------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
U.S.-RUSSIA TEAM TACKLES RADWASTE DISPOSAL
Nevada Sues Feds Over Nuke Waste
Greenpeace raids nuclear reactor
N. Korea urges 'decisive measures'
South Korea Releases Nukes Report
Russia Prepares for Nuclear Talks
Putin Warns U.S. Against Expanding War to Iraq
Jerome Morse, inventor first miniaturized nuclear generator
Formal Talks on Nuclear Cuts to Begin Next Month
Officials Back Low - Yield Nuke Strike
US won't delay Nevada waste site guidelines
New Suit Filed Against U.S. About Nuclear Waste Dump
Nevada Sues Feds Over Nuke Waste

MILITARY
US warplanes target fleeing al-Qaeda
Peacekeeping force to start arriving by Saturday
Bin Laden hunt intensifies
Al Qaeda Fleeing Toward Pakistan, U.S. Officials Say
400 Experts Try to Harvest Afghanistan's Field of Mines
Rival factions clash in northern Nigeria
Rumsfeld, in Talks With NATO, Suggests Paring Bosnia Force
Gov't to Boost Biohazard Training
N. Ireland militias get 5 years to disarm
Pentagon Terminates Raytheon Contract
China asks $2 billion for Phalcon rescission
Terrorism and science symposium
Deal Reached for Air Force Planes
Police put down coup as political crisis deepens
Saddam Hussein Wants Arab Summit
U.S. Again Placing Focus on Ousting Hussein
Powell phones Arafat about cease-fire
NATO, Russian defense ministers meet after US ABM pullout
Allies to Talk About Terrorism
Rumsfeld to call for slashing Bosnia peacekeeping force
Baltic states await NATO invitation
NATO Sets Global Sights on Terrorism
Pursuing bin Laden Into Pakistan Tough
War boosts all-news radio's ratings
Camera Has Turned on Peru's TV Stations
Holes found in Pakistan's 'sealed' border
Pakistanis might sell out bin Laden
India vows 'punishment will fit the crime'
Capitol Hill anthrax "not from CIA lab"
Russia Reports Spying by U.S. Foes

POLICE / PRISONERS
Legal tools briefing
D.C. Area May Receive $245 Million For Security
FBI report reveals overall decline in violent crimes
New towing laws on tap for District
Secret Service Agents Plead Guilty
Man on Bin Laden Tape Now Said to Be Guerrilla

ENERGY AND OTHER
Stem Cell Glossary
Monitors Censure St. Elizabeths

ACTIVISTS
Missile Defense: A Waste
Rural Villagers' Quiet Resistance
Death Sentence of Abu-Jamal Is Thrown Out




-------- NUCLEAR

U.S.-RUSSIA TEAM TACKLES RADWASTE DISPOSAL

December 18, 2001
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-18-09.html

BOISE, Idaho, A collaboration of U.S. and Russian scientists and engineers claim to have developed a new process to separate much of the radioactive material from nuclear wastes, making treating and transporting the wastes safer and cheaper.

The technique reduces the volume of high level wastes at least twentyfold. Each gallon shrinks to less than a cup, and disposal costs fall as well.

"The idea is to segregate out this very small amount of radioactive material and concentrate this element of the waste into the smallest volume possible," said Scott Herbst, a chemical engineer at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).

Herbst and a team of scientists from the INEEL and Khlopin Radium Institute in Russia have received an $800,000, three year grant from DOE's Environmental Management Science Program to study and improve their technique. The Universal Extraction, or UNEX, process is the first demonstrated technology of its kind capable of removing multiple radioactive elements from high level nuclear waste in one step.

Even a tiny amount of radioactive elements can turn large volumes of waste into "high level radioactive waste," which is subject to rigorous and expensive storage standards.

Such waste is a byproduct of nuclear energy and weapons development and contains a mixture of radioactive fission products, such as strontium-90 and cesium-137, long lived radioactive elements such as plutonium and americium, and hazardous and toxic materials.

Separating most of the radioactive elements from the other materials can shrink the volume of high level waste, reduce the total disposal cost and minimize potential harm to the people and environment surrounding it.

In the past, it has been difficult to remove more than one radioactive element at a time. The most common process requires three separate steps: one solution removes cesium-137, the next takes out a group of similar elements called the actinide elements, and the last removes strontium-90.

Sending waste through three different steps is time consuming and expensive. At the moment, most countries do not go to the trouble and expense of separating out radioactive elements. Instead, they take the entire volume of high level waste, solidify it into a glass, and bury it whole in large stainless steel canisters for long term storage.

In 1994, a few INEEL scientists traveled to Russia to exchange the technologies each country had developed for nuclear waste cleanup. They came up with an extractant that works better than any of the original extractants alone, removing radioactive strontium, cesium and the actinides all at once.

"We're combining three separate operations into one," said Herbst. "I'm mesmerized that we've even been able to get this thing to work. It flies in the face of what everyone has attempted to do before."

----

Nevada Sues Feds Over Nuke Waste

By Ken Ritter
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, December 18, 2001; 6:11 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58490-2001Dec18?language=printer

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada has sued the Energy Department, its latest salvo in an ongoing campaign to block a possible federal government move to bury the nation's radioactive waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, challenges the Energy Department's criteria for deciding whether radioactive waste can safely be buried at Yucca Mountain. The state wants the court to stop the project before Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham decides whether to recommend Yucca Mountain as a suitable place to bury spent nuclear waste, said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.

"The DOE is changing the rules about how they assess whether Yucca Mountain is suitable or not," Loux said. "We believe the new rules are not in compliance with the law."

The lawsuit charges that the Energy Department has constructed a new plan that relies on engineered barriers such as corrosion-resistant casks - rather than the geology of Yucca Mountain - to contain the intense radioactivity at the site.

But Joe Davis, Energy Department spokesman, said the agency reshaped its guidelines to take advantage of emerging technology. Davis said he had not seen the lawsuit.

Abraham said last week he has not made a decision on whether to recommend to President Bush that the volcanic ridge be used for storing 77,000 tons of nuclear waste for 10,000 years or more. Congress has asked for a decision by Feb. 28. Abraham's aides have said he intends to make a recommendation this winter.

Nevada state and federal lawmakers strongly oppose the project and are fighting it on political, environmental, public relations and legal fronts.

Last month, the state asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to decide whether Nevada can block the federal government from getting the water needed to develop the project in the arid desert. A three-judge circuit court panel had ordered the case heard by a U.S. District Court judge in Las Vegas. It has not decided on the Nevada request for a full hearing.

The mountain, at the western edge of the vast Nevada Test Site, is the only place under study.

-------- australia

Greenpeace raids nuclear reactor

AUSTRALIA: December 18, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13747/story.htm

SYDNEY - Members of the environmental group Greenpeace have forced their way into the grounds of Australia's only nuclear reactor, climbing onto the reactor and a nearby radio tower to unfurl banners saying "Nuclear Never Safe".

More than 20 activists embarrassed security staff at the Sydney nuclear research reactor yesterday, which has been on a heightened state of alert since the September 11 U.S. attacks, by parking a van between its gates when they were opened to allow another vehicle through and running into the complex.

Some protesters, dressed as barrels of nuclear waste, ran towards the reactor building, while others scaled it and the radio tower. One protester jumped from a smoke stack and parachuted to the ground with an anti-nuclear banner.

"Greenpeace is here to put safety of the people of Sydney and the environment first," said Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell.

Extra security staff arrived on the scene after about 15 minutes and started ejecting the protesters. The protest lasted some three hours, with police arresting 24 activists for trespassing.

The Australian government plans to build a new reactor to replace the ageing Lucas Heights facility at the same site in a southern Sydney suburb. Many residents oppose the plan.

Greenpeace said its protest was not only against the new reactor, but to highlight the lack of security surrounding the existing nuclear facility.

The Australian government increased security staff and imposed a no-fly zone over Lucas Heights after the hijack aircraft attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the United States on September 11.

-------- korea

N. Korea urges 'decisive measures'

December 18, 2001
By Jong-Heon Lee UPI Correspondent
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/17122001-114411-3644r.htm

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- North Korea urged South Korea Tuesday to take "decisive measures" to break a deadlock between the two rivals, including the lifting of a counter-terrorism alert in place in South Korea.

"We urge the South side to make decisive measures to be accepted by all the countrymen before it is too late and thus put the North-South relations on a normal track at an early date," Pyongyang's state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.

"Hopes for the normalization of inter-Korean relations are higher than at any other time, especially with the year coming to an end," said the statement carried by the official (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station.

The statement said the impasse in inter-Korean relations was caused by the South's security alert and definition of the North as its "principal enemy," calling for Seoul's bold decision to normalize their ties.

"The future of inter-Korean ties is wholly dependent on the South's attitude," it said, adding that North Korea would carry out the reconciliation agreement reached at last year's summit between their leaders.

Inter-Korean reconciliation talks collapsed in November after Pyongyang protested against a security alert imposed in the South following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

North Korea has publicly lambasted the move, saying it was aimed at the communist country under the pretext of fighting terrorism. South Korea is home to 37,000 American troops stationed as a deterrent against North Korea, which is on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The North has denounced the United States for planning to make the communist regime the second target for its war against terrorism after Afghanistan.

South Korean officials and analysts considered the North's Tuesday statement as an indication that it was ready to revive the stalled inter-Korean peace process.

"The message can be seen as a positive response to the South's proposal last week to hold Red Cross talks to discuss reviving exchanges, including reunions of families" split by the Korean War half a century ago, a government official said.

North Korea's concerns that it may be the next target of U.S. war on terrorism may lead to Pyongyang's peace gesture toward the South, said Ko Yu-hwan, North Korea specialist at Dongguk University.

Yoo Soek-ryol of the Institute of Foreign Affairs of National Security, a government think tank, said North Korea intended to get aid from the South to overcome the cold winter amid the country's acute power and food shortages.

--------

South Korea Releases Nukes Report

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NKorea-Nuclear.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea will need ``at least several years'' to complete its first nuclear weapons, although the communist state has extracted enough plutonium to build one or two nuclear bombs, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry revealed its estimates of North Korea's nuclear capabilities in a 225-page report on weapons of mass destruction, which was published Tuesday.

Earlier this month, President Bush threatened unspecified ``consequences'' if Iraq and North Korea produce weapons of mass destruction.

In its report, the South Korean Defense Ministry said ``available intelligence'' led it to believe that North Korea extracted 22 to 26 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium from its Soviet-designed nuclear reactors before shutting them down under a 1994 deal with the United States.

North Korea also conducted at least 70 nuclear-related tests of high explosives between 1983 and 1993, the report said. It continued the tests until 1998, but has apparently had difficulties acquiring components necessary to make their devices dependable, it said.

``North Korea may have a capability of putting together a crude nuclear explosion device,'' the report said. ``But its technology is believed to be still in a rudimentary stage.

``Even if it has manufactured an explosion device, it will be still low in dependability and it will take the North at least several years to turn the system into a weapon,'' it said.

The South Korean ministry's estimates largely confirmed widespread assessments in the United States.

In 1999, a study for the U.S. Congress said there was ``significant evidence that (North Korea's) undeclared nuclear weapons development activities continue''

That study said the efforts included moves to acquire technology for enriching uranium and nuclear-related tests of explosives.

Under the 1994 accord, a U.S.-led international consortium is building two light-water reactors worth $4.6 billion in North Korea. In exchange, the North agreed to halt use of reactors suspected of producing plutonium.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations, wants to examine the North's nuclear history before the freeze.

On Sunday, North Korea reiterated that it felt no need to allow nuclear inspections or to resume talks on curbing its ballistic missile capabilities.

North Korea alarmed the region by firing a long-range missile in 1998 that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Congressional experts believe that North Korea has produced, deployed and exported missiles to Iran and Pakistan. The North reportedly has a more powerful missile that experts say could reach Hawaii or Alaska.

-------- russia

Russia Prepares for Nuclear Talks

DECEMBER 18, 08:42 ET
By SALLY BUZBEE
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/?SLUG=US%2dRUSSIA

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Russia still believes the United States was mistaken to withdraw from a treaty banning most anti-missile defenses, but it wants to press ahead with plans to radically cut both nations' offensive nuclear arms, the Russian defense minister said.

The two countries will begin talks next month on how and when to make new cuts in their strategic nuclear arms, despite continued disagreement over the U.S. pullout from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, said after a meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

In January, the two countries will begin technical discussions on both the levels and a timetable for those cuts, Ivanov said.

President Bush has proposed cutting U.S. nuclear warheads by about two-thirds, to between 1,700 and 2,200, from the current 6,000. Russia says it will bring its warheads down to between 1,500 and 2,200.

Bush announced last week that the United States will pull out in six months from the 1972 treaty so it can test and build a missile defense system to protect against terrorists and rogue nations.

Russia was not surprised by the move - after months of negotiations trying to prevent it - and has no fears for its own security, Ivanov said, echoing comments made earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Instead, Russia worries America's decision could prompt other nations to decide they, too, can pull out of any international agreements they don't like, the Russian defense minister said.

Other countries might think, ``logically, that if one country won't abide, why should we?'' Ivanov said.

Nevertheless, he said the two nations are closer than ever, cooperating in the fight against terrorism and other issues at an ``unprecedented'' level. He told reporters who asked about the U.S. decision on the ABM treaty that the issue never came up during his talks with Rumsfeld, which will continue Tuesday.

Earlier, Rumsfeld said the two nations must focus on ``transparency and predictability, which both countries recognize ... as important for our respective populations to feel comfortable as we make that dramatic change.'' He called Monday's talks ``excellent.''

Russia has apparently accepted the U.S. move because it believes the size of its nuclear arsenal means the American plans for a missile defense will not weaken its security.

China, which also had tried to persuade Bush not to scrap the treaty, remains worried, however, that a U.S. missile defense system would ruin the deterrent value of its smaller arsenal.

Assistant Secretary of State Avis Bohlen, at a meeting Monday with Chinese officials in Beijing, told them the Bush administration plans a limited missile defense system not directed against China, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

``We felt the discussions were productive. Both sides indicated they're ready to continue their dialogue on these issues,'' Boucher said.

Bush had tried to strike a deal with Putin to allow the United States to expand testing for a missile defense system without ending the treaty. But Russia, which can't afford a national missile defense, has said it views the ABM pact as the basis of all nuclear-reduction treaties.

In a statement aimed at backing up the assertion that Russia faces no threat from America's decision, Ivanov said before his meeting with Rumsfeld that his country had plans to develop its Strategic Missile Forces ``which were drafted long before'' the U.S. decision.

----

Putin Warns U.S. Against Expanding War to Iraq

By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 18, 2001; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57255-2001Dec17?language=printer

MOSCOW, Dec. 17 -- President Vladimir Putin cautioned the United States against attacking Iraq once the war in Afghanistan draws to close, saying in an interview published today that he expects to be consulted before the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign is expanded to other nations.

Although Bush administration officials have openly discussed the possibility that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may be the next target in the war on terrorism, Putin said he has seen no evidence that Iraq finances terrorists. He also said in the interview, with London's Financial Times newspaper, he does not believe that previous U.S. strikes have destroyed any sites where Iraq might be producing nuclear or biological weapons.

Putin's remarks underscored the new diplomatic risks the Bush administration faces as it contemplates the next phase of its campaign against terrorism. Germany and Egypt also have warned that a U.S. strike against Iraq would be viewed far less favorably than the action in Afghanistan.

Although the Bush administration appears divided on how to proceed, its rhetoric against Iraq is escalating. In late November, President Bush warned that if Iraq does not allow U.N. inspectors to survey possible sites of weapons production, Hussein will "find out" the consequences.

Putin took note of the international concern over Iraq, saying the Kremlin had failed to persuade Hussein to allow the inspectors back in after a three-year absence. But he reiterated Russia's position that economic sanctions should be lifted if Iraq cooperates with inspections.

Putin said he is reconciled to the Bush administration's decision to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, although he asserted he could not understand it. Without a treaty to bind the major nuclear powers, he said, Russians fear the arms race might extend to space as the United States seeks the broadest possible missile defense.

He voiced hope for a new treaty to codify current pledges by Russia and the United States to cut their strategic nuclear stockpiles. Russia has proposed a new level of between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads, while the United States has suggested a level of 1,700 to 2,200 warheads. Even if the Bush administration rejects a new treaty, Putin said, Russia will not necessarily lose faith in the relationship.

"It will depend on the way we develop our relations across the board," he said. "If relations between Russia and the West, Russia and NATO, and Russia and the U.S. continue to develop in the spirit of partnership and even of alliance, then no harm will be done."

Calling Bush "a reliable partner" who has not misled him, he said, "I would very much like to have our current level of mutual confidence with the U.S. maintained."

On other issues, Putin said the state has to create the "right conditions" for media organizations, because they cannot survive without outside investment. He was apparently referring to TV-6, Russia's last major independent television station, which is now on the verge of closing. A Moscow court recently ordered the station shut down because of its debts. The station's directors say the action is politically motivated.

-------- space

Jerome Morse, Physicist inventor first miniaturized nuclear generator, dies

Deaths,
Washington Post
Tuesday, December 18, 2001; Page B06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57439-2001Dec17?language=printer

Jerome Morse, 80, a Colorado School of Mines physics professor since 1976 who was credited with inventing the first miniaturized nuclear generator to provide power to space vehicles, died Dec. 10 in Littleton, Colo. The cause of death was not reported.

Dr. Morse invented the generator while a scientist with the Martin Co. in Baltimore working with the Atomic Energy Commission. The portable nuclear space fuel equaled 1,450 pounds of chemical batteries.

His 5-pound, grapefruit-size nuclear generator was kept secret until President Dwight Eisenhower showed it on national television in 1959. Today, 26 generators are in space, including four for the Mars Viking mission to power its two automated geochemical laboratories.

-------- treaties

Formal Talks on Nuclear Cuts to Begin Next Month
Rumsfeld, Russian Counterpart Stress Cooperation Despite U.S. Move to Quit ABM Treaty

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 18, 2001; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57117-2001Dec17?language=printer

BRUSSELS, Dec. 17 -- Putting differences over the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty behind them, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced today that both countries would begin formal talks in January on steep cuts in strategic nuclear weapons.

The two defense leaders, here for NATO talks starting Tuesday, traded warm remarks at a joint news conference and stressed cooperation on a variety of issues after meeting for the first time since President Bush announced his decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty.

Pressed by reporters on the ABM issue, Ivanov expressed disappointment in Bush's decision, calling it a "mistake" that could have global repercussions. "Russia is not concerned or afraid regarding its military security," he said. "But we are very much concerned how other countries will behave and whether they will comply or not to any international agreement -- thinking logically, if one country doesn't comply, why should we?"

In his opening statement, Ivanov said nothing about the treaty and noted later that it did not come up in the closed-door discussions. During the news conference, he stressed that Moscow remained committed to "reliable and predictable" security relations with Washington. He said his government's highest priority in the talks beginning next month is to nail down commitments both sides have made to slash their 6,000-warhead arsenals by about two-thirds.

"Both levels of reductions and the time frame of those reductions will be discussed, as well as the issues of verification and transparency," he said.

Rumsfeld was equally optimistic. "One way to characterize what's happened in the United States-Russian relationship," he said, "is the way President Bush did -- that we're moving from 'mutual assured destruction' to mutual assured cooperation."

Bush's decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty six months from now came after months of failed negotiating aimed at fashioning a compromise that would have enabled the Bush administration to pursue its ambitious program for testing and deploying a national missile defense shield, which the treaty prohibits.

Calling the treaty a "relic" of the Cold War, Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials hoped to convince their Russian counterparts that mutual withdrawal from the pact was in the best interests of both nations. But Russian officials made clear they had no intention of abandoning the treaty, the cornerstone of security relations between the two countries for three decades.

The treaty was negotiated by Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in 1972 to prohibit nationwide defenses against long-range missiles and thereby curb each side's efforts to build more and more missiles to overwhelm those defenses.

Bush administration critics say scrapping the treaty and pursuing national missile defenses could lead to a new arms race. Rumsfeld, during a swing through Central Asia before arriving here, argued that discussions aimed at scrapping the treaty have produced precisely the opposite effect, bringing new U.S.-Russia understanding on the need to reduce weapons.

Indeed, as Bush announced his decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that the two powers reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads. Putin's numbers overlapped with a proposal Bush put forth last month to reduce the U.S. arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads.

After talking today for two hours about these cuts and other issues, Ivanov and Rumsfeld promised to continue discussions Tuesday at NATO headquarters here, when defense ministers from NATO's 19 member nations begin two days of formal meetings. Ivanov will represent Russia in separate talks with NATO countries aimed at pursuing ways to further Moscow's participation in alliance affairs.

Rumsfeld went out of his way today to endorse the idea, denying recent news reports that he and other Pentagon officials had tried to scuttle a framework for greater Russian participation called "NATO at 20."

"Some weeks and months ago I sat down with the minister in Moscow and, without prompting, proposed some ways Russia and NATO might cooperate more fully," Rumsfeld said.

He and Ivanov agreed that the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan was going well, but that it was far from over, with pockets of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters hidden throughout the country.

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

Officials Back Low - Yield Nuke Strike

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Mini-Nukes.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A ``low-yield'' nuclear weapon may be the best way to destroy underground stockpiles of chemical and biological agents, Defense Department officials say in a report to Congress.

Conventional weapons cannot destroy the most deeply buried chemical and biological holding facilities, but a low-yield nuclear device could do the job, the report concludes.

The United States has no ``bunker-busting'' nuclear warhead that can penetrate deep enough and with enough accuracy to destroy such an enemy stockpile. And since 1994, the government has been barred by Congress from developing any new nuclear warhead.

Despite that, the report shows the Bush administration views a nuclear strike as ``an intrinsic part'' of dealing with deeply entombed enemy targets and ``is essentially doing all the preparation'' for a future full-scale research and development program for a new mini-nuclear warhead, said Martin Butcher, director of security programs at the Physicians for Social Responsibility.

This kind of warhead is ``the dirtiest kind of all. It's highly radioactive,'' said Butcher, whose group as been a leading voice in the nuclear nonproliferation debate. It sends ``the wrong signals'' and will add to the risk of nuclear proliferation.

A low-yield nuclear weapon generally is considered to be 5 kilotons or less. By comparison, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II were about 15 kilotons.

The report sent to key committees in Congress by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in October provides a general outline of U.S. capabilities for dealing with what defense officials believe is a growing gap in U.S. military response: The ability to attack deeply buried, hardened enemy targets that are suspected of housing weapons of mass destruction.

The House International Relations Committee has called for renewed U.N. inspections in Iraq on the belief that it has rebuilt its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs since Saddam Hussein stopped allowing inspections in 1998.

Notes and diagrams found in houses vacated by al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan also point to an effort to create weapons of mass destruction.

The report said that enhancements expected to be completed by 2005 to an array of conventional weapons, including laser-guided bombs and cruise missiles, should be able to destroy most underground facilities. But it maintains such weapons cannot penetrate the most deeply buried facilities.

Defense officials and nuclear scientists ``have completed initial studies on how existing nuclear weapons can be modified to defeat those (deeply buried targets) that cannot be held at risk with conventional high-explosive weapons,'' the report said.

It acknowledges that any decision to proceed with a nuclear device for attacking underground targets would be considered part of the administration's broader plans for the nuclear stockpile and overall nuclear weapons policy.

But it said that a joint nuclear planning board has been established to examine the use of nuclear weapons as bunker busters. The idea of using low-yield nuclear warheads to attack deeply buried enemy targets has been discussed for years.

It was the subject of a classified study concluded in 1997 and has been frequently discussed by nuclear weapons scientists at the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.

But Butcher said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax scare, and the U.S. war on terrorism in Afghanistan have brought the issue of chemical and biological weapons, and how to respond to them, into much greater prominence.

And ``it clearly brings into much higher relief'' the debate over whether to develop and use a tactical nuclear weapon in response to terrorism, said Butcher. If one were used, he added, the radioactive fallout and political fallout ``would be very bad indeed.''

The essence of the report sent to Congress was first reported Tuesday by The Albuquerque Journal. A copy of the report was distributed by Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, based in Santa Fe, on its web site.

The report had been requested by Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and was part of this year's defense authorization legislation.

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

-------- nevada

US won't delay Nevada waste site guidelines

USA: December 18, 2001
Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13751/story.htm

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Energy Department said last week it had denied a request from Nevada state officials to delay adoption of site suitability guidelines for study of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste depository.

Yucca Mountain - located in the Nevada desert - is being investigated by the U.S government as a possible dumping ground for tons or radioactive waste.

The revised guidelines took effect last week. Governor Kenny Guinn and state Attorney General Sue Del Papa asked for a stay pending the outcome of a lawsuit the state intended to file. Nevada says the guidelines were changed improperly.

In a letter to Guinn and Del Papa, the Energy Department said it had dealt with Nevada's concerns earlier.

It said the guidelines were revised "because both the science and the law relevant to the project have developed significantly" since the guidelines were first proposed in 1984.

Under the revised guidelines, the Energy Department said it would evaluate the performance of all aspects of the repository, both engineered and natural, an approach it said was suggested by a National Academy of Sciences study.

----

New Suit Filed Against U.S. About Nuclear Waste Dump

New York Times
December 18, 2001
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/politics/18YUCC.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - The State of Nevada filed suit today in its continuing effort to prevent the federal government from establishing a nuclear waste burial site at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas.

The suit argues that under a new rule the Energy Department plans to disregard the site's geology and make its decision based on the metal canisters that would hold the waste.

In evaluating the Yucca Mountain site, the department has found that water, which could spread the radioactive materials, moves faster through the mountain than previously believed. But the department also says it has gained confidence in the ability of "engineered features" like containers to hold the waste, as opposed to natural geology.

In the suit filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Nevada, which has fought against the choice of Yucca Mountain since Congress named it the primary site in 1987, argued that federal law required the choice be based on its geology.

Once the focus shifts to man-made packaging to isolate the waste, the suit contends, the suit contended, the Energy Department could approve permanent storage "at virtually any physical site in the United States."

A lawyer for the state, Joseph R. Egan, suggested the basement of the Energy Department headquarters in Washington as a potential site.

"Congress wanted the assurance of geologic isolation for the simple reason that we're fallible as human beings," Mr. Egan said. "We can't have any assurance that what we design is going to be perfect."

In tests carried out by Nevada on the alloy that the Energy Department plans to use for waste canisters, he said, some combinations of water and heat created corrosion through the metal in less than a year.

In a letter to Nevada officials, the Energy Department said that a National Academy of Sciences study called for evaluating the natural features of Yucca Mountain and the "engineered," or man-made parts, together as a system and that the 1992 Energy Policy Act directed the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to focus on the whole system.

Under a complicated scheme, the E.P.A. has issued standards that a repository would have to meet. The Energy Department is supposed to apply for a license to open the site from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that regulates reactors; the regulatory commission is supposed to use the E.P.A. rules to make the decision on a license.

The new Energy Department rule was published in the Federal Register on Nov. 14 and took effect a month later. The energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, could recommend Yucca Mountain's use to President Bush in the next few months, in which case the showdown would move to Congress. The suit, though, provides another avenue for Nevada to try to block the dump.

Nevada is already suing over an environmental agency rule that to win a license, the repository must be capable of retaining the wastes for 10,000 years. The Energy Department believes that peak releases would come after that period; Nevada wants the period extended to 100,000 years or more.

The department was supposed to start accepting waste from 125 nuclear plants in January 1998, but Yucca Mountain will not be ready for at least a decade.

The project has suffered two recent setbacks. This month, the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, said the Energy Department was not ready to make a decision, because many technical studies were unfinished. Secretary Abraham disagreed, saying the report had been "assembled to support a predetermined conclusion."

And the law firm helping to prepare an application for the dump's license, Winston & Strawn, withdrew because of a conflict of interest. The firm had been simulatenously lobbying for the nuclear industry.

But Joseph Davis, a spokesman for the department, said the firm's withdrawal would not cause any delay, because the license application was still in the future.

If the Energy Department recommends the site to Mr. Bush, Congress could step in to block it. A majority picked Yucca Mountain in 1987 as the prime site for investigation, but Nevada's senior senator, Harry Reid, is now the deputy majority leader and might be able to block the choice.

Pressure is building from the utilities for the Energy Department to make good on its contract to take the wastes. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have focused interest on the safety of the old fuel stored at reactors, which is highly radioactive and outside the containment buildings.

--------

Nevada Sues Feds Over Nuke Waste

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Yucca-Mountain-Lawsuit.html

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Nevada has sued the Energy Department, its latest salvo in an ongoing campaign to block a possible federal government move to bury the nation's radioactive waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, challenges the Energy Department's criteria for deciding whether radioactive waste can safely be buried at Yucca Mountain. The state wants the court to stop the project before Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham decides whether to recommend Yucca Mountain as a suitable place to bury spent nuclear waste, said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.

``The DOE is changing the rules about how they assess whether Yucca Mountain is suitable or not,'' Loux said. ``We believe the new rules are not in compliance with the law.''

The lawsuit charges that the Energy Department has constructed a new plan that relies on engineered barriers such as corrosion-resistant casks -- rather than the geology of Yucca Mountain -- to contain the intense radioactivity at the site.

But Joe Davis, Energy Department spokesman, said the agency reshaped its guidelines to take advantage of emerging technology. Davis said he had not seen the lawsuit.

Abraham said last week he has not made a decision on whether to recommend to President Bush that the volcanic ridge be used for storing 77,000 tons of nuclear waste for 10,000 years or more. Congress has asked for a decision by Feb. 28. Abraham's aides have said he intends to make a recommendation this winter.

Nevada state and federal lawmakers strongly oppose the project and are fighting it on political, environmental, public relations and legal fronts.

Last month, the state asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to decide whether Nevada can block the federal government from getting the water needed to develop the project in the arid desert. A three-judge circuit court panel had ordered the case heard by a U.S. District Court judge in Las Vegas. It has not decided on the Nevada request for a full hearing.

The mountain, at the western edge of the vast Nevada Test Site, is the only place under study.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

US warplanes target fleeing al-Qaeda as bin Laden search continues

Tuesday December 18, 1:49 AM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011217/1/24ve8.html

US and Afghan forces scoured Afghanistan's eastern highlands for Osama bin Laden and his fleeing al-Qaeda fighters, while final preparations were under way in Kabul to install an interim government.

After pounding Tora Bora overnight, US warplanes over eastern Afghanistan switched their targets to areas closer to the Afghan border, presumably to strike at fleeing fighters loyal to bin Laden.

Friendly fire wounded several Afghan fighters, but there was still no sign of the Saudi-born dissident alleged to be the mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks against the United States.

"Our assumption is that he is still in Afghanistan," Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said in London. "The hunt goes on."

But Pentagon spokesman Richard McGraw said the whereabouts of bin Laden and his erstwhile protector, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, remained unknown.

He added, however: "The action continues today. We continue bombing."

McGraw also said the US military was holding five prisoners, including western al-Qaeda fighters John Walker, an American, and David Hicks, an Autralian, aboard the USS Peleliu in the Indian Ocean.

In Agam village, north of Tora Bora, hundreds of locals turned out to see 19 bedraggled al-Qaeda prisoners -- 10 of them foreigners, mostly Arabs -- paraded before them and a contingent of international media.

Some had bandaged wounds, others had difficulty walking; reporters were not allowed to talk to them.

In Kabul, the groundwork was being laid for the installation Saturday of an new interim administration, with two embassies reopened and news that the first troops of a UN peacekeeping force would begin arriving this week.

The leader of the new UN-backed regime, the Pashtun royalist Hamid Karzai, left for Rome via London for talks with exiled former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, a major figurehead in the bid to unite rival Afghan factions.

US warplanes, after wounding 10 to 16 allied Afghan troops in their last run over Tora Bora overnight, according to local tribal commanders, overflew the area without dropping ordnance Monday and there were no ground attacks.

But muffled explosions were heard further south, near the border with Pakistan, possibly from bombing directed at fleeing al-Qaeda forces. One of three militia comanders leading the attack on the final al-Qaeda redoubt, Haji Zaher, said militiamen would be deployed in the mountains to overcome any pockets of resistance or block escape routes.

Some 4,000 Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships are deployed on the other side of the border to prevent any al-Qaeda infiltration.

Another senior commander, Haji Mohammad Zaman, proclaimed victory at Tora Bora on Sunday but acknowledged that bin Laden's whereabouts were unknown.

"We cleared al-Qaeda from our land. We did the job," Zaman said, claiming some 200 al-Qaeda fighters killed and 25 captured.

But US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disputed the view that al-Qaeda was finished in Afghanistan, saying it will take time to root out fighters resisting in the mountains.

"The first rule of war is that presidents decide when something has been achieved," he told reporters on his way to Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Rumsfeld, who has strived to dampen expectations that the war will be over soon, said he did not want his comments to be "juxtaposed adversely to my friend Colin Powell," -- the US Secretary of State.

Powell said Sunday: "For the most part, it appears that we're well on our way to success on this part of the campaign. Al-Qaeda is being destroyed in Afghanistan."

Rumsfeld said: "But the fact of the matter is, as Secretary Powell knows well, there are still any number of al-Qaeda loose in that country. That is why we are there, that is why we are chasing them, that is why we are bombing...

"It is true that they are running and hiding, and not dominating the country of Afghanistan as they have previously... But there still are a lot of Taliban in the country, and they are still armed.

"It is going to take time and energy and effort and people will be killed in the process of trying to find them and capture them or have them surrender," he said.

Rumsfeld said fighting continued in the Tora Bora area and Afghan forces were searching for al-Qaeda fighters in the mountains and going into the tunnels to gather material.

"They also interestingly seem to have captured a good deal of Chinese ammunition," he said.

The US special representative in Afghanistan, James Dobbins, said as Marines raised the US flag above their embassy in Kabul for the first time since 1989, that the first UN peacekeepers would arrive in the capital by Saturday.

Along with the US embassy, the Turkish mission as well reopened formally on Monday with Foreign Minister Ismail Cem present as the most senior foreign official to visit Kabul since the fall of the Taliban.

Cem, after meeting outgoing president Burhanuddin Rabbani, as well as the incoming defense and interior ministers, Mohammad Qasim Fahim and Yunus Qanooni respectively, pledged Turkey's assistance to "the Afghan people and the new Afghan government on every issue in every field."

----

Peacekeeping force to start arriving by Saturday: US envoy

Tuesday December 18, 2001,
AFP
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011217/1/24uqx.html

An advance party of an international security force is expected to arrive by Saturday, when the interim government takes power, according to US special representative to Afghanistan James Dobbins.

"I anticipate that at least the lead elements of it (the UN-mandated force) will be here," Dobbins told reporters before a flag-raising ceremony at the US embassy in Kabul on Monday.

Dobbins said the number of international troops deployed in the capital would be "enough", but added it would not be "very large."

"It is a question of psychology, it's a question of symbolism ... it's a question of making people feel that the current tranquility will last," Dobbins said.

The US special envoy and visiting US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai and future Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim on Sunday.

Dobbins said both Karzai and Fahim had indicated a willingness to work with the international community on the deployment of the force, and on the crucial question of whether it will be allowed to use firepower.

"We don't want to be left alone," he quoted Fahim as telling him.

Dobbins added: "I don't anticipate any difficulties in (the interim administration) complying with the Bonn agreement."

Under the Bonn power-sharing accord signed by Afghan factions on December 5, it was agreed that a UN-mandated international force would be deployed rapidly to help police the war-ravaged Afghan capital of Kabul.

Under the terms of the accord, the force could possibly be extended later to other towns and cities.

Dobbins said US troops would not be patrolling the streets but "enablers" -- intelligence agents and transport coordinators -- would help "facilitate" the deployment.

With the US having led the bombing campaign against the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he also indicated that other members of the international coalition against terrorism should now take the lead in shaping the multinational force.

However, the US was likely to play a role alongside its coalition allies in helping integrate fighters from the various Afghan factions into a national defence force and to help train a fledgling police force, Dobbins said.

The Northern Alliance, which toppled the Taliban regime last month with the decisive help of US air strikes, has sought to limit the size and mandate of the multinational force.

Fahim told the UN's top envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, last week that he wanted a maximum of 1,000 soldiers just to protect the new government.

A British diplomat in Kabul said Monday negotiations were continuing with the Afghan authorities over the role of the proposed force but that there had been no agreement yet on the size of the contingent.

With just days left before the new interim government takes office on Saturday, efforts to reach an agreement have intensified.

Major General John McColl of the British army, who is tipped to lead the security force, flew into Kabul over the weekend for talks with senior Afghan figures.

----

Bin Laden hunt intensifies

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 18, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011218-30777428.htm

U.S. officials say they have no credible evidence that Osama bin Laden slipped across the border into Pakistan, and at least one al Qaeda captive says the fugitive remains in the Tora Bora region of northeastern Afghanistan.

With al Qaeda's guerrillas killed, captured or on the run, the hunt for bin Laden now becomes the Bush administration's main military objective in Afghanistan.

The elusive terrorist did not turn up Sunday when anti-Taliban fighters stormed the last major cave complex in Tora Bora and the remnants of a once-1,000-strong al Qaeda army fled south toward Pakistan.

On the ground, American special-operations forces have begun the tedious and dangerous search of numerous caves of Tora Bora vacated by Arab and Pakistani fighters of al Qaeda. Some may still harbor terrorists who will fight to the death. Others may be booby-trapped.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who commands the military coalition fighting in Afghanistan, said Sunday that soldiers may dig up bombed cave entrances to inspect the dead for al Qaeda, including its leader, bin Laden.

"Maybe he still is here; maybe he was killed, or maybe he's left," Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

In addition to the cave search, the military continues an air-ground operation to find bin Laden. Delta Force commandos are on the ground, and an array of spy satellites and drones and eavesdropping technology is employed to track him from the air.

CIA paramilitary officers are now interrogating al Qaeda prisoners, who are giving conflicting accounts. Some say bin Laden left Tora Bora more than a week ago. Others say he left over the weekend or may still be there.

After weeks of saying they believed bin Laden was moving among Tora Bora's caves, U.S. officials were not as confident yesterday about his general location. But officials said he could still be hiding in an "indeterminable number" of small caves dotting the region's landscape or that he may have been entombed by days of relentless American bombing.

Added a U.S. official, "There are reports he has gone to Pakistan, but not credible enough for you to believe them. He may still be in Tora Bora."

Adm. Stufflebeem told reporters the chatter of battlefield radios has all but stopped in Tora Bora, depriving the United States of a key intelligence source on bin Laden's whereabouts.

"A few days ago we believed he was in that area. Now we're not sure," Adm. Stufflebeem, the Joint Chiefs' deputy director of operations, told reporters.

Early last week, before U.S. bombing and anti-Taliban forces routed al Qaeda soldiers from caves and tunnels, American commandos picked up bin Laden's voice on a short-range radio giving orders.

"There has been less intercept of communications, which means it's quieter in that region than it has been in the past," Adm. Stufflebeem said. "So it has gone quiet. and as [Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld] has said, the more time an individual has while not being observed, there's obviously more options available to that individual. I'm not sure how close we ever really have been. We have narrowed it down to an area. Indicators were there, and now indicators are not there."

One senior administration official said, based on the intelligence he has seen, including the radio voice last week, that he is convinced bin Laden was in the Tora Bora area until a few days ago and may well be there now.

Press reports already have placed the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in Pakistan or headed to Somalia or Indonesia, determined to be reunited with Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar is believed to be hiding in cave complexes north of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

A verdict on bin Laden's stay in Tora Bora, a favorite base during the mujahideen's war against occupying Soviet forces, may not be known for weeks or months.

"There are an indeterminable number of caves to inspect at this point from what I can tell," Adm. Stufflebeem said. "Now becomes the more difficult and slower process of confirming who is still left to fight, or is this cave now empty, and was there evidence that somebody was recently there."

Pakistan last week sent 10,000 troops to its border with the Tora Bora region to block al Qaeda from retreating.

President Bush yesterday continued to express confidence his troops will find binLaden.

"We get all kinds of reports - that he's in a cave, that he's not in a cave; that he's escaped, that he hasn't escaped, and there's all kinds of speculation," the president said. "But when the dust clears, we'll find out where he is and he'll be brought to justice.

"The Pakistanis will help us and they are helping us look for not only Osama bin Laden but for all al Qaeda murderers and killers. Osama bin Laden is going to be brought to justice. He's on the run. He thinks he can hide, but he can't."

----

Al Qaeda Fleeing Toward Pakistan, U.S. Officials Say

New York Times
December 18, 2001
By BARRY BEARAK with JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/international/18AFGH.html

TORA BORA, Afghanistan, Dec. 17 - Hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters have fled from the caves of Tora Bora into the snow-capped mountains that mark the Pakistan border, and Osama bin Laden may be among them, according to United States intelligence officials, who acknowledged today that they had lost track of him.

American officials thought they had a bead on his location until about 48 hours ago, when radio traffic and other communications they had been intercepting between Al Qaeda leaders largely dried up.

"There has been less chatter in the last few days," said Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, a Pentagon spokesman.

Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters, accompanied by United States Special Operations forces, continued to scour the caves and tunnels in the Tora Bora complex, not only for Al Qaeda stragglers but also for documents, computer disks and any other information.

The hunt was like "searching for fleas on a dog," Admiral Stufflebeem said. "If you see one and you focus on that one," he said, "you don't know how many others are getting away."

Those allied forces met sporadic resistance from pockets of Taliban fighters, who appeared to be remnants of a rear guard that was largely destroyed by American bombing or had fled. Admiral Stufflebeem said United States forces would not pursue fleeing Al Qaeda fighters into Pakistan but would ask the Pakistani Army to capture them.

The air attacks, though greatly moderated today, again struck deep in the region's forests as the remnants of Al Qaeda forces abandoned their mountain redoubts. Their hopes of escape now depend on evading both their pursuers among the tribal fighters here and the 4,000 commandos that Pakistan said it intended to deploy on the usually porous border into its lawless tribal areas. "Now the only Arabs left in Tora Bora are the corpses," said Auzubillah, a gloating midlevel commander of the eastern anti-Taliban alliance that is central to the campaign.

The bombing, local commanders agree, has provided the knockout punch against Al Qaeda fighters, whose numbers in these mountains have been variously estimated from 700 to 2,000. Whether those numbers have recently included Mr. bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, is a great unknown.

At the Pentagon today, military officials privately expressed exasperation and disappointment that the trail of Mr. bin Laden had suddenly gone cold. "It's as if all the air went out of the balloon," one senior military officer said.

President Bush, however, played down assessments that Mr. bin Laden had pulled a vanishing act. "We get all kinds of reports," Mr. Bush said, "that he's in a cave, that he's not in a cave; that he's escaped, that he hasn't escaped; and there's all kinds of speculation. But when the dust clears, we'll find out where he is, and he'll be brought to justice."

In past weeks, both the anti-Taliban commanders and American officials have placed the Saudi millionaire in Tora Bora, though always with a caveat of uncertainty.

Another uncertainty is where the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Muhammad Omar, might be. After surrendering Kandahar more than a week ago, he retreated into the mountains near the town of Baghran, about 100 miles northwest of Kandahar, but whether he remains there or has moved on is not known.

Uncertainty, it seems, often prevails on these windswept heights. It has been hard to monitor events along the Tora Bora battleground, where fortifications are hidden cavities in endless rock and the press has been denied virtually all access. Updates come mostly from three Afghan commanders whose braggadocio suggests that hot air rises from the heat of battle. Their remarks - even when aptly translated - are rampant with contradictions.

Today, the customarily convoluted remarks were accompanied by a brief display of 19 bedraggled prisoners, led down from the frigid peaks on muleback by one of the tribal factions. There were nine Arab captives and 10 Afghans. Many were whimpering.

"We don't want to face the media," said one Syrian prisoner, Abu Bakar, according to a guard named Javed. "It is better that you kill us. If we are shown on the media, our family members will then be in great trouble."

The men were nevertheless brought one by one from a holding area across from a mosque in the village of Meia Kelay. Mr. Bakar, his head wrapped in a bandage large enough to be a turban, was first. He seemed woozy and had to be helped into the tree-covered area, where he soon faced a few hundred camera operators, reporters and soldiers with assault rifles.

The other foreign prisoners followed, their clothes torn, their hair matted, their eyes regretful. They were paraded around like lame horses in a paddock. Several were limping. One was bent over like a question mark. Two were barefoot.

Following them on exhibit were the Afghans. Their hands were tied behind their backs with red nylon cord. Like the Arabs, they were not permitted to speak.

"This pains my heart," said one villager who was watching. "Some of these people were on our side in the jihad against the Soviets. This is not right. This is not Pashtunwali," he said, referring to the code of honor of the Pashtun ethnic group.

The total of Al Qaeda captives is among the many uncertainties. Hajji Zahir, one of the main anti-Taliban commanders here, said that on Saturday his troops had captured three Arabs and nine Afghans. On Sunday night, they seized 19 more, all Arabs.

Commander Zahir is a rugged- looking man whose hands chop the air as he speaks. He parried questions about whether his forces had been assisted by American soldiers. At times, he was indignant.

"My men were stationed in these mountains without proper clothes or shoes," he said, complaining of a lack of support beyond the strategic bombing.

The United States military has admitted that its forces and British troops have been active on the Tora Bora front lines, and it is widely believed that they have played a leading role. While the Afghans drive out to battle each day in their pickups, they rarely sustain casualties. It appears that they occupy only that terrain already tamed by the devastation of air power.

This afternoon, as heavy cloud cover brought a dark sobriety to the day, Commander Zahir met with Hazarat Ali, a second member of the local military triumvirate. They placed a blanket on the hard, stony ground near a command post and chatted while many of their troops used the time to say prayers and genuflect toward Mecca.

Afterward, Commander Ali complimented his own success. "For the time being, our country has gotten rid of foreigners," he said. By this, he meant the Arabs and Pakistanis in Al Qaeda and not his American allies, who have considerable work remaining in Afghanistan. The cave and tunnel complexes of Tora Bora need to be searched rigorously. After all, Mr. bin Laden - or his crushed remains - may be secreted amid some mountaintop rubble.

"The Americans are going to be restless until Osama is killed, or until someone gives them a document that shows Osama has been killed," Commander Ali said.

It was later left to Commander Zahir to explain the arduousness of the chore. He was asked how he might escape from Tora Bora if he rather than Mr. bin Laden were on the run. "It's a very big place," he said, pointing to the mountains and then whirling to show how they extend into the vastness, up and down, one after another.

"There are many ways to flee, many, many ways into Pakistan."

--------

400 Experts Try to Harvest Afghanistan's Field of Mines

New York Times
December 18, 2001
By C. J. CHIVERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/international/asia/18MINE.html

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Dec. 17 - Operations to clear hidden explosives from the soil and roads of northern Afghanistan, one of the world's most heavily mined areas, are scheduled to resume on Wednesday with the arrival of more than 400 demolition specialists in several provinces.

The specialists, Afghan staff members of a British nonprofit organization, will move north from Kabul, the capital, where they have been working since the city was taken from Taliban control. Their work in the region has been largely idled since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in America, and they return to a dangerous and complicated task.

Long before the American-led war against the Taliban, northern Afghanistan was cluttered with the hidden remnants of 22 years of war. Now the demolition teams must also find and disable ammunition discarded by fleeing soldiers or blasted from bunkers during two months of aerial bombardment, as well as unexploded bombs from American planes, many of which burrowed deep into the ground.

"This is quite a massive job," said Thomas P. McMullen, a coordinator for the Halo Trust, the British organization that has been destroying mines and ammunition in Afghanistan since 1988. "No matter how you do it, it's going to take years."

Relief and medical officials said time was pressing. When battle lines shifted and cities fell from Taliban hands this fall, many families began returning after long absences to villages to clean up war damage and reclaim farmland. As more people arrive in areas once abandoned, hospitals have been reporting an influx of wounded.

"We are getting several new mine victims every week," said Dr. Abdulhadi Jawid, a physician at the Spinzer Hospital in Kunduz, where on a single day last week five patients - two children, two teenagers and a farmer - were being treated for wounds caused by mines or loose ammunition. Two of the victims lost limbs that had to be amputated.

No one is certain how many mines are hidden in Afghanistan. Estimates range from the Halo Trust's 640,000 to as high as 20 million. Similarly, no one knows how many tons of American munitions lie unexploded on or under the ground. Whatever the number, it is evident that along former front lines and many strategic roads, mines and unstable ammunition are all around.

Halo Trust officials said the mines had been particularly concentrated around Kabul and cities near the border with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where Soviet troops in the 1980's laid dense fields to protect important infrastructure, like airports, and where the Taliban and Northern Alliance buried mines and booby traps along battle fronts.

The problem was also in evidence in the south on Sunday, when an American marine stepped on a mine at the Kandahar airport. The blast severed one of his legs below the knee and wounded two of his peers.

The renewed removal effort - which will include work in Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Samangan and Balkh Provinces - is being underwritten by donations from several nations, including $1 million from Canada, $3 million from Britain and $7 million from the United States, Kenton Keith, spokesman for the American-led coalition, said in Islamabad, Pakistan.

"This terrible legacy of war leaves a constant danger to the people of Afghanistan as they try to build peace," Mr. Keith said last week. "The coalition did not create this problem, but we will step forward to help Afghanistan deal with it."

Some Afghans took exception to those assertions, noting that the United States sent billions of dollars of arms and military aid through Pakistan into Afghanistan in the 1980's to assist the guerrilla resistance to the Soviets. The aid included mines and explosives training, several former guerrillas said. Mr. Keith also did not acknowledge the problem of unexploded American bombs, which in places are thick.

"America is the most powerful fighter in the world, and has been in Afghanistan for a long time," said Merzakhan, 48, whose 9-year-old son was wounded by a mine four months ago in Bangi. "Why do they say it's never their fault?"

To be sure, many Afghans laid mines without external prodding, and both sides in the recent war also laid booby traps, some of them fearsome. Departing soldiers of the anti- Taliban Northern Alliance mined one front-line area last year, with devastating results. In the worst case, a truck carrying refugees hit one of the traps, killing 64, Mr. McMullen said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which compiles injury data from hospital visits, said an average of 88 mine casualties were reported each month in the country. Mr. McMullen said the reports understated the problem because the committee was unable to visit every hospital, and many victims went to small clinics. Also, most hospitals do not have data for victims killed outright, or soon after, the blasts.

The effort this week will begin in several different areas.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the trust's most experienced teams will be assigned to the Qala Jangi fortress, where American bombs, dropped last month to quell an uprising by Al Qaeda prisoners there, detonated a large munitions depot.

It created an extraordinarily dangerous mess. A tour of the former depot on Sunday found acres of loose munitions of almost every description. Many are unstable and could explode with the slightest bump.

"This is one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan," said Dr. Nin Muhammad, the trust supervisor in the region. Making the courtyard safe will take at least two or three months, he said. As the effort begins, the Halo trust is turning up problems peculiar to this war. For instance, its officials said, a common and ordinarily innocuous type of unexpended ammunition - airburst rounds for 23-millimeter antiaircraft guns - seems to have become volatile here. In a few recent cases, they have burst with the slightest handling.

"I thought it was a normal bullet, and when I touched it, it exploded," said Abdul Ghany, 16, who was treated last week in the Kunduz hospital.

His face was pocked with tiny shrapnel holes, with here and there a larger gash. What remained of his hands were bound in gauze. "His right hand was eliminated," said his brother, Abdul Ghafor, 27.

Down the hall was a farmer, Maruddin, 35, whose left hand was amputated after he tried to clear antiaircraft ammunition from his rice field.

Demolition teams also hope to destroy unexploded American cluster bombs as quickly as possible. The bomblets, yellow and shaped like a can of spray paint, are the same color and roughly the same size as the plastic food packets American planes have dropped for civilians. There have been reports of children picking them up, with fatal results.

"It does make you wonder who at the ministry of incompetence is responsible for that one," Mr. McMullen said.

So far the United States has not provided a list of areas where it dropped cluster bombs, although on Sunday an officer at the coalition command post in Mazar-i-Sharif told Mr. McMullen that he would request one from his supervisors.

For now, Halo Trust staff members will continue the current method: driving through battle areas in a Land Rover, looking for the little yellow bombs themselves.

-------- africa

Rival factions clash in northern Nigeria

World Scene
Washington Times
December 18, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011218-72400998.htm

KANO, Nigeria - At least nine persons were killed over the weekend in clashes between rival factions in this northern Nigerian city, witnesses said.

Despite a large deployment of armed soldiers and police, rival factions known as "Yandaba" engaged in clashes in "old" Kano, on the outskirts of the Muslim-dominated city, the witnesses said.

The security forces were deployed in strategic districts as Muslims marked Eid al-Fitr, or the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. They were still in place yesterday afternoon, residents said.

-------- balkans

Rumsfeld, in Talks With NATO, Suggests Paring Bosnia Force

New York Times
December 18, 2001
By THOM SHANKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/international/europe/18CND-RUMS.html

RUSSELS, Dec. 18 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told NATO today that it should reduce the peacekeeping force in Bosnia by at least 6,000 troops by the end of next year to help America, and the alliance, prepare for new missions in the war against terror.

The 18,400 troops in Bosnia - 3,100 of them American - have successfully overcome any military challenge and are now maintaining law and order, Mr. Rumsfeld said at a session of NATO defense ministers.

"There was a time when military forces, once accomplishing their mission, would declare victory and go home," he said. "Today, however, it often seems that when it comes to such missions, success means never having to say goodbye."

Assigning fighting forces to police work, Mr. Rumsfeld added, is "not an effective use of NATO's valuable military assets, putting an increasing strain on both our forces and our resources when they face growing demands from critical missions in the war on terrorism."

To be sure, drawing down the Bosnian force by 6,000 in all - with roughly 1,000 United States Army soldiers and National Guard troops returning to their bases and homes - would not in itself free up a significant new ability for the war on terror.

But a senior Defense Department official accompanying Mr. Rumsfeld said that alliance defense ministers spent the day discussing how to reshape their militaries to defeat the terrorist threat, and said the American view included telling their citizens and their solidiers that the alliance was rethinking how it managed its peacekeeping operations.

Even greater numbers of troops could be reassigned to the front lines of the war on terror from peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo under a British proposal to restructure those separate operations under a Balkans-wide command, the senior official said.

On the war in Afghanistan Mr. Rumsfeld told the NATO defense ministers that Al Qaeda was now trying to escape Afghanistan and move into neighboring countries or even farther afield, and that it was important for the coalition to halt them, follow them and carry the war on terror to them. But no specific action plans were discussed.

On Russia's role in NATO Mr. Rumsfeld said it was important to find concrete ways for NATO to work more fully with Russia. But he said full NATO membership must not be diluted and no country other than the 19 signatories to the treaty should be given privileges of full membership, which translates as withholding the right of veto from Russia.

At a news conference this afternoon he said his talks covered a wide range of issues, including terrorism, cyber attakcs and missiles of mass destructon, all of which he said posed a threat to the alliance "and none can be be ignored."

But he said he particularly emphasized the threat posed by "terrorist movements and terrorist states that are seeking weapons of mass destruction."

"The nexus between states with weapons of mass destruction and terrorist networks raises the danger that Sept. 11th could be a preview of what could come if the enemies of freedom gain ability to strike our nations with weapons of increasingly greater power."

He said he had discussed Washington's reasons for withdrawing from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and President Bush's intention to continue to work with Russia, "as we began last evening in my meeting with Minister Ivanov to continue working to find a framework for our relationship going forward, one that emphasizes mutual cooperation as opposed to mutual assured destruction."

He said he and Foreign Minister Sergei B. Ivanov of Russia had discussed the progress made by Mr. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin in forging a new security relationship "that puts the cold war animosities and hostilies behind us and embraces 21st-century cooperation."

On Monday Mr. Ivanov declared that his nation's security was not threatened by President Bush's decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty.

Two hours of talks, accelerated by the near absence of interpreters because Mr. Ivanov speaks excellent English, also produced an agreement to convene Russian and American technical experts in January to discuss a timetable for the deep reductions in offensive nuclear arms pledged by President Bush and President Putin, as well as the ultimate number of weapons allowed and methods of verification.

Mr. Bush has proposed limiting the American stockpile to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads, and Mr. Putin's target is a level between 1,500 and 2,200.

-------- biological weapons

Gov't to Boost Biohazard Training

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Anthrax-Training.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61821-2001Dec18?language=printer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A program to train hazardous waste workers to respond to potential biological attacks is being created by the Labor Department and the Laborers International Union.

The Labor Department is providing a $206,000 grant to the union to develop a program with the help of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

``This is obviously a new hazard for all of us and we're learning as we go,'' said John Henshaw, assistant labor secretary for OSHA. ``It will be very important for us to take the lessons learned from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies and apply that in the curriculum to deal with circumstances in the future.''

A Senate office building has remained closed since Oct. 17 after being contaminated by anthrax spores from a letter sent to Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

The Laborers union, with 800,000 members, already trains workers in environmental, nuclear and asbestos cleanup. The government wants to increase the number of workers who can remove biological hazards, and improve their skills.

``We need to be prepared,'' Henshaw said. ``This is an effort to bring people up to speed, to assure the nation that we have trained workers who can handle these circumstances.''

Also, the Labor Department said Tuesday that the rate of illnesses and injuries in private industry work sites across the country last year dropped to the lowest since the information was first collected in the early 1970s.

A total of 5.7 million injuries and illnesses were reported in 2000 -- about the same as in 1999. But the number of hours worked by employees increased, resulting in a lower injury or illness rate of 6.1 cases per 100 full-time workers.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is expected to announce this week the agency's plans to reduce workplace injuries. Congress in March repealed a Clinton-era regulation aimed at repetitive-strain injuries, and Chao promised to pursue either another regulation or voluntary guidelines.

-------- britain

N. Ireland militias get 5 years to disarm

World Scene
Washington Times
December 18, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011218-72400998.htm

LONDON - The British government yesterday revealed plans to give paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland another five years to give up their weapons.

The British minister responsible for the province, John Reid, told Parliament that the government was initially proposing to extend by a year amnesty given to paramilitary groups now in negotiations with the international disarmament commission headed by Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain.

The amnesty, intended to allow armed groups to disarm without being arrested for possessing such weapons, is to end on Feb. 26, 2002.

-------- business

Pentagon Terminates Raytheon Contract

DECEMBER 18, 08:33 ET
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=BUSINESS&STORYID=APIS7GFKB1O0

BOSTON (AP) - The Department of Defense has terminated a multibillion dollar contract with defense contractor Raytheon, saying the naval missile defense project was too far behind schedule and exceeded cost estimates.

The Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense system was designed to protect naval forces, ports and bases against medium-range air and missile threats.

``We are still assessing the impact across the business,'' Raytheon spokeswoman Sara Hammond told The Boston Globe for Tuesday's editions. She said it was unclear how many jobs would be affected.

Pentagon acquisitions chief Edward ``Pete'' Aldrige told The Wall Street Journal the program was canceled due to poor performance and a 67 percent increase in the average procurement cost of the system. The Pentagon is required to cancel programs once they exceed certain cost estimates, he said.

The Pentagon did not disclose the actual cost of the system, originally due in 2003. But the Globe reported the government had already spent $2 billion on the program, worth an estimated $9.1 billion.

It was considered the least technologically challenging of the Pentagon's missile-based defense systems.

----

China asks $2 billion for Phalcon rescission

December 18, 2001
By Abraham Rabinovich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011218-66342548.htm

JERUSALEM - China is demanding $2 billion in compensation for cancellation by Israel last year of an agreement to sell Beijing its Phalcon airborne early-warning system, according to an Israeli newspaper.

The deal was canceled after intense pressure was placed on Israel by the United States. China had by then already paid for the first of four Phalcons it intended to purchase.

The Tel Aviv daily Yedidot Achronot reported that Israeli defense ministry officials said they had expected China to demand $500 million in compensation, twice the cost of the first plane, and were astonished when the figure was four times as great. The sum China is now demanding, said the officials, reflects the anger in Beijing.

Israel's former ambassador in China, Ora Namir, said in an interview on Israel Radio yesterday that President Clinton had threatened Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that if Israel did not rescind its agreement on the Phalcon, he would cancel last year's planned summit at Camp David between Mr. Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

At the time, Mr. Barak had believed the summit would bring the long-sought peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr. Barak, now out of office, said yesterday that Mrs. Namir's claim was "inaccurate," but he declined to elaborate.

The former ambassador was highly critical of Israel for its handling of the Phalcon deal. She said that while there may have been early indications from the United States that it would not impede the sale, the opposition from Washington grew to be clear and firm.

The opposition, she said, did not stem from the American arms industry objecting to Israel's competition, as has been widely reported.

"It grew from the fear in the U.S. of the growing power of China," she said.

The United States had argued that the Phalcon, which can monitor and direct air activity over great distances, could theoretically be used against American planes in the event of a conflict involving Taiwan.

Mrs. Namir, now retired, said she had been kept out of the loop during negotiations for the strategic aircraft. "The damage to our relations with China is terrible," she said. "We have lost, at least at this stage, a real friend of Israel, the second-most powerful country in the world."

She noted that China, before it established relations with Israel a decade ago, had been aligned with the Arabs.

It subsequently became a friend of both and was a true admirer of Israel's achievements, she said.

A senior defense ministry official, Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, declined to confirm the $2 billion compensation claim but said the amount was "tremendous" and that Israel is negotiating with Beijing over the amount to be paid.

Israel was supposed to sell China four Phalcon planes in a deal totaling $1 billion. China claims that it expended large amounts in preparing the infrastructure for the Phalcon system.

An Israeli defense ministry delegation last month visited New Delhi to discuss the sale of at least one Phalcon to India on the assumption that the United States would not object to sale of the system to that country.

----

Terrorism and science symposium

December 18, 2001
Daybook
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011218-444985.htm

- 8:30 a.m. - The American Association for the Advancement of Science presents a symposium, "War on Terrorism: What Does It Mean for Science?" The participants include: John Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Dr. Rashid Chotani, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Louis Goodman, American University; Robert O'Neil, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression; Anne Witkowsky, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Jonathan Moreno, University of Virginia; Kevin McCurley, International Association for Cryptologic Research; and Donald Kerr, CIA. Location: Grand Ballroom Salon A-E, Marriott at Metro Center Hotel, 775 12th St. NW. Contact: 202/326-6431....

--------

Deal Reached for Air Force Planes

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Air-Force-Boeing.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House and Senate negotiators reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on a $22 billion plan for the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s that will be converted into midair refueling planes.

The deal calls for the planes to be leased for 10 years. Boeing would then take them back or sell them to the government, said Todd Webster, spokesman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Critics say the Air Force would be better served if it purchased new refueling tankers and that the money looks like corporate welfare for Boeing. The company has lost business since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has announced plans to trim up to 30,000 jobs.

A conference committee of House and Senate members would have to sign off on the deal, which is part of a $318 billion defense spending bill. Both chambers of Congress and President Bush then would have to approve the measure.

Jen Burita, spokeswoman for Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., said Boeing could provide six tankers next year, followed by an additional 14 in 2003 and 20 more each year until the fleet reaches 100 in 2007.

``The interest we have is in Boeing workers,'' Burita said. And ``this is a resourceful way for the Air Force to obtain an asset that they need anyway.''

The aircraft would replace a fleet of 136 KC-135 refueling tankers. They have been used extensively in military actions in Kosovo and Afghanistan, but are getting old and need frequent repairs.

Built from the Boeing 707 commercial jet, the first KC-135s entered service in 1957 and the last in 1965.

In a statement, the Air Force said the war on terrorism is ``stretching this aging fleet.'' It estimated that it would $3 billion to support the older aircraft and said the leasing program would increase the availability and reliability of the tankers -- without that expense.

Opponents, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., say the plan is more expensive than buying new tankers. And once the leases expire, the Air Force would have nothing to show for its investment.

McCain and Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, want Bush to veto the bill unless it contains language allowing him to redirect the funds for other uses if he decides national security or lives are at stake.

The House had approved only $150 million to buy one 767 to convert into a tanker, plus $190 million more to test it as an intelligence-gathering aircraft. The Senate version, pushed by Murray and others, called for leasing 100 planes.

The work to convert the 767s into tankers is expected to be contracted out.

Washington state lawmakers have been lobbying hard for the Senate version to help alleviate the state's unemployment, which is among the highest in the country. The majority of Boeing's layoffs are expected in the Seattle area, the hub of Boeing's commercial aviation division.

Boeing has said the leasing program would add about 7,900 jobs directly and indirectly in the region.

Earlier this fall, the Pentagon chose Lockheed Martin Corp. over Boeing to build its next-generation fighter jet, a contract that will be worth at least $200 billion, the largest in Defense Department history.

-------- haiti

Police put down coup as political crisis deepens

Tuesday December 18, 7:26 AM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011217/1/24xvw.html

Haiti's political crisis deepened as paramilitary police put down a coup attempt at the presidential palace in which five people died.

Two more people were killed as rioters took to the streets in their thousands in response to a call by President Jean Bertrand Aristide to defend the government.

"We have defeated the coup but it is not over yet," Aristide said after returning to the palace from his residence in Tabarre, east of the capital.

Heavily armed men in two pickup trucks drove into the palace grounds and took over a wing of the building in the early hours of Monday. They exchanged fire with police for more than six hours before being overpowered, officials said.

The presidential press office said several individuals were arrested after police regained control of the National Palace, a sprawling white building in the center of the Haitian capital.

A presidential press statement described the events as "an attempted coup d'etat" which presidential guard spokesman Jean Auriol said was hatched by former senior police official Guy Philippe, who fled the country last year when he was accused of planning to overthrow the government.

"The attackers have been routed by elite units of Haiti's National Police," said Auriol.

Pro-Aristide protesters erected barricades of burning tires to block off main roads, set fire to the headquarters of several opposition parties and looted the headquarters of a French government-run cultural center.

Two workers were killed in an attack by a pro-government crowd on opposition supporters in the town of Gonaives, 153 kilometers (100 miles) north of the capital.

Calm returned to the capital by late afternoon when streets were deserted following the first coup attempt against Aristide since he returned to office in February.

In 1991, only eight months into his first term as president, Aristide was ousted in a bloody military coup. He spent three years in exile before regaining control of the country with the aid of a UN-sanctioned multinational force in 1994.

"I have said it before and I will say it again. The Haitian people will not have to live in darkness as they did in 1991," Aristide said from the presidential palace.

The suspected mastermind of Monday's coup, Philippe, left Haiti last year after then president Rene Preval, an Aristide ally, accused him of plotting a coup.

The former police chief of Cape-Hatien on Haiti's northern coast moved to the Dominican Republican and then to Ecuador.

National Police Chief Jean Dady Simeon said that once of the coup assailants had been captured near the border between French-speaking Haiti and the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic.

Other assailants were reported to be Spanish speakers who had named Philippe as their leader.

Radio Guinea, meanwhile, reported that one of the assailants had been killed.

Two Haitian police officers were also killed, along with two other people who were apparently passersby, police said. Six other police officers and a dozen passersby were injured in the attack.

The French government condemned the coup attempt and the US State Department told US residents in Haiti to remain indoors while the US embassy here was closed for the day.

The Organization of American States (OAS), which has been at the center of efforts to defuse Haiti's political crisis that dates back to contested elections in May 2000, condemned the coup and called for calm.

Foreign governments including the United States have suspended aid amounting to millions of dollars for Haiti, one of the world's poorest nations, in the absence of political reform and amid continued feuding between the Lavalas Family party of Aristide and the opposition Democratic Convergence.

-------- iraq

Saddam Hussein Wants Arab Summit

DECEMBER 18, 08:50 ET
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS7GFKJ980

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday called for an emergency Arab summit to be held at Islam's holiest city - Mecca in Saudi Arabia - to discuss Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

Saddam asked for Arab unity and warned that the United States and Israel are using the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington as a pretext to destroy Arabs.

``America is encouraging the Zionist entity to kill the Arabs,'' he said in a call to Arab governments and people carried by the Iraqi News Agency. ``The United States and the Zionist entity have one common goal, that is to destroy and humiliate the Arab nation.''

``Our position will be better if we are to hold an emergency summit ... in order to exclusively discuss the aggression toward the Palestinians,'' he was quoted as saying.

The 22-nation Arab League, based in Cairo, Egypt, has held several meetings in the past 14 months to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Though there is broad support for the Palestinian cause and condemnation of Israel, little coordinated action has resulted.

``Let the meeting place be the honorable Kaaba,'' Saddam said, referring to the cubic stone structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. He also said such a meeting could be held in ``any Arab capital whose selection secures the presence of all us.''

Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The kingdom allowed U.S. troops to use Saudi territory to fight Iraqi forces in the 1991 Gulf War that ousted the Iraqis from Kuwait. In the years since, U.S. planes frequently have flown from Saudi bases to patrol Iraqi skies and bomb targets in southern Iraq.

Saudi Arabia, custodian of the holiest shrines in Islam, allows Iraqis into the country only to participate in the annual Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj. Recently, a 2002 World Cup soccer qualifying match between Iraq and Saudi Arabia was played in nearby Bahrain because the kingdom would not permit the Iraqi team into the country.

Saddam said all differences should be set aside to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

``We should only remember the causes and the reasons for our unity in this difficult crisis,'' he said. ``We should try to forget or postpone all that may lead to our division.''

--------

U.S. Again Placing Focus on Ousting Hussein

December 18, 2001
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/international/middleeast/18IRAQ.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - The option of taking the war against terrorism to Iraq and Saddam Hussein has gained significant ground in recent weeks both inside the administration and among some important allies in the Muslim world, according to administration officials and diplomats from the region.

President Bush's top national security advisers have made no recommendation to attack Iraq. But serious consideration to drive President Hussein from power, and planning how to do so, are under way in the State Department and at the Pentagon, officials said.

These new considerations appear unrelated to efforts by Iraqi opposition groups and members of Congress who have sought, unsuccessfully so far, to prove an Iraqi connection to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rather, senior Bush administration officials, in their statements and in consultations with crucial allies, have indicated that the success of military operations in Afghanistan is changing opinion in the Middle East over the feasibility of moving against Mr. Hussein.

European opposition to any move against Iraq remains strong. But Middle Eastern diplomats say Turkey's leaders have signaled that the United States could use Turkish bases if the administration were committed to toppling President Hussein. Such regional support is almost certainly a critical factor in the administration's deliberations. But it will be equally important to Mr. Hussein's neighbors to feel that Washington is determined this time to overthrow him.

The Iraqi president, who held on to power after the Persian Gulf war in 1991, is believed to be developing both chemical and biological weapons, and is still interested in nuclear weapons, though the secret nuclear program he developed before the 1991 war has been destroyed.

Turkey's shifting view became public late last month when Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said, "We have several times said that we don't wish an operation in Iraq, but new conditions would bring new evaluations to our agenda."

In the past two weeks, at least one prominent Arab envoy in Washington has reversed his view that an American-led military operation in Iraq would be a disaster, or that it would fan the flames of Arab dissent and perhaps lead to the overthrow of some weaker rulers. (His reversal, though important, is not shared uniformly in Arab capitals.)

The diplomat, who refused to be identified, noted that most countries in the region harbor a latent desire to be rid of Mr. Hussein. He argued that the current military success in Afghanistan, the demonstration of a new model of warfare there and the undermining of Osama Bin Laden's radical message have created a new opportunity to act in Iraq.

"I now think it is doable," the diplomat said, adding that his own government might oppose such an operation in public until it became clear it was going to succeed. "This would require a lot of governments to accept big political risks, but I believe that in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, the governments are strong enough to hold the people and not have an uprising."

"How many people will cry for Saddam if he goes?" he asked.

Over the past month, the Bush administration has worked with Russia to formulate a new ultimatum to Baghdad, insisting that Mr. Hussein allow the return of United Nations inspectors to search for weapons of mass destruction, as required under the terms that ended the gulf war.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Bush's remark that Mr. Hussein would "find out" the consequences of not allowing the return of inspectors fueled speculation of an imminent attack. The remark appeared to signal the president's determination to keep Iraq on the agenda, even though his principal advisers are far from agreed on how to proceed.

Asked today whether Iraq is next in the antiterrorist campaign, President Bush said: "Oh, no, I'm not going to tell the enemy what's next. They just need to know that so long as they plan, and have got plans, to murder innocent people, America will be breathing down their neck."

Over the weekend Secretary of State Colin L. Powell reiterated a very explicit statement that it is United States policy to overthrow Mr. Hussein and that "we are constantly reviewing ideas, plans, concepts" to achieve that goal.

Secretary Powell also indicated for the first time that his dispatch of a State Department team to northern Iraq last week was part of an evaluation of "putting in place an armed opposition inside Iraq."

The State Department specifically denied reports that the team, led by Ryan Crocker, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs, entered Iraq under Turkish escort.

Mr. Crocker was said by Iraqi opposition officials to have received a strong endorsement from one top Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, for a military campaign against Baghdad. But the other important Kurdish chieftain, Massoud Barzani, was said to be more circumspect. Iraqi opposition figures say Mr. Barzani has extensive business operations with Mr. Hussein's relatives.

Secretary Powell, a leader of the American military during the gulf war, is said to be counseling the White House and Pentagon to prepare any campaign very carefully, advice similar to his stance during the gulf war. His caution in 1991, his conservative critics assert, helped Mr. Hussein remain in his presidential palace.

Secretary Powell has urged that the strength of opposition in northern Iraq be examined, and that the Administration explore the prospect of bringing Iraqi exiles based in Iran into play as part of a "southern alliance" with Shiite Muslims in Iraq.

Since Sept. 11, Arab governments, including Jordan, Egypt and Yemen, have sent emissaries to Mr. Hussein counseling him to do nothing that might provoke the United States. But instead of taking the advice, Mr. Hussein and his deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, have engaged in saber- rattling toward Kuwait.

Outside the administration, there is still a lobby pressing for a move against Iraq, but it is President Bush's strong political standing as a wartime commander in chief that will be essential in preparing the country and its allies for an Iraq campaign, foreign diplomats and administration officials say.

On Dec. 5, Congressional leaders sought to frame the justification for attacking Mr. Hussein in a letter to the president.

"For as long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Baghdad, he will seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them," said the letter, signed by Senators Trent Lott, Joseph I. Lieberman and John McCain, among others. "We have no doubt that these deadly weapons are intended for use against the United States and its allies. Consequently, we believe we must directly confront Saddam, sooner rather than later."

-------- israel / palestine

Powell phones Arafat about cease-fire

December 18, 2001
By Saud Abu Ramadan
United Press International
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/18122001-014309-2321r.htm

GAZA, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday telephoned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and praised the latter's speech over the weekend calling for a cease-fire and an end to attacks on Israel, Palestinian Authority officials said.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aid to the Palestinian Authority president, told reporters that Powell conveyed his satisfaction with Arafat's speech on Sunday in which he called for an end to all armed and suicide attacks against Israel.

Abu Rudeineh said that Arafat briefed Powell on the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories where Israeli has conducted airstrikes against PA installations and continued incursions into Palestinian towns and villages. Arafat also reiterated his commitment to the peace process.

The aid added that Arafat urged Powell to continue U.S. activities and work with other parties to save the peace process.

He also said that during the telephone call, both Arafat and Powell agreed to resume contacts soon.

In Washington, Powell's spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Tuesday, "The secretary noted that we have seen some positive actions from the Palestinian side, but also said those actions need to be completed, they need to be made effective, there need to be more actions to make an effective end to the violence and that was the tenor of their discussion."

He said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had also been called.

A delegation of European officials led by Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, will arrive in Washington Wednesday to brief Powell on last week's EU summit in Laeken. But State Department officials expect the EU delegation to make the case for Washington to ease up on the Palestinians.

Since Dec. 2, U.S. officials have taken a particularly hard-line with Arafat and have been relatively mute on Israel's violence. Last week, Powell while in Europe pressed his counterparts to not invite Arafat to the continent in order to keep the Palestinian leader focused on attending to tasks at hand in the territories.

He was doing just that on Tuesday. Earlier Arafat spoke to Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem who came to extend greetings on the Eid al Fitr holiday; they came to Ramallah waving Palestinian flags and pictures of Arafat to show support and solidarity.

"I feel like I'm meeting you today while we are few meters from holy Jerusalem, and God willing our next meeting will be in Jerusalem," said Arafat, alluding to the less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) separating Ramallah from Jerusalem.

Arafat told the crowds "We are the toughest people, and I want you to hold on to that power and stay living on this land, the holy land."

His optimism ran counter to another day of violence.

Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded two 12-year-old Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip's town of Khan Younis and Jenin on the West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said.

Nasser Hospital officials in Kahn Younis said that a Palestinian boy was shot by Israeli soldiers when they fired at Palestinian teens throwing stones at the troops stationed near the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim.

The clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli troops occurred as thousands of mourners buried the body of Mohamed Henedek who was killed Monday by Israeli troops.

Medical sources at Jenin Hospital said that another boy was shot and seriously wounded by Israeli troops on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Jenin.

Palestinian Authority officials accused Israel of escalating violence in the Palestinian territories to "block any success that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat might achieve from Sunday's speech.

Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Arafat's chief of staff, said that Sharon "is seeking to undermine Arafat's initiative" for a cease-fire and resumption of peace negotiations.

"Killing three Palestinians on Monday approves that Sharon is not interested in reinforcing the cease-fire deal reached with the Palestinians," said Abdel Rahim.

"Sharon is hurtinig the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, trying to escape from implementing the signed agreements and destroying the peace process," he said.

Abdel Rahim said that the state of emergency and the new measures taken by the PA "are still valid," adding that "Sharon gave orders to his soldiers to kill three Palestinians for no reason and without any justification."

From the Israeli side said Tuesday, the military's chief of general staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, said that the latest Palestinian attacks increased international legitimacy for Israeli moves, and that there are signs that the Palestinian side in the 15-month-long confrontation is cracking.

Nevertheless, he said he did not expect the Palestinians to forgo their goals in the foreseeable future and that the eventual winner "will be the marathon runner, not the sprinter."

Mofaz made the comments at the Herzliya Conference that brought together current and former security and intelligence chiefs, and academics.

(With reporting by Eli J. Lake in Washington and Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv.)

-------- nato

NATO, Russian defense ministers meet after US ABM pullout

Tuesday December 18, 2001
AFP
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011218/1/250gl.html

NATO defense ministers meet their Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov for the first time since the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) last week.

President George W. Bush said the US was pulling out of the treaty, over Russia's objections, in order to deploy a missile defense system.

He said the treaty "hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks."

The pullout will be effective next summer after the treaty's requisite six-month withdrawal notice.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who arrived here late Monday for the NATO ministerial meeting, was at Bush's side for last Thursday's White House announcement, saying he intended to talk to Ivanov here about "a framework that can replace the treaty".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Bush informed of the pullout in advance, was not happy, calling the decision an "erroneous" one that risked triggering another cold war-style arms race.

European countries, many of which have reservations about the missile shield project, have also expressed fears of another arms race but have been prudent in their reactions to the US pullout, seeing it as primarily a US-Russian problem.

Javier Solana, EU high representative for security and foreign policy, said the Europeans should take advantage of the US pullout to strengthen their ties with Russia.

Washington also got some public support for the move.

Long-time ally Britain said the ABM treaty no longer corresponded to today's world, and the Czech Republic expressed "understanding" for the American decision.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Russia made an unprecedented effort at rapprochement with the West, agreeing on the creation of a new NATO-Russian Council by next May.

Preparations for a multi-national force in Afghanistan were expected to be on the NATO agenda, despite the fact they don't concern the alliance as an institution.

The force, probably to be led by Britain, will include troops from several NATO countries.

Rumsfeld, who was in Afghanistan Sunday, arrived in Brussels in the wake of what Washington has labeled a military success in that country, even though Osama bin Laden, whom it accuses of being the mastermind of the September attacks, remains at large.

The NATO ministers were expected to discuss the Balkans, with the US reiterating its wish to cut its troop strength in Bosnia and withdraw entirely as soon as possible.

Also on the agenda will be NATO relations with the European Union, after a cooperation accord between the two was blocked by Greece at the EU summit in Laeken, Belgium last weekend.

The EU needs the accord because its fledgling venture into the defense field with a 60,000-troop rapid reaction force will be dependent on NATO's heavyweight logistic and planning support.

On the sidelines of the NATO meeting, eight of the 19 allies - Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal and Turkey - will be signing a contract for the purchase of 196 Airbus A400M military transport planes.

----

Allies to Talk About Terrorism

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, December 18, 2001; 4:56 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58288-2001Dec18?language=printer

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, fresh from a visit to the war front in Afghanistan, joined the NATO allies Tuesday for a look at ways the 19-nation alliance can contribute more to the war against international terrorism.

The defense ministers, at their two-day winter meeting here, were expected to instruct the alliance to begin studying how NATO can better fight undercover, subversive forces and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, a senior alliance official said.

The meeting is Rumsfeld's first at NATO since the Sept. 11 attacks in New York in Washington, and fellow defense ministers are eager to hear his views on the next step in the campaign.

It is also the first occasion allied defense ministers have had to talk with a top American official since the United States announced its intention to abandon its 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, a subject that worries many of Washington's friends.

NATO has invoked Article 5 of its founding treaty, declaring that the attacks on the United States in September should be treated as an attack on all 19. But the alliance has had no front-line role in the war in Afghanistan and none is envisaged.

Though a 1999 strategic plan developed by NATO points to terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction among the major threats facing NATO in the future, the alliance is still heavily geared toward fighting wars of territorial defense and not the shadowy forces of terror.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also is in Brussels and will be talking with NATO about plans for closer relations between the former adversaries.

Rumsfeld met with Ivanov separately Monday night.

Earlier this month, NATO foreign ministers launched a plan for closer relations with Moscow, instructing alliance officials to begin developing new council where Russia could join with the allies in discussion, planning and even decision-making on specific subjects. Work is expected to be completed by next spring.

The defense ministers will begin to consider the subject matter that the new NATO-Russia council might cover, the senior official said.

Also on the ministerial agenda is the Balkans, where the alliance is leading about 60,000 troops in three separate military operations, in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

The defense ministers will be looking at ways to make the Balkans operations more efficient, and, eventually, to reduce their size.

----

Rumsfeld to call for slashing Bosnia peacekeeping force

Tuesday December 18, 6:57 PM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011218/1/252w4.html

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to call for slashing the size of NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia by at least 6,000 troops by next year.

Rumsfeld planned to tell Alliance defense ministers meeting here that the time had come to restructure and shrink the size of the 18,000-member SFOR, reducing it by at least 6,000 troops, a US official said Tuesday.

NATO should commit to do so by no later than 2002, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The defense secretary was expected to argue that civil security is not an effective use of NATO's military assets at a time of growing demands from the war on terrorism, according to the official.

Instead, he would urge the European Union to consider leading an international armed police force in Bosnia that would relieve SFOR of its role in supporting Bosnian security forces, the official said.

----

Baltic states await NATO invitation

World Scene
Washington Times
December 18, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011218-72400998.htm

PRAGUE - The three Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, together with Slovenia and Slovakia, could be asked to join NATO at its next summit in Prague in November 2002, Czech President Vaclav Havel said yesterday.

During a press conference with his Polish counterpart, Alexander Kwasniewski, Mr. Havel said he had "no doubt" the invitations would be offered.

The Czech and Polish leaders also urged that Russian President Vladimir Putin be invited to the Prague summit, in light of "new relations" between Moscow and the Atlantic alliance since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

----

NATO Sets Global Sights on Terrorism

December 18, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nato.html

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO is to prepare for battle well beyond its own borders, ready to carry war to those who, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Tuesday, may now target Europe after strikes on New York and Washington.

Ministers of the 19-nation bloc met in Brussels and agreed to review defense planning on both sides of the North Atlantic in light of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Secretary-General George Robertson called on them to face up to the cost of revamping an organization created in the Cold War to fight major land battles in Europe and which has been left largely on the sidelines as Washington has called on individual allies for limited help in its military campaign in Afghanistan.

``We agreed to increase the proportion of forces that can be deployed and sustained in operations far beyond Alliance territory,'' Robertson told a news conference.

``Our security environment must now be seen in a fundamentally different -- and considerably darker -- light.''

Until now, the farthest NATO troops have been deployed has been just beyond Alliance frontiers, in the Balkans.

Rumsfeld used the occasion to defend the U.S. decision to abandon the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Moscow in the interests of creating flexible defenses against the sort of unpredictable new threats seen in September.

To underline a common determination not to let differences over the missile treaty cloud better ties with NATO's old adversary, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was also in Brussels for talks.

Within hours of arriving in Brussels Monday, Rumsfeld and Ivanov had agreed that bilateral technical talks would begin in January to plan details of joint and deep nuclear arms cuts.

Tuesday, Ivanov promised cooperation against terrorism and won assurances of a much broader, closer relationship with NATO, although with no Russian veto over Alliance decisions.

Rumsfeld also called for sharp cuts in NATO troop numbers in Bosnia in what diplomats said appeared to be an effort to free up American forces for deployment elsewhere.

LONDON? PARIS? BERLIN?

Warning of ``tumultuous decades ahead,'' Rumsfeld said, ``The only way to deal with a terrorist network that is global is to go after it where it is.''

``As we look at the devastation they unleashed in the United States, contemplate the destruction they could wreak in New York, or London, or Paris, of Berlin with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.''

Fresh from a visit to Afghanistan, he briefed allies on the campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which has been blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

But talks on a post-war peacekeeping force in Afghanistan were confined to the corridors of NATO's Brussels headquarters.

Britain is willing to lead the force of 3,000 to 5,000 troops, of which at least the lead elements are expected to be in place in Kabul by Saturday. Diplomats said 13 of the 19 NATO countries had signaled a willingness to make a contribution.

``The big jigsaw is gradually being put together,'' one said.

DEFENSE INVESTMENT NEEDED

Alliance countries, Rumsfeld warned, must pool resources and expertise to deal with threats from electronic cyber-attacks on satellites to low-flying cruise missiles, long-range ballistic missiles and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Officials say defense forces also need better intelligence, more intelligence-sharing and more robust capabilities to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Rumsfeld also called for ``critical investment'' on security.

``One of the illusions shattered on September 11 was the idea that, with the end of the Cold War, the world's democracies could afford large cuts in defense spending,'' he said.

Separately, Rumsfeld called for a reduction of the 18,000 NATO troops in Bosnia by at least 6,000 next year. Washington is fielding some 3,100 of the peacekeepers.

The defense ministers reviewed all NATO operations in the Balkans and the prospect of slimming down the overall presence of about 60,000 soldiers by treating the area as a single region and not three separate theaters: Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

But few have been prepared to put a figure on the potential cut in forces, which could emerge from a NATO analysis to begin early next year, with reductions possible by the end of 2002.

A senior U.S. defense official said if there was a reduction in the Balkans, the U.S. contribution would be cut by the same proportion as those of other nations, or about 1,000 troops.

The Bosnian government said it was not alarmed by the U.S. push to cut the peacekeeping force by a third -- provided any reduction was accompanied by more stability in the country.

-------- pakistan

Pursuing bin Laden Into Pakistan Tough

December 18, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Problem.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pakistan seems a natural destination for al-Qaida fighters and perhaps Osama bin Laden as U.S.-backed forces solidify control of Afghanistan. Across a 1,344-mile, largely unprotected border, it offers hide-outs and sympathetic tribesmen even though its government stands with the United States.

Flight into Pakistan by bin Laden and his allies would raise delicate issues of jurisdiction for the United States, making U.S. ground pursuit or bombing raids unlikely.

That wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

The Pakistanis ``are helping us look for not only Osama bin Laden but for all al-Qaida murderers and killers,'' President Bush said Monday.

But the alliance between the United States and the government of Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is a delicate one.

Before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Pakistan was one of the strongest supporters of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Pakistan's Islamic schools and mosques, in fact, helped give rise to the Taliban.

Musharraf, who is still the military chief, has pledged full support for the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. In recent days, he has increased security along the border, sending helicopter gunships as well as troops on horses and mules.

But suspicion smolders in Muslim Pakistan toward the U.S. presence in the region. And Taliban sympathizers are among the ranks of the Pakistani military. Some might quietly allow fleeing al-Qaida fighters and their Taliban allies to escape.

Still, it might be difficult for bin Laden -- tall, slim and Arab-born -- to remain at large for long, even in the mountains of Pakistan, analysts suggested.

``There are plenty of places to hide. But Pakistanis know the area better than he does. It would be just a matter of time before he is tracked down,'' said Stephen Cohen, a former State Department official who has written extensively on Pakistan.,

Furthermore, Cohen said, Pakistan's leaders ``are more likely to turn him over dead than alive, since they would not want him to recount fully what kind of connections he had with their intelligence services. He's worth more to them dead than alive, and I'm sure bin Laden knows that.''

``Everyone knows that there is a $25 million tag on his head, so there's a pretty good chance somebody would turn him in,'' said Dan Benjamin, a military analyst with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies. He referred to the U.S. bounty for information leading to bin Laden's capture.

The Bush administration is treading carefully on the issue of what happens next if it can be established that bin Laden has escaped to Pakistan.

``Pakistan, of course, as a sovereign nation, has the jurisdiction,'' Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday. ``We are not in hot pursuit across a border.'' As to bin Laden's whereabouts, Stufflebeem said, ``Anyone's guess.''

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he would not ``engage in speculation'' on whether Bush would carry the battle into Pakistan. ``The president has made clear this is a war against terrorism, against those who would do harm to us around the world. And there are multiple fronts in that war,'' Fleischer said.

U.S. officials don't want to overplay their hand in Pakistan.

They don't want to destabilize Musharraf's government. A grab for power could put Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the hands of radical Islamic militants.

The picture is also complicated by increasing tensions between Pakistan and India.

India said Monday it was preparing to retaliate over last Thursday's deadly suicide attack on its parliament. India contends the operation was planned by Pakistani's intelligence agency and carried out by five Pakistanis. Thirteen people were killed in the raid, including the attackers.

Among the potential targets for India: terrorist training camps it alleges are scattered across Pakistan.

``Keeping Pakistan stable matters a lot more than getting bin Laden,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. ``At this point, we can afford to keep bin Laden on the run and take our time tracking him down. Obviously, it would be better to get him sooner.''

-------- propaganda wars

War boosts all-news radio's ratings

December 18, 2001
By Chris Baker
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20011218-93339719.htm

All-news radio station WTOP, enjoying its best ratings since the Persian Gulf war, has vau