opposes the missile defense system," Ms. Zhang said. "We are worried about the negative impact of the U.S. move and hope that the U.S. will listen to the opinions of other countries, exercising prudence on the question of missile defense."

Some analysts said today's relatively mild language reflected less a softening of China's conviction than a sense of caution and a realistic assessment of what could be accomplished by a war of words at this time.

"Chinese foreign policy is getting more mature, so that it adopts a policy that can be supported by its power, rather than saying something it can not back up," Yan Xuetong, a foreign policy expert at Qinghua University, said. "China knows it is beyond its capacity to prevent the United States from withdrawing from the treaty because the gap in strength is just so huge. Loud words won't solve this problem."

He and others pointed out that the Chinese government had expected the move for many months. Also, in the last six months, China's leaders have endeavored to improve relations with both Washington and with Moscow. They are not likely to speak out until President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia makes his position clear.

Indeed, reports tonight in the state news media were matter-of-fact, describing how the events of Sept. 11 had given American officials a new sense of urgency in developing its military's defensive abilities. But they also stressed that a broad coalition of governments nonetheless opposed the move.

"The Bush administration's accelerated development of the missile defense system and its plan to abandon the Antiballistic Treaty have encountered opposition and resistance from Russia, China and America's European allies," said the report carried by the New China News Agency, the government wire service.

"International opinion generally believes that this step by the United States will wreck global strategic stability and may lead to a new arms race."

Experts both in and out of the government here said that the United States withdrawal from the treaty could well heighten China's longstanding suspicion of foreigners just at a time when it has started to engage with the world.

China joined the World Trade Organization just this week, vowing to obey international standards and rules. It has supported the American-led war on terrorism.

"This sets up a model that you can never trust others because treaties can be abolished at any time," Professor Yan said. "It sends the message that you should expect less from international cooperation and should rely more on your own military capacity."

He said that China would respond by redoubling its effort to modernize its military, a process that has been going on for the past year. Although China has nuclear weapons, its arsenal is tiny and its has done far less testing to date than the United States or Russia.

So it was not surprising that China today called for renewed arms talks. "We maintain that the various sides should hold strategic dialogue to seek ways to maintain the global strategic balance without harming the international disarmament and arms control efforts," Ms. Zhang said.

-------- india / pakistan

India Tests Improved Missile

WORLD In Brief
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A32
Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35108-2001Dec12?language=printer

NEW DELHI -- India tested an improved version of its nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Prithvi missile from a remote testing center off the east coast, the Defense Ministry said. The medium-range missile was fired over the Bay of Bengal from India's testing range at Chandipur, 750 miles southeast of New Delhi.

The five-ton missile, whose name means "earth" in Hindi, has a range of up to 155 miles, said P.K. Bandopadhyayaa, a ministry spokesman. It can be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

-------- missile defense

Missile Defense Rocket Destroyed

The Associated Press
Thursday, December 13, 2001; 7:15 PM

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A $10 million prototype booster rocket for the missile defense system veered off course during a test Thursday and had to be blown up by remote control.

"For safety reasons they terminated the flight," base spokesman Capt. Sean McKenna said.

The three-stage rocket was carrying a mock missile interceptor. It went off course about 30 seconds after launch.

The debris splashed into the Pacific Ocean about six miles from the base.

The mishap came after the booster's first test flight on Aug. 31 was declared successful.

Thursday's test did not involve any attempt to intercept a dummy warhead.

----

Missile Defense Glance

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 13, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense-Glance.html?searchpv=aponline

Some of the missile defenses the U.S. military is currently testing over the South Pacific, or has plans to test in the future, possibly at a northern Pacific testing range:

--Long-range missile interceptors, launched from fixed silos, that would shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles. The program is now called ``Ground-based midcourse defense segment,'' while during the Clinton administration it was ``National Missile Defense.''

--Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), medium-range, land-based, mobile interceptor.

--``Ship-based midcourse defense segment,'' long-range naval interceptor, fired from vessels with the Aegis defensive system. Formerly called ``Navy Theater-Wide.''

--Airborne Laser, a laser cannon mounted on a Boeing 747 airplane that would shoot down missiles shortly after launch.

--A naval ``boost-phase'' interceptor that would hit an ICBM shortly after takeoff. Most interceptors target an incoming ICBM later in its flight.

--Short-range Navy and mobile Army missile defenses, including a new version of the Patriot missile.

--Satellite-mounted lasers or missiles. The military says the test range is not being designed with space-based missile defenses in mind, and the first test of an experimental anti-missile space laser is not scheduled until after 2010.

Source: Ballistic Missile Defense Organization

-------- romania

Nine Romanian workers exposed to high radiation

Reuters:
13/12/2001
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13707

BUCHAREST - Nine workers have been exposed to serious levels of radiation while dismantling a smelting plant in western Romania, officials said yesterday.

The men have been in hospital since June, but the incident has been kept secret while police investigate, the National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN) said.

"They wore no protective clothes. They got a huge dose of radiation from Cobalt 60 which could have killed them at once," CNCAN Director Anton Coroianu told Reuters by telephone.

Cobalt 60 is an artificially produced, radioactive isotope which serves a variety of medical and industrial uses.

The nine were employed to dismantle two furnaces at the mothballed Victoria Calan plant, which has been closed since the 1989 fall of communist rule.

A 100-sq-metre (1,100-sq-foot) area around the furnaces has been closed off to all but authorised personnel, including investigators, who must wear special protective clothing before entering the site, the watchdog body said.

-------- terrorism

Take This, Terrorist Boogeyman

By Don Oldenburg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34577-2001Dec12?language=printer

Twenty years in the U.S. Army beat this credo into Red Thomas's head: "If something needs to get done, you ask: If not me, who? If not now, when?"

For weeks after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Thomas watched in disbelief from his home in Mesa, Ariz., as a nonstop parade of talking heads on television news dissected every real and imagined terrorist threat. He knew there was more to fear than fear itself, but it ate at him day after day that the media and government seemed to be ushering the American people down the path of irrational fear.

"I was watching these ninnies on TV just scaring the hell out of people and I wanted to say 'Just stop it!' " says Thomas, 44.

On the morning of Oct. 6, the craggy retired sergeant first class got out of bed, kissed his "darling bride" of 22 years, "Miss Aggie," and decided something needed to be done. And he was the one to do it. And now was the time.

Thomas sat down at his computer and, despite disabling pain in his back and hips, in one sitting over several hours he cranked out a no-fear dispatch to the American people. Like him, it was nothing fancy. Three pages of pedestrian-grade analysis of what terrorists might do and man-in-the-street advice on how to survive various kinds of attacks, all leftover know-how from his military training in nuclear and biochemical warfare. To him, it was the plain-language survival manual for living on the bull's-eye that the government forgot to issue to civilians. In fact, the Army would later have more than a few quibbles with it.

He could've called it "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Terrorism but Were Afraid to Ask." He might've titled it "Better Red than Dead." Instead, he topped it off with "The Real Deal About Chemical, Nuclear and Biological Warfare," checked it for glaring errors in the old -- decade-old -- Army field manuals in his garage, then e-mailed it to 15 friends. For good measure, he sent it to a small Christian online newsletter called "Day 4 Smiles."

"I actually got down and prayed and said, 'If what I have written is really good, could You please let people see it?' And if the information is bad, I asked to have it killed," he says. "What a testimony, huh?"

For those who didn't mistake "The Real Deal" for a porn pitch or easy-money spam and spike it unread, it was the reality check in the e-mail -- regardless of whether it was all accurate or not. The feel-good report ricocheted from the first 15 in-boxes to countless others. Sobering but empowering, it showed up on dozens of online discussion groups, from depression-support sites to sites on horse racing to weightlifting to Aerosmith.

People said they felt no longer felt helpless. "Some sense at last!" wrote one woman on an herbal-folklore discussion group. "It should be required reading," wrote a regular contributor to a Los Angeles Lakers newsgroup.

Gavin de Becker, the best-selling author and nationally recognized expert on threat assessment, came looking for permission to excerpt Thomas in his next book, after having him investigated, of course.

Why doesn't the government distribute that kind of information? wondered Deryl Looney, an Albuquerque technical support representative who saw Thomas's report on a discussion group. And thousands no doubt wondered:

Who is this guy anyway? And is this stuff true?

Don't Panic

The gist of Red's advice is simple. Know that old nuke maxim that used to be funny, about sticking your head between your legs and kissing your rear end goodbye? Well, the last part isn't necessarily so, according to Thomas.

"Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie," he wrote. "These weapons are about terror. If you remain calm, you will probably not die."

His advice in case of a nuclear attack: "If you see a bright flash of light like the sun where the sun isn't, fall to the ground," Thomas wrote, explaining that the first heat wave will pass in a second, followed by two blast waves -- one going out, the other coming back. "Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave. Anything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes. If you live through the heat, blast and initial burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very, very long time."

Besides, he said, terrorists probably only have small, low-yield suitcase bombs that would kill primarily within a half-mile circle. Others nearby could survive.

His prescription for avoiding radiation poisoning after a detonation: Try not to inhale or ingest the nasty stuff, eat frozen or canned foods, practice basic hygiene.

In a chemical or nerve-gas attack: If you suddenly start experiencing a headache, dimness of vision, runny nose, drooling, difficulty breathing, nausea and stomach cramps, twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just landed on you, he wrote, "ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen? A loud pop? Did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick, too? Is there an odor of new mowed hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be?

"If the answer is yes, then calmly leave the area and head upwind."

The military term is "area denial," and it's the key "right-now antidote," along with staying calm, in Thomas's compendium of survival tips. "If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the area, you're probably gonna live," he wrote.

Red's bottom line on terrorist weapons of mass destruction: "They are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side."

After anthrax began making headlines, Thomas saw a frightened elderly couple on television wearing rubber gloves to sort their mail. Tormented that innocent old folks were scared of their own mail, he wrote this anthrax addendum: "First, ask yourself honestly, 'What are the odds of me getting picked out of 270 million other Americans for this attack?' Second, realize that more people have choked to death on food than have gotten anthrax in the last two weeks."

About "dirty bombs," made from radioactive material and conventional explosives, and currently the threat du jour: "This isn't meant to kill, it'll be meant to harass, to terrorize."

Not that Thomas denies the deadliness of any of these weapons. "If you get a snoot full of this [stuff], it's cancel Kwanzaa," he says. "But the idea that the lady next door doesn't sleep well at night because of it is incredibly unsettling to me."

All hype aside, Thomas says the best overall preparation for any terrorist attack is about the same you'd take for a big storm. "We have a week's worth of cash, several days' worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water," he wrote.

Shooting Straight

Why take the word of a retired armored-division sergeant on fatal distractions like biochemical and nuclear terrorism? "Reasonable question, sir," says Thomas, who identified himself on the Real Deal e-mail by name and rank but listed no e-mail address or phone number. He didn't have anything more to say: "A lot of people have asked me to expand on this, but if you get any further into the subject than I've written, it's like playing pick-up sticks with a bowl full of cooked spaghetti."

Besides, he didn't want the nuts bothering Miss Aggie, he says.

Ever since severe osteoporosis forced him out of the Army in 1994, he and Aggie Thomas have lived in a modest single-story house on a corner lot in a quiet, working-class neighborhood in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb. Neighbors don't pry but know each other well enough to recognize when something's out of place.

In his back yard, Thomas built a pellet gun range where he helps Boy Scouts earn merit badges in marksmanship. "When I'm shooting it's the only time I ever really manage to lose the pain," says Thomas, who on an average day is up by 8, putters around the house until the pain throughout his body eases, then goes shooting in the nearby desert or at Rio Salado Sportsman's Club east of town. "Shooting's my last link to the man I used to be."

Born in Easton, Md., Red Thomas doesn't readily admit that his given name is Irvin. He hated the nickname his red hair got him as a child growing up on Bruff's Island off Maryland's Eastern Shore in the Chesapeake, and later in Ohio. But he's been Red since dropping out of school at 17 and joining the Army. Being a soldier was all he ever wanted to do since first grade.

"That Army 'Be all that you can be' thing? It's true," says Thomas, whose military schooling covered small-arms repair to bombing investigation to civil defense and disaster shelter management. In 1983 he graduated from the Army's intensive two-week nuclear, biological and chemical warfare school.

"If it went bang, boom or pop, I wanted to understand it," says Thomas. "Someone once lent me an encyclopedia of munitions and I read it all. The Army doesn't make guys like me anymore."

He'd still be in if the Army hadn't put his aching bones "out to pasture." He loved protecting his country, but now, he's just an ordinary man living a regular life. Now, he says, he's more like Scarlett, his old golden retriever -- "fat and gimpy." He owns a T-shirt that he says pretty much sums him up: Printed across the front is "Christian American Heterosexual Pro-Gun Conservative: Any Questions?"

Thomas says he's trying to live a good life so that when he dies he'll be allowed to go back to Bruff's Island and, like he did as a boy, "sit under that giant oak tree plinking at tin cans while the tide takes them out into Shaw Bay." He still has that rifle.

Terror in Perspective

When he read "The Real Deal," Gavin de Becker was impressed.

"My firm has pretty high-level consultants on these topics, but Red was plain-spoken and accessible, and caring, and anxiety-reducing," says de Becker, author of the 1997 bestseller "The Gift of Fear" and whose 70-member consulting firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates in Studio City, Calif., advises the CIA, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Supreme Court, among others.

De Becker had his investigative division look into Thomas's background and credentials. He ran "The Real Deal" past big-cheese warfare experts, then phoned the master gunner about borrowing some passages for his upcoming book on terrorism, "Fear Less." "He is a decent, straight-shooting American," says de Becker. "He is helping his country by fighting the terror that results from terrorism."

Raymond Zilinskas, biological arms control specialist at Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., says Thomas may have downplayed what can happen in a chemical attack when a crowd panics, but "for the average person, this isn't bad at all."

Thomas ended "The Real Deal" with a disclaimer because he knew there are "a million caveats" to everything he wrote. "This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations," he hedged. "If you don't like my work, don't nitpick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear and biological warfare in a document around three pages long yourself."

The Army itself took a look at "The Real Deal," and "nitpick" is not exactly the word for its response. "He is trying to minimize the dread and terror associated with these weapons. However, many of [Thomas's] claims are incorrect," reported Maj. William King, Maj. Keith Carroll and R. Scott Farrar, experts from the Army's 84th Chemical Battalion based at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in an e-mail to The Washington Post.

Thomas's conclusions about why the 1995 sarin attack in Tokyo killed so few people were flat-out wrong, they said. Thomas wrote that only 12 people died, a fact that he believes disproved expert predictions that one drop could kill a thousand people and demonstrated that biochem weapons aren't that effective in real life.

His comparison of nerve gas to household bug killers like Raid is "wrong info," they said, as was his stating that the fluid in blisters caused by mustard gas is dangerous. Thomas's take on nukes and biological weapons ignores their potential catastrophic consequences, they say.

Furthermore, the Army's experts said they "absolutely disagree that an attack with military-grade agents is 'incredibly hard to do.' Two months ago, any one of a dozen experts would have told you that the use of anthrax was beyond the means of even the most sophisticated terrorists."

Still, the Army experts call his advice to "put space between you and the attack" generally "reasonable for unprotected persons." And his "editorializing" on the low odds of an individual becoming a victim of terrorism wasn't bad either: "Individually, we are in more danger of traffic accidents than getting hit with chemical attack. However, as drivers we can take precautions to lessen that probability."

The Army's last word: "Retired SFC Red Thomas's article offers some common sense advice for unprotected victims of a NBC [nuclear/biochemical] attack. However, his article doesn't reflect the U.S. Army's position for individual defense and contains an overwhelming amount of incorrect material. . . .

"With domestic terrorist acts, the Army is reexamining its role in homeland defense, and how, or if, it will provide individual protection for each citizen. The threat has come to the lands of the once invincible United States and all citizens need to be aware the potential of an attack."

Thomas doesn't take kindly to the "hatchet job" he says the Army did on his report. "To date, nobody's done more than me to combat unwarranted terror that I know of," he says. "Bottom line from me is, yes, there are errors. I had to do a lot of generalizing to make something useful to everyone. My point was to keep things in perspective and to do it in three pages."

The Army used worst-case-scenario explanations that are unlikely, he says, and even depended on "hokey statistics" and "smoke and mirrors."

The reason? They are the experts Thomas warns about. "The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America," he says. "You've only gotta protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.

"We don't have the right to feel safe -- that's something we have to give ourselves."

-------- treaties

Transcript: Bush Withdraws From ABM Treaty

December 13, 2001
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/bush_text121301.html

Following is a full transcript of President Bush's remarks on the decision to give formal notice of U.S. intent to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Good morning.

I've just concluded a meeting with my National Security Council. We reviewed what I've discussed with my friend, President Vladimir Putin, over the course of many meetings, many months, and that is the need for America to move beyond the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Today, I have given formal notice to Russia, in accordance with the treaty, that the United States of America is withdrawing from this almost 30-year-old treaty.

I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorists or rogue state missile attacks.

The 1972 ABM treaty was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union at a much different time, in a vastly different world.

One of the signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists, and neither does the hostility that once led both our countries to keep thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, pointed at each other. The grim theory was that neither side would launch a nuclear attack because it knew the other would respond, thereby destroying both.

Today, as the events of September 11th made all too clear, the greatest threats to both our countries come, not from each other or other big powers in the world, but from terrorists who strike without warning or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction.

We know that the terrorists and some of those who support them seek the ability to deliver death and destruction to our doorstep via missile. And we must have the freedom and the flexibility to develop effective defenses against those attacks.

Defending the American people is my highest priority as commander-in-chief, and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from developing effective defenses.

At the same time, the United States and Russia have developed a new, much more hopeful and constructive relationship. We're moving to replace mutually assured destruction with mutual cooperation.

Beginning in Ljubljana and continuing in meetings in Genoa, Shanghai, Washington and Crawford, President Putin and I developed common ground for a new strategic relationship. Russia is in the midst of a transition to free markets and democracy.

We are committed to forging strong economic ties between Russia and the United States and new bonds between Russia and our partners in NATO. NATO has made clear its desire to identify and pursue opportunities for joint action, ACT 20 (ph).

I look forward to visiting Moscow to continue our discussions as we seek a formal way to express a new strategic relationship that will last long beyond our individual administrations, providing a foundation for peace for the years to come.

We're already working closely together as the world rallies in the war against terrorism. I appreciate so much President Putin's important advice and cooperation, as we fight to dismantle Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan.

I appreciate his commitment to reduce Russia's offensive nuclear weapons. I reiterate our pledge to reduce our own nuclear arsenal, between 1,700 and 2,200 operationally deployed strategic nuclear weapons. President Putin and I have also agreed that my decision to withdraw from the treaty will not, in any way, undermine our new relationship or Russian security.

As President Putin said in Crawford, we are on the path to a fundamentally different relationship. The Cold War is long gone. Today, we leave behind one of its last vestiges. But this is not a day for looking back. This is a day for looking forward with hope and anticipation of greater prosperity and peace for Russians, for Americans, and for the entire world.

Thank you.

----

Russia regrets plan to scrap missile treaty

December 13, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011213-34082920.htm

Russia reacted mildly yesterday to word that the United States will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Bush administration said its unilateral decision would not hurt strategic cooperation with Moscow.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who is usually not a leading voice on Russian foreign policy, said his country would "very much regret" if the United States pulled out of the 1972 ABM Treaty banning missile defenses.

"What worries us is strategic stability," he said during a visit to Brazil, carefully avoiding the use of provocative language.

Several senior administration officials, noting that Mr. Bush's announcement could come as early as today, played down fears that scrapping the 29-year-old pact between the former Cold War foes would trigger a new arms race, reducing global stability.

"The president believes very strongly that this promotes peace," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said of withdrawing from the ABM Treaty. "He thinks the worst signal to send to the Russian people is that we are locked in the Cold War."

At the State Department, a senior official said all diplomatic efforts led by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to reach an agreement with Russia on the accord's future had failed and the United States felt it was time to act.

"We worked very hard to achieve an agreement - the president asked us to and he worked very hard himself," the official said.

"Originally, the idea was mutual withdrawal," he said. "The Russians wanted to have a part in that and said, 'How about staying in the ABM during a certain period?' We said, 'Fine, let's talk about it,' so we talked about it, but it doesn't seem to have worked out."

But, the official said, "it's not the end of the world for us to develop a missile-defense system, and certainly not the end of our productive and positive discussions" with Moscow.

Top Democratic lawmakers and other critics predicted strained relations with Russia if the United States pulls out of the accord, which bans missile- defense systems. Mr. Bush yesterday informed the congressional leadership of his decision to give Russia a required six-month's notice before abandoning the treaty.

Reports of imminent U.S. withdrawal from the treaty were first circulated Tuesday by the Russian Itar-Tass news agency, which quoted anonymous Russian sources as saying the United States would make the announcement this week.

Moscow, the reports said, had been informed of the decision by Mr. Powell during his visit to the Russian capital Sunday. Mr. Powell said after meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the two sides "still have disagreements" on the treaty's future but would continue working on the issue.

According to other reports, Mr. Bush himself called Mr. Putin after Mr. Powell's last attempt to work out an arrangement with the Russian leader failed.

Mr. Bush pledged to scrap the accord during his election campaign last year, and his advisers repeatedly have called the treaty a relic of the Cold War. Russia has termed it "the cornerstone of strategic stability."

The president's decision, though hardly surprising and consistent with the administration's widely known intentions, raised anew the political temperature in Washington as lawmakers, experts and lobbyists scrambled to publicize their views.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who along with other congressional leaders met with Mr. Bush for breakfast, criticized the president for not consulting with Congress before making his decision.

"It does appear that the Russians knew about it prior to the time any of the leaders were told about it, or the members of Congress in general. And that isn't as it should be," Mr. Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, said.

"I'm very concerned about the implications of pulling out of the ABM Treaty in part because I think it undermines the fragile coalition that we have with our allies," he added. "It's going to complicate as well our relations with Russia, with China and I think we've got to be very concerned about that."

Republicans praised Mr. Bush for moving forward with his long-stated intention to pursue missile defense.

"The ABM Treaty is a straitjacket irrelevant in the post-Cold War era," said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. "Does anyone doubt that if al Qaeda had access to nuclear weapons, they would have hesitated to use them against us?"

In a speech at The Citadel military academy in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday, Mr. Bush argued that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States have made the need for missile defense even more urgent and vigorous testing more important.

Responding to speculation that Mr. Bush's decision is a defeat for Mr. Powell, who tried harder than any other of the president's advisers to reach an agreement with Moscow, the senior State Department official insisted that the entire national security team "is on the same page."

"When the president said, 'Let's see if we can work out an understanding,' obviously that's the secretary's diplomatic role," the official said. "When the president says, 'Let's see if we can build missile defense, that's the Defense Department's role."

• Audrey Hudson contributed to this report.

----

Text of Putin's ABM Statement

December 13, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-US-Text.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin's response to the U.S. decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty, as translated by The Associated Press:

The administration of the United States of America announced today that it is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with six months' notice.

The treaty indeed gives each party the right to withdraw under extraordinary circumstances. The U.S. leadership repeatedly has spoken about that, and this step was not a surprise for us. However, we consider it a mistake.

As it is known, Russia like the United States and unlike other nuclear powers, has long had an effective system capable of penetrating missile defenses. So, with full certainty, I can say that the decision made by the President of the United States does not threaten Russia's national security.

At the same time, our country has not agreed to repeated U.S. proposals to jointly withdraw from the ABM treaty and has done all it could to preserve the treaty.

I continue to believe now that such a stance is correct and well-founded. Russia first of all has proceeded from a concern for the preservation and strengthening of international legal foundations in the field of disarmament and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The ABM treaty is one of the foundations of the legal system in this sphere. This system has been created by joint efforts over the last decades.

We believe that the logic of modern global developments calls for a certain logic of action.

Now, when the world has confronted new threats, we must not allow a legal vacuum in the sphere of strategic stability. We must not undermine the regime of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

I believe that the existing level of bilateral relations must not only be preserved but used to work out a new framework of strategic relations as soon as possible.

Along with the missile defense issue, especially important in current conditions is the codification of agreements on further radical, irreversible and verifiable cuts in strategic offensive weapons to a level, which we believe should be from 1,500 to 2,200 nuclear warheads for each country.

In conclusion, I would like to note that Russia will further continue to firmly follow its principled course in world affairs, aimed at strengthening strategic stability and international security.

---

Powell Doubts New Nuclear Arms Race

DECEMBER 14, 08:34 ET
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=ELECTION&STORYID=APIS7GCVVR80

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's decision to abandon a major weapons control agreement with Moscow will not spur a new nuclear arms race, Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Bush's announcement Thursday that he will scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is a mistake. Several senior members of Congress agreed.

``It's a mistake to withdraw from a treaty before you have something to replace it with,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday after Bush made public his long-anticipated decision. ``I would be very concerned that withdrawal from the treaty does fuel an arms race.''

Bush said he concluded the treaty ``hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks.''

Along with Russia, China and some European allies also had sought to dissuade Bush from abandoning the treaty.

Bush notified Chinese President Jiang Zemin before announcing the decision and Powell talked to Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Ambassador Yang Jiechi.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush offered Jiang strategic talks among their advisers. Jiang agreed, but U.S. officials said they did not know how substantial the talks would be.

In Beijing, the state media said Jiang urged Bush to preserve the international arms-control system.

The Chinese leader spoke with both Bush and Putin and ``stressed that under current circumstances, preserving the international arms control and disarmament system is extremely important,'' the Xinhua News Agency said.

The United States will quit the treaty in six months, and during that period do nothing to violate it with missile defense tests outlawed by the Cold War-era pact, a senior U.S. official said.

By the spring, the Bush administration will be ready to begin construction of silos and a testing command center for a futuristic and expensive U.S. anti-missile defense shield near Fairbanks, Alaska.

``I don't see the basis for an arms race in anything that we have done,'' Powell said. ``I see a basis for strategic stability.''

Powell said Russia had offered to make even sharper cutbacks in its arsenal of long-range nuclear weapons than Putin pledged during his talks in Washington with Bush in November.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will take up with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov the proposal of a cap of some 1,500 to 2,200 warheads apiece, a reduction of about 60 percent from current levels, Powell said.

Rumsfeld and Ivanov are due to meet in Brussels, Belgium, next week.

Putin, in a nationwide television address, repeated Russia's view that the 1972 treaty was a cornerstone of world security.

``This step was not a surprise for us. However, we consider it a mistake,'' Putin said. ``Now, when the world has confronted new threats, we must not allow a legal vacuum in the sphere of strategic stability.''

The administration has ruled out negotiations with Russia on a new arrangement during the six months before the treaty is jettisoned.

Powell said the strong relationship with Russia that the administration has built over the last 11 months ``could take this kind of disagreement.''

The Russians have come to the conclusion ``this action is not intended against them,'' Powell said. ``It will be a system that goes after those irresponsible rogue states that might come up with a couple of missiles and threaten us.''

China worries that a U.S. missile defense would undercut the deterrent value of its small nuclear arsenal. Chinese officials have warned that Beijing might respond by building more nuclear missiles or trying to make its existing missiles more accurate.

China is believed to have about two-dozen nuclear missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory.

In a carefully worded statement, Lord Robertson, the secretary-general of the NATO alliance, said NATO ``welcomes the pledge of the United States of America to develop a new framework of cooperation with Russia'' that includes dramatic reductions in nuclear weapons arsenals.

In Washington, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said he doubted the treaty ever served American security interests.

``President Bush's leadership on missile defense and arms control is precisely the same leadership that's winning the war on terrorism,'' Helms said in a statement.

On the other hand, 21 Democratic members of the House, led by Ellen Tauscher of California and Joseph Hoeffel of Pennsylvania, wrote Bush that there was no compelling reason to withdraw from the treaty now. Doing so, they said, injects ``an unnecessary level of uncertainty in our relations with the rest of the world.''

---

ABM Withdrawal A Turning Point In Arms Control

By Steven Mufson and Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34804-2001Dec12?language=printer

On Nov. 12, the day after President Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met with top Russian officials in a small, first-floor conference room at the Russian mission to the United Nations for a frank talk about the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Rice did most of the talking, saying Russia would have to allow the United States to test missile defense systems without restrictions or the Bush administration would withdraw the United States from the ABM Treaty. "She was as blunt as she could be," one administration official said.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov asked, "In your mind, what are the chances that we would accept a deal like that?"

Rice said she thought it was a good deal for Russia. Ivanov said nothing.

It was a key moment leading up to Bush's decision, expected to be announced today, to withdraw unilaterally from the ABM Treaty, defying the advice of allies and the wishes of Moscow so that the United States can pursue research on missile defense systems that Bush says are critical for guaranteeing the nation's safety.

Though administration officials have repeatedly threatened to pull out of the treaty, Bush's decision -- to exercise a clause allowing either side to withdraw from the treaty with six months' notification -- marks a historic turning point in arms control.

For three decades, the ABM Treaty has been a cornerstone of strategy between the world's two biggest nuclear powers. It was designed when those Cold War rivals saw the threat of mutual destruction as a guarantee of international safety, and codified limits on missile defenses as vital.

Russian leaders say the treaty is still needed. But the Bush administration says it is time to scrap the accord, rely on informal assurances and turn U.S. attention toward missile threats from smaller rogue states or groups. Bush has called the ABM Treaty, which prevents many forms of missile defense tests, a "relic" of the Cold War.

The Bush decision is a triumph for the administration's conservatives, who have wanted to scrap the treaty. But leading Democrats and some administration members such as Powell have said it would be better to get Russia to agree to modifications that would allow for missile defense tests.

"Ultimately, the gap was unbridgeable," said one administration official. "The Russians wanted a treaty. The administration didn't want a treaty." He added, "The administration wants maximum flexibility. The Russians wanted something that allowed them some oversight" of missile defense tests and deployment.

Bush phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday to tell him the United States would pull out in the coming days, as Putin must have anticipated. Administration officials said they expect Putin to issue a statement of regret, but not of outrage.

"There will be no hysterics," Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Federation Council, told the ITAR-Tass news agency.

U.S. officials said they expect Putin to say the U.S.-Russia relationship is strong enough to overcome this disagreement and to point to the agreement the two sides are nearing on deep cuts in strategic nuclear arsenals. U.S. officials expect Putin to propose targets for nuclear stockpiles that would largely overlap with numbers the administration has proposed.

On the ABM Treaty, the Russians "don't agree with it. But they are not going to say it's the end of the world," one senior administration official said.

Last month's Rice-Powell-Ivanov meeting was one of the last chances to salvage the ABM Treaty, though some critics of the administration say Bush's foreign policy team was never really committed to doing so.

Bush had proposed eliminating the treaty in a speech at The Citadel in September 1999 during his presidential campaign. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has called the treaty an obstacle. John Bolton, who as undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs is the State Department official responsible for negotiations, had criticized the treaty before joining the administration.

Nonetheless, the administration said it would try to obtain Russian agreement to amend or mutually put aside the treaty so that missile defense systems could be developed against common foes.

In early August, shortly after the Genoa summit between Bush and Putin, Bolton and Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov met in Moscow. Mamedov suggested the two sides pick up where the Clinton administration left off, defining distinctions between theater and national missile defense, carving out areas for testing. Bolton told Mamedov the new president had a new policy.

In subsequent talks, Russia said it was willing to allow missile defense tests -- with conditions. When Putin and Bush met in Shanghai on Oct. 21 during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, Putin presented ideas that would have allowed missile tests for a certain period of time, an administration official said.

But an administration official said the Russian proposal "meant involvement . . . and a measure of approval of what they would agree to and not agree to at a very low level of detail. And that was not acceptable to us." Another official said Russia was never prepared to allow tests of space-based weapons, one of Rumsfeld's priorities.

Nonetheless, Putin's proposals gave Bush pause. Administration officials said Bush's talking points called for him to notify Putin during the Shanghai meeting that the U.S. planned to give its six-month notice in January if they did not reach agreement. But administration officials said Bush softened his message and did not give a date.

On Nov. 3, a week before the U.N. General Assembly meeting, Rumsfeld met in Moscow with Putin, who said he would not agree to give the latitude for missile testing that the administration wanted. Rumsfeld said that meant the United States would withdraw from the treaty, and he later asked Putin's security adviser whether Russia would prefer the withdrawal notification to be made before, during or after Putin's visit to the United States later that month.

Five days after the U.N. meetings, Bush and Putin met at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., where Bush concluded the two would not reach any agreement on revising or setting aside the ABM Treaty.

As a result, Powell's trip to Moscow this week was designed in part to choreograph the U.S. decision and Russian reaction.

By the time Powell arrived in Moscow on Monday, few U.S. officials expected any change in Russia's position. Bush had phoned Putin with his decision. Instead, Powell pushed forward on the agreement to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons. That, U.S. officials reasoned, would give Putin something to boast about, help assuage Russia's military establishment and keep the two countries talking about cooperation on nuclear weapons. Bush has pledged to cut the U.S. arsenal from about 6,000 warheads to 1,700 to 2,200.

That strategy marked a change from an earlier administration posture. In July, Rice had said a deal on cutting arsenals would be part of a grand bargain on missile defenses and the ABM Treaty. Now that link has been severed. Even though Russia has not given its approval of U.S. missile defense tests, Powell last week said the two sides were close to a formal agreement on stockpiles that would include verification measures.

Even if the Russian reaction is muted, some Russia experts said Bush's decision could have unwelcome consequences. It could draw out hard-liners in the Russian military and political elite, who have been predicting for months that Putin's turn to the West would prove a mistake.

Sergei Markov, a political analyst, characterized the White House decision as "a slap in the face." He said, "Putin will have to send a signal to the U.S. that he is not going to give everything to the U.S. and get nothing in exchange."

Vladimir Lukin, vice speaker of the state Duma and a former Russian ambassador to the United States, said U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty suggests that Russia's influence in Washington has waned with the success of the war in Afghanistan.

"We supported the U.S. unconditionally, we worked, we shared all sort of very sensitive data to do with combating terrorism," he said. "What happened after that is the moment we scored the victory, this line prevailed in the U.S.: 'Thanks, but in matters concerning both of us, we will be acting the way we want.' "

Bush's decision could again raiseamong European allies and Democratic critics the specter of American unilateralism, which has been less of an issue since the Sept. 11 attacks invigorated U.S. diplomacy.

Strobe Talbott, President Bill Clinton's deputy secretary of state and lead negotiator with Russia, said yesterday that European allies would wonder "whether the extraordinary pivot the administration did on Sept. 11 is going to be temporary and tactical or a real sea change." He added: "The way in which the administration handled the ABM Treaty issue will be seen today as an unwelcome indicator."

Though word of Bush's decision leaked on Tuesday, congressional leaders were not formally briefed by the White House until yesterday.

At a news conference after meeting with Bush at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), said, "I think it's unfortunate that the Russians knew before the [congressional] leaders did." He added, "It's unfortunate that a matter of this import would not have been vetted more carefully, more completely and with greater care for U.S. foreign policy than this was."

LaFraniere reported from Moscow. Staff writers Helen Dewar and Mike Allen contributed to this report.

----

Bush Pulls Out of ABM Treaty: Aides Recount Road to Deadlock

December 13, 2001
New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER and PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/13CND-MISS.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 - Six months of negotiations between the United States and Russia over the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty failed because the Bush administration was unwilling to discuss each missile test with Moscow in advance, senior administration officials said Wednesday, and because Russia refused any change that would allow unrestricted testing.

The officials said that the critical moments in their talks came when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in Moscow on Nov. 3 that the American plans for extensive testing would gut the landmark accord.

Mr. Rumsfeld shot back that if that was Russia's position, then the United States would withdraw from the treaty - exactly what President Bush announced today.

Mr. Bush, in making the announcement in the White House Rose Garden, said he had informed Mr. Putin of his decision.

"Today, as the events of Sept. 11 make all too clear," he said, "the greatest threats to both our countries come not from each other, or other big powers in the world, but from terrorists who strike without warning or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction."

Any hope of reaching an accord was finally buried in the opening hours of Mr. Putin's visit to the White House on Nov. 13. Neither president had any new proposals to break their impasse, each recognizing that there was simply no way to accommodate the Pentagon's aggressive testing program in a treaty that was clearly designed to prevent just that.

As one senior administration put it Wednesday afternoon, the American testing plan "would essentially negate the fundamental nature of the treaty."

Still, at a meeting between the two presidents two days later in Crawford, Tex., Mr. Putin signaled that American withdrawal from the treaty would not end his personal relationship with Mr. Bush, nor would it end Russia's desire to reduce nuclear weapons in tandem with Washington and fight terrorism through greater cooperation.

Mr. Bush also pledged to enhance Russia's role in NATO and help integrate Russia into the world economy, thus deepening the incentive for Mr. Putin to move beyond the dispute.

Mr. Bush's announcement that the United States is to withdraw from the treaty marks the first time in the nuclear era that the United States has renounced a major arms control accord. His critics at home and abroad argue that it could incite a new arms race and undermine other major accords, including the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

A senior administration official repeated on Wednesday the White House's past offers to Moscow to take part in developing missile defenses and cooperate with NATO in developing such defenses for the Western alliance.

"There is a whole list of potential cooperation on defenses that we intend to fully explore," a senior official said.

Another official said, "I think cooperation now gets much easier."

The description of the negotiations came from senior Bush administration officials, as they called around Europe and Asia warning allies of the impending announcement.

They described differences with Mr. Putin as amicable, and said they did not expect an explosive reaction from Moscow. At the same time, they insisted that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who had made little secret of his desire to reach a new accord with Moscow, agreed with the president's decision.

American officials said that they anticipated that Mr. Putin would issue a statement of regret today but pledge to continue working with the United States to reduce strategic offensive weapons and fight terrorism.

He may also announce, they said, the size of planned Russian reductions in the offensive strategic weapons, a sign that the two countries are still working together closely.

If Mr. Putin's objections to Mr. Bush's action are muted, it will mark a pronounced shift. Last summer he warned that abandoning the treaty would set off the collapse of other arms control agreements and the deployment of new Russian multiple-warhead missiles.

Administration officials said they did not expect either to occur. "I think the Russians will react," said a senior State Department official. "It is not going to be the end of the world, and it will not be the end of cooperation on strategic issues across the board."

However, they said, the reaction of China - whose small nuclear arsenal would be more vulnerable to any antimissile system than Russia's huge missile stockpile - was harder to predict.

China was never a signatory to the treaty, and Mr. Bush and President Jiang Zemin of China have not discussed the issue in any detail. China had previously said it would increase the size of its nuclear arsenal, and Mr. Bush's announcement may well speed that process.

The question of the treaty's fate came up first in the presidential campaign, when Mr. Bush said he would deploy a much more ambitious missile defense system than President Bill Clinton had proposed - and made it clear that he would not be constrained, as Mr. Clinton was, by the treaty.

Once in office, Mr. Bush's suggestion that, if necessary, the United States could withdraw from the treaty rattled many European and Asian allies.

In June and July, Mr. Bush sought to reassure those allies during two trips to Europe and by meeting Mr. Putin and pledging to work with him in creating a new "strategic framework." He said he would consult broadly before making any decisions on the treaty.

By the time the two men met in Shanghai in October, the terrorist attack on Sept. 11 had drawn them closer than ever. Mr. Putin emerged from their meeting declaring that "we can reach agreements" on missile defense, and administration officials said that, for the first time, Mr. Putin no longer viewed American missile defense testing program as "a threat." Privately, Mr. Putin said he could "stretch" the treaty to accommodate a great deal of testing.

But it was not clear whether that meant he was willing to reach an agreement allowing tests that the treaty clearly prohibited, or if he would insist that Russia be briefed - and perhaps approve - each and every test.

That was the case until the administration sent a detailed list of questions to Moscow, and then sent Mr. Rumsfeld to get the answers on Nov. 3. Mr. Rumsfeld had been the administration's most outspoken critic of the treaty.

It was Mr. Rumsfeld, who on that Saturday afternoon in Moscow described to President Putin a broad program of American missile defense testing in the air, space, at sea, and from a new base under construction in Alaska.

Mr. Putin objected, saying, "You want such flexibility that you are asking to effectively to gut the treaty," according to a senior administration official who participated.

John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, who accompanied Mr. Rumsfeld, interjected that he agreed with the Russian interpretation. Mr. Bolton said the United States was "asking for the ability to test" in a manner that was completely "unrestrained by the treaty."

At that point, Mr. Putin asserted that as a lawyer, he viewed the American demand as overly broad with "too much latitude." He said such an interpretation was not acceptable to Moscow.

"Well, then," Mr. Rumsfeld said, "we will be giving you notification of unilateral withdrawal from the treaty."

Still, there was another attempt to brief top Russian military officials, this time in New York a week later during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. American officials described in great detail the tests they had in mind. The Russian officials, according to American accounts, were somewhat stunned by the scale of the testing program, noting that they were completely out of the treaty's bounds.

"Basically what the Russians figured out was that this was a serious testing program to develop missile defenses and that wasn't going to work within an ABM treaty designed to prevent it," one senior State Department official said.

But White House officials held out a sliver of hope that, once they sat down together a few days later at the White House, Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin could work out an accord.

Their aides had left an open space in their draft joint statement that they hoped could be filled with a breakthrough reached by the two leaders. A breakthrough still seemed possible based on their public statements.

But it was a mirage. Neither Mr. Putin nor Mr. Bush offered any new ideas that morning, and during lunch, their senior staffs jammed into a cramped room in the basement of the White House to hastily draft a statement that conveyed a sense of progress on strategic talks when, in fact, none had occurred.

"We had not reached an agreement," said one official in the room. Moments later, the two president stepped into the East Room with nothing to announce about missile defenses, and over the next two days at Mr. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, they barely discussed the subject.

Secretary Powell, last week in Romania, told his Russian counterpart that the time was "very close" when the president would make a decision to unilaterally withdraw. Still, there was no progress as Secretary Powell flew to Moscow for a final session with Igor S. Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister.

On Friday, Mr. Bush called Mr. Putin and told him the United States would withdraw this week.

"It is absolutely the case that this would have been a lot harder to do eight months ago than today, because the president took the time to build the relationship with Russia," a senior administration official said.

That will depend on the Russian reaction, which will have the greatest effect on how the rest of the world judges the wisdom of Mr. Bush's choice.

--------

ABM Treaty Glance

December 13, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-ABM-Treaty-Glance.html?searchpv=aponline

Key provisions of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union:

--Limits the scope of anti-missile systems. Based on the assumption that if both the United States and Russia are vulnerable to a devastating retaliatory nuclear attack, neither would launch a first strike.

--Neither party can deploy a missile defense that covers its entire territory. They can have a defense that protects a single site, with no more than 100 interceptors deployed. Russia has such a system to defend Moscow; the United States deployed one to protect missile fields in North Dakota in the 1970s but shut it down.

--Ratified in 1972 and amended in 1974. Some argue the treaty is no longer in force because the Soviet Union no longer exists.

--Either party can withdraw from the treaty on six months notice.

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

Today in Congress

Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A06
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35099-2001Dec12?language=printer SENATE Meets at 9:30 a.m.

Committees:

Armed Services -- 2:30 p.m.Strategic forces subc. Security of U.S. nuclear weapons and weapons facilities. 222 Russell Office Building.

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

-------- maryland

Coast Guard to Decide on Cove Point Project Safety Next Year

By Raymond McCaffrey and Michael Amon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page SM02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28879-2001Dec11?language=printer

The Coast Guard probably will not complete a shipping safety plan until next year regarding a Tulsa company's proposal to ship liquefied natural gas on tankers to the firm's southern Calvert County plant on the Chesapeake Bay.

Last Thursday, state and federal officials concluded a two-day meeting in Portsmouth, Va., on the Williams Co.'s Cove Point project. The Coast Guard now will study such issues as whether to require moving safety zones around the tankers and escorts for the vessels when they move into the bay, according to Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gordon A. Loebl.

The decisions concerning the Cove Point project also will serve to guide the overall handling of liquefied natural gas importation along the Eastern Seaboard in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Loebl added.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also reconsidering the Cove Point project. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) publicly criticized FERC's decision in October, a month after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to allow reopening and expansion of the liquefied natural gas plant.

Mikulski said in letters sent to the federal energy panel, the Coast Guard, the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, that the project "could create a new vulnerability to terrorism." She also pointed out that the facility is three miles from the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

FERC announced Nov. 9 -- just two days after Mikulski criticized the commission's original approval -- that it would reconsider the plan. A week later, its staff conducted a closed technical conference, during which interested parties and regulatory agencies discussed "any national security issues" raised after Sept. 11.

Officials at Calvert Cliffs, who previously determined that the Cove Point operation would not jeopardize their facility, are reexamining safety concerns, too, according to Karl Neddenien, a Calvert Cliffs spokesman.

The nuclear plant is now under top alert -- so much so that the plant asked the NRC for permission to postpone its 2001 test of its emergency response plan so that officials could "continue to focus on the heightened level of security," Neddenien explained.

"The goal is to test the plan and the people who would implement it," he said.

The drill was to have taken place in late September, and Calvert Cliffs officials now would like to hold it in 2002.

The NRC is "still evaluating that request," said Sue Gagner, a commission spokeswoman.

-------- us nuc waste

NEVADA: NUCLEAR WASTE SITE REQUEST

December 13, 2001
National Briefing
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/national/13BRFS.html?searchpv=nytToday

State officials will ask the federal courts to block a decision on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, saying the Energy Department has abandoned a Congressional mandate that the site's natural geology must protect the public from radiation. Instead, the Nevada officials say, the latest design for the waste burial ground, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, relies "nearly 100 percent" on engineered barriers to assure the waste's isolation. The proposed nuclear repository is supposed to hold thousands of tons of used reactor fuel now kept at nuclear power plants in 31 states. If approved, it is scheduled to open in 2010. (AP)

--------

Nuke industry presses Bush to move on Yucca plan

Reuters:
13/12/2001
Story by Chris Baltimore
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13696

WASHINGTON - The U.S. nuclear industry's lobbying arm this week reiterated its demand for the Bush administration to quickly approve plans to build an underground radioactive fuel dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

As used fuel from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants stacks up at a rate of about 2,000 tonnes a year, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) pressed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to submit the Yucca Mountain plan for presidential approval before year-end.

After public hearings this week in Nevada, "the record the Energy Secretary will have will be more than adequate" to justify the move," said Marvin Fertel, an NEI vice president, speaking at a press event.

Controversy has grown since a draft of a General Accounting Office (GAO) report leaked to the press showing that government auditor asking the Bush administration to postpone approval of Yucca Mountain past 2010.

GAO made the request because the Energy Department "has no reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository could be opened," according to a draft of the report later released by Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who has staunchly opposed the plan on safety grounds.

Abraham criticized the leaked report as "fatally flawed" because it was released before the Energy Department could review it.

The site in the Nevada desert would store 70,000 tons of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants for an estimated 10,000 years.

In mid-November, the Energy Department released a rule on Yucca Mountain to allow high-tech devices to play a larger role in containing nuclear material, easing the protective burden placed on natural geological formations.

In October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a draft proposal from the Energy Department to study Yucca Mountain as possible site.

If Bush approves the project, it still faces a long path to fruition. That includes multiple comment periods for Nevada and other states to air objections, a congressional vote and a four-year NRC review before construction on Yucca could proceed.

NEI CHALLENGES RADIATION LIMITS

NEI took aim at federal standards for minimal radiation exposure for Nevada residents that live near the desert site.

The Environmental Protection Agency in June set overall radiation exposure at a maximum 15 millirem per year. That level is roughly double the exposure from naturally occurring radioactive materials in brick houses, she said.

"We don't see that adding any value from the public health and safety standpoint," Fertel said. "It causes you to spend a lot more money ... and it doesn't add to public health and safety, which is our paramount issue."

In comparison, U.S. lawmakers absorb 15-20 millirem a year because of trace amounts of radioactive elements contained in the granite walls which form the U.S. Capitol, NEI said. Assuming a 10,000-year life of the storage facility, an August Energy Department study pegged radiation exposure at less than 1 millirem of radiation per year.

Some $8 billion has been spent over the last 20 years to determine if Yucca Mountain will offer safe storage, with critics contending the studies have shown it is unsuitable.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Report: bin Laden surrounded in Tora Bora

December 13, 2001
UPI
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/13122001-115050-4501r.htm

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 -- U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces have surrounded Osama bin Laden, a Defense Department official told CNN on Thursday.

The United States says bin Laden is behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people, and destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon. A tape released by the Pentagon Thursday showed bin Laden gloating about the attacks and acknowledging he had prior knowledge of them.

Bin Laden is believed to be holed up with members of his al Qaida network in the Tora Bora cave complex -- near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan -- which is surrounded by members of the Northern Alliance. U.S. planes are also bombing the area.

Although the United States says bin Laden is in the region, on Wednesday the Christian Science Monitor reported that he might already have crossed over to safety in Pakistan.

----

Marines Inspect Kandahar Airport

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
DECEMBER 13, 04:44 ET
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GC7H1G0

WASHINGTON (AP) - Many of the 1,500 U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan could soon help rebuild the airport near the Taliban's last stronghold of Kandahar, a senior defense official said.

A few dozen Marines were to travel to the Kandahar airport Thursday or Friday to determine whether it can be repaired enough for humanitarian aid flights to land, the official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, was the last city held by the Taliban militia before opposition fighters took over last week. U.S. Marines have established a base called Camp Rhino at a remote airstrip about 70 miles southwest of the city.

The military hopes to repair the battered airport for deliveries of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies, the official said. The United States and its allies are making similar repairs to airports at Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Bagram near Kabul.

Four Air Force crew members of a B-1B bomber that crashed in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday received a medical evaluation at their island base. The pilot, Capt. William Steele, said he and his crew suffered only cuts and bruises.

The plane, on its way from its base at Diego Garcia to bomb targets in Afghanistan, crashed after sustaining multiple malfunctions, Steele said. The four crew members were rescued by a Navy ship after floating for about two hours in the warm waters.

In the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the United States is using a lethal combination of heavy bombing and stealthy commandos as it helps tribal Afghan fighters clear an al-Qaida stronghold.

The bombs include satellite-guided weapons and the U.S. arsenal's biggest conventional bomb, the 15,000-pound ``daisy cutter'' that obliterates everything within a few hundred yards.

The rugged Tora Bora area near the border with Pakistan is dotted with caves and tunnels, and an unknown number of al-Qaida fighters remains there. The Afghan forces attacking the complex believe they include Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader and top suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Air Force has dropped one BLU-82 ``daisy cutter'' bomb in the area, killing an undetermined number of al-Qaida members. U.S. soldiers have not determined whether any high-ranking terrorists were among those killed, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.

``We don't know until we get through the target area whether we have leadership or not,'' Pace said. ``It'd be nice if there were leaders there and it'd be great if we were able to kill or capture them, but we don't know yet until we uncover the ground.''

The daisy cutter can be particularly lethal when used against caves or tunnels: Its explosion can suck all the oxygen out of a cave and the rock walls help focus and intensify the blast's shock wave.

The airstrikes are being guided by U.S. special operations soldiers who also are giving Afghan fighters advice and weaponry.

``These people have changed the face of war,'' said Robert Andrews, a Pentagon official who oversees special operations forces.

Jordan has offered to send some of its special forces teams, Andrews said. He would not say whether any Jordanian units were already operating in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon released three videos from cameras on an F/A-18 jet that attacked the Tora Bora area Tuesday. One of the videos, made with a thermal imaging camera that detects heat sources, shows three shadowy figures moving through a forest before being swallowed up in a huge explosion. Pace said the three figures were al-Qaida fighters.

Another high-tech way of finding and killing al-Qaida fighters has involved using an unmanned Predator surveillance plane teamed with an AC-130 gunship. The Predator provides live video to the AC-130, a large propeller-driven plane bristling with rapid-fire cannons, Gatling guns and howitzers.

U.S. warplanes have continued to bomb al-Qaida positions, even as some of the Afghan fighters try to cut a deal with them to surrender and hand over their leaders. Pace said such negotiations would not stop U.S. airstrikes.

``It's a very complex situation on the ground,'' Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. ``And you're not dealing with set entities or one large group of people on either side, you're dealing with factions within factions.''

Pentagon officials say they do not know how long the al-Qaida fighters can hold out.

``We do know that as that (Afghan) force moves forward, they are encountering resistance,'' Pace said. ``How much resistance they'll end up encountering throughout the entire length of that valley, which is several miles, I cannot tell you.''

------

VISIBLE SUPPORT
Troops of U.S. and Britain Set Up Camp in Kandahar

New York Times
December 13, 2001
By ERIK ECKHOLM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/asia/13KAND.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 12 - Brazenly advertising their presence in a city where the Taliban were routed only last weekend, a group of American and British special forces troops rode downtown in open trucks and set up camp right next to the governor's compound.

The very public move, by troops whose presence here was not, until today, officially admitted by the Pentagon, startled the throngs who shopped for long-forbidden music cassettes and other goods in Kandahar's fully opened markets.

This trip and other visible forays today by Western soldiers, who carried weapons but were bareheaded and vulnerable to snipers, seemed intended as a show confidence in the security of the city, where streets are patrolled by the militias of two private "commanders."

By placing the small contingent where they did, the United States and Britain signaled their support for the provisional governor, Gul Agha Shirzai, who is one of those two warlords.

The United States has provided extensive political and military support to the man charged with stitching Afghanistan back together, Hamid Karzai, and a contingent of perhaps 30 Western troops has stayed for days at his headquarters here.

Today about 15 of those men moved with their backpacks to the city center, and it has become more evident that the United States is also betting on Mr. Shirzai, who is working in concert with Mr. Karzai but is not as widely trusted by Afghans because of his imperious behavior when he was governor of Kandahar Province in the early 1990's.

During that time, after the Soviets were driven out, the country was ruled disastrously by competing and often corrupt warlords, triggering revulsion that aided the rise of the moralistic Taliban.

The American and British soldiers at both locations refused to answer any questions about their identity or mission, but it appeared that many had previously advised Mr. Karzai and Mr. Shirzai during the military campaign to drive out the Taliban.

At the Pentagon today, a senior military officer confirmed that American forces were in Kandahar accompanying opposition leaders.

"We do have U.S. forces in with the opposition leaders as they consolidate their control of Kandahar," said Gen. Peter Pace of the Marines, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . "So there are U.S. forces in Kandahar, like there are with the other major leaders of the opposition groups."

General Pace declined to describe the type of troops specifically, although the Pentagon previously announced that Army Special Forces - the Green Berets - and members of other Special Operations units had been working as liaison officers with opposition commanders. "Right now we're providing assistance, as we have in the past, to the opposition leaders," General Pace said.

Kandahar's residents today expressed a longing for peace and high hopes for Mr. Karzai and a new goal of national unity. But many also indicated worry about the evolving political and security arrangements here and called for the rapid introduction of United Nations peacekeeping forces. The United Nations has approved such forces so far only for the capital, Kabul.

"We'll only have peace when those men up there are controlled," said Abdul Samad, 38, a mechanic, gesturing with disgust at the dozens of armed guards who stared down from the roofs and walls around the new Western encampment.

They were members of Mr. Shirzai's ubiquitous militia, assigned to protect the foreigners.

"This isn't real government," Mr. Samad said of the rooftop gunmen. "We need peacekeepers to come in and control these men."

Mr. Shirzai has announced his own ambitious plan to reduce the number of guns in the streets, but how it can be carried out remains vague.

Under the plan, Mr. Shirzai's militia will not disarm, nor will that of his chief rival in the city, Mullah Naqib Ullah, who still controls more than a third of Kandahar, a senior Shirzai commander, known as Abdullah, said in an interview today.

But those militias will be largely confined to bases, he said, while selected men from each group - 320 from Mr. Shirzai and 300 from Mullah Naqib - will be given police uniforms in coming days and will take control of the streets.

Already today, many weapons were collected from "unauthorized people," Mr. Abdullah said, without specifying who had peacefully given up the guns that have ruled here for so many years. Within days, he said, "you won't see anyone on the streets who isn't wearing a uniform."

The city appears to be peaceful for now, though some straggling Arab Taliban fighters were discovered and killed near the airport just two days ago, according to Mr. Abdullah. But many of the Afghan Taliban fighters from Kandahar took their weapons as they fled to their home villages, and parts of Kandahar Province, especially to the west, remain lawless. The search for the former Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, continues, though the Americans seem to be pursuing it with more enthusiasm than any of the local armies.

All day today, a large crowd stood outside the downtown compound that Western soldiers had entered this morning with duffel bags and packs, riding in trucks with "I Love New York" bumper stickers. The mood seemed more curious than hostile.

"We came here to see the Americans and to see how they will treat us," one man said.

In midafternoon perhaps 10 American and British special forces troops, dressed in civilian clothes, armed and wearing flak jackets but no helmets, sped out onto busy city streets in pickup trucks and a Land Rover, accompanied by two truckloads of Mr. Shirzai's guards.

People watched with astonishment as the strange caravan wound through congested streets. A British soldier with short blond hair and a Palestinian-style checkered scarf stood through the roof of the Land Rover and waved back at children, sometimes offering a thumbs up.

The vehicles left the city center and sped south toward the airport, several miles away on a road filled with reminders of the recent months of warfare. They passed a cemetery with several fresh graves, many sporting the "martyr's flag."

They wound around bomb craters and passed charred truck hulks that scavengers were starting to strip for scrap metal. They passed the airport, where last week scores of cornered Arab Taliban fighters were reportedly killed or committed suicide with their own grenades.

The caravan stopped at the bomb- ravaged campus of a Taliban madrassa, or religious school, near the airport previously known for housing many foreign students. The blond British soldier set up his machine gun atop the Land Rover while the others made a quick inspection of the school carcass and grounds.

The soldiers made no effort to collect any of the Korans, lesson books or handwritten student notebooks that littered classroom floors.

In one was a letter from one mullah to another, listing 62 students who had not shown up for classes and noting the 25 who had a good excuse because they had gone to fight the holy war for the Taliban.

One student had scrawled this on his notebook: "Mullah Omar is a good man, and we want to fight for him and we will do everything that he wants."

----

Fewer Bombs Dropped on Afghanistan

DECEMBER 13, 04:29 ET
By ANDREW ENGLAND
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GC7A3G0

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (AP) - U.S. fighters are dropping about 50 percent fewer bombs on Afghanistan as the war against the al-Qaida terror group and their Taliban allies focuses on the Tora Bora mountains, a Navy task force commander said Thursday.

F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18C Hornets aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt are flying about 40 sorties a day over Afghanistan. But only 10 to 15 planes are dropping bombs, including 2,000 pound bunker-busters that can penetrate caves, said Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald.

Three days ago, 25 to 30 fighter jets would have been dropping bombs, Fitzgerald said.

About 90 percent of the fighters' bombs are targeting the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, one of the few remaining areas of Taliban and al-Qaida resistance, he added. The U.S. airstrikes began Oct. 7 after the Taliban administration refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida group, the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Those planes that don't drop bombs carry out surveillance and reconnaissance operations, as well as providing a show of force, Fitzgerald said.

Afghan opposition forces had given the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters until 8 a.m. Wednesday to disarm and walk out of the Tora Bora area, but the surrender deadline was ignored.

Fitzgerald declined to say whether the deadline had affected bombing missions over Tora Bora, but he said the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters would be forced from the area.

``Whether it happens tomorrow or in a week, that's certainly going to happen. The real question is 'who are you going to get in there?' and 'are people going to leak out or not?','' he said.

In recent days, U.S. aircraft flying over Afghanistan have not seen any large groups of Taliban or al-Qaida forces, Fitzgerald said, adding that he had been surprised by the speed of the Taliban's fall.

``We thought it would take a longer period of time ... certainly what has proven out is the Taliban were not as strong and not very well liked within the country. That has precipitated their fall and we have certainly enabled it with air power,'' he said.

U.S warships are likely to remain in the northern Arabian sea for some time, despite the Taliban's collapse.

``The political side of Afghanistan is far from settled,'' he said. ``There certainly will be a requirement for us to be on station until they achieve some political stability in the country.''

U.S. fighter jets are now focusing more on providing escorts for humanitarian operations and anti-Taliban forces, as well as scouring the country for remaining Taliban vehicles or weapon caches, Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said he hoped some of the burden would be taken off U.S. jets by Italian and French aircraft aboard their carriers.

Fitzgerald is the commander of a task force that includes around 40 vessels with ships from Australia, France, Italy, Britain and Canada.

The Italian carrier Garibaldi is already in the Arabian sea undergoing ``integration training'' with the U.S. Navy, while the French carrier Charles de Gaulle is expected to arrive soon.

If their governments approve, both carriers could launch aircraft on combat sorties, Fitzgerald said.

``We've been out here 3 1/2 months and we would like to get a break,'' he said.

The Roosevelt is one of two U.S. carrier battle groups in the northern Arabian sea. The other is led by the USS Carl Vinson.

----

Heavy Bombing Resumes After Second Cease-Fire Breakdown

New York Times
December 13, 2001
By JOHN KIFNER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/13CND-AFGH.html

TORA BORA, Afghanistan, Dec. 13 - Backed by a stepped-up American bombing campaign, Afghan fighters launched a new ground assault today against Al Qaeda fighters trapped in mountain canyons and caves after attempts to arrange a second surrender deal collapsed.

Commanders of the eastern tribal alliance said they had dropped their plans for Al Qaeda fighters to turn themselves in at midday amid reports that key terrorist leaders had fled Osama bin Laden's besieged mountain base for Pakistan, leaving their troops to face the full fury of the opposition.

The exact whereabouts of Mr. bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, remained unknown.

Initially, the alliance advance met little resistance, Hazrat Ali, a senior alliance member told The Associated Press. Later, however, Al Qaeda holdouts pinned down tribal fighters with mortars and heavy machine-gun fire. Mr. Ali estimated the number of Al Qaeda fighters at around 700.

One key Qaeda position was captured and officers said they were determined to crush the enemy, most of them Arabs and other Muslim fighters.

At the border with Pakistan today military helicopters hovered overhead and hundreds of soldiers patrolled the narrow mountain trails, looking to stop Mr. bin Laden or any other Al Qaeda leaders who might try to escape from Afghanistan. The Pakistani forces are concentrated on a 25-mile stretch opposite Tora Bora.

American bombing pouned Al Qaeda positions Wednesday night and this morning.

B-52's circled above the combat zone in the foothills of Afghanistan's eastern White Mountains and fighter aircraft roared across the Tora Bora and Milawa valleys.

After one jet dropped 1,000-pound bombs on an Al Qaeda post, an Afghan soldier could be heard cheering over the alliance's radio network.

Pentagon officials told the A.P. that the bombs included satellite-guided weapons that home in on their targets and the biggest conventional bomb in the American arsenal, the so-called daisy cutter, a 15,000-pound weapon that obliterates everything within a few hundred yards when it explodes.

At least one, and perhaps as many as three of the 15,000-pound bombs were dropped before dawn on a canyon where many Al Qaeda men have been hemmed in since Monday.

An Associated Press reporter who saw one blast said a huge, bright magenta fireball hung in the air and lighted up the sky at around 3 a.m.

Casualty figures were not known.

American officials said it was not clear whether some enemy personnel were still sheltering in the hundreds of caves and tunnels that riddle the area.

Today's fighting came after two surrender deals between the alliance and Al Qaeda troops fell through.

The latest surrender ultimatum came after a day of crushed hopes and steady American bombing on Wednesday that sent huge clouds of smoke and debris billowing across the ridges.

Some anti-Taliban, anti-Qaeda commanders were privately furious and dejected, believing that they had negotiated a cease-fire and surrender agreement in good faith, only to see it derailed by American bombing and strafing by AC-130 gunships through the night and a heavy barrage early in the morning, just before the surrender was to take place.

A B-52 bomber made lazy circles overhead much of the day, its white contrails a constant reminder of the threat of American air power. Late in the afternoon, a huge black cloud - much bigger than those from the rest of the day's bombing - rose over the mountains.

The main Afghan military leaders here - including Commanders Ali, Muhammad Zaman and Hajji Zahir - met in glum discussions throughout the day and into the evening in a municipal government building on a barren bluff near the battlefield. Fighters with weapons slung over their shoulders milled about outside.

"I am angry, and I put my gun down and told my commander I am going home," said one soldier, Murad Ali, 20, who had just returned from several days of fighting on the mountaintop.

"They agreed to surrender," he said. "But the Americans bombed overnight. So the Arabs are mad, and we are mad, too. All the mujahedeen are mad because the Americans have done a bad thing."

The situation was complicated by rivalries among Commanders Ali, Zaman and Zahir. Divisions in Al Qaeda were reported, too, with some foreign fighters ready to surrender, and a group of Arabs eager to fight on. The Afghan Islamic Press, often the voice of the Taliban, reported that some of the fighters were demanding that they be turned over to the United Nations, with diplomats from their home countries present.

The United States, however, has been adamantly opposed to any such surrender deal.

"We have made it very clear what our intents are," a Pentagon spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, said in Washington.

Commander Ali said Wednesday night that fighters from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose numbers he put at about 700, were ready to surrender. But, he added, about 500 Arabs did not want to give up.

"We've had discussions with these people," Commander Ali said. "They are ready to give us 22 Al Qaeda leaders, but not Osama. But there are conditions."

"We want Osama alive," he added.

Asked if Mr. bin Laden was, in fact, still in the Tora Bora region, Commander Ali replied, "I don't want to disclose that."

On Wednesday senior Defense Department officials played down a report on the Web site of The Christian Science Monitor that Mr. bin Laden escaped to Pakistan 10 days ago with the help of local tribesmen. The chief spokesman for the United States Central Command, Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, said he would view such reports "with a healthy dose of skepticism." Besides American warplanes, heavily armed American and British commandos took part in the offensive here Wednesday. The commandos were not only directing the bombing but also searching the caves and training bases that have been captured so far. Anti-Taliban forces put the numbers at 40 American and 60 British soldiers.

Gen. Peter Pace of the marines, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington Wednesday that American Special Operations forces were working with the opposition fighters, mostly to direct strikes from warplanes. He said that he had seen no reports of American soldiers' actually attacking caves, but that the fluid situation meant that Americans advancing with opposition fighters might engage in combat if they came across Al Qaeda troops.

-------- africa

Weekly notes - Somalia

Briefly December 13, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011213-292069.htm

The possibility is "very real" that terrorist cells linked to al Qaeda are present in Somalia, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner said in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday, at the end of an 11-day visit to Africa that included Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. "Somalia is an environment that could be hospitable to terrorists The first goal is to make it inhospitable," he told reporters.

-------- biological weapons

Army Working on Weapons-Grade Anthrax
Utah Facility Quietly Developed Formulation; Spores Sent Back and Forth to Md.

By Rick Weiss and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34707-2001Dec12?language=printer

An Army biological and chemical warfare facility in Utah has been quietly developing a virulent, weapons-grade formulation of anthrax spores since at least 1992, and samples of the bacteria were shipped back and forth between that facility and Fort Detrick, Md., on several occasions in the past several years, according to government officials and shipping records.

The Utah spores, grown and processed at the 800,000-acre Dugway Proving Ground about 80 miles from Salt Lake City, belong to the Ames strain -- the same strain used in the deadly letters sent to media outlets and two senators in September and October. No other nation is known to have made weapons-grade Ames. And although it is legal to make small quantities of such agents under the provisions of an international treaty the United States has signed, experts said yesterday they were surprised by the revelation that a U.S. lab was producing such lethal material.

"It comes as a bit of a shock," said Jonathan Tucker, a former member of the U.N. team that inspected Iraq's bioweapons stocks after the Persian Gulf War and now director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies' Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program in Washington.

Army officials said yesterday that all the material they have made has been accounted for and that they are cooperating with the FBI in its investigation. The FBI would not comment on the Dugway program yesterday, but agency officials have hypothesized that the attacks were the work of a domestic terrorist -- perhaps someone with some knowledge of microbiology.

Sources said that hypothesis is now sure to get renewed attention.

"This is a very important lead," said one person involved in the government's investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Dugway has in the past acknowledged growing small quantities of virulent anthrax spores in a form that does not pose a significant risk of deadly inhalation. It has also processed related but nonvirulent bacteria into dry powdery forms that mimic weapons-grade anthrax in experiments. Dugway's production of a powdered form of Ames anthrax was first described in yesterday's Baltimore Sun. Dugway officials said in a statement yesterday that it became necessary to process virulent bacteria into a dangerous powder form to conduct certain defensive experiments.

Under the terms of the international biological weapons convention, small amounts of weapons-grade biological weapons can be produced in "types and quantities consistent with prophylactic, peaceful and protective purposes." No specific allowable quantities are spelled out. Among other things, the Army research seeks to find new ways to detect anthrax spores after a clandestine attack, to develop new ways of decontaminating spore-laden environments, and to test the efficacy of face masks and other protective equipment.

The Dugway statement said its spores are always shipped in a wet paste form, to minimize the danger of a spill or other dangerous accident. Spores must generally be processed into a fine dry powder for them to become airborne and enter the lungs, where they can trigger the most serious "inhalational" form of the disease.

No details were available yesterday about how Dugway scientists converted that paste into powder for their experiments. Various nations have achieved that goal by different means, and investigators hope to get clues about who has been sending the contaminated letters by studying the powders' physical and chemical characteristics, which can reveal details about how they were made.

Army and other officials have said the anthrax spores in the letter to Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) were highly concentrated and were produced in a powder made of particles smaller than three microns in diameter -- well into the size range that would make them extremely dangerous if released into the air. They were mixed with silica, an additive.

Army officials in Washington said yesterday that Fort Detrick does not have the equipment for making dried anthrax spores. But Fort Detrick does have a machine that can kill bacteria with irradiation -- equipment Dugway lacks. Thus, in some instances, when Dugway scientists wanted to work on dried spores without risk of infection, they shipped samples to Detrick to be sterilized.

The most recent shipment of the deadly spores to Fort Detrick left Dugway Proving Ground June 27. The spores were to be irradiated at the Maryland lab to render them harmless, according to shipping records and interviews with officials.

Those spores apparently sat at Fort Detrick for more than two months before being shipped back to Dugway on Sept. 4, less than a month before this fall's spate of bioterrorist attacks began with a Florida photo editor's fatal case of anthrax.

Army officials yesterday could not provide details about how they kept track of the spores in each facility, except to say they were in full compliance with the federal "special agents" law. That law spells out how certain dangerous germs -- including the anthrax bacterium, Bacillus anthracis -- are to be handled when being shipped from lab to lab.

Shipping records obtained by The Washington Post indicate that the June shipment from Dugway to Detrick involved two small vials, one containing 180 milliliters and the other 160 ml. The return shipment contained five vials, each with 150 ml, for a total of 750 ml. An Army spokesman yesterday could not explain the discrepancy.

A previous shipment of Ames went from Dugway to Detrick in August 2000. Two weeks later, six times the original volume of material was shipped back to Dugway.

New revelations about the technical sophistication of the material used in the letters to Daschle and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) have only deepened the debate over who could be behind the attacks. Some prominent anthrax experts believe the signs point to an American scientist with connections to the U.S. biological weapons program or one of its contractors.

"The anthrax in the letters was probably made and weaponized in a U.S. government or contractor lab," Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist and director of the Federation of American Scientists' Working Group on Biological Weapons, concluded in an analysis released by the federation on Monday. "It might have been made recently by the perpetrator on his own, or made as part of the U.S. biodefense program; or it may be a remnant of the U.S. biological weapons program before [President Richard M. Nixon] terminated the program in 1969." Richard Spertzel, a former Army colonel who directed the U.N. biological weapons inspection team in Iraq, scoffed last week at the idea of a "bio-bomber," a disgruntled or deranged scientist crafting a lethal anthrax weapon alone in a basement lab.

"The quality of the product contained in the letter to Senator Daschle was better than that found in the Soviet, U.S. or Iraqi program, certainly in terms of the purity and concentration of spore particles," Spertzel said in testimony Dec. 5 to the House Committee on International Relations, apparently referring to the U.S. offensive program that ended in 1969.

----

THE INVESTIGATION
U.S. Recently Produced Anthrax in a Highly Lethal Powder Form

New York Times
December 13, 2001
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and JUDITH MILLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/national/13ANTH.html

As the investigation into the anthrax attacks widens to include federal laboratories and contractors, government officials have acknowledged that Army scientists in recent years have made anthrax in a powdered form that could be used as a weapon.

Experts said this appeared to be the first disclosure of government production of anthrax in its most lethal form since the United States renounced biological weapons in 1969 and began destroying its germ arsenal.

Officials at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah said that in 1998 scientists there turned small quantities of wet anthrax into powder to test ways to defend against biowarfare attacks.

A spokeswoman at Dugway, Paula Nicholson, said the powdered anthrax produced that year was a different strain from the one used in the recent mail attacks that have killed five people. Dugway officials said powdered anthrax was also produced in other years but declined to say whether any of it was the Ames strain, the type found in the letters sent to two senators and news organizations.

Government records show that Dugway has had the Ames strain since 1992.

Dugway officials said in a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into "the work at Dugway Proving Ground," along with that of other medical facilities, universities and laboratories. "The Army is cooperating with and assisting the F.B.I.'s efforts," the officials said.

The disclosure at Dugway comes as federal agents, as part of a vast investigation of the anthrax attacks that has made little apparent headway, are trying to figure out where stores of anthrax are housed around the nation and who has the skill to create the powdered form - a major technical step needed to make the anthrax used in the terror attacks.

The F.B.I. declined to detail its strategy other than to say its agents have visited some laboratories and are identifying new ones that may have handled, or had access to, the Ames strain.

"We're following every logical lead," said one law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The F.B.I has subpoenaed records from dozens of laboratories that do pathogen research, drawing up a list of places that possess the Ames strain. The bureau, citing the criminal investigation, will not release the list or identify the labs being scrutinized. But private experts say the list is most likely short.

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a biological arms control expert at the State University of New York at Purchase and chairwoman of a bioweapons panel at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington, concluded that at least 15 institutions had worked recently with the Ames strain. Dr. Rosenberg, who has argued that the likeliest suspect in the anthrax attacks is a government insider or someone in contact with an insider, drew up her list after surveying scientific publications about anthrax and consulting private and federal experts.

Of the 15, Dr. Rosenberg said, four are "probably more likely than the others to have weaponization capabilities" - the ability to turn wet anthrax spores into a fine powder that could be used as a weapon.

Army researchers have previously acknowledged making wet anthrax, but Dr. Rosenberg said the acknowledgment yesterday by Dugway officials that they had produced dried anthrax was the government's only such disclosure. "I know of no case of the United States saying that it has made anthrax powder," she said.

Some details of Dugway's anthrax work were reported yesterday by The Baltimore Sun.

Dugway's disclosure was so sketchy that it was impossible to determine how similar the powdered anthrax produced there was to that sent in the anthrax attacks. In addition to drying, other steps involved in producing the most lethal powders include making the particles uniformly small and processing them so they float freely.

Private and federal experts are clashing over how much powdered anthrax Dugway has made. The issue is politically sensitive since some experts say producing large quantities could be seen as violating the global treaty banning germ weapons.

William C. Patrick III, a scientist who made germ weapons for the United States and now consults widely on biological defenses, told a group of American military officers in February 1999 that he taught Dugway personnel the previous spring how to turn wet anthrax into powders, according to a transcript of the session.

The process, Mr. Patrick told officers at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, was not as refined as the one used in the heyday of the government's germ warfare program, but it worked. "We made about a pound of material in little less than a day," he told the officers. "It's a good product."

He did not say what strain of anthrax was used in this work.

But Ms. Nicholson, the Dugway spokeswoman, said workers there "never produced more than a few grams" of powdered anthrax in any given year. There are 454 grams in a pound.

Experts have said the letter sent to Senator Tom Daschle contained about two grams of anthrax spores - a small amount, but enough, if distributed with high efficiency, to infect millions of people.

Ms. Nicholson said the dry anthrax made in 1998 was of the strain known as Vollum 1B, which the Army used to make anthrax weapons before the United States renounced biological arms in 1969. She said it was used for decontamination studies.

"You have to use live spores because you are determining the rates of inactivation or kill," she said.

She said Dugway did make one- pound quantities of Bacillus subtilis, a benign germ sometimes used to simulate anthrax. Mr. Patrick could not be reached for comment on this point.

Elisa D. Harris, who handled biological defense issues on the National Security Council for the Clinton administration, said she knew nothing about a pound of dried anthrax being made at Dugway. She added that after President Richard M. Nixon unilaterally ended America's germ weapons program, the United States destroyed about 220 pounds of anthrax.

Dugway's production of dried anthrax is part of the government's secret research program on how to defend against germ weapons, which gained momentum in the late 1990's. The Clinton administration began a series of projects aimed at understanding the nation's vulnerabilities to biowarfare and devising ways combat the threats.

Experts like Dr. Rosenberg have argued that some of these programs violate the 1972 global treaty banning germ weapons. Others say these projects, including making small amounts of the germs, are permitted by the treaty and are vital to defense research.

It is uncertain how the disclosure by Dugway will be perceived abroad, where some European countries have recently accused the United States of turning its back on the germ treaty, charges that the Bush administration denies.

It is not known whether Dugway has shared its skills in making biological powders with other institutions, but it has shared its supply of the Ames strain.

In 1997, it sent germs to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, said Christopher C. Kelly, a spokesman there. He added that the institute, a sister lab to the Naval Medical Research Center, uses Ames to develop research assays for biological defense.

F.B.I. agents have interviewed staff members there, he said.

Intelligence officials say that Battelle Memorial Institute, a military contractor in Ohio, has experience making powdered germs. They say the contractor participated in a secret Central Intelligence Agency program, code-named Clear Vision and begun in 1997, that used benign substances similar to anthrax to mimic Soviet efforts to create small bombs that could emit clouds of lethal germs.

Katy Delaney, a Battelle spokeswoman, would not comment on the laboratory's anthrax work except to say that the lab had always cooperated "with any and all legitimate inquiries from law enforcement."

------

CDC Gets Pentagon's Anthrax Vaccine
Officials to Use Medicine to Treat Those at Risk of Infection

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35061-2001Dec12?language=printer

Federal health officials have acquired 220,000 doses of anthrax vaccine from the Pentagon and preliminary approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use the vaccine as an experimental treatment if antibiotics fail.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received permission to use the controversial vaccine in tightly controlled experiments to either inoculate high-risk workers or treat individuals who were recently exposed to the deadly bacteria, Bradley Perkins, a top anthrax researcher at the CDC, said yesterday.

The plan, which is still under review, signals continued concern among public health authorities that anthrax remains a very real threat. In addition to the possibility of future attacks, officials are worried about the hundreds of people exposed to anthrax bacteria in last fall's bioterrorist incidents who failed to complete a 60-day prescription to prevent the illness.

Although there is little solid evidence, researchers estimate anthrax spores can survive in the body for 60 days. That means that people who discontinue antibiotics prematurely could later develop the disease, and may not respond to another round of the drugs.

In addition to protecting against initial infection with the bacteria, officials suspect that the vaccine may work in treating anthrax victims in cases where an antibiotic is halted early or fails to work initially. "If we have any evidence of failure," such as a new case of anthrax disease, "the vaccine is available as a contingency," Perkins said.

Behind the scenes, Bush administration officials are involved in feverish negotiations over who should be vaccinated immediately. Calls to the Department of Health and Human Services were not returned yesterday.

Earlier this fall, at the height of the anthrax attacks, the CDC said it intended to inoculate about 1,000 laboratory workers and field investigators who are most likely to come into contact with anthrax bacteria. Others groups, such as the U.S. Postal Service and emergency rescue workers, expressed a desire for similar protection.

Depending on how the vaccine is used -- as a preventive measure or for post-exposure treatment -- health officials could inoculate 36,000 to 73,000 people, Perkins said. At least 32,000 people were initially given anti-anthrax medication. Anecdotal reports from postal workers in particular suggest 25 percent to 75 percent of the patients instructed to take a full course of medicine have chosen not to, often because of the unpleasant side effects.

"One of our biggest concerns is people who didn't take the full course," CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan said. "They really need to take all of those antibiotics that were available to them, because that's what kills those lingering spores when they turn into bacteria."

Although there has not been a new anthrax case since the mysterious death of Ottilie Lundgren in Connecticut on Nov. 21, the nation's public health leaders are aggressively pursuing potential new weapons against the disease.

Private and government researchers are studying possible antidotes and the behavior of the anthrax used in the attacks. But the vaccine is the most promising short-term hope.

Perkins said the CDC "worked closely with FDA in developing" the protocols for testing new uses of the anthrax vaccine, which is made by BioPort Corp. Anyone given the vaccine must provide informed consent and agree to thorough follow-up, he explained. The purpose is to both monitor the vaccine's safety and collect data.

Currently, the Department of Defense controls the nation's vaccine stockpile. In 1998 and 1999, about 400,000 military personnel were vaccinated against anthrax. But many soldiers, complaining of unpleasant side effects, have balked at taking the six shots over 18 months, and safety problems at BioPort's plant in Michigan have drastically slowed the vaccination program.

BioPort hopes to have its refurbished plant inspected by the FDA this month, which could mean the release of as many as 5 million doses of quarantined vaccine.

Meanwhile, the House yesterday approved bipartisan legislation by an overwhelming margin that authorized billions of dollars to guard against a future bioterrorist act.

The bill, which passed 418 to 2, would give $1 billion to HHS to bolster the nation's stockpile of antidotes and vaccines; another $1 billion in grants to state and local governments along with public and private health facilities for preparedness programs; $450 million for CDC; $100 million for FDA and $100 million to protect the nation's drinking water supply.

Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

-------- business

Military quickly going through inventory of bombs

ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 13, 2001
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011213-99623021.htm

In the midst of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. Navy ordered 1,074 more of one of the conflict's most-used weapons - bombs with satellite-guided tail kits that steer them to their targets.

The rapid pace of bombing during nine weeks of daily air strikes means that half of the more than 10,000 Joint Direct Attacks Munition kits manufactured so far could have been used, according to estimates.

"We've been using them with great effect, but also in very large numbers and we're looking at how we can build those inventories back as rapidly as possible," says Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

In October, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper said the military would order more JDAMs because its stocks were "below what we want them to be, but OK for what we see on the horizon."

The JDAM satellite guidance kits can be fitted on 1,000-pound or 2,000-pound bombs dropped from a variety of bombers and attack jets. A pilot or bombardier enters target coordinates into the bomb's computer, and the JDAM system controls the tail fins to steer the bomb to its target.

The weapons are relatively inexpensive - about $25,000 each, including the bomb, compared with $1 million each for Tomahawk cruise missiles. They can be dropped from up to 15 miles away and from as high as 45,000 feet.

Six hundred of the Navy's new JDAMs order are due by the end of December, said Robert Algarotti, a spokesman for manufacturer Boeing Co. The other 474 the Navy requested during the war are to be ready by March.

Last April, the Pentagon signed a $260 million contract with Boeing to make 12,204 JDAM kits over a year's time to replenish supplies.

Air Force and Navy planes have dropped thousands of JDAMs and other weapons - the Pentagon won't say how many - on Afghanistan since the campaign began Oct. 7.

The military is rapidly going through other weapons as well:

• U.S. planes have dropped at least four 15,000-pound "daisy cutter" bombs in Afghanistan, most recently this week on a cave reportedly holding top al Qaeda leaders.

• The military may not have any more of a type of weapon called a fuel-air explosive, said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy operations director for the Joint Staff. Those bombs create clouds of explosive mist that then detonate. Such explosions can be used to suck air out of caves or tunnels.

• U.S. and British ships fired more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the opening days of the war. While the precise inventory of Tomahawks is unknown, Pentagon plans from the early 1990s called for building fewer than 4,000 by now.

-------- canada

Royal Air Force Push for Test of New Smart Bombs in Labrador

Thursday's Canada Briefs
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 13, 2001; 8:54 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40801-2001Dec13?language=printer

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) - The Defense Department wants to lease more land in southern Labrador for the testing of the latest generation of laser-guided bombs now being used to knock out targets in Afghanistan.

The Canadian Forces already has an air weapons range 120 kilometers southwest of its air base in Goose Bay. But it's not big enough, the department says in an application to amend its provincial land lease.

The Defense Department is careful to note that live weapons have never been used at the site, and there are no plans to change that policy.

The problem is the new practice bombs have larger wings and are launched from higher altitudes, which means they can glide much farther than intended if they malfunction.

The dummy bombs, which carry no explosives but weigh as much as a small car, have been known to penetrate two meters below Labrador's sandy soil. Tests also show an errant dud launched from 6,000 metros up can glide up to 30 kilometres before hitting the ground.

That's why the existing practice target area near Minipi Lake, which takes in 175 square kilometres, needs an additional 2,000 square kilometres for a so-called safety exclusion zone, the documents say.

-------- czech republic

Czech resolve

December 13, 2001
Washington Times
Embassy Row News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
James Morrison
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011213-7369982.htm

The Czech Republic has enlisted in the U.S.-led war against global terrorism for the long haul, new Ambassador Martin Palous said yesterday.

Meeting with reporters over breakfast at the embassy just two months after arriving in Washington, the one-time human rights campaigner and former deputy foreign minister said the Czech government is committed to the military effort against terrorism in Afghanistan and beyond, our correspondent David R. Sands reports.

"We know there is a big debate under way about what the next steps may be, that Afghanistan is only a part of the overall operation," he said. "But our support has been quite clear for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, including possible military options beyond the current theater."

Czech forces, he noted, are already being readied for the effort. A 200-man anti-chemical warfare unit that served in the Gulf war is expected to be deployed next month, although the ambassador said he did not know precisely where the unit will serve. A joint Czech-Slovak force is also being sent to the Balkans to carry out peacekeeping duties while the U.S. military focuses on Osama bin Laden.

The Czech Republic became an intelligence front in the terrorism war when it was learned that September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta - whom U.S. investigators say played a critical planning role in the strikes - met in Prague in the spring of 2000 with an Iraqi diplomat later expelled by Czech authorities.

It is not known what the two discussed, but Czech and U.S. officials have suggested one possible target was the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty facility in Prague that broadcasts to much of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Acknowledging there was an "ongoing debate" back home about the security of the RFE/RL site, Mr. Palous said he believed his country would continue to host the broadcast facility.

"Politically, it is an important symbol to have this institution in Prague," he said.

The Czech Republic figures to be in the spotlight again in 2002 as it prepares to host the NATO summit in Prague in November. Having joined the alliance just two years ago, the Czech Republic is pushing for another ambitious expansion of Eastern and Central European states, while looking askance at recent efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to increase Moscow's weight in NATO decision-making circles.

Czech President Vaclav Havel has been outspoken in his uneasiness over an increased formal Russian role in NATO, and Mr. Palous, deputy foreign minister before his assignment to Washington, strongly backs his longtime colleague from the days of the anti-Soviet Charter 77 Movement.

Mr. Havel "is not a Cold War old-timer who cannot go beyond the perceptions of the 1970s and 1980s," the 56-year-old ambassador said. "His arguments are deeper and more serious."

"We can build an anti-terrorism coalition that includes Russia, but at the same time, our predecessors throughout history have made some mistakes in assembling grand coalitions against a common enemy, and we should not repeat them," he said.

-------- drug war

Terrorism Fight Hurts Drug War
With U.S. Resources Elsewhere, Mexican Cartels Step Up Cocaine Shipments

By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A30
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34529-2001Dec12?language=printer

CHACAHUA, Mexico -- They found the 21-foot speedboat abandoned on a remote beach in this faraway stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast. Beneath it, smugglers had hastily buried one ton of plastic-wrapped cocaine in the white sand.

Nobody knows exactly why they walked away from a $20 million cache of drugs. But authorities say its discovery offers a small glimpse at how a busy Pacific drug smuggling route has exploded into a cocaine superhighway.

The reason is that law enforcement has shifted focus since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Large amounts of U.S. resources are now being devoted to the fight against terrorism, and much less to the war on drugs, according to experts and officials on both sides of the border.

"We have had to move our vessels back to defend the goal line," said Cmdr. Jim McPherson, chief spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, explaining that as much as 75 percent of the ships and other assets once dedicated to the U.S. counter-drug effort have been moved to focus on homeland defense and counterterrorism patrols. As a result, he said, "We are not seizing anywhere near what we were. . . . Our counter-drug intelligence support has dropped to zero."

"Fighting narcotics is mostly about information and intelligence. We can have all the boats in the sea and they can be in the wrong place," said Mexican navy spokesman Salvador Gomez Meillon, noting that before Sept. 11, the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican navy had unprecedented levels of cooperation and intelligence-sharing. But now, he said, "the cooperation has decreased; there hasn't been one combined operation since September 11."

With the FBI and other agencies focusing almost singularly on guarding against terrorism, some drug trafficking experts estimate that as little as 10 percent of the manpower once devoted to interdicting drugs remains in place. Special agents formerly working on the drug war are now serving as sky marshals aboard domestic U.S. flights. And many money-laundering investigators formerly tracking billion-dollar drug trafficking enterprises are now on the money trail of Osama bin Laden.

As a result, Coast Guard drug seizures, which had been running at all-time highs earlier this year, are down dramatically. From Sept. 11 to Nov. 30, the Coast Guard seized about 10,000 pounds of cocaine, down 66 percent from the 30,000 pounds it seized during the same period last year. Seizures of marijuana during that period dropped far more, from 7,000 pounds during those weeks last year to only 480 this year.

Mexican navy drug seizures have also nosedived since September.

Although tighter security on the U.S-Mexico border immediately after Sept. 11 appeared to be squeezing the drug trade, three months later the opposite appears to be true; drug traffickers haven't had it this easy in years.

Drug trafficking specialists also see signs of a resurgence of coca production in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, in part because of the global crash in coffee prices. So as more drugs are available to ship, there is a new ease in moving them to U.S. consumers through these Pacific waters, known as the cocaine corridor.

"Fifty thousand people die every year in the U.S. because of drug abuse," said one U.S. law enforcement official, questioning the singular focus on terrorism.

In recent weeks there has been a flurry of large and small drug seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border, and three bold drug flights over the border on a recent weekend, another indication the traffickers have resumed their trade with gusto. "Activity has picked up big-time," said one U.S. border agent.

Smugglers have spotted the new holes in U.S. defenses and are taking advantage, officials at several U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies, who declined to be named, said in interviews.

Law enforcement officials say the Pacific waters of Mexico and Central America are now dotted with large numbers of smugglers' speedboats, often called "go fast" or cigarette boats.

These boats spend days on the ocean, idle under sea-blue tarps that make them harder to spot from the air. By night, planes from Colombia swoop in low and drop a ton or two of plastic-encased cocaine into the sea. The speedboat crews, usually two or three men in wet suits who can earn as much as $250,000 for a successful voyage, fish the drugs out of the water and rush them to shore in the darkness.

Once ashore, the cocaine is split up and eventually handed over to dozens of people who carry relatively small amounts of cocaine over the border into the United States. A few members of this "ant patrol" are invariably caught, but the vast majority make it through successfully.

Until recently, such operations were more difficult because of U.S. surveillance and intelligence concentrating on major busts at sea before the cocaine loads reached land. The Coast Guard, often firing on the smuggling boats from armed helicopters, had seized a record 138,000 pounds of cocaine last year -- more than 90 percent of it in these Pacific waters.

But with U.S. ships now drawn back to ports from San Diego to Charleston, S.C., the smugglers have only to contend with the overworked and under-funded Mexican navy, which has an annual budget of about $800 million -- the cost of a single U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer.

Mexican officials say they are so short of cash that they cannot follow up on many tips about drug movements at sea because they cannot afford the fuel.

The shift in U.S. priorities occurred at a time when the U.S. and Mexican cooperation had never been closer. Last year's election of President Vicente Fox has resulted in increased trust and intelligence-sharing after long years of distrust.

But the once frequent radio contact between the U.S. Coast Guard drug patrols and the Mexican navy has been replaced by silence, and the Mexican navy is largely trying to fight the battle alone.

It is an unfair fight. Seven of the world's 11 biggest drug trafficking organizations are Mexican. Since smuggling arrests often lead to new information on drug cartel operations, a slowdown in seizures is expected to curb the ability to dismantle the cartels. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has been particularly eager to arrest the leaders of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, which last year killed three Mexican anti-drug agents who had been working with the DEA.

One of them, special prosecutor Jose Patino, was kidnapped as he crossed into Mexico after a meeting with U.S. officials in San Diego. Patino's captors put his head in a vice and cracked it open. They then ran over his body with a car.

People in this remote part of southern Oaxaca state, 30 miles west of Puerto Escondido, worry that such violence might follow the increased drug trade here. In recent weeks, soldiers with machine guns have been patrolling this wilderness beach, where fishermen are usually accompanied only by the snapper and bass they catch.

Soldiers camping under tall coconut trees near the sandy spot where $20 million of cocaine was found Nov. 13 said they could not talk about their mission. But everyone is talking about them. "The traffickers unload here," said Luis Narvaez, who runs a ferry across the lagoon. "but they are being closely watched now."

-------- india

Gunmen Storm India's Parliament

DECEMBER 13, 04:28 ET
http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GC79E00

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Half a dozen armed men stormed India's sprawling Parliament building on Thursday, leaving at least 12 dead in the resulting explosion and shootout, authorities said.

Pramod Mahajan, India's parliamentary affairs minister, told CNBC India that ``all six terrorists have been killed.'' Defense Minister George Fernandes said that six police officers died.

Mahajan said the attackers were armed with guns and grenades and sneaked toward the red sandstone complex from three gates just before noon.

---

Deadly Shootout at Indian Parliament

By MONALISA ARTHUR
Associated Press Writer
DECEMBER 13, 06:56 ET
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GC9EJ00

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - A half-dozen gunmen in a car with sirens blaring stormed Parliament on Thursday, killing the gunmen and seven police in an attack with grenades, automatic rifles and a human bomb, the government said.

The car sped through a gate and one militant jumped out, blowing himself up, while the others opened fire on police and security guards, according to state-run Doordarshan television.

``This was an attack not just on Parliament house, but a warning to the entire country. We accept the challenge. We will foil every attempt of the terrorists,'' Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a live television address.

In what is being called the worst breach of government security since the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, Police Chief, Ajai Raj Sharma, said six police officers and an army commando had been killed when the intruders first opened fire.

After a 90-minute battle, Pramod Mahajan, India's parliamentary affairs minister, said ``all six terrorists have been killed.''

Officials at nearby Ram Manohar Lohia hospital said 17 people were being treated for injuries, including six in critical condition.

After three hours, when the Parliament members had been evacuated, police found and set off a remaining bomb in a controlled explosion. Sharma said several grenades were also defused.

The gunmen had driven through one of the Parliament complex's 12 gates in a white, Indian-made Ambassador car, of the kind used by government officials, said Doordarshan. A siren on the car was wailing and official stickers from Parliament and the Home Ministry were affixed to the windshield, the report said.

There was no claim of responsibility.

The U.S. Embassy condemned the attack as an ``outrageous act of terrorism.'' Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of former colonial ruler Britain said the ``brutal terrorist attack'' was an assault on ``the heart of India's democracy.''

Parliament had been adjourned, but most lawmakers and Cabinet officials were still inside at the time.

The office of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said he was safe. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Vajpayee was just leaving when the attack occurred. Home Minister Lal K. Advani said all lawmakers were safe.

Journalists who were inside the building said there were bullet holes on the doorways inside.

Bodies were laying on the lawns and sidewalks near the gate as ambulances rushed to the scene. A television cameraman was also shot, and Star News said police were firing indiscriminately, including at journalists.

``Someone start shouting, `terrorists, terrorists,'' said lawmaker Khara Bela Swain. ``I couldn't understand anything. There was chaos.''

Some of the gunmen were in civilian dress. ``After three or four minutes of firing they started throwing grenades,'' and at least four exploded, Swain said. ``I started to run to save my life.''

Hundreds of rounds were fired as police hid behind cars, trees and the corners of the building. The dramatic standoff was broadcast live on most television stations.

``Today's attack is the most serious breach of top security in Delhi since Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984,'' said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards in revenge for sending her troops into the Sikhs' most sacred shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Advani said the attack on the country's highest legislative body would spur the Indian people to fight off terrorism. ``This attack would cost our attackers heavily,'' he said.

Advani said that Thursday's attack was similar to one on the state assembly in Srinagar, the summer capital of the northern Jammu-Kashmir state, where Islamic militants for 12 years have been fighting for independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Forty were killed in the Oct. 1 attack when a car was rammed into the legislative building's gate, a suicide bomber blew himself up with the vehicle and several militants engaged in a gunbattle with police inside.

Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said Islamabad was shocked by Thursday's attack and strongly condemns it.

When asked who might have been responsible, Advani said: ``It may be one of the organizations which have been active in the country. Ever since this practice of suicide terrorism has been developed, anything can be attacked.''

Advani said he wasn't only referring to the Oct. 1 attack in Srinagar, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Apart from Sikhs and Kashmiris, India has had to grapple with some 30 tribal groups seeking independence or greater autonomy in the seven northeastern states wedged between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

-------- israel

Israel Cuts Off Contact With Arafat

DECEMBER 13, 07:27 ET
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/main.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS7GCAT301

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel responded to a deadly bus ambush by severing all contact with Yasser Arafat early Thursday, launching retaliatory air strikes on his headquarters and sending troops to Palestinian towns. Arafat's spokesman called the moves ``an official declaration of war.''

Another top Palestinian official said Israeli strikes had rendered the Palestinian Authority unable to fulfill its commitment to crack down on terror.

The violence and harsh words appeared to mark a new crisis point in the bitter 14-month old conflict and threatened to wreck U.S. efforts to arrange a truce.

Israel's Security Cabinet ruled out talks with Arafat hours after the Palestinian leader bowed to long-standing Israeli demands and ordered the offices of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups closed, but did not outlaw them.

The Cabinet statement said Arafat was ``directly responsible'' for the attacks ``and therefore is no longer relevant to Israel, and Israel will no longer have any connection with him.'' Israel Army Radio said low-level talks between the two sides continued.

Hours later, after a night of strikes in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinians backed away from the pledge to shut the Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices - and, crucially, Arafat's long-standing promise to crack down on militants.

``It's impossible for the Palestinian leadership to implement its commitment under the shadow of this comprehensive war,'' said Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. ``We are committed to all that we promised but we can't implement it.''

He said he was referring to Arafat's broad promise to crack down on terrorists and the Wednesday pledge to shut the Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices.

The ominous moves from both sides followed a day of violence and retaliation Wednesday.

Ten Israelis were killed and about 30 wounded when Palestinians set off a bomb and opened fire on a bus and several cars in the West Bank, at the same time as two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up next to Israeli cars in Gaza.

U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, in the region to negotiate an end to nearly 15 months of Palestinian-Israeli violence, instead issued another denunciation of violent Palestinian extremists and said Arafat ``must act against these groups and they must act now.''

Responding swiftly to the attacks, Israeli planes and helicopters struck targets around Gaza and the West Bank late Wednesday and early Thursday, including a building in Arafat's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Palestinian security officials said. The Palestinian leader had left the building shortly before, the officials added.

Bombs from Israeli warplanes knocked down structure after structure in Gaza's police headquarters, setting a huge fire and sending people scurrying in all directions.

Palestinian Health Ministry officials said 40 people were hurt in the Gaza attacks, adding that a woman who was not wounded died of shock.

Israeli missiles hit the main transmitter of the Palestinian Authority's radio station in Ramallah, knocking it off the air, the military said. Israeli soldiers later placed explosives around the radio and television transmission tower and evacuated people from the surrounding area.

Israeli troops also entered Ramallah a few hundred yards at three points. After daybreak, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey said Israeli troops were digging in around that town and others as counter-terror measures.

At midmorning, Israeli troops were just several hundred yards away from Arafat's Ramallah office.

Kitrey said Israeli forces declared curfews and searched five villages near the scene of the bus attack, but made no arrests.

Israeli Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel had reached ``the moment of truth'' in its battle against terrorism. He said that ``Arafat is no longer the address'' for Israel in its struggle against violence, and from now on ``Israel will defend itself.''

He said there would be no more contact with Palestinian Authority bodies, and that meetings of security commanders, arranged by Zinni, would cease.

Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Israel's military moves ``are an official declaration of war against our people. ... This war will lead the region to more instability and destruction.''

Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, chief of military operations, said Arafat himself was not a target of the attacks.

The Palestinian Authority order to close all offices of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad stopped short of declaring the groups illegal or moving to dismantle their military wings, as Israel and the United States have been demanding.

The order included ``all offices, centers, organizations and anything connected with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories.'' This appeared to cover Hamas kindergartens and charities, but as of early Thursday, nothing had been closed.

Abed Rabbo's statement seemed to signal a retreat from the promise to act against the groups, which are responsible for dozens of attacks, including suicide bombings that have killed scores of Israelis and wounded hundreds.

Since Nov. 26, when Zinni arrived, 50 Palestinians and 44 Israelis have been killed in violence. The Palestinian toll includes 18 armed attackers and 10 suicide bombers.

The Palestinian leadership rejected the Israeli charges that it was responsible for the repeated attacks because of its failure to crack down on the militant groups.

In a statement, the leadership denounced the Wednesday attacks, but insisted that it is ``working intensively and continuously to restore quiet and security despite the Israeli escalation,'' a reference to Israel's retaliatory strikes.

-------- propaganda wars

China's Capital Orders TV Crackdown

DECEMBER 13, 02:43 ET
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GC5OAO0

BEIJING (AP) - China's capital is cracking down on cable television companies that provide Chinese viewers with foreign television broadcasts in defiance of a government ban.

Regulators have ordered illegal satellite dishes in Beijing dismantled by Dec. 20, or violators could face fines of up to $6,000, the newspaper Beijing Morning Post said Thursday.

China's communist government controls all media and only outlets serving foreigners and some government offices are allowed to receive programming from abroad.

Yet some Beijing cable operators carry foreign channels to private subscribers - a practice that ``disrupts national security, economic order and the dignity of state law,'' the Post said.

A Beijing city broadcast department official confirmed the order but declined to provide details.

Beijing's crackdown also comes as other parts of China are slightly relaxing some restrictions on programming from abroad.

Phoenix, a Hong Kong-based Chinese-language satellite broadcaster, received permission in October to transmit into parts of the southern province of Guangdong. New York-based News Corp. owns a large stake in the company.

AOL Time Warner Inc. clinched a similar deal at the same time for its Hong Kong-based Chinese-language cable channel.

-------- puerto rico

New Tack on Vieques

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A07
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35059-2001Dec12?language=printer

Lawmakers said they will scrap previous hard-fought agreements and let the Pentagon, not local residents, decide the Navy's future on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

After weeks of discussions, House and Senate Armed Services Committee members agreed to eliminate the controversial referendum in Vieques on whether the Navy should stay or go. They also decided to strike the May 2003 deadline for the Navy to leave its premier Atlantic training facility, which it has used since World War II.

The new agreement, expected to pass the full House and Senate this week, also lays out a new provision before the Navy can leave Vieques: Three top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps must certify in writing to Navy Secretary Gordon England that they have found alternative training sites that are just as good.

-- Compiled from reports by the Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel

-------- spies

House Boosts Spy Funds

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35059-2001Dec12?language=printer

The House unanimously passed an intelligence bill yesterday that will place new emphasis on traditional human spy networks that have served as a key to the war on terrorism.

"The events of Sept. 11 are a sad reminder of what happens when we let our intelligence guard down," said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), a former CIA officer who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "Intelligence is our first line of defense, and it must be treated as such, particularly in this war against terrorism."

The bill would increase spending by 8 percent -- higher than the 7 percent President Bush sought. Besides focusing new attention and funding on spies, it aims to increase the portion of collected data that gets analyzed and turned into useful information.

The voice vote was on final passage of a conference bill worked out by House and Senate negotiators. The Senate must pass the compromise bill before it can be sent to Bush for his signature.

----

Cuban Spy Ringleader Gets Life

By CATHERINE WILSON
Associated Press Writer
DECEMBER 13, 2001 04:15 ET
http://wire.ap.org/?PACKAGEID=cuba

MIAMI (AP) - Moments after denouncing his trial as a ``propaganda show,'' the leader of a Cuban spy ring received a life sentence for his role in the infiltration of U.S. military bases and in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose planes were gunned down five years ago.

Gerardo Hernandez, 36, was one of five secret agents convicted in June after a crackdown on spies operating inside the United States. The six-month trial focused on the two private planes that were shot down by Fidel Castro's government in 1996.

``This was a crime against America. The threat was to the country at large and to this community,'' said chief prosecutor Caroline Miller.

Before hearing his sentence Wednesday, Hernandez labeled his trial a ``propaganda show'' and blamed his prosecution on the political clout of Miami's Cuban exile community. He plans to appeal.

Ramon Labanino, a Cuban intelligence officer who supervised two agents assigned to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command, was also expected to receive a life term for espionage conspiracy. His sentencing was set for Thursday.

Hernandez and Labanino were arrested following a 1998 indictment accusing Cuba of planting 14 agents in Miami.

The Cuban government has insisted the men were protecting their country from U.S.-based terrorism.

Paul McKenna, Hernandez's attorney, wasn't surprised by the life term.

``It's a big-league case, and you expect big-league sentences,'' he said.

Hernandez is the only spy who has been charged with and convicted of murder conspiracy in the attack on the planes in 1996.

Prosecutors accused Hernandez of knowing about the plot to shoot down the planes because he warned two agents who infiltrated the spy ring not to fly during a four-day period that included the day of the attack. No evidence presented at trial, however, indicated that he knew Cuba would fire on the planes.

The fliers who were shot down were members of Brothers to the Rescue, which patrols the sea looking for Cuban refugees. The group had been warned by the U.S. and Cuban governments that its planes risked being shot down after two years of incursions in Cuban airspace.

Relatives of the four dead fliers spoke in court.

``Every night and every day, I have been praying for justice,'' said Eva Barba, mother of Pablo Morales, one of the victims.

Hernandez's mother, Carmen Nordela, 67, traveled from Havana for the hearing. She sat calmly when the sentence was announced.

``I was told to expect this,'' she said later. ``My son told me to be strong.''

After the sentencing, Hernandez called his wife of 13 years, Adriana Perez, 31, in Havana.

``He was in good spirits because he is sure that his cause is just,'' Perez told The Associated Press. ``He said that he had felt safe with his mom there and that he had been thinking of me.''

The prosecution's case centered on computer diskettes seized in Hernandez's North Miami Beach apartment. Messages that passed between the spy ring and Havana were peppered with communist rhetoric, denunciations of the United States and snide references to prominent Cuban exiles.

The other three convicted spies - Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez - are scheduled for sentencing later this month.

-------- us

Concrete-Piercing Bombs Hammer Caves
New 'Smart' Weapons Can Attack Al Qaeda Underground Head-On or at an Angle

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2001; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35107-2001Dec12?language=printer

The Air Force is using a new generation of bunker-busting bomb technology to attack al Qaeda's cave and tunnel complexes in eastern Afghanistan, combining advances in penetrator warheads, fuses and precision guidance systems.

The fusion of these technologies enables U.S. air crews to target caves and tunnels in all weather conditions and guide bombs capable of penetrating reinforced concrete walls on either horizontal or vertical trajectories, depending on the target.

"I'm not on the ground and the war is not over," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and intelligence think tank in Alexandria. "But all of this talk about tunnels and dugouts has been a lot more daunting to the television graphics people than it has been to the targeteers and weaponeers."

The bottom line, Pike said: "Tunnels are not a good place to hide."

The latest weapon just made available to air commanders in Afghanistan, according to Frank Robbins, director of the Air Force's precision strike systems program office at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, is a new version of the air-launched cruise missile that incorporates improvements in four key areas: fuse, warhead, guidance system and software that determines trajectory.

The Pentagon is also dropping conventional blast-fragmentation bombs, which kill troops and destroy above-ground facilities, as well as the massive "daisy cutter," a 15,000-pound bomb originally designed during the Vietnam War to clear helicopter landing zones. The weapon detonates three feet above the ground.

The new penetrating cruise missile, called the AGM-86D, carries a warhead that doubles the penetrating capability of earlier munitions. It is also equipped with a new fuse capable of counting the number of concrete floors it has penetrated before detonating at a programmed depth.

The smart fuse is also being used on other bunker-penetrating weapons that have been dropped on al Qaeda caves and tunnels, according to an Air Force weapons expert.

One of them, the GBU-28 "Bunker Buster," is a 5,000-pound bomb that uses a laser-guidance system for precision targeting. The Air Force's largest penetrating weapon, the GBU-28 was developed during the Persian Gulf War a decade ago because of concerns about underground Iraqi complexes and was first dropped with devastating effect during the final hours of that conflict.

An additional guidance system using signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites has been added over the past two years, giving the bomb the ability to operate effectively even when there is heavy cloud cover.

"We have combined these penetrating munitions with precision in a way that we hadn't done before," said retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, Air Force chief of staff from 1990 to 1994. "We are much better positioned now to attack these targets from a munitions point of view."

Another bunker-penetrating munition dropped on caves and tunnels in Afghanistan that can be equipped with both the new penetrating warhead and smart fuse, the AGM-130, is a 2,900-pound, rocket-propelled bomb fired by F-15E strike fighters up to 40 miles from its target.

While the bomb has its own video camera, a GPS system has been added for all-weather capability, which is critical as winter approaches in Afghanistan.

In cloudy weather, Robbins said, GPS signals would guide the bomb through the clouds. Then a crew member in the back seat of the F-15E can use the bomb's camera to "steer it into the window of the target."

The ability to guide these weapons horizontally, Robbins said, can be particularly useful when targeting hardened facilities with entrances and exits. But the latest in "shaping trajectories," Robbins said, is new software that can send penetrating munitions into steep, vertical dives directly onto the tops of their targets in a way that "significantly increases" penetrating capability.

All of the bunker-penetrating bombs -- the AGM-130, the GBU-15, the GBU-24 and the GBU-27 -- can be equipped with a new cap, an elongated spike made of nickel-cobalt steel alloy that doubles the puncturing capability of the warhead.

How deep the new warhead can penetrate is classified. But during a 1996 test by the Air Force, a prototype pierced 11 feet of reinforced concrete, the equivalent of more than 100 feet of soil.

The warhead could conceivably penetrate even farther than that, when launched with new software on a vertical trajectory and equipped with a smart fuse that uses a device to sense whether it is traveling through dirt, concrete or the air between floors of a structure. It can be programmed to detonate at specific levels of an underground structure.

The Air Force has also just begun production of a fuse that can be programmed at various detonation delays by an air crew in flight depending upon the type of target. The standard electronic fuse used on most penetrating weapons can only be set with a preselected detonation delay.

"We've always before sort of contented ourselves with thinking we could seal up the cave -- bomb the rock just above the opening and hope it would fall in," McPeak said. "Now we have munitions that can detonate deep inside the cave -- they'll seal it up, but they'll end [up] doing a lot of damage that they never did before. That's a big jump in capability."


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Bush Invokes Executive Privilege

December 13, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Privilege.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush invoked executive privilege for the first time Thursday to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from a decades-old Boston murder to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe.

``I believe congressional access to these documents would be contrary to the national interest,'' Bush wrote in a memo ordering Attorney General John Ashcroft to withhold the documents from a House investigative committee that subpoenaed them.

The decision institutes a dramatic change in the way the administration intends to deal with Congress after years in which the Justice Department, sometimes reluctantly, shared sensitive investigative documents with lawmakers.

Republicans and Democrats alike excoriated the decision, suggesting Bush was creating a ``monarchy'' or ``imperial'' presidency to keep Congress for overseeing the executive branch and guarding against corruption.

The Republican House committee chairman who sought the documents raised the possibility of taking Bush to court for contempt of Congress.

``Everyone is in agreement you guys are making a big mistake,'' Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., told Justice lawyers at a hearing after the announcement. ``We might be able to go to the (House) floor and take this thing to court.''

The full House, controlled by Republicans, would have to vote to find Bush in contempt to start such a court battle.

In his memo to Ashcroft, the president explained his decision.

``Disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions,'' Bush wrote.

He added, ``It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee. ... I have decided to assert executive privilege.''

Burton decried the decision. ``This is not a monarchy,'' he said. ``The legislative branch has oversight responsibility to make sure there is no corruption in the executive branch.''

Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the committee, who frequently sparred with Burton during Clinton era investigations, agreed with his sometimes nemesis.

``An imperial presidency or an imperial justice department conflicts with the democratic principles of our nation,'' Waxman said.

The decision immediately affects a subpoena from Burton's House Government Reform Committee for documents related to the FBI's handling of mob informants in Boston dating to the 1960s.

More importantly, it sets a new policy in the works for months in which the administration will resist lawmakers' requests to view prosecutorial decision-making documents that have been routinely turned over to Congress in years past.

Executive privilege is a doctrine recognized by the courts that ensures presidents can get candid advice in private without fear of its becoming public.

The privilege, however, is best known for the unsuccessful attempts by former Presidents Nixon and Clinton to keep evidence secret during impeachment investigations.

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales recommended Bush invoke the privilege earlier this fall.

While invoking the privilege, Bush instructed Ashcroft to have the Justice Department ``remain willing to work informally with the committee to provide such information as it can, consistent with these instructions and without violating the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.''

Burton's committee for months has been seeking Justice Department memos about prosecutors' decisions in cases involving the handling of mob informants in Boston, Democratic fund raising, a former Clinton White House official and a former federal drug enforcement agent.

The committee subpoenaed Ashcroft, demanding those documents in the fall and scheduled a hearing Thursday to examine the Boston case.

That case stems from revelations that Joseph Salvati of Boston spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence. Salvati's conviction was overturned in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant. Salvati had been paroled in 1997.

Several such memos were shared with Congress during both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most recently, in the 1990s, such documents were turned over to the Whitewater, fund-raising, pardons and impeachment investigations by lawmakers.

But the concept of extending executive privilege to Justice Department decisions isn't new. During the Reagan years, the privilege was cited as the reason the department did not tell Congress about some memos in a high-profile environmental case.

And Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, advised Clinton in 1999 that he could invoke the privilege to keep from disclosing documents detailing department views on 16 pardon cases.

-------

Fragile Freedoms
Which civil liberties - and whose - can be abridged to create a safer America?

Part 1 of a three-part series.
By Peter Grier
The Christian Science Monitor,
December 13, 2001 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1213/p1s2-usju.html

Sixty years ago, after the shock of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, one of the strongest proponents for the forcible internment of ethnic Japanese in the US was California Attorney General Earl Warren. That's the same Earl Warren who, years later, served as a famously liberal chief justice of the US Supreme Court.

At the same time, the nation's senior law-enforcement official, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, argued that such internment would just cause hardship for a group of generally loyal citizens and residents. This, from a top cop who even then seldom let legal niceties get in the way of his pursuit of criminals.

The point here is not that the politics of civil liberties makes for strange opponents, as well as bedfellows. It's that the proper balance between civil liberties and security in wartime can be fiendishly hard to strike.

Once bullets begin to fly, government officials must judge how much danger the nation is in, where those dangers lie, and whether defense against them requires some abridgement of much-cherished individual rights - all under the pressure of onrushing time.

History shows that they don't always get it right. The World War II internment of those of Japanese ancestry is today widely seen as a blot on the nation's honor.

History also shows that in time of crisis, US officials usually err on the side of tightening domestic law enforcement too much, rather than too little - and that that's what the public generally wants them to do.

"People are willing to trade almost anything for greater security if they think it would make a difference," says Michael Klarman, a professor of law and history at the University of Virginia.

The moral balancing act boils down to questions like this: Is it right to abridge the civil liberties of, say, 1,000 people, if a terrorist cell might be broken in the process?

It's war

The Bush administration's push for expanded domestic law-enforcement powers is rooted in the assumption that the US is literally fighting a war on its own soil. Congress has not passed a declaration of war, as such - it didn't for Vietnam or the Gulf War, either. But since Sept. 11, administration officials have repeatedly stressed that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were much more than crimes, and that the government is on a war footing in the US as much as it is in Afghanistan battles.

The adversary in this war does not want to fight the US military, according to administration reasoning. Its preferred target is ordinary Americans, in their homes and places of work. That's a new threat, and guarding against it may require a new kind of domestic police work.

"We're battling an enemy committed to an absolute unconditional destruction of our society," said Attorney General John Ashcroft during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

In response, the administration has quickly hammered together an ungainly, multipiece package of legal changes which, taken together, represent a profound increase in federal policing powers. Some of the changes were approved by Congress as part of the "USA Patriot" legislation passed in late October. Some are unilateral, the result of executive orders or rule changes quietly announced in the Federal Register. Some are simply an aggressive use of existing legal authority, the Justice Department says.

Not all of them have come into play. President Bush may have approved the use of military tribunals to judge terrorist suspects, for instance, but no tribunals have yet been held.

One area where the changes have surely had a cumulative impact, however, is on Washington debate. Criticism of the war in Afghanistan has been muted, but domestic legal changes are controversial - the subject of the most heated public exchanges so far dealing with the post-Sept.-11 conduct of the executive branch.

"A lot of the things that have been done are a significant erosion of basic freedoms and don't enhance national security," says Erwin Chemerinsky, professor of law at the University of Southern California.

What the feds are doing

In terms of number of people affected, the FBI's massive roundup of men of Middle Eastern origin has been its most dramatic action so far. More than 1,000 have been arrested since Sept. 11; more than 500 are still in jail. Many of these men are being held on immigration charges. Under a Justice Department rule change effective Oct. 29, noncitizen detainees considered a danger by prosecutors can be kept in jail even if a federal immigration judge orders them released.

At least 55 people have been detained on criminal charges. Of these, it is unclear how many the government believes may have ties to Al Qaeda. One block of 22 suspects consists of Arabs who may have obtained permits to transport hazardous materials under false pretenses. That's highly suspicious, given the current climate, but so far the US thinks they were not an Al Qaeda sleeper cell.

One person prosecutors do contend was part of an Al Qaeda plot is Zacarias Moussaoui. Born in France of Moroccan parents, Moussaoui was detained in August after officials became suspicious about his brusque behavior at a Minnesota flight school. This week he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia on charges of being connected to the Sept. 11 conspiracy.

The US has new powers to eavesdrop on at least some of its detainees, too. On Oct. 31, the Justice Department quietly published a rule allowing investigators to listen in on lawyer-detainee conversations. The Justice Department says only 16 people currently in prison have been categorized as possibilities for such monitoring. But civil libertarians still consider this a dangerous due-process precedent.

The administration's request that an additional 5,000 men from Middle Eastern nations voluntarily submit to FBI interviews has similarly come under fire. While many Americans want such interviews to occur, critics say the move smacks of coercion. On Nov. 29, Mr. Ashcroft said immigrants might get visa help if they pass along information about anti-US plots - a move at least partly intended to make submitting to voluntary interviewing seem more attractive.

What other presidents did

So far, the US public strongly approves of administration law-enforcement actions. In recent polls, the Justice Department's detention policy wins 70 to 80 percent approval, for instance. And a sizable majority supports the questioning of thousands of Middle Eastern men.

Right now Americans appear to rank security as their first priority, with protection of civil liberties further down the list. That's common in wartime, note historians - and US presidents have generally acted accordingly.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for instance, approved the detention of more than 100,000 ethnic Japanese - two-thirds of them US citizens - despite little evidence that any among them were enemy agents. He bowed to the belief of many on the West Coast that a Japanese attack on California might be imminent, and that the US had to do all it could to prevent such a strike.

Attorney General Francis Biddle, who opposed the internment, noted in his memoirs that F.D.R. did not even bother to convene a high-level government meeting on the move's implications. He approved it in a phone call with his secretary of war.

"The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President," wrote Biddle.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln famously suspended the right of habeas corpus. He also closed down newspapers he considered founts of sedition. At one point, he simply arrested Maryland legislators who were preparing to vote against his wishes.

Even Woodrow Wilson, that most idealistic of presidents, took harsh action against domestic opponents during World War I. Under terms of an Espionage Act Wilson had urged through Congress, his administration prosecuted those who advocated resistance to the military draft.

It is against this historical context that Bush administration actions need to be judged, according to some historians.

"What is being done today pales in comparison to anything these other presidents [did]," says historian Jay Winik.

A squeeze too far?

But is the historical perspective, in this case, a distorted view? Critics of Bush's actions argue that America's civil liberties have developed in a long, generally upward-moving trend. The point, they say, is potential damage to current notions of due process and privacy, not comparison with actions taken in long-gone legal and social contexts.

In the short run, critics say Bush actions have already harmed at least one identifiable US group: people of Arab descent.

The Justice Department's widespread dragnet for Middle Eastern natives might be understandable, given the times. It may even have accomplished Ashcroft's stated ends of disrupting terrorist cells and preventing future actions. But increasing evidence points to abuse of many innocent detainees, say critics. In that aspect, its conduct may be flawed.

Senate testimony last week heard the case of Ali al-Maqtari, a Yemeni teacher of French, who was held for eight weeks on immigration charges despite the fact that he had recently married an American citizen and was seeking resident status. He was arrested on Sept. 15, when he drove his wife, Tiffinay, an Army reservist, to Fort Campbell, Ky., to report for duty.

During interrogation, Mr. al-Maqtari was threatened with unspecified "evidence" of terrorist activity which, he said, never materialized. He then passed a lie-detector test, and claimed he was told he would soon be released. That was only a few days into his ordeal. In fact, he would not be released for another seven weeks.

It is unclear how many innocent people have been similarly swept up in the Justice Department effort. Civil liberties groups last week sued the Justice Department, accusing it of withholding basic information about its dragnet, including the names and locations of many being held.

"There is this incredible veil of secrecy that is shrouding the arrest and detention process," says Lucas Guttentag, head of the ACLU immigration-rights project.

Justice officials have defended keeping the process secret on two grounds: It protects the privacy of detainees who are innocent, and it prevents Al Qaeda from finding out if its operatives have in fact been caught.

Officials have also said that national origin - not ethnicity or religion - is the main criteria used to single out detainees. Therefore, the effort does not represent racial profiling, according to the administration.

If that is so, it is so only by the thinnest of margins, say critics. They claim that law enforcement has crossed a line, and now is engaged in just the sort of broad stereotyping against which African-Americans have long struggled.

At a time of increased threat, it makes perfect sense for the nation as a whole to accept a little less free speech, or a little less due process, in exchange for greater security, says Mr. Klarman of the University of Virginia. "But I think we have to be really concerned when we're trading off the interests and protections of some small minority group that has no political backing at all for the greater security of everyone," he says.

An uncertain future

In the long term, civil libertarians charge, the recent expansion of law-enforcement power could pose legal and privacy problems for all.

Take government access to student records. Such access used to require a subpoena issued by a judge who had determined that investigators had evidence of "probable cause" of wrongdoing by the student in question. The just-passed Patriot Act has made such access easier to obtain. Now a subpoena can be issued if a judge agrees that the educational records requested might contain information "pertinent" to an investigation.

At least 200 colleges and universities have replied to such requests by federal officials since Sept. 11, according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (ACCRAO). These requests focused on foreign students, but not exclusively. Records for some US citizens enrolled in flight schools were tapped.

The worry of some university administrators is that, in the future, the US government might sweep up information about students who fit a particular profile, using this new authority. More anthrax attacks might lead to a broad probe of, say, people with advanced degrees in microbiology.

"There are certain things that should not become pseudo-criminalized, such as microbiology, infectious disease experts, [and] people who study aerosol physics," says Barmak Nassirian of the ACCRAO.

Other aspects of the Patriot Act that might have long-term implications include its approval of secret "sneak and peek" searches of suspects' residences, and new money-laundering provisions that might make it more difficult to move assets out of the US for legitimate purposes.

On one thing almost all civil experts are in agreement: In the near future, the debate about the proper balance of rights versus security will be greatly influenced by the course of terrorist activity.

Right now, the nation is beginning to breathe again following the events of Sept. 11. If the terrorist threat remains in abeyance, critics of the domestic crackdown, such as Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, might be emboldened to increase the volume of their complaints.

But another attack, even if does not approach the scale of the events of Sept. 11, could quickly lead to calls for more domestic law-enforcement power.

• Reported by staff writers Liz Marlantes and Gail Russell Chaddock.

A history of rights abridged

1798: John Adams makes criticism of government a criminal act

Fear of a French invasion leads Congress and President John Adams to enact the Alien and Sedition Acts. The acts give the government sweeping powers to deport any alien considered dangerous to the nation's welfare, and to imprison anyone found guilty of criticizing the government. Numerous individuals are sent to prison. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson campaigns against the law, and after his election, pardons those convicted under it. In 1964, the US Supreme Court rules that the law had been unconstitutional.

1861: Abraham Lincoln detains thousands, ignores court

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus, arresting anyone who expresses sympathy with the South and holding them without presenting evidence against them or giving them a trial. Hundreds of draft resisters are imprisoned, along with newspaper editors, judges, lawyers, and legislators. By some estimates, more than 13,000 people are arrested overall. When Chief Justice Roger Taney declares the president's actions unconstitutional, Lincoln blatantly ignores the ruling. He also shuts down newspapers that express pro-South views.

1917-18: Under WIlson, socialist leader imprisoned for years

Nervousness about German spies during World War I leads Congress and President Woodrow Wilson to approve the Espionage and Sedition Acts. The acts give the government authority to censor the foreign language press, bar antiwar publications from using the US mail, and punish anyone expressing disloyal or antiwar sentiments. Some 2,000 people are prosecuted. Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned for a decade, as is Charles Schenck, author of a pamphlet claiming the draft was illegal. The Supreme Court upholds Schenck's conviction.

1942: 120,000 residents of Japanese Heritage are interned

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signs an executive order authorizing the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom are US citizens. None is accused of any crime. They are not released until four years later, in 1946. The US Supreme Court upholds the decision. (In 1988, Congress grants surviving internees $20,000 each and an official apology from the US government.) Also in 1942, eight Germans are caught trying to sabotage US war industries and are tried by military tribunal. The Supreme Court upholds the decision, and six are executed.

1949-54: Communists imprisoned during McCarthy era

During 1950s, Sen. Joseph McCarthy fans fears of communism, leading to the prosecution of leaders of the Communist and Socialist Parties under the Smith Act. Passed in 1940 but little used until a decade later, the act makes it a crime to advocate violence against the government. Some individuals are sentenced to prison simply for studying works of Marx and Lenin. The Supreme Court upholds the convictions.

1996: After bombing, new laws on secret evidence, death row

After the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh, Congress passes counterterrorism legislation limiting habeas corpus for death-row inmates - restricting certain appeals - and allowing immigrants who are terror suspects to be held and deported based on secret evidence.

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Police powers reduced

By Brian DeBose
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 13, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/default-20011213224540.htm

Police officers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, their law enforcement powers cut significantly under a new order from their commander, have had to release back onto Washington streets more than a dozen suspects in misdemeanor and felony cases over the last two weeks.

Two persons in possession of marijuana and as many as 15 persons driving with suspended and revoked licenses have been released by the Walter Reed Department of Defense Police.

Previously, the Walter Reed police, operating under a cooperative policing agreement with the District's Metropolitan Police Department, would apprehend people accused of committing misdemeanors or minor felonies. They would process individuals for their crimes before transporting or releasing them to the custody of the Metropolitan Police Department. But not anymore.

"Our new [provost marshal] chief of police has told us not to process individuals or report traffic violations or violations of any kind in our jurisdiction because of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878," said Officer Patrick Hayes, vice chairman of the Walter Reed Fraternal Order of Police labor committee.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits members of the U.S. armed forces or employees of the U.S. military from enforcing laws on civilians. In other words, U.S. military police officers cannot perform searches and seizures or arrest civilians or enter into any prosecution cases unless a specific exception is made by Congress.

Before Provost Marshal William J. Bolduc decided his officers were bound by the 1878 law, the Walter Reed police force had been acting as an extension of the Metropolitan Police Department under "memoranda of understanding" signed in July 1997.

The memoranda officially sanctioned something Walter Reed police had been doing anyway: apprehending and processing suspects caught in the act of committing minor felony and misdemeanor crimes on the federally owned land.

Under the new regulations, the Walter Reed officers will not be allowed to do any paperwork on anyone and can be nothing more than be material witnesses when minor felonies or misdemeanors are committed on the hospital grounds. This includes any officers working in the Silver Spring annex of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Officer Hayes said the 1878 law should not apply to the Walter Reed force because all 60 officers on the force are civilian Department of Defense police, not Army personnel security guards or military police. According to documents obtained by The Washington Times, "DOD police officers have the authority to apprehend persons committing crimes against U.S. laws under warrant and not under warrant if the crime is committed in their presence. The police force is to protect life, property and civil rights of persons."

They are also empowered to investigate accidents and crimes, as well as provide aid and comfort in emergency situations. The document states that the secondary responsibility of DOD police is to protect government property.

In addition, the advertisement for positions at Walter Reed on the Office of Personnel Management Web site states the job title as "police officer."

Some members of the Walter Reed officers' union suspect officials may be attempting to reclassify the police force rank-and-file in order to save money on pensions and benefits, but Lou Cannon, president of the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police chapter, said such a reclassification would not affect any of the officers financially.

Walter Reed spokesman Jim Stueve, asked earlier this week about the matter by a reporter for The Times, seemed flabbergasted by the question. The officers, he assured The Times, are DOD police. "They wear DOD police badges, DOD police uniforms, and they drive DOD police vehicles," he said.

But after speaking with Chief Bolduc, he called The Times back and changed his story. "They [Walter Reed police] are not DOD police. They are Department of the Army police with limited police duties assigned to them by the commanding general," he said.

Chief Bolduc refused to speak directly to The Times, but, according to a spokesman, he has said the officers at the hospital are not and have never been DOD officers.

Under Chief Bolduc's interpretation, his officers fall under the Posse Comitatus Act and cannot process civilians for other police agencies.

D.C. police officials were disappointed with the changes.

"This will put a strain on an already understaffed D.C. police force, because now they will have to do all the work when it comes to crimes on the Walter Reed campus," Officer Hayes said.

Fourth District Cmdr. Cathy L. Lanier said she has no knowledge of people with narcotics violations or anyone else being released.

"If they call us and have someone with drug possession or any other minor felonies, we will not let them go," Cmdr. Lanier said.

The next step, she said, could involve updating the cooperative policing agreement to address Chief Bolduc's concerns.

"If we make changes to the memoranda we need to be able to make it work for everyone involved," Cmdr. Lanier said.

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F.B.I. Faulted in Nuclear Secrets Investigation

December 13, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/national/13NUKE.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The F.B.I.'s investigation of Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear weapons scientist who was suspected of spying for China, was "deeply and fundamentally flawed," a Justice Department report released today found. The report, two chapters of which had been previously released, said the F.B.I.'s national security division and its Albuquerque office failed to give the investigation a high priority. "The investigation was never accorded the resources which the underlying allegations warranted and should have dictated," the report said. "Frequent, unnecessary and inappropriate delays characterized the Wen Ho Lee investigation."

Dr. Lee, a Taiwan-born naturalized citizen, was fired from his job at the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in March 1999 as a result of the espionage investigation. Mr. Lee was never charged with spying. Instead, he was arrested in December 1999 on 59 counts of mishandling classified nuclear data. He pleaded guilty last year to one count of downloading nuclear weapons design secrets to a nonsecure computer, and the government dropped all remaining charges.

While the case was pending, Dr. Lee was held in solitary confinement. The report released today was completed in May 2000, and its general findings, sharply critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and to a lesser extent of the Justice and Energy Departments, were made known at the time.

In one of two chapters that were released in August, the report rejected accusations that Dr. Lee had been singled out for investigation because of his race.

In 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno named a federal prosecutor, Randy Bellows, to lead an internal review into whether mistakes were made in the Lee case starting in 1982, when his name surfaced in a separate espionage case at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

In that earlier investigation, the F.B.I. failed to formally notify the Energy Department of specific information about Dr. Lee that might have led to the revocation of his security clearance, the report said. In the investigation in the late 1990's, the bureau's national security division initially showed an "unreasonable reluctance" to get involved.

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FISH POACHERS NABBED BY SATELLITE DATA

December 13, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-09.html

NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts, The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has won its first federal fisheries prosecution based exclusively on vessel tracking data gathered by the satellite based Vessel Monitoring System (VMS).

U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge Edwin Bladen permanently revoked of the federal fishing permit of the fishing vessel Independence, owned by Lobsters, Inc., and ordered the company to pay a $250,000 fine. The December 5 ruling also cost Lawrence Yacubian, the captain of the New Bedford based vessel, his federal operating permit.

"We are increasingly relying on satellite technology to monitor fishing near closed areas, and this decision supports the hard work that NOAA Fisheries enforcement agents put in to protect marine fisheries for honest fishermen," said NMFS Director Bill Hogarth.

NMFS uses VMS to assist in monitoring compliance with closed-area regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The F/V Independence was required to carry a VMS unit.

The scallop vessel was tracked by the VMS from December 9 to 11, 1998, as it made several incursions into an area closed to protect spawning groundfish about 160 nautical miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The initial VMS report put the vessel 1.36 nautical miles inside the area.

Using radar and other onboard navigational systems, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell also tracked Independence inside the area and confirmed a second incursion.

"This case sets an important precedent by holding that the VMS system in use on scallop vessels in the Northeast is an accurate, reliable technology capable of producing evidence of vessel activity admissible in a court of law," said Charles Juliand, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Judge Bladen said that the permanent removal of the violators would send a clear and loud message to the fishing industry that purposeful and sustained incursions into closed areas will bring meaningful sanctions.

"The significance of this case was that the judge accepted VMS data as evidence that the vessel was inside the closed area," said special agent Louis Jachimcyzk of the NMFS Office for Law Enforcement, case agent for the IF/V Independence investigation. "This type of information had never been used, on its own, to prove a closed area case."

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Text of Osama Bin Laden Tape

The Associated Press
Thursday, December 13, 2001; 4:56 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39617-2001Dec13?language=printer

Text of the videotape released Thursday by the Pentagon of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden discussing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on United States.

The transcript and annotations were independently prepared by George Michael, translator, Diplomatic Language Services; and Dr. Kassem M. Wahba, Arabic language program coordinator, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. They collaborated on their translation and compared it with translations done by the U.S. government for consistency. The government said there were no inconsistencies in the translations.

---

In mid-November, Osama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, possibly in Kandahar, Afghanistan. These comments were videotaped with the knowledge of Bin Laden and all present.

The tape is approximately one hour long and contains three different segments: an original taping of a visit by some people to the site of the downed U.S. helicopter in Ghazni province (approximately 12 minutes long); and two segments documenting a courtesy visit by Bin Laden and his lieutenants to an unidentified Shaykh, who appears crippled from the waist down. The visit apparently takes place at a guesthouse in Kandahar. The sequence of the events is reversed on the tape - the end of his visit is in the beginning of the tape, with the helicopter site visit in the middle and the start of the Osama Bin Laden visit beginning approximately 39 minutes into the tape. The tape is transcribed below according to the proper sequence of events.

Due to the quality of the original tape, it is NOT a verbatim transcript of every word spoken during the meeting, but does convey the messages and information flow.

EDITOR'S NOTE: 39 minutes into tape, first segment of the Bin Laden meeting, begins after footage of the helicopter site visit.

Shaykh: (...inaudible...) You have given us weapons, you have given us hope and we thank Allah for you. We don't want to take much of your time, but this is the arrangement of the brothers. People now are supporting us more, even those ones who did not support us in the past, support us more now. I did not want to take that much of your time. We praise Allah, we praise Allah. We came from Kabul. We were very pleased to visit. May Allah bless you both at home and the camp. We asked the driver to take us, it was a night with a full moon, thanks be to Allah. Believe me it is not in the countryside. The elderly ... everybody praises what you did, the great action you did, which was first and foremost by the grace of Allah. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad.

OBL: Thanks to Allah. What is the stand of the Mosques there (in Saudi Arabia)?

Shaykh: Honestly, they are very positive. Shaykh Al-Bahrani (phonetic) gave a good sermon in his class after the sunset prayers. It was videotaped and I was supposed to carry it with me, but unfortunately, I had to leave immediately.

OBL: The day of the events?

Shaykh: At the exact time of the attack on America, precisely at the time. He (Bahrani) gave a very impressive sermon. Thanks be to Allah for his blessings. He (Bahrani) was the first one to write at war time. I visited him twice in Al-Qasim.

OBL: Thanks be to Allah.

Shaykh: This is what I asked from Allah. He (Bahrani) told the youth: "You are asking for martyrdom and wonder where you should go (for martyrdom)?" Allah was inciting them to go. I asked Allah to grant me to witness the truth in front of the unjust ruler. We ask Allah to protect him and give him the martyrdom, after he issued the first fatwa. He was detained for interrogation, as you know. When he was called in and asked to sign, he told them, "don't waste my time, I have another fatwa. If you want me, I can sign both at the same time."

OBL: Thanks be to Allah.

Shaykh: His position is really very encouraging. When I paid him, the first visit about a year and half ago, he asked me, "How is Shaykh Bin-Ladin?" He sends you his special regards. As far as Shaykh Sulayman 'Ulwan is concerned, he gave a beautiful fatwa, may Allah bless him. Miraculously, I heard it on the Quran radio station. It was strange because he ('Ulwan) sacrificed his position, which is equivalent to a director. It was transcribed word-by-word. The brothers listened to it in detail. I briefly heard it before the noon prayers. He ('Ulwan) said this was jihad and those people were not innocent people (World Trade Center and Pentagon victims). He swore to Allah. This was transmitted to Shaykh Sulayman Al ('Umar) Allah bless him.

OBL: What about Shaykh Al-(Rayan)?

Shaykh: Honestly, I did not meet with him. My movements were truly limited.

OBL: Allah bless you. You are welcome.

Shaykh: (Describing the trip to the meeting) They smuggled us and then I thought that we would be in different caves inside the mountains so I was surprised at the guest house and that it is very clean and comfortable. Thanks be to Allah, we also learned that this location is safe, by Allah's blessings. The place is clean and we are very comfortable. OBL: (...Inaudible...) when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

(OBL quotes several short and incomplete Hadith verses, as follows):

"I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad."

"Some people may ask: why do you want to fight us?"

"There is an association between those who say: I believe in one god and Muhammad is his prophet, and those who don't (...inaudible...)

"Those who do not follow the true fiqh (law). The fiqh of Muhammad, the real fiqh. They are just accepting what is being said at face value."

OBL: Those youth who conducted the operations did not accept any fiqh in the popular terms, but they accepted the fiqh that the prophet Muhammad brought. Those young men (...inaudible...) said in deeds, in New York and Washington, speeches that overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world. The speeches are understood by both Arabs and non-Arabs, even by Chinese. It is above all the media said. Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: "We don't have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam." This event made people think (about true Islam) which benefited Islam greatly.

Shaykh: Hundreds of people used to doubt you and few only would follow you until this huge event happened. Now hundreds of people are coming out to join you. I remember a vision by Shaykh Salih Al-(Shuaybi). He said: "There will be a great hit and people will go out by hundreds to Afghanistan." I asked him (Salih): "To Afghanistan?" He replied, "Yes." According to him, the only ones who stay behind will be the mentally impotent and the liars (hypocrites). I remembered his saying that hundreds of people will go out to Afghanistan. He had this vision a year ago. This event discriminated between the different types of followers.

OBL: (...Inaudible...) We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.

Shaykh: Allah be praised.

OBL: We were at (...inaudible...) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time. I was sitting with Dr. Ahmad Abu-al-(Khair). Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and (there was) no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.

Shaykh: Allah be praised.

OBL: After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it.

Shaykh: I listened to the news and I was sitting. We didn't ... we were not thinking about anything, and all of a sudden, Allah willing, we were talking about how come we didn't have anything, and all of a sudden the news came and everyone was overjoyed and everyone, until the next day, in the morning, was talking about what was happening and we stayed until four o'clock, listening to the news, every time a little bit different, everyone was very joyous and saying "Allah is great," "Allah is great," "We are thankful to Allah," "Praise Allah." And I was happy for the happiness of my brothers. That day the congratulations were coming on the phone non-stop. The mother was receiving phone calls continuously. Thank Allah. Allah is great, praise be to Allah.

(Quoting the verse from the Quran)

Shaykh: "Fight them, Allah will torture them, with your hands, he will torture them. He will deceive them and he will give you victory. Allah will forgive the believers, he is knowledgeable about everything."

Shaykh: No doubt it is a clear victory. Allah has bestowed on us ... honor on us ... and he will give us blessing and more victory during this holy month of Ramadan. And this is what everyone is hoping for. Thank Allah America came out of its caves. We hit her the first hit and the next one will hit her with the hands of the believers, the good believers, the strong believers. By Allah it is a great work. Allah prepares for you a great reward for this work. I'm sorry to speak in your presence, but it is just thoughts, just thoughts. By Allah, who there is no god but him. I live in happiness, happiness ... I have not experienced, or felt, in a long time. I remember, the words of Al-Rabbani, he said they made a coalition against us in the winter with the infidels like the Turks, and others, and some other Arabs. And they surrounded us like the days ... in the days of the prophet Muhammad. Exactly like what's happening right now. But he comforted his followers and said, "This is going to turn and hit them back." And it is a mercy for us. And a blessing to us. And it will bring people back. Look how wise he was. And Allah will give him blessing. And the day will come when the symbols of Islam will rise up and it will be similar to the early days of Al-Mujahedeen and Al-Ansar (similar to the early years of Islam). And victory to those who follow Allah. Finally said, if it is the same, like the old days, such as Abu Bakr and Othman and Ali and others. In these days, in our times, that it will be the greatest jihad in the history of Islam and the resistance of the wicked people.

Shaykh: By Allah my Shaykh. We congratulate you for the great work. Thank Allah.

Tape ends here.

Second segment of Bin Laden's visit, shows up at the front of the tape

OBL: Abdallah Azzam, Allah bless his soul, told me not to record anything (...inaudible...) so I thought that was a good omen, and Allah will bless us. (...inaudible...). Abu-Al-Hasan Al-(Masri), who appeared on Al-Jazeera TV a couple of days ago and addressed the Americans, saying: "If you are true men, come down here and face us." (...inaudible...) He told me a year ago: "I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer game against the Americans. When our team showed up in the field, they were all pilots!" He said: "So I wondered if that was a soccer game or a pilot game? Our players were pilots." He (Abu-Al-Hasan) didn't know anything about the operation until he heard it on the radio. He said the game went on and we defeated them. That was a good omen for us.

Shaykh: May Allah be blessed.

Unidentified Man Off Camera: Abd Al Rahman Al-(Ghamri) said he saw a vision, before the operation, a plane crashed into a tall building. He knew nothing about it.

Shaykh: May Allah be blessed!

Sulayman (Abu Guaith): I was sitting with the Shaykh in a room, then I left to go to another room where there was a TV set. The TV broadcasted the big event. The scene was showing an Egyptian family sitting in their living room, they exploded with joy. Do you know when there is a soccer game and your team wins? It was the same expression of joy. There was a subtitle that read: "In revenge for the children of Al Aqsa', Osama Bin Ladin executes an operation against America." So I went back to the Shaykh (meaning OBL) who was sitting in a room with 50 to 60 people. I tried to tell him about what I saw, but he made gesture with his hands, meaning: "I know, I know."

OBL: He did not know about the operation. Not everybody knew (...inaudible...). Muhammad (Atta) from the Egyptian family (meaning the al Qaida Egyptian group), was in charge of the group.

Shaykh: A plane crashing into a tall building was out of anyone's imagination. This was a great job. He was one of the pious men in the organization. He became a martyr. Allah bless his soul.

Shaykh (Referring to dreams and visions): The plane that he saw crashing into the building was seen before by more than one person. One of the good religious people has left everything and come here. He told me, "I saw a vision, I was in a huge plane, long and wide. I was carrying it on my shoulders and I walked from the road to the desert for half a kilometer. I was dragging the plane." I listened to him and I prayed to Allah to help him. Another person told me that last year he saw, but I didn't understand and I told him, 'I don't understand.' He said, "I saw people who left for jihad ... and they found themselves in New York ... in Washington and New York." I said, "What is this?" He told me the plane hit the building. That was last year. We haven't thought much about it. But, when the incidents happened he came to me and said, "Did you see ... this is strange." I have another man ... my god ... he said and swore by Allah that his wife had seen the incident a week earlier. She saw the plane crashing into a building ... that was unbelievable, my god.

OBL: The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn't know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes.

OBL: (...inaudible...) Then he said: Those who were trained to fly didn't know the others. One group of people did not know the other group. (...inaudible...) (Someone in the crowd asks OBL to tell the Shaykh about the dream of (Abu-Da'ud).

OBL: We were at a camp of one of the brother's guards in Kandahar. This brother belonged to the majority of the group. He came close and told me that he saw, in a dream, a tall building in America, and in the same dream he saw Mukhtar teaching them how to play karate. At that point, I was worried that maybe the secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing it in their dream. So I closed the subject. I told him if he sees another dream, not to tell anybody, because people will be upset with him.

(Another person's voice can be heard recounting his dream about two planes hitting a big building).

OBL: They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient.

OBL: The difference between the first and the second plane hitting the towers was twenty minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour.

Shaykh: They (the Americans) were terrified thinking there was a coup.

Note: Ayman Al-Zawahri says first he commended OBL's awareness of what the media is saying. Then he says it was the first time for them (Americans) to feel danger coming at them.

OBL (reciting a poem):

I witness that against the sharp blade
They always faced difficulties and stood together...
When the darkness comes upon us and we are bit by a
Sharp tooth, I say...
"Our homes are flooded with blood and the tyrant
Is freely wandering in our homes"...
And from the battlefield vanished
The brightness of swords and the horses...
And over weeping sounds now
We hear the beats of drums and rhythm
They are storming his forts
And shouting: "We will not stop our raids
Until you free our lands"...

Bin Laden visit footage complete. Footage of the visit to the helicopter site follows the poem.

On the Net: U.S. government's English translation of Bin Laden tape: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2001/d20011213ubl.pdf

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2 leaders of Jewish group arrested in bombing plot

December 13, 2001
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011213-1155132.htm

Federal authorities have arrested two leaders of the Jewish Defense League on charges of conspiring to blow up a mosque, the offices of a U.S. congressman and the headquarters of an Arab-American group in Los Angeles.

JDL leaders Irv Rubin, 56, and Earl Krugel, 59, were taken into custody Tuesday night by members of the Justice Department's anti-terrorism task force in Los Angeles after an informant reportedly told investigators about the plot.

"We are here to announce the arrest of the two men alleged to be members of the Jewish Defense League who have been charged with conspiring to bomb Arab-American and Muslim targets in southern California," U.S. Attorney John Gordon said yesterday in announcing the arrests at an afternoon press conference.

Prosecutors said Mr. Rubin and Mr. Krugel are believed to have plotted an attack on the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, a Los Angeles suburb, and the offices of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

They said the two men also sought to blow up the San Diego-area office of Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and an Arab Christian. Mr. Issa, the grandson of Lebanese immigrants who represents northern San Diego County, is on the House Committee on International Relations and supports Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

"I have no way of knowing why I have become the focus and target of these individuals," Mr. Issa said. "Like most Americans, my hope and wish is for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides who oppose a peaceful resolution, and instead choose violence."

Mr. Issa said that while the suspected plot involved members of the JDL, "I know that Jewish-Americans are appalled to hear of a plot like this originating in their community, just as Arab-Americans were appalled by the terrible attacks of September 11."

The government said in a complaint that Mr. Krugel told associates during a meeting that Arabs "need a wake-up call."

"The bombing plot developed to the point that explosive powder was delivered to Krugel's house last night," Mr. Gordon said. "At the time the powder was delivered, Krugel had in his house the remaining components needed to make the bomb."

Mr. Rubin and Mr. Krugel were booked in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, which carries a 30-year mandatory sentence.

Mr. Gordon told reporters investigators were notified of the suspected scheme following a series of meetings where the plot to bomb the King Fahd mosque and Mr. Issa's office was discussed. He said the original target had been the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, but that changed during a meeting last weekend.

The arrests came in the wake of pledges by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that the Justice Department would not tolerate retaliatory hate crimes directed at Arab-Americans.

They said the department and the FBI would aggressively investigate and prosecute violations of the federal hate crime laws. Since the September 11 attacks on America, the department has brought more than 50 hate-crimes investigations involving reported attacks on Arab-American and Muslim residents and institutions.

Mr. Rubin's attorney, Peter Morris, said his client "never had anything to do with explosives."

"It seems to us that given the timing, the government's action is part of an overreaction to the September 11 events," Mr. Morris said.

Tajuddin Shuaib, director of the King Fahd mosque, said he was "astonished" by the suspected plot, which came during Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims. He said the mosque had received no threats. As many as 1,000 people attend the mosque to pray during the Ramadan season.

"I can't understand why people would do such a thing. We are not against Jews. We are not against anybody. We are like any church or synagogue or temple," Mr. Shuaib said.

Maher Hathout, senior adviser for the Los Angeles chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the arrests had sent an encouraging message to the Muslim community.

"We can easily develop an attitude that [federal authorities] are out to get us," Mr. Hathout said. "But it seems they are out to get anyone who breaks the law."

The JDL, which claims 13,000 members, was founded in 1968 in New York by Rabbi Meir Kahane as an armed response to anti-Semitism. It also has lobbied for the punishment of Nazi war criminals and for the release of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Mr. Kahane left the JDL in the 1980s. He was assassinated in New York in 1990. El Sayyid Nosair, 36, an Egyptian-born Muslim, was convicted in connection with the shooting.

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Indonesia to Begin War on Terror

December 13, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Indonesia-Terrorism.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia's defense minister on Thursday vowed an all-out assault on terrorism after the government claimed for the first time that Osama bin Laden's terror network had operations in Indonesia.

The bases were set up by bin Laden's al-Qaida on Sulawesi island, which has been torn by sectarian violence, intelligence chief Abdullah Hendropriyono said Wednesday. He believed the camps were not used by terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

``What was said by the head of intelligence yesterday was based on fact and data,'' Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said. ``We will wage war on terrorism. We must take firm and forceful steps.''

Until this week, the government has repeatedly denied that al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist groups were working in Indonesia.

However, a senior Western diplomat in Jakarta dismissed Hendropriyono's claims of an al-Qaida presence, saying, ``I don't know where they're getting this from.'' He spoke on condition of anonymity.

A State Department document released this week by the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta listed 45 countries where al-Qaida and affiliated groups have suspected cells. The list, which included nearby nations such as Malaysia and the Philippines, did not name Indonesia.

The main Muslim militant group blamed for much of the recent bloodshed in the Sulawesi area has repeatedly denied any links with al-Qaida.

About 1,000 people have been killed on Sulawesi Island in the past two years in sporadic fighting between Christians and Muslims. In the nearby province of Maluku, about 9,000 people have died in three years of sectarian warfare.

In the latest bloodshed, six Christians and three Muslims were killed Wednesday in clashes in North Maluku province, residents said.

Some intelligence experts suggested the claims of an al-Qaida link in the world's most populous Muslim nation were designed to persuade the United States to relax a two-year ban on sales of military equipment and spare parts.

The United States cut military aid to Indonesia in 1999 after a bloody crackdown by Indonesian troops in East Timor.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Enron Wind set for Irish order, sees big profits

Reuters:
13/12/2001
Story by Birgitte Dyrekilde
http://www.planetark.org/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=13703

BRUSSELS - Enron Wind, a unit in troubled U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. , is fighting to keep business as usual after its parent company filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S., seeking refuge from its creditors.

Enron Wind, which is not included in the Chapter 11 filing, might add a 60 megawatts contract to its 2002 order book from Irish green electricity trader and wind farm developer Airtricity, formerly named Eirtricty, said Airtricity Chief Executive Eddie O'Connor yesterday.

Enron Wind has qualified to provide the world's largest wind turbines so far for the first phase of a 520 megawatt wind farm off the Irish coast, south of Dublin, the Arklow Banks project.

"We are in detailed engineering discussions with Enron Wind," O'Connor told Reuters on the sidelines of an offshore wind conference in Brussels.

"If the first turbines go into operation next year, which is an ambitious target, we will certainly use Enron machines."

Airtricity, which has wind farm projects totalling 2,300 megawatts in the pipeline in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, said investment in the Arklow Banks project would total 500-550 million euros.

"Enron Wind is a financially strong company in regard to profits and balance sheet," Andrea Hein, director of marketing and communications at Enron Wind in Germany, told Reuters by telephone.

Enron Wind has been up for sale for the past year and the current situation for Enron Corp could speed up a sale.

The Enron turbines for the Irish offshore project will be 3.6 megawatts each. At present the biggest turbines on the market are 2.5 megawatts.

Hein said Enron Wind doubled its wind turbine manufacturing capacity in Germany last month with 32 million marks investment.

She declined to elaborate on Enron Wind's sales and profits, but said the company would install around 750 megawatts this year. "We are back on track for a place among the top five wind turbine makers," Hein said.

Enron Wind's market share fell to six percent of installed megawatts last year from 9.2 percent in 1999 and the company now ranks as the seventh biggest turbine maker in the world.

"The outlook for next year is strong and we expect a good year as in 2001," Hein said.

The Arklow Banks offshore wind farm would supply electricity to around 350,000 households or more than 10 percent of Ireland's total electricity consumption.

A contract allowing construction of the wind farm is pending from the Irish Department for Marine and Natural Resources.

-------- energy

Coalition Calls for Reforms in Hydropower Licensing

By Cat Lazaroff
December 13, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-06.html

WASHINGTON, DC, An antiquated process for relicensing hydropower dams on U.S. rivers is delaying dam reforms that could improve the health of these rivers and the species which depend upon them, argues a new report by the Hydropower Reform Coalition. The report echoes comments made this week by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for licensing the nation's hundreds of dams.

Hydropower dams, like Carters Dam in Georgia, are licensed for 30 to 50 years at a time (Photo by Adrien Lamarre, courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

In exchange for using the nation's rivers for hydropower, dam owners must ensure that their operations have minimal impacts on the river and surrounding lands, and accommodate other river uses including recreation and wildlife management. The Commission (FERC) issues operating licenses for private and state owned hydropower dams - licenses that can last 30 to 50 years.

When these licenses expire, dam owners must apply to FERC for a new license. The operational reviews that accompany relicensing provide rare opportunities to modernize dams with environmentally friendly features like fish ladders.

But because the licensing process involves so many stakeholders - ranging from power companies to wildlife managers to outdoor enthusiasts - it is often frustratingly complex and time consuming. Generic standards cannot be applied to every dam, because each river and dam site is different.

Electric utilities have few incentives for streamlining the process. Hundreds of existing dams were originally licensed before the advent of modern environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The licenses grant utilities virtual monopolies on segments of public rivers, and include few concessions to the environmental impacts of dams on rivers.

Under current FERC regulations, if relicensing a dam takes more than five years, the agency gives the dam's owner a year by year license that allows the dam to continue operating under the terms of the previous license. Utilities are therefore able to continue to generate electricity at outdated dams, under expired licenses, without installing new equipment.

During relicensing, federal regulators may require dams to install fish friendly equipment like this fish ladder on Ice Harbor Dam in Washington state (Photo courtesy )

Some utilities appear to deliberately delay the relicensing process, finds the report by the Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC), a coalition of national, state and local conservation and recreation organizations working to improve environmental protections at hydropower dams. For example, of the 157 relicensing applications filed by utilities in 1993, just nine provided sufficient scientific information about project impacts, forcing FERC to issue hundreds of additional information requests in the other 148 cases.

"For some licensees, annual licenses appear to serve as an incentive for withholding information and fostering delay," the HRC report states.

"Until a new license is issued, decades of environmental damage continues unmitigated," said Andrew Fahlund, policy director for hydropower programs at the conservation group American Rivers. "It's time for Congress to remove the perverse incentive created by these annual licenses."

On Tuesday, FERC concluded a two day public workshop examining the 51 oldest pending applications for hydropower dams. The workshop highlighted the status of 39 rivers in 10 states, which HRC says are suffering major harm from the relicensing delays.

Dams alter river flows, sometimes destroying essential wildlife habitat like the sandbars thhis piping plover needs for nesting (Photo by Robert Etzel, courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

The 51 projects covered by the HRC report have so far been granted an average of seven annual licenses each, for a total of 247 years of annual licenses. More than 450 dams are due for relicensing over the next decade.

"FERC's workshop illustrates the need for Congress to step in and eliminate the incentives that lead utilities to drag their feet in licensing," said Fahlund.

FERC chair Patrick Wood led the workshop, discussing the problems facing the licensing committees and the impacts that the slow process has on river health. The workshop was attended by river conservationists, utility lobbyists, and state and federal environmental and energy regulators.

"Chairman Wood's attention to these antiquated hydropower dam licenses is a positive sign for the future of our rivers," said Matt Sicchio, coordinator of the HRC. "We hope this attention is followed by action that brings these dams up to modern environmental standards as soon as possible. After all, these dams have been using public rivers with little or no environmental protections for decades."

Energy bills now before Congress would make some changes to the laws governing non-federal hydropower dam licenses. The House energy bill (HR 4), passed earlier this year, contains modest changes to hydropower licensing, while the latest Senate bill introduced by Majority Leader Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, takes a more extensive look at the issue.

In some cases, wildlife managers have resorted to trucking fish around dams that pose an impassable obstacle to their migration (Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

The HRC says Congress should place strict limits and conditions on the use of annual licenses, and enforce time limits and standards for environmental studies needed for relicensing. Draft licenses should be released for public comment, the coalition says, and state and federal environmental agencies should cooperate in developing environmental studies of the dams.

HRC also urges Congress to require more flexibility in dam licensing, such that resource managers can reopen licenses when needed to address issues such as changes in water quality standards or listing of new endangered species.

"Senator Daschle's bill takes a good first step towards eliminating some of the flaws in the licensing process," said American Rivers' Fahlund. "However, Congress to date has largely been silent on the role of state environmental agencies. We strongly urge the Senate to protect the ability of these state agencies to enforce state standards for water quality and fish and wildlife protection."

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ANTI-TERRORISM ASSESSMENTS CRAFTED FOR POWER PLANTS

December 13, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-09.html

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, New security assessments developed by the Interagency Forum on Infrastructure Protection (IFIP) could help keep dams, hydroelectric facilities and power transmission systems safe from terrorists.

The two new processes, called RAM-DSM for "Risk Assessment Methodology for Dams" and RAM-TSM for "Risk Assessment Methodology for Transmission," take owners, operators and security managers of dams and transmission systems through an examination of each facility's unique situation.

The assessments evaluate the facilities' potential adversaries, vulnerabilities, consequences of attack, and existing security measures, and then provide cost benefit analyses of possible security upgrades.

The methodologies are based on many of the formal risk assessment tools and techniques used by Sandia National Laboratory to protect U.S. nuclear weapons facilities.

Hydroelectric dam operators might use RAM-D, for example, to determine where to place sensors, cameras, or lights, or whether to invest in walls, barriers, higher fences, better doors, extra training or improved policies.

"This is much more than a checklist," says Rudy Matalucci, RAM-D and RAM-T project leader at Sandia. "It begins with the events you don't want to happen, identifies who might want to do it and what their resources are, and quantifies how much risk reduction you get with each given upgrade. It is a way to help facility owners make decisions about how to balance the need for security with other considerations."

The IFIP, a team of government dam owners, transmission system operators, and anti-terrorism experts, includes representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Southwestern Power Administration, Western Area Power Administration and others.

-------- environment

LOUD NOISES COULD GIVE WHALES THE BENDS

December 13, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-09.html

SAN DIEGO, California, The noise of underwater explosions and sonar tests may be giving whales and dolphins a form of decompression sickness - the equivalent of the bends - suggests research by the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP) in San Diego.

The U.S. Navy uses very low frequency sonar signals to try to track submarines, and also conducts controlled explosions under water. Commercial shipping, oil exploration, and scientific experiments that use sound to measure ocean temperature add to the underwater cacophony.

Biologists believe that noise pollution disrupts the hearing and behavior of whales, dolphins and other cetaceans, sometimes driving the marine mammals to beach themselves. Now researchers suspect that it could cause decompression sickness and hemorrhaging.

The research is detailed in the current issue of the journal "New Scientist" at: http://www.newscientist.com

When whales and dolphins dive, nitrogen gets squeezed out of their lungs and into the bloodstream, saturating the surrounding tissue. The longer and deeper they dive the more dissolved gas accumulates in their bodies. As they surface, cetaceans exhale, washing the dangerous build up of nitrogen bubbles from their blood.

Dorian Houser of the NMMP and his team have devised a mathematical model which shows that low frequency sound waves can interfere with a whale's ability to store the gas. Sound waves compress and then expand microscopic bubbles of gas in the tissue, they say.

With each cycle, each bubble absorbs more and more of the gas dissolved in the bloodstream. The bubbles can become so big that they can rupture tissues or block blood vessels, and crush nerves, leading to classic symptoms of decompression sickness such as joint pain and disorientation.

Houser reviewed studies looking at the levels of dissolved gas in diving whales and dolphins. He found that the diving behaviour of beaked whales, such as bottlenose and sperm whales, makes them particularly susceptible, as nitrogen levels have often quadrupled by the end of a typical dive.

That may explain why beaked whales seem to beach themselves more often than other species in areas with high levels of naval activity, said Houser.

Darlene Ketten of the Harvard Medical School has also discovered that loud blasts, like those produced by military shells, can damage the heart, lungs, liver and spleen of dolphins, as well as the most sensitive organ, the ear. She exposed the carcasses of beached dolphins to controlled underwater blasts.

"We're seeing classic symptoms of blast lung and gut hemorrhage," she told a meeting of the Society for Marine Mammalogy in Vancouver last week. Smaller individuals are at particular risk, she said.

The experience of one veteran whale researcher seems to back up the idea. Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research in Washington state told the conference that in just one day in March, 16 whales and dolphins washed up around the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. All the whales showed signs of unusual hemorrhaging. Balcomb later discovered that the U.S. Navy had been conducting exercises in the area the previous day.

----

CARBON CAPTURE COULD BENEFIT AIR, OCEANS

December 13, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-09.html

SAN FRANCISCO, California, A new method for capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and placing it in the ocean may have less impact on marine life than atmospheric carbon dioxide release or other global warming mitigation methods.

Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory presented the new technique, called carbonate dissolution, at the 2001 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The proposed method would mix the carbon dioxide in power plant flue gas with water to produce a carbonic acid solution. This solution would be mixed with limestone, neutralizing the carbon dioxide by converting it to bicarbonate, and then would be released in the ocean.

In nature, the same process is called carbonate weathering, but it occurs at a much slower pace.

"You are altering the chemistry of the carbon dioxide that causes a less drastic change to ocean pH [acidity] and is less biologically harmful than other methods such as direct injection ocean carbon sequestration and ocean fertilization," said Greg Rau, an LLNL guest scientist who also works as a senior researcher with the Institute for Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Whether carbon dioxide is released in the atmosphere or the ocean, about 80 percent of the carbon dioxide will end up in the ocean in a form that will make the ocean more acidic. While the carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, it could produce adverse climate change.

When it enters the ocean, the acidification could be harmful to marine life.

"If the carbon dioxide were reacted with crushed limestone and seawater, and the resulting solution released to the ocean, the limestone would buffer the pH (acidity) of the ocean and prevent it from becoming more acidic," said LLNL earth scientist Ken Caldeira. "Furthermore, the dissolved limestone would tend to keep the carbon dioxide in the ocean and out of the atmosphere. This process would occur naturally anyway, but on about a 6000 year time scale."

-------- human rights

Survey: Hunger, homelessness increase

December 12, 2001
UPI
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/12122001-122939-3901r.htm

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 -- A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors indicates hunger and homelessness increased significantly in the last year in nearly all 27 cities surveyed and the pace appeared to pick up in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Conference President Marc H. Morial of New Orleans on Wednesday called the findings "sobering."

"Twenty-five of the 27 cities surveyed showed an increase in demand for emergency food," Morial told a news conference Wednesday. "These cities on average show the increased demand was 23 percent. That is the largest increase our survey has shown since 1991.

"Twenty-three, approximately, of the 27 cities showed increase in demand for emergency shelter. This reflects in the individual cities an average of about 13 percent increase, the second highest since 1994."

Morial said it is not uncommon for there to be more hungry than homeless people simply because people's money is being stretched so thin, "they cannot properly feed their families."

"We think it's important for all of you to understand the relationship between the two and why the two are linked," he said.

Morial, who opposed the 1996 welfare reform bill adopted by Congress and signed by President Clinton, said the flagging economy would provide a real test of the reform program.

"This will be a test for the welfare reform provisions enacted in 1996," Morial said, "... we have had a roaring, booming economy with unprecedented (low) unemployment rates .., low inflation and historic number of jobs being created. (The current economy) will test the safety net provisions."

Additionally, he said, many people who are eligible for food stamps were not aware that they are because they think the program operates under the same rules as welfare. He called on the federal government to work with mayors on an outreach campaign to educate the needy.

Morial also appealed to people to "continue to be charitable."

"Of those who are homeless in America, 40 percent are men and, very disturbingly, 40 percent are families with children," he said. "The stereotype of the homeless person is not necessarily true."

Morial said the booming economy of the '90s actually exacerbated the affordable housing situation and appealed to the federal government to help cities deal with the issue.

Among new findings in this year's survey is "prison release" as a reason for homelessness.

"As many as 600,000 people are going to be released from prison in 2001," Morial said, citing Department of Justice figures. "If these people are released without adequate skills and adequate education, and the softening economy makes it extremely difficult to find jobs, they are going to join the ranks of homelessness and hungry, if not immediately, over time."

Morial said he doesn't think the 17th annual survey adequately measured the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks since the survey ended in early November. He said projections from his colleagues for 2002 already are showing increased demand for food and shelter.

The 27 cities that responded to the survey comprise the membership of the Conference's Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness and include: Boston; Burlington, Vt.; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Denver; Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; New Orleans; Norfolk, Va.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; Salt Lake City; San Antonio; San Diego; Santa Monica, Calif.; Seattle; St. Louis; St. Paul, Minn.; Trenton, N.J.; and Washington.


-------- activists

Some good news on nuclear weapons

From: David Culp <david@fcnl.org>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001

MINI-NUKES

The Bush administration may have decided not to pursue development of a new nuclear weapon, or "mini-nuke". This is good news.

Last year, Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) attempted to include language in the annual defense authorization bill to develop a "mini-nuke" that would be used against hardened or deeply buried targets. The language was watered down by the Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and later by the Democrats from the House Armed Services Committee in the conference committee on the bill. The main result of the Warner-Allard provision was the requirement for a study by the Pentagon to Congress on mini-nukes.

Also last year, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) included $15 million for development of the new warhead in the Senate versions of the energy and water appropriations bill. House representatives to the conference committee deleted the funds.

The study required by the Warner-Allard provision was delivered to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee at the end of November in a classified report done by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The study concludes that a new nuclear warhead is not needed.

Recently a group of religious leaders met with Franklin Miller, who is in charge of arms control policy for the National Security Council. He stated that there is "no military requirement" for a mini-nuke.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, and all the members of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee deserve credit for opposing this program. The Bush administration should be commended for making the right decision.

However, this issue may not be resolved. There are reports that a late-November draft of the Defense Department's Nuclear Posture Review calls for developing a "mini-nuke". That report is being written by the staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and may be delivered to Congress on December 28. There appears to be a sharp split within the Bush administration, with the military not wanting to develop a new nuclear warhead and the civilian political appointees pushing for such a warhead.

REPEAL OF LIMITATIONS ON NUCLEAR REDUCTIONS

Several years ago, Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) succeeded in adding a provision to the statute books that bars the President from reducing the nuclear arsenal below START I numbers. After several years of effort, the restrictions (known as the "Smith provision" or Section 1302) were repealed by the House-Senate conference committee on the defense authorization bill. That bill is slated for final House approval today (Thursday, December 13) and in the Senate today or tomorrow.

Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) was the champion in the House on this issue. Senate chairman Levin again provided the political heft to ensure its repeal.

Without repeal of the Smith provision, the nuclear weapons reductions announced by President Bush at the recent Crawford summit could not gone into effect.

DE-ALERTING OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The conference committee on the defense authorization bill, S. 1438, included a requirement that the Pentagon study "the possibility of deactivating or dealerting nuclear warheads or delivery systems immediately, or immediately after a decision to retire any specific warhead, class of warheads, or delivery system." The final study provision had been included in the Senate version of the defense bill by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) were the strong House advocates for the issue.

In short, some good news on nuclear weapons.

David Culp, Legislative Representative Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) 245 Second Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-5795 Tel: (202) 547-6000, ext. 146 Toll free: (800) 630-1330, ext. 146 Fax: (202) 547-6019 E-mail: david@fcnl.org Web site: www.fcnl.org

----

Argentines protest new fiscal measures

Washington Times
Thu, 13 Dec 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011213-167.htm

Demonstrators in Buenos Aires honked horns and banged on pots and pans yesterday to protest government austerity measures as officials said they did not have enough funds to make pension payments this week.

----

Urfer to serve 5 months
Will not pay for poles cut during ELF facility protest

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001
By KEVIN MURPHY
ASHLAND (WISCONSIN) Daily Press
From: "Nukewatch" <nukewatch@lakeland.ws>

MADISON -- A protester who defied a court order to pay for the damage she did to the U.S. Navy ELF antenna system was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to five months in prison.

After serving a six-month prison term for cutting down three poles of the ELF antenna grid, Bonnie L. Urfer, 47, of Luck, has refused to pay any of the $7,492 restitution Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker ordered Urfer and co-defendant Michael Sprong to pay to the Navy and a company that replaced the poles.

"It would be a prostitution of her beliefs to engage in the behavior and then pay to have the poles put back up," Urfer's attorney Margaret Danielson, told Crocker.

Urfer's defended her act of act of civil disobedience at trial last February, contending it was obeying international law which has outlawed the use of first-strike nuclear weapons, of which ELF is a component. Urfer and Sprong claimed that nuclear weapons posed an imminent danger to the world's safety and they were justified in disabling ELF, which is used to communicate with submerged submarines which carry nuclear missiles.

On Wednesday Crocker found Urfer in violation of her probation but instead of more prison, Danielson asked Crocker to let Urfer satisfy her restitution obligation with a $1,000 check for use by patients of a Veteran's Hospital. "A year in prison would only cost the taxpayers money and may encourage others to take her place," Danielson said. Danielson asked Crocker to liken Urfer's offer to that of a conscientious objector who drives an ambulance during a war and not a tank. Because of her financial situation, it would be doubtful if Urfer could ever repay the government and would never contribute to the Navy's cause, Danielson said. Statues allow restitution to other parties if the victims agree, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil refused to comply.

"Defendants don't get to pick and choose who will be compensated and which court orders they will follow," he said.

Nearly all of defendants ordered to pay restitution pay some amount, said Vaudreuil. Even Sprong, who after serving a two-month sentence, has paid "$20 here and there," said Vaudreuil. Vaudreuil refused to make an exception for Urfer despite how noble she thought her proposal to be.

Crocker agreed that court orders have to be respected but never believed that Urfer would pay any restitution to repair a military installation. He expected Urfer would rather serve a year in prison than pay but said the government could still obtain a civil judgment for the amount of restitution Urfer owes.

Eleven months in prison, close to the offense's maximum punishment, was what Crocker had expected Urfer to serve and he said he was not going to grant Vaudreuil's request for Urfer to serve more than that amount.

Urfer was prepared to immediately start serving her sentence but after Crocker asked her to reconsider, Urfer agreed to wait until after the holidays and report on Jan. 4.

"I would have preferred to go right away, but my mother would be so happy if I would be home for Christmas... and this way I will still be home for next Christmas too," Urfer said after court.

Nukewatch P.O. Box 649 Luck, WI 54853 Phone (715) 472-4185 Fax (715) 472-4184 Web http://www.nukewatch.com


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