------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Russia, UK to form anti-terror group
Georgia Arrests Smuggler with Radioactive Materiel

MILITARY
'Friendly fire' fear as convoy is bombed
Prisoners 'killed not shifted'
Convoy Containing Suspected Taliban Leaders Hit by Airstrike
Locals Reject U.S. Account of Afghan Convoy Attack
Beijing blasts anti-China US defence budget
China Arrests Muslims for Preaching
Burma once again top opium producer
New Clashes in Gaza; Hamas to Limit Suicide Attacks
Israel Bans Arafat From Bethlehem
Japanese Patrol Sinks Fishing Boat
Terrorism War's New Front
Pentagon Orders New Flight Tests for Osprey
In Terrorism War, Another Stage
Rules loosened for U.S. troops
More American Troops Are Ordered to Join Cave-to-Cave Search

POLICE / PRISONERS
Berenson transferred to high Andean prison
Justice finishing questioning of 5,000 foreigners
Bush's Budget To Include Big Security Boost

ENERGY AND OTHER
'Let sleeping sediments lie'

ACTIVISTS
25 Things We've Learned Since 9/11
Minister Gives List of Unsavory Toys



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Russia, UK to form anti-terror group

The Times of India Online
December 22, 2001
AFP
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_Id=1930039479

LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will agree to set up a working group to fight terrorism and share intelligence, when they meet for talks later on Friday, a British government source said.

"The idea is to formalise and deepen existing intelligence co-operation and indeed other kind of co-operation in the fight against terrorism," the source said.

"It is essentially a formalisation of something which is already happening," he said, adding that "the relevant agencies" will be involved.

Putin arrived at London's Heathrow airport earlier on Friday and was due to hold talks with Blair at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country retreat, northwest of London, later in the day.

The Daily Telegraph, quoting Downing Street sources, said senior officials from the foreign office, ministry of defence and MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, would join their Russian counterparts to help co-ordinate the hunt for prime terror suspect Osama Bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda network.

But Putin is likely to warn Blair, a vocal advocate of the US-led war, against declaring war on Russia's longtime ally Iraq, arguing that the search for Bin Laden and the financial resources of al-Qaeda should take precedence.

Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday called on Blair to raise its concerns over human rights abuses in Chechnya, during his talks with Putin.

In a statement, the organisation said: "With the spotlight very much on Afghanistan, we cannot let the torture, including rape, and killing of Chechen civilians by the Russian military, go unnoticed.

"The Prime Minister must not compromise human rights in the fight against terrorism. He must break the silence on Chechnya."

In response, the government source said: "One of the reasons they (Russia) have been 100 per cent supportive of the campaign (against terror) is because they feel very personally on the subject for very obvious reasons."

"In our view, respect for human rights and being tough on terrorism are not mutually exclusive. The important thing is to make a distinction between the actions of terrorists and legitimate actions and aspirations of ordinary civilians."

Talks between Putin and Blair were also likely to focus on NATO's relations with Moscow and US missile defence.

The trip is Putin's first to a Western capital since US President George W Bush announced last week that Washington was formally pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty despite Russian warnings of a threat to global security.

The Russian President will reiterate Moscow's determination to save the 30-year-old treaty by reiterating Russia's new-found willingness to modify the pact to accommodate US plans to test a controversial missile defence shield.

Britain has given tacit support to the US withdrawal from the ABM treaty while seeming anxious not to get dragged into the controversy, with a Blair spokesman hinting last week that the 1972 treaty was past its sell-by date.

Blair and Putin are also expected to discuss warming relations between NATO and Russia, a rapprochement hailed by the British leader as Moscow's reward for coming onside in the fight against terrorism.

Once Cold War adversaries, Russia and NATO fell out over Western air strikes against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo conflict in 1999, but have exploited the post-September 11 thaw to address Kremlin fears of the alliance expanding further into eastern Europe.

Two weeks ago Russian and NATO foreign ministers agreed to upgrade relations by May next year with formation of a new council that could enable Moscow and the 19 members of the military alliance to end the dispute over NATO enlargement.

Following their meeting, Blair and Putin are to hold a joint press conference at the RAF Halton military base near to the Prime Minister's residence.

Russian defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was also due to hold talks on Friday with Britain's foreign secretary Jack Straw.

-------- russia

Georgia Arrests Smuggler with Radioactive Materiel

December 22, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-crime-georgia-uranium.html

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian police have arrested an Armenian smuggler with 10.5 ounces of radioactive uranium that he planned to sell in Turkey, a senior security official said on Saturday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said Georgian police and security services had arrested Armenian national Eduard Kazaryan on Wednesday in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in southern Georgia where many ethnic Armenians live.

``We have serious suspicions that the uranium had been stolen from the Armenian nuclear power station,'' he said.

Kazaryan had with him one plate of low-grade uranium-235 which he had smuggled from Armenia and intended to sell in Turkey for $7,000, the official said.

Safety worries had forced Armenia to shut down its only nuclear power plant in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake in 1988, but it relaunched the station in 1995 because of acute power shortages.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been a number of cases of nuclear materials being stolen from poorly guarded facilities, sparking grave concern in the West.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

'Friendly fire' fear as convoy is bombed

BY STEPHEN FARRELL IN KABUL AND MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR,
SATURDAY DECEMBER 22 2001
The Times (UK)
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570014-2001583307,00.html

TRIBAL leaders accused the United States last night of bombing in error a convoy heading for Kabul to inaugurate the new interim government, killing and wounding dozens of Afghan elders.

The claims, coming on the eve of a ceremony designed to usher in a new era of peace and international co-operation over Afghanistan, would be a huge embarrassment for Washington if confirmed.

The Pentagon, however, said that the convoy contained Taleban or al-Qaeda leaders and was hit near the town of Khost, in southwest Afghanistan, after leaving a command base.

"The vehicles were destroyed, the people were killed and the compound from which they left was destroyed," General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "The Intelligence we gathered at the time indicated to us that this was in fact leadership and we struck the leadership."

AC130 gunships and Navy jet fighters were used in the attack.

Reports on the ground said, however, that locals had misinformed the Pentagon and that 65 supporters of Hamid Karzai, the new Afghan leader, had been killed.

Two local leaders, quoted by the BBC and the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), said that the bombing on Thursday night and yesterday morning had struck the convoy as it travelled from the eastern border town of Khost to Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province. It said that the dead included tribal elders and former Mujahidin commanders going to Kabul to attend today's inauguration.

Fourteen vehicles in the convoy were destroyed near Sato Kandau, 15 miles south of Gardez, the privately-owned AIP said, quoting Sayed Yaqeen, a member of the provincial shura, or council. The BBC quoted Haji Saifullah, another shura member, as saying that the convoy had been bombed after it had diverted to a bypass from the main Khost-Gardez road. Some locals told the Americans that the travellers were members of al-Qaeda.

Mr Saifullah said that the convoy had taken the bypass because local people prevented it from travelling on the main road. Another witness, quoted by the BBC, said that he was due to travel in the convoy but left after 50 to 60 people opposed to Mr Karzai stopped it taking the main road.

AIP said that the bodies of five people killed in the bombing had been taken to Khost. It quoted its sources in the area as saying that one of the dead was Muhammad Ibrahim, a brother of the former Mujahidin commander Jalaluddin Haqqani who was Tribal Affairs Minister in the Taleban Government.

The Pentagon said that the AIP reports were incorrect.

Dr Gulbuddin, secretary to the Afghan Defence Minister General Mohammed Fahim, said he had received two independent reports from commanders that about 15 people were killed. He said delegates were coming from the border areas of Paktia, Paktika and Gardez. A senior commander, Haji Naeemi Kochi, was among the injured, he said.

"I spoke to a commander from Logar Province who was in radio contact with Paktia. He said there were 60 people in the convoy, that it was heading for Kabul and that the dead included Mr Kochi's nephew."

Coalition forces are to be sent to the Tora Bora region to search caves where al-Qaeda forces could remain. A new American laser-guided thermobaric bomb that generates intense heat and pressure is also being sent to Afghanistan to help to clear the caves and tunnels.

---

Prisoners 'killed not shifted'

By Tasgola Karla Bruner in Kandahar and Paul Daley in London
Cox Newspapers, Boston Globe
December 22, 2001
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/22/world/world3.html

Anti-Taliban forces have reportedly been killing Arab prisoners rather than handing them over to the Americans for questioning, according to new anecdotal evidence.

An Afghan fighter, Mohammad Akram, pulled out a bank card from Turkey that he said came from an Arab he killed here a few weeks ago. He wanted to show that he was working for the Americans, said an interpreter.

US Marines have set up a special facility at Kandahar International Airport to hold "detained" Arabs - non-Afghan, pro-Taliban fighters - so they can be questioned before deciding if they should be put on trial, but so far have very few prisoners.

Although the Taliban surrendered Kandahar two weeks ago, there are only 15 prisoners in the detention facility who arrived on Wednesday from Shebegham Prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan. They were Arab and al-Qaeda loyalists, the marines said. But there are no prisoners from fighting in Kandahar province, the last region the Taliban surrendered before losing power in Afghanistan.

Asked about the marine detention facility for Arab fighters and other detainees, Mr Akram said: "There is no such place for Arabs. We're not keeping them. We're killing them."

Other soldiers of Gul Agha, the reinstated governor of Kandahar, have made similar statements.

Marines said they had not received any official reports about alleged killings of Arab or other prisoners. There have been unconfirmed reports that anti-Taliban fighters shot rather than detained Arabs because they feared they might be carrying concealed hand grenades they would detonate if they were approached.

Meanwhile, US Special Forces troops continued to comb through the caves, tunnels and ravines in the Tora Bora mountains for clues that might shed light on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

In Washington, two defence officials said the head of the US Central Command, General Tommy Franks, was recommending that ground troops - possibly from the 2,000 marines currently in Afghanistan - supplement special forces in cleaning out the hundreds of caves in the Tora Bora complex.

In Kabul, the new interim government takes office today as British peacekeeping forces arrive to help maintain order under the auspices of the United Nations.

Australia's offer of about 200 troops and 40 support personnel for the peacekeeping force is likely to be declined by Britain.

Australian and British military officials have held talks where Britain made it plain it wanted Australia to contribute military specialists - such a mobile medical units - rather than infantrymen to the force.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said in London that Australian specialist military personnel were not available for the force because they were already committed to operations in Bougainville, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

--------

AN INTERIM GOVERNMENT
Convoy Containing Suspected Taliban Leaders Hit by Airstrike

New York Times
December 22, 2001
By AMY WALDMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/22/international/asia/22AFGH.html

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 21 - Some 100 days after a terrorist attack on America turned the world's attention to Afghanistan and its Taliban regime, Afghans prepared today to install an interim government they hope will prove historic by ending 22 years of war.

The American bombing of Afghanistan has largely abated since anti- Taliban forces declared last weekend that they had captured the mountainous redoubt of Tora Bora, where Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda warriors were thought to be hiding. But American combat aircraft did strike a convoy west of Khost.

While an Afghan Islamic Press report said that tribal elders on their way to Kabul were in the vehicles, the Defense Department expressed certainty tonight that the AC-130 gunships and Navy jets had found their desired targets: Taliban fleeing a compound that also was attacked.

Mr. bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda figures have not been sighted, much less captured, prompting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today to order more soldiers into the caves and tunnels of Tora Bora to search for America's most wanted men.

Some are thought to have escaped to Pakistan, where a spokesman for the antiterrorism coalition said an estimated 7,000 prisoners were being screened in Afghanistan to determine their involvement, if any, with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The spokesman, Kenton Keith, suggested that "latecomers" to the movement would be viewed differently than hard-liners, or "people with blood on their hands.

"There are various categories of degrees of guilt and involvement in activities that deserve punishment," Mr. Keith said.

Dignitaries from around the country and world flowed into Kabul in anticipation of Saturday's ceremony, which will transfer power from President Burhanuddin Rabbani to Hamid Karzai. Mr. Rabbani was driven from Kabul in 1996 by the Taliban, but returned after they retreated from the capital on Nov. 13.

Mr. Karzai, a Pashtun from Kandahar, in the south, will serve as chairman of an interim authority intended to govern for six months under an agreement negotiated in Bonn 10 days ago.

The streets of the city were calm, as they have largely been since the Taliban left.

But there was also a concerted effort to step up security, in part by moving tanks and artillery out of the city, and disarming anyone not linked to the military or the police forces.

Just after dark, 30 British Royal Marines, the first contingent of an international security force mandated by the United Nations, made a muted entrance into Kabul, driving straight to the British Embassy, where they were to spend the night.

The marines had spent much of the day at the airport, waiting to escort arriving guests who might fear for their security. But in a sign of how tranquility has apparently taken a stubborn hold here, none of the arrivals asked for an escort.

Saturday's ceremony will be laden with symbolism.

An enormous portrait of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance commander who was murdered two days before the Sept. 11 attacks, apparently on the order of Mr. bin Laden, will hang over the stage where the swearing-in is to take place.

After Mr. Karzai takes the oath of office and swears in his 30-member cabinet, Mr. Rabbani will be escorted to a waiting car, and Mr. Karzai will then receive a military unit.

Afghans and foreigners hope this heralds the start of stability after a decade-long Soviet occupation, then 12 years of internecine warfare between hosts of fractious warlords and rival tribes.

"Tomorrow's a big day for Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan and the neighbors of Afghanistan," a United Nations spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said. "We're all hoping the transition goes smoothly."

A panoply of officials trooped in today. There were the special envoys from the United States and Russia, who once used Afghanistan as a battlefield in their proxy war. There were the representatives of Iran, which opposed the Taliban, and Pakistan, which had supported it - both neighbors keenly interested in Afghanistan's fate.

The United Nations special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, who helped fashion the transitional government to try to represent Afghanistan's many geographic, tribal, military and political constituencies, met Mr. Karzai and also the American special envoy, James F. Dobbins, this afternoon.

Mr. Dobbins told reporters that the United States planned to recognize Afghanistan's government after the transition ceremony. If so, it would be the first time since the Soviet invasion of 1979 that Washington has recognized an Afghan government.

Mr. Fawzi confirmed that Mr. Brahimi's deputy, Francesc Vendrell, has submitted his resignation, probably effective when his contract expires at the end of January.

Afghan dignitaries paraded in turbans and military gear through the lobby of the Hotel Inter-Continental.

Presences and absences were read like fortunes. Two warlords, Ismail Khan, of Herat, in the west, and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, of the north, who have been critical of the agreement reached at Bonn, sent delegations but appeared unlikely to attend the ceremony themselves. An aide to Mr. Khan said he had guests in Herat, but his son, a minister in the government, did come to Kabul.

Everyone here, from the lowest to the highest levels, seems to understand the vital need for a smooth transition of power. To reach as wide an audience as possible, the ceremony will be shown on television and broadcast on radio, although there is concern about whether Kabul's occasionally erratic electricity will last through the day.

The Northern Alliance is clearly determined to put on its best face. Outside the presidential palace, a green cloth covered a table where soldiers laid their Kalashnikovs. At the Interior Ministry, where the transition ceremony will be held, soldiers wore white ceremonial helmets.

Everywhere, people voiced their desire for peace. As one young man put it: "I hope this will be the last night of the unluckiness of the Afghan people."

--------

Locals Reject U.S. Account of Afghan Convoy Attack

December 22, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-afghan-convoy.html

ASMANI KILAI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Local Afghans contested U.S. assertions that its planes had attacked a convoy of al Qaeda leaders, telling Reuters at the scene on Saturday the dozens of dead were innocent villagers and tribal elders.

Residents of Asmani Kilai in eastern Paktia province said the strikes, lasting seven hours from Thursday night into Friday, killed 50 to 60 people and destroyed 15 vehicles from a convoy of tribal elders bound for Kabul for the inauguration on Saturday of the interim government led by Hamid Karzai.

About 10 houses and a mosque were also destroyed and several villagers not with the convoy were also killed, they said.

However, U.S. officials insisted the convoy had opened fire on U.S. aircraft just before it was bombed and had been carrying leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Earlier reports said 65 people were killed.

``The people who got hit were going to congratulate Karzai on the transfer of power,'' villager Khodai Noor told Reuters Television in the first account of the bombing from the scene.

``There are no members of al Qaeda or supporters of bin Laden here,'' he added, suggesting a local warlord might deliberately have misinformed U.S. forces about the convoy to settle a score.

A further 15 people were wounded and had been taken to a hospital six hours drive away near the border with Pakistan, the villagers said. The bodies of those killed were swiftly removed in line with Islamic custom for burial by relatives, they said.

The United States has said it is investigating the attack but that its initial findings were that the dead were members of the ousted Taliban or fighters from bin Laden's al Qaeda group.

``I will tell you, having been in touch with my headquarters, that at this point we believe it was a good target,'' U.S. General Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in the region, told reporters in Kabul after Karzai was sworn in.

In the United States, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command told Reuters in response to the accounts from Asmani Kilai: ``We confirm again that the convoy was a military target.''

But a Pentagon spokesman later told Reuters U.S. military officials had reached the spot to look into the villagers' claims: ``I would not call it an investigation. It is part of a process we always carry out when there are reports like this.''

In Kabul, Franks said he had also received reports that a U.S. aircraft had been fired on from the convoy.

Villagers contested that account, saying the convoy had set out for the Afghan capital from the town of Khost with tribal elders who were not carrying weapons.

DOUBLE-CROSSED?

Villager Noor alleged the convoy had been diverted from its intended route by a hostile local commander, whom he named as Pacha Khan. He alleged that Khan had then told the Americans that the vehicles were carrying al Qaeda members.

The village, in the Ozi district of Paktia province, sits on barren hills and its houses were reduced to rubble.

Six wrecked cars, their bodywork riddled with bullets and shrapnel, stood on the track. Shrapnel and the remains of spent ordnance littered the dirt.

The villagers said more vehicles had been hit further along the route in air strikes they said occurred between 9.00 p.m. on Thursday and 4.00 a.m. on Friday.

``Why is this tyranny happening to us?'' asked Haji Khyal Khan, who said five members of his family had been killed.

Locals picked through the rubble of their homes retrieving what possessions they could, including a tattered carpet.

``There were no terrorists. They destroyed a whole village and we've lost everything,'' said villager Agha Mohammad.

Karzai, speaking at a news conference in Kabul before the villagers' accounts emerged, said he would check reports of the attack but did not believe tribal chiefs had been bombed.

``I will definitely check that with our American friends, but I don't think it's true because the first information I got was there was no such bombing,'' he said. ``If they were al Qaeda members then they were not tribal chiefs.''

One U.S. embassy official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ``We apparently had evidence that this convoy had al Qaeda forces. We circled the convoy.

``I'm told by Centcom (Central Command) that we were fired on twice by the convoy using anti-aircraft missiles, which they took as a hostile act and proceeded to attack the convoy.''

CALL FOR INQUIRY

But Abdullah Jan, a spokesman for the shura (council) of the Nayazain tribe in Khost, urged Karzai to order an inquiry, the private, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

The victims included Maulvi Mian Jan who was traveling to Kabul at Karzai's invitation, AIP quoted Jan as saying.

``He was a tribal chief. There was no Talib nor any al Qaeda fighter in our convoy. Why was it bombed?'' he told AIP.

AIP said the dead included tribal elders and former mujahideen commanders. It said one of the dead was ``commander'' Mohammad Ibrahim, a brother of well-known former mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Haqqani fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s but switched sides to become the tribal affairs minister in the Taliban government.

A local resident told the BBC that the dead included Naeem Kochi, head of the Ahmadzai tribe, a man who has changed sides frequently and had been linked with the Taliban in the past.

-------- arms sales

Beijing blasts anti-China US defence budget

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2001
THE TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=374066130

BEIJING: China has accused the United States of gross interference in its internal affairs by allowing many anti-China clauses in its defence budget, including selling Kidd-class diesel submarines to arch-rival Taiwan.

Beijing strongly opposes the anti-China US defence Authorisation Act, foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told reporters here on Thursday.

The 2002 Fiscal Defence Authorisation Act, which was passed recently by the US Senate and House of Representatives, contains many anti-China clauses including selling Kidd-class destroyers to Taiwan, Zhang said.

She said that China is opposed to US arms sales to Taiwan, including selling Kidd-class destroyers, a deal announced by US president George W Bush early this year.

Zhang noted that the US Congress, in disregard of China's repeated representations on the matter, passed the 2002 fiscal defence authorisation act.

"This violates the 'one-China' policy and principles of the three Sino-US joint communiques, and is blatant interference in China's internal affairs," she said.

She urged the US to correct its mistake, stop selling arms to Taiwan and avoid any acts or words that interfere in China's internal affairs and thus damage Sino-US relations.

-------- china

China Arrests Muslims for Preaching

WORLD In Brief
Reuters
Saturday, December 22, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15259-2001Dec21?language=printer

BEIJING -- Chinese police have arrested nine Muslims for preaching illegally in the northwestern region of Xinjiang as part of a broad clampdown on separatists among the Uighur ethnic minority group there.

A police officer in Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongol Prefecture, 310 miles south of the capital Urumqi, said the nine were arrested as part of a stepped up campaign against "separatists, terrorists and religious extremists."

The nine translated the Koran into local languages and used it to preach the separatist cause, he said.

Human rights and religious groups say the clampdown has already swept up dozens of Muslims in other parts of Xinjiang.

-------- drug war

Burma once again top opium producer

Briefly
Washington Times
December 22, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011222-886374.htm

BANGKOK - Burma is once again the world's top opium producer because of a sharp drop in production of the drug in Afghanistan, according to the latest U.S. government survey.

It overtook Afghanistan, which had been the No. 1 opium producer for the past three years, despite having its smallest opium harvest since the mid-1980s this year, the survey showed.

Burma harvested an estimated 865 metric tons of opium in 2001, down from 1,085 tons in 2000, a U.N. official said Thursday, citing the State Department's Annual Survey of Opium Cultivation and Production.

-------- israel / palestine

INTERNATIONAL
New Clashes in Gaza; Hamas to Limit Suicide Attacks

New York Times
December 22, 2001
By JAMES BENNET
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/22/international/middleeast/22MIDE.html

JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 - Six Palestinians were killed and dozens injured today in clashes with Yasir Arafat's police in the Gaza Strip, even as the militant group Hamas said that to preserve Palestinian unity, it was halting suicide attacks within the borders of pre-1967 Israel.

Palestinian unity disintegrated today in the Jabaliya refugee camp, where masked gunmen traded shots with masked policemen in the worst Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence since 1994.

As religious authorities appealed for calm over the loudspeakers of a mosque, bleeding youths were rushed through the chaotic streets to waiting ambulances. More than 80 Palestinians were injured, hospital officials said.

It was the third day of clashes in Gaza, provoked by Mr. Arafat's effort to satisfy Israeli and international demands that he stop attacks on Israel by dismantling organizations that advocate terrorism. As it acts against Islamic militants, the Palestinian police force is increasingly viewed in the refugee camps as an Israeli proxy.

"Arafat is a spy for Israel now," said one 17-year-old who was throwing stones at the police compound in Jabaliya. "He's not a Muslim - he's Jewish. Israel and the Palestinian Authority, they are the same to us."

The Hamas decision, which also applied to mortar attacks against Israelis, appeared to be a short-term maneuver to relieve some of the military and diplomatic pressure on Mr. Arafat. Hamas did not say it was dropping its opposition to a negotiated settlement with Israel.

Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group responsible for suicide bombings, also decided to suspend suicide attacks inside Israel until the movement's leaders chose a further course of action, Reuters reported.

But while Hamas leaders were trying to blur Mr. Arafat's dilemma, the adherents of extremism threw it into stark relief. Mr. Arafat appears to be running out of room between the demands of the Bush administration, the United Nations and European countries that he stamp out violence against Israel and demands among Palestinians that it continue.

Many Palestinians believe that without the threat of attack, Israel will not leave the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories it conquered in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The Hamas decision was reached after a meeting late Wednesday in Gaza City between leaders of the group and representatives of other Palestinian factions, including Mr. Arafat's Fatah organization.

Israeli officials rejected the Hamas announcement as improperly distinguishing between Israelis on each side of the disputed boundaries with the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The decision, announced in a statement faxed to news agencies, appeared to imply that soldiers and settlers living in those areas were still fair game.

Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli Army, said in a speech today: "We have to ask ourselves, is this a turning point and does this mean no more violence and no more terror and a return to the negotiating table? And the answer is no."

Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the development had no implications for Israel's demands. "As far as Israel is concerned," he said, "the Palestinian Authority has an obligation to no longer harbor or give shelter to international terrorist organizations, and that hasn't changed one iota."

Mr. Arafat met tonight with his cabinet, which issued a statement welcoming the "important statement" of Hamas and condemning the violence in recent days in Gaza as "an attack on the national interest, on the Palestinian national entity and on law and order."

After 26 people were killed in three Hamas bombings at the beginning of December, Mr. Arafat came under intense pressure to act against the group, whose popularity rivals his own. But on Dec. 12 a Hamas bomb and gun attack killed 10 Israelis in the West Bank, prompting the Israeli government to declare that Mr. Arafat had made himself "irrelevant" and break off all contact with him.

But Israel has resumed contacts with Mr. Arafat's security lieutenants and has continued to regard him as responsible for reining in Hamas. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters that Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority had "started really to act more seriously."

In a speech on Sunday night, Mr. Arafat called for an immediate cease-fire, referring specifically to "the suicide attacks, which we have always condemned." He also rejected "the launching of mortar rockets that have no goal but give the justification for Israeli attacks against our people, children and women."

Since then, Palestinian Authority forces have stepped up their efforts against Hamas, closing its offices and arresting some of its members. But when the police in Gaza City tried on Wednesday night to arrest Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, widely seen as one of Hamas's most powerful leaders, they were driven back by a crowd throwing rocks and firing in the air.

Hamas supporters clashed again with the police on Thursday night as leaders of all the Palestinian factions met in Dr. Rantisi's home. He was still in his home today, defying orders for his arrest.

In its statement, Hamas said it had reached the decision "for the sake of the unity of our Palestinian people and in order to protect the path of jihad to achieve freedom and independence."

Dr. Rantisi said: "Hamas is a responsible movement. Therefore it took into consideration keeping the unity of the Palestinian people." He emphasized that Hamas planned to "stop these forms of resistance" only "for a while."

In the Jabaliya refugee camp, violence erupted during the funeral procession for a 17-year-old Palestinian killed on Thursday night when the police stopped a group trying to fire mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement. On a bright, crisp day, as they marched through the streets of Jabaliya, the mourners chanted, "Arafat is a traitor."

Among the rioters were members of Hamas who said they had no intention of abiding by even a limited cease-fire. "The Authority is over," one Hamas member shouted through a megaphone. "And the power is in the hands of the mujahedeen."

With Israeli forces operating freely in Palestinian-controlled territory and Israeli tanks within 200 yards of his compound, Mr. Arafat has been a virtual prisoner in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Mr. Arafat, a Muslim, has gone to Bethlehem for Mass on Christmas Eve since 1995, and Palestinian officials said he planned to go this year. But Israeli officials said he would need their permission and indicated that it would not be forthcoming.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Sharon, said Mr. Arafat had not fulfilled his promise to arrest the Palestinian gunmen who killed Israel's tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi, on Oct. 17. "People go on vacation on holidays if they worked throughout the year," Mr. Gissin said. "He hasn't done the job, so he's got the holiday to complete it."

--------

Israel Bans Arafat From Bethlehem

December 22, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Palestinians-Arafat.html

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has banned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from attending Christmas Eve services in the West Bank town of Bethlehem this year, according to a government statement issued early Sunday.

The statement, from the Security Cabinet, charged that Arafat ``is not acting to dismantle Palestinian terror groups or stop terror attacks against Israel.''

On Saturday, Arafat had told reporters that he would attend the Christmas services in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, with or without Israeli permission.

But he has been virtually trapped in the West Bank city of Ramallah since an Israeli air strike destroyed his helicopters in Gaza Dec. 3, retaliation for Palestinian suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa that killed 26 people and three bombers.

Ramallah is 10 miles north of Jerusalem. Bethlehem is five miles south of Jerusalem. With Israeli tanks and troops surrounding Ramallah and guarding the entrances and exits of Jerusalem, Arafat would be hard pressed to make the trip unless Israel agrees.

Arafat, a Muslim, has attended Christmas Eve festivities in Bethlehem every year since 1995, when the town was turned over to Palestinian control as part of interim Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.

Christmas Eve in the West Bank town has become a joint Christmas-Palestinian independence celebration, because the handover came just a few days before the holiday.

Arafat, a Muslim, has had a front-row seat for the Christmas Eve midnight mass in St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem, next to the Church of the Nativity, built in the fourth century over the grottos that mark the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

The Israeli statement noted that Arafat has failed to arrest the assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, shot dead Oct. 17 by gunmen from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, retaliation for Israel's killing of the group's leader several weeks earlier.

Israel has charged that the killers are in Palestinian-controlled territory, but Palestinian police have not detained them.

The ban follows an Israeli Security Cabinet decision declaring that Arafat is ``irrelevant'' and cutting off contacts with him and the Palestinian Authority he heads. The decision was made after a Palestinian attack on a bus that left 10 Israelis dead and another 30 wounded.

-------- japan

Japanese Patrol Sinks Fishing Boat

DECEMBER 22, 10:53 ET
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) - An unidentified fishing boat that defense officials said might have been spying sank off southwestern Japan on Saturday after trading gunfire with Japanese coast guard vessels.

The boat, which was marked with Chinese characters, was cruising in Japan's exclusive economic zone near Amami Oshima island when it was detected by a Japanese naval aircraft on Friday. Patrol vessels and aircraft chased the boat Saturday after it disregarded orders to stop and fled west toward China.

After firing several warning shots, a coast guard vessel hit the stern of the boat with a burst of machine-gun fire on Saturday afternoon, starting a blaze that was later extinguished, Japan Coast Guard spokesman Yoji Osaka said.

The boat briefly halted after being hit, then resumed its flight. It stopped a second time Saturday evening and was surrounded by four Japanese vessels, but rough seas prevented boarding, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told reporters.

The unidentified ship later traded fire with the Japanese vessels, wounding a coast guard sailor, the Coast Guard said. It then sank, leaving its 15 crew members adrift.

Defense officials who examined photographs of the boat said that it appeared similar to two suspected North Korean spy ships that were chased out of Japanese waters by patrol craft in March 1999, according to a Defense Agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Warning shots were fired in that incident, but the intruders were not hit or apprehended.

The Kyodo News agency reported, however, that some government officials suspected that the boat that sank Saturday was a Chinese smuggling vessel.

-------- philippines

Terrorism War's New Front
U.S. Aiding Philippine Fight Against Rebels

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14865-2001Dec21?language=printer

TUMAHUBONG, Philippines -- For five months, 400 haggard Philippine marines have been scouring the dense jungle north of this rubber plantation village for the Abu Sayyaf, a wily band of Muslim rebels holding two American missionaries hostage.

Every day, the marines delve into a swath of tropical vegetation so thick that they cannot see the sun -- or anybody who is more than a few feet ahead of them. And every day, they come up empty.

"This is even more difficult than Tora Bora," groused Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, the top military commander in the southern Philippines, referring to the former al Qaeda terrorist redoubt in Afghanistan. "We have caves as well, but also the jungle. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Those long odds of success worry the Bush administration, which has made the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf a significant new front in America's global war on terrorism. U.S. military and intelligence officials say the group, which has historical connections to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, could provide a haven to al Qaeda members on the run from Afghanistan and Middle Eastern nations.

In the most overt U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda outside Afghanistan, Special Forces officers have visited the southern Philippines in recent weeks to assess efforts to target the rebels. By next month, at least 100 Special Forces soldiers are slated to travel here to train Philippine troops in counterterrorism. U.S. and Philippine officials say some U.S. advisers, who will carry weapons for self-defense, will coach Philippine soldiers pursuing the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan island.

The training program is "the largest and most comprehensive" such effort the United States has undertaken in Asia in recent years, said Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. Although U.S. officials insist that the Special Forces will serve only as advisers, they acknowledge that the troops may have to use force to defend themselves.

"If they're going to be here alongside our troops, which is what it looks like they are planning, it could be fairly risky," said a Philippine military officer. The rebels, who have mounted ambushes on military positions, have killed 64 soldiers since July.

Col. David Fridovich, who led the U.S. assessment mission here, called the Abu Sayyaf "a shared problem" between the Philippines and the United States that requires a special degree of cooperation.

"We're going to help them," said Fridovich, the commander of the First Special Forces Group, based at Ft. Lewis, Wash. "But it's for them to fight, not for us to fight."

The Philippine military has spent years battling the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim state but appears more interested in snatching foreigners and wealthy Filipinos to score lucrative ransom payments. Although soldiers have killed and captured scores of guerrillas, a hard-core group and their prized American captives -- Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita -- remain elusive on Basilan island.

Because the Philippine armed forces are strapped for cash -- the air force has just two working cargo aircraft -- officials said recent U.S. donations of military hardware, along with assurances of more, will be instrumental in tracking down members of the Abu Sayyaf, rescuing the hostages and destroying the group.

In Tumahubong, for instance, the marines have only M-16 assault rifles and some grenade launchers. The commander here, Col. Orlando De Leon, said troops in his battalion would be more successful if it had more modern equipment. Night-vision goggles, which would allow his men to work around the clock, "would be very helpful," he said. "As of now, we are only using our 20/20 vision."

Late last month, the Pentagon gave the Philippines a C-130 cargo plane and 16,000 pounds of military hardware, including rifles, grenade launchers and mortars. And during a recent visit to Washington by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an early supporter of the U.S. anti-terror campaign, President Bush promised an additional $92.3 million in military assistance.

During a Nov. 20 meeting at the White House, Bush offered U.S. ground forces to help take on the Abu Sayyaf, but Arroyo rejected the proposal on the grounds that it would violate the Philippine constitution, according to Philippine officials. Appearing with Arroyo before cameras after the Oval Office meeting, Bush said, "We will cooperate in any way she suggests in getting rid of Abu Sayyaf."

The Philippine government's commitment to tackle international terrorism and its decision to accept U.S. training and equipment have restored a nearly century-old military relationship with the United States that was decimated in 1992 after the Philippine government refused to renew the leases for two U.S. military bases.

"The fight against terrorism requires countries to work together," said Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes. "There is a lot the United States can do to help us. But it's also a two-way street. There are also things we can teach the Americans about fighting an insurgency on the ground."

But the U.S. presence has prompted criticism from some politicians here, who see it as a breach of sovereignty and the first step toward the reestablishment of U.S. bases in the Philippines -- something Blair, the commander in the Pacific, said the Pentagon has no intention of doing. Others have voiced doubt about the extent of the U.S. operation here, questioning whether the links between the Abu Sayyaf and al Qaeda are clear enough to justify such a large aid package and training operation.

Abu Sayyaf, whose name means "Father of the Sword," was founded a decade ago by Abdujarak Abubakar Janjalani, a Filipino who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight against Soviet forces. Upon his return to the Philippines, he broke ranks with the largest Muslim rebel group in the country, the Moro National Liberation Front. He said it was not aggressive enough in fighting for an independent state for Filipino Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the population in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. Janjalani is a former preacher who, like the Taliban, advocates a form of Islam that forbids music and movies.

The group drew upon the disenchantment of Muslims in the southern Philippines, many of whom say they have lost economic opportunities to Catholic settlers from the north. The movement also attracted financial support from Muslim nations, particularly Libya, according to Philippine officials.

In 1991, the group staged its first major attack, the bombing of a missionary boat that killed two foreign evangelists. Other bombings, as well as raids on military posts and kidnappings, soon followed.

After Janjalani's return from Afghanistan, he befriended a man named Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, who is bin Laden's brother-in-law. Khalifa had set up a Muslim charity in the southern Philippines called the International Islamic Relief Organization, which funded orphanages, medical clinics and schools. Philippine authorities say Khalifa also bankrolled the Abu Sayyaf, helping the group buy weapons and ammunition.

Khalifa was accused of helping set up terrorist cells in the Philippines and also had links to Abdul Hakim Murad, a bin Laden operative arrested in the Philippines in 1995 in connection with an attempt to kill Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila. Under interrogation, Murad also admitted his involvement in a plot to bomb 12 U.S. airliners simultaneously and then fly an airplane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Murad's roommate in Manila was Ramzi Yousef, who helped plan the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Khalifa left the Philippines in 1995, and three years later, Janjalani was killed in a firefight with the army. After Janjalani's death, the group split into two factions -- one headed by his brother, Khadaffy, and the other by Ghalib Andang, who uses the nom de guerre "Commander Robot" -- and turned to kidnapping for profit.

From there, Philippine officials said, the links between the Abu Sayyaf and bin Laden become murkier. "After Khalifa, we cannot say that we have hard documentary evidence, but the circumstantial evidence is very strong," said Roilo Golez, Arroyo's national security adviser.

In June 2000, Andang told the Philippine Inquirer newspaper that bin Laden was the group's only outside source of funding. Last year, after the faction under Andang's command kidnapped 21 people from a Malaysian diving resort, he demanded the release of Yousef and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, both of whom are serving life sentences for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And two Yemeni men are believed to have visited the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan in September to provide weapons and training, according to Philippine intelligence officials.

Blair said U.S. intelligence officials have seen "increasing evidence of potential current links to al Qaeda," but he declined to specify what they are. He said the historical connections are "enough to make us think this is a group that is important to take out from the campaign-against-terrorism point of view."

Among Philippine officials, the connection to al Qaeda is less important. To them, the Abu Sayyaf has been nothing short of a national embarrassment, one that has scared off tourists and foreign investors.

The group's most recent kidnapping spree began in March 2000 when it stormed the Malaysian resort, snatching divers from Germany, France and South Africa. They held the captives for months before the Libyan government paid an estimated $25 million in ransom, which the group used to lure new recruits and purchase new equipment, including rocket-launchers and speedboats than can outrun the fastest Philippine navy watercraft.

The group struck again in May, when Khadaffy Janjalani's faction kidnapped 20 people, including the Burnhams and one other American, from a Philippine beach resort. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, of Corona, Calif., was beheaded by the rebels in June.

In addition to the two resort raids, the group has taken dozens of Filipinos hostage, many of them on Basilan and on nearby Jolo island. Andang's faction is based on Jolo, where he is believed to have about 500 fighters under his command, while Janjalani's group has staked claim to Basilan.

In the past few months, about 4,500 soldiers have fanned out through Basilan's hilly central regions, engaging the rebels in several firefights. Cimatu said the encounters have whittled the size of the group on that island down to about 60 men, who are divided into two groups.

Now, however, locating them has become much tougher, he said, because the rebels are not giving away their hide-outs by shooting at approaching troops. "It's like the game of hide-and-seek," he said. "They don't want us to find them."

Several Basilan residents said they doubt the Philippine military can handle the job alone. "I hope the Americans will come in here like they did in World War II," said Erlinda Manuel, 59, an elementary-school teacher who was held by the Abu Sayyaf for three months last year. "They liberated us then. I hope they will do it again."

-------- us

Pentagon Orders New Flight Tests for Osprey
Official Questions Aircraft's Unique Design

By Mary Pat Flaherty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14796-2001Dec21?language=printer

Test flights of the V-22 Osprey will resume in April in a make-or-break effort to resolve whether the innovative but controversial aircraft is safe and reliable, the Defense Department said yesterday.

In announcing the renewed testing, the Pentagon's acquisition chief expressed his personal doubts about the aircraft and its design. "But the only way to prove the case one way or the other is to put the airplane back into flight test," said Edward "Pete" Aldridge, undersecretary of defense.

The V-22s have been grounded since last December after two fatal accidents that killed 23 Marines. Investigations into the crashes and a special Pentagon inquiry uncovered numerous flaws in the aircraft that caused production to be trimmed to a minimum while redesign and reengineering could be done.

However, Aldridge said yesterday that he has concerns about the fundamental "tilt-rotor" technology that underlies the V-22 and makes it unique. The V-22 has two giant propellers at the end of 20-foot arms that tilt forward to let the V-22 fly like a plane but that also can be tilted overhead to enable the Osprey to land and take off like a helicopter.

Previous reviews of the V-22 program have not called into question that basic design even as they cited improvements that needed to be made in the Osprey's mechanics and computer programs to get it ready for day-to-day use.

"My concerns were on the aerodynamic characteristics of this airplane," Aldridge said. Those concerns seem to raise the bar for what the V-22 must prove to persuade the Pentagon to resume full production.

Twenty Ospreys had been delivered to the Marine Corps before the grounding, and the Marines had hoped to buy a total of 360 in a $40 billion program stretching to 2007. Those plans were put on hold while the redesign was undertaken.

For the next round of testing, four Ospreys will be flown out of Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. David Nevers. Those Ospreys will feature improvements in the compartments -- called nacelles -- that house the massive engines and in the software that controls the aircraft. Problems in both areas were cited as causes of the most recent fatal crash, in December 2000.

As testing proceeds, existing Ospreys will be retrofitted to incorporate improvements, Nevers said.

Among the other areas to be tested is the V-22's performance at low speeds, Aldridge said. The V-22's handling in certain combinations of speed and rapid descent was called into question by the investigation of the April 2000 fatal crash. That crash was caused by pilot error, the Marines concluded. But information uncovered in that accident investigation -- and again in the special Pentagon review of the entire Osprey program -- raised questions about whether the Osprey had been aggressively tested under certain speed conditions that may have also figured into the accident.

Those questions mimic the concerns Aldridge raised yesterday about the V-22's aerodynamics that can lead to control problems. "I think we can ultimately fix it, but I want it to be proven that we can fix it," he said.

The V-22 squadron is based at New River, N.C., but has been reduced to about 70 members from a peak of about 250 earlier this year.

In addition to the fatal accidents and ongoing problems with reliability that kept them on the ground, the squadron also endured an investigation into charges that maintenance records on the Osprey were doctored to improve its profile. That investigation resulted in the squadron commander and his boss losing their commands and being reassigned after they were found guilty of misconduct.

The maintenance scandal, the Marines said, played no part in the accidents.

----

In Terrorism War, Another Stage
Bush Offers to Provide U.S. Troops to Other Countries

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14790-2001Dec21?language=printer

President Bush, opening a new and potentially protracted front in his war on terrorism, offered yesterday to provide U.S. troops to other countries to fight terrorism on their soil.

His tone ranging from jovial to defiant, Bush spent much of yesterday offering year-end assessments of his progress in disrupting terrorism over the past 14 weeks, punctuated by his grim promise that "next year will be a war year."

"If a nation comes to us and says, 'We want some help,' something other than logistical help -- Special Forces, for example -- we'll get it done," Bush said during a late afternoon meeting with wire service reporters. "Our war on terrorism extends way beyond Afghanistan."

Earlier this week, Bush called Osama bin Laden a rabbit who eventually will be smoked out of his hole. Yesterday, during the first of two reflective sessions with reporters, Bush compared him to a snake.

"I don't know where he is; I haven't heard much from him recently," Bush said, appearing in the Oval Office in late morning with first lady Laura Bush.

"He could be in a cave that doesn't have an opening to it anymore, or could be in a cave where he can get out, or may have tried to slither out into neighboring Pakistan. We don't know. But I will tell you this: We're going to find him."

A combination of the holiday season and the military triumph in Afghanistan seemed to salve the cares of war for Bush. He was in such a merry mood that he didn't even complain about the Senate's failure to pass an economic stimulus package, which has been a daily rant for Bush and administration officials for most of the month.

Asked if he was angry at anyone in Congress, he said, "I'm not angry at all. I'm joyous. I welcome the holiday season."

In fact, Bush did not take the bait when asked if the nation needed a package of tax cuts, tax rebates, unemployment-benefit extensions and health care for the newly jobless. Bush called the so far fruitless quest for a stimulus bill disappointing but did not commit when asked if such a bill was a "must" for Congress next year.

"We'll see," Bush said. "We'll see when we come back and take a look."

The presidency might be a burden in these times, but it seemed to rest lightly for at least a day.

"All in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me," Bush said. "We're so grateful to be living in this compound and I'm grateful to be working in this office. It's a joy to walk in here every morning, realizing that I'm the president of the greatest country on the face of the Earth."

By Bush's telling, his typical day has a grim beginning. "My main job, my main worry for America is to prevent another attack," he said. "Every morning at 6:50 a.m. in the morning, I come in here and I think about the possibilities."

The president included one tough challenge to other countries, insisting that they act against terrorism rather than just denounce it.

"Many of the world leaders that have been here in the Oval Office will tell you that one of the strong messages that I send is, thank you for your condolences; I appreciate your flowers; now arrest somebody if they're in your country," he said.

"I'm real proud of how the administration and our government have responded to the attacks on America," he said. "Got a good strategy in the first phase of the war, to rout terror. Held the doctrine that says that we will bring the murderers to justice and we will hold those accountable who help the murderers. Responded quickly to threats to our homeland."

Then he was asked if he had any goals or time lines for measuring the cooperation of members of his coalition.

"All the time, we're reminding people that this is a performance-oriented world -- if you want to win the war on terror, you must perform," he said. "You asked a very interesting question: Do you keep a scorecard? And the answer is, I do. I do, because I'm an old baseball guy and I like to keep the score. I like to see who's performing and who's not performing. It's a part of being a coalition."

Always quick to make the personal connection, Bush noted that Gen. Tommy Franks, the American commander of the war in Afghanistan, was one year ahead of the first lady at Midland Lee High School in Texas, where he said they "were Fighting Rebels together."

"Tommy Franks said something interesting the other day," Bush said. "Tommy said, 'This war -- the phase of this war is kind of like a baseball game.' Of course, my ears perked up. He said there will be a lot of moments of boredom, and then there would be some great joy."

----

Rules loosened for U.S. troops

December 22, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011222-38954134.htm

U.S. commanders have given special-operations troops more latitude to attack al Qaeda terrorists trying to flee Afghanistan's Tora Bora region for the Pakistani border.

The change came after The Washington Times, in yesterday's editions, quoted a senior military official as saying American commandos hunting al Qaeda troops had to get approval from U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., before attacking in some circumstances.

A U.S. military combatant in Afghanistan said yesterday that special-operations forces no longer are subject to the strict rules of engagement that hamstrung their efforts.

"The rules have now been changed, enabling them to carry out their job of attacking the al Qaeda," the source said, adding: "If they see someone trying to get out of Afghanistan and are certain they are al Qaeda, they can destroy those people without approval. [Central Command] had never said that before."

After spotting enemy fighters during night surveillance missions, U.S. covert warriors previously had to describe what they saw to Tampa before receiving permission to fire, the senior military official said earlier this week. The battlefield red tape allowed al Qaeda terrorists to escape into Pakistan, the source said.

A spokesman for Gen. Tommy Franks, who heads Central Command, declined to comment for yesterday's report in The Times, saying the command does not publicly discuss specific rules of engagement.

At the Pentagon yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld responded to The Times' article at a news conference.

Mr. Rumsfeld, who often has talked of the need to eliminate the al Qaeda terrorists now so that they do not surface in another country and plan new operations, defended the rules of engagement as "leaning forward, not back."

Said Mr. Rumsfeld: "There's an article that appears in today's paper that quotes a military official speaking about the issue of rules of engagement . Let me say that the rules of engagement we have issued are aggressive, they're appropriate, and they have our forces leaning forward, not back. Gen. Franks and his team at Central Command are doing a fine job. The soldiers understand the rules.

"They are checked periodically to see that they understand the rules. We don't discuss precise aspects of rules of engagement, but I can say that there are areas where they are permitted to assume that anyone in there is an enemy and may be dealt with. There are other areas where it requires reasonable identification, which is certainly understandable, and a belief that they are an enemy, to engage them.

"Any suggestion that at any level of the command structure, from the secretary of defense down to the soldiers, that anyone should be leaning back would be inaccurate by a wide margin. They are instructed to understand the rules of engagement, to follow them. And the rules of engagement are leaning forward, and that is well understood," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

For the past several weeks, American and British special-operations troops have been fighting a nighttime war in the White Mountains around Tora Bora in northeastern Afghanistan. They ride in on helicopters at night and go on patrols, using stealth and sophisticated night-vision equipment to find escaping al Qaeda fighters.

Two weeks ago, anti-Taliban Afghans routed most of the al Qaeda forces from the caves of Tora Bora, but failed to find their leader, Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Since then, those al Qaeda troops who escaped U.S. bombing and capture have moved at night to try to make the 30-mile journey to Pakistan. Pakistan's forces have captured hundreds of al Qaeda troops along the border.

Mr. Rumsfeld said yesterday that U.S. commandos had engaged in "dust-ups" with al Qaeda fighters in Tora Bora.

Military sources say Gen. Franks has placed strict rules of engagement on air strikes and ground action to ensure the United States does not inadvertently kill civilians and enrage the Muslim world. The general wants to ensure that people identified at a distance and at night as being part of the al Qaeda network are not being mistaken for Afghan refugees making their way back inside Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Bin Laden's Muslim fundamentalist followers have portrayed the campaign in Afghanistan as a war by the West against Islam. President Bush has said, however, that the war is being waged against terrorists, not Muslims.

Gen. Franks, a four-star Army artillery officer who fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, has been criticized within Air Force circles as well.

Some Air Force sources say Gen. Franks was too cautious during the height of the air campaign in October and November, nixing targets that contained concentrations of Taliban and al Qaeda forces. Gen. Franks' supporters defend him by saying he was worried about civilian, or collateral, casualties.

The senior military source told The Times of an incident earlier this week when Army special-operations troops had to reposition twice while tracking 22 al Qaeda soldiers as they waited for U.S. Central Command in Tampa to approve an attack. The commandos eventually received permission and launched their raid.

--------

THE GROUND WAR
More American Troops Are Ordered to Join Cave-to-Cave Search for Al Qaeda

New York Times
December 22, 2001
By THOM SHANKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/22/international/asia/22MILI.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that he was ordering more American troops to search the caves of Tora Bora, and described the effort as crucially important for capturing die-hard members of Al Qaeda, seizing their weapons and uncovering intelligence on terror attacks now being planned.

The extra troops, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, would be joined by troops from other nations and by local Afghan militia, Pentagon officials said.

In approving the request for more troops by Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of American forces in the war, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "whatever is needed will be sent."

Fighting has quieted around Tora Bora, and American warplanes have found no targets to bomb there for at least two days. But as the new mission for the troops shows, the combat is not over.

President Bush today described their latest orders by saying: "Now we're on the hunt. And we're chasing one or two, three or four, 20 individuals at a time. And this is pretty rugged country, as you know. And so we're slowly but surely chasing down every single lead."

Mr. Rumsfeld said the caves at Tora Bora are "being triaged and put in priority order" to be searched. He said the effort by American and Afghan forces to comb the caves, not only for Al Qaeda fighters but for intelligence on their operations, had already paid dividends.

"There has been information that has been gathered in Afghanistan that has directly resulted in the arrest of people across the world," he said. Interrogations and arrests resulting from the information "undoubtedly have prevented other terrorist activities," he added without elaborating. "So it's a very worthwhile thing to be doing."

American combat aircraft did strike a convoy west of Khost. While an Afghan Islamic Press report said that tribal elders on their way to Kabul were in the vehicles, the Defense Department expressed certainty tonight that the AC-130 gunships and Navy jets found their desired targets: Taliban fleeing a compound that also was attacked.

In the hunt for Al Qaeda members - and their leader, Osama bin Laden - about 50 Special Operations troops have been working with anti-Taliban forces or operating independently at Tora Bora, Pentagon and military officials said in recent days. Some British forces are also deployed.

Military officials said that a mix of Marine and Army troops was under consideration, with the emphasis being placed on using some of the 2,000 marines already acclimated to operations in Afghanistan - those now at Kandahar airport and at Camp Rhino to the southwest of the city.

War planners were weighing the risk of pulling marines from the airport, where a detention facility for prisoners is being built, before deciding whether additional marines must be flown in from ships in the North Arabian Sea. The strategists are also considering whether Army units from the region will have to be called upon, Pentagon officials said.

Members of the 10th Mountain Division, whose training at Fort Drum, N.Y., emphasizes cold-weather combat, are currently at a base in neighboring Uzbekistan.

While the chase for members of Al Qaeda is under way around the caves of Tora Bora, American warplanes continued their hunt for fleeing members of the fallen Taliban regime, said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

General Pace said today that a 10- to 12-vehicle "convoy of leadership that was identified through various intelligence means" was attacked by AC-130 gunships and Navy aircraft launched from carriers. He said that the "command and control compound from which they left was also struck."

Shortly after General Pace's statement, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted local residents who said that the convoy contained not Taliban fighters but supporters of the incoming government and its leader, Hamid Karzai. The report said that 65 tribal elders and other anti-Taliban fighters were going to Kabul for the inauguration Saturday of the new government when they were killed by the American strike.

Upon hearing the report, the United States Central Command, which is in charge of the Afghanistan campaign, reviewed its prestrike intelligence, information on the attack and after-action reports. By tonight, the Pentagon was saying it was sure of its target.

"There is no doubt in their mind that they hit what they wanted to hit and that it was the bad guys," Lt. Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said after speaking to officers at Central Command.

One military officer tonight gave additional details on the strike, saying that the convoy had left a compound in the village of Karezgay, about 25 miles west of Khost, when it was attacked about 11 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday.

It was a rare airstrike after days in which most warplanes returned with weapons still under their wings.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the campaign was in "a somewhat different phase."

"And one does not bomb unless there is something to bomb. That is to say that you have an identified target that you feel would be worthwhile to attack. And it is not appropriate to be bombing in Tora Bora when in fact you have people crawling around in caves and tunnels. That would be highly inappropriate."

Even so, the Pentagon announced that it was deploying a new experimental warhead designed to penetrate deep into caves. It would use precise guidance and enormously powerful explosives, sending a pulse of blast, pressure and fire deep into caves.

The weapon, termed a thermobaric bomb, is an updated version of the fuel-air explosive. The warhead scatters a wide cloud of explosive particles before detonating, and its range of destructive power is based on the same principle of physics as a mine-shaft explosion caused by coal dust.

The new penetrating warhead, called a BLU-118B, was being rushed to Afghanistan after a successful test in Nevada a week ago. "The fight for the caves is not over," said one senior military officer. "Even if it's not used for these specific caves, it will be ready for the next caves in the next war."

A number of weapons, including the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance drone, have moved from experimentation to the field of combat in this war. In addition, the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle has been used with laser target designators and Hellfire missiles for the first time in Afghanistan.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Berenson transferred to high Andean prison

World Scene
Washington Times*90
December 22, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011222-25452776.htm

LIMA, Peru - American Lori Berenson, who is serving a 20-year sentence for collaborating with leftists guerrillas in a failed plot to seize Peru's Congress, was transferred yesterday from a Lima prison to one high in the Andes, a government spokesman said.

Berenson, 32, was transferred from Lima to Cajamarca, some 350 miles north, a spokesman for Peru's National Prison Institute said.

A radio station said Berenson was moved for disciplinary reasons. The institute spokesman said he could not confirm it.

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Justice finishing questioning of 5,000 foreigners

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 22, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011222-86270198.htm

The Justice Department yesterday said it has nearly completed the questioning of more than 5,000 foreign men in connection with the September 11 attacks on America, and that the interviews generated a number of leads that could help in future anti-terrorism investigations.

Those questioned included men 18 to 33 who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas from countries that U.S. intelligence officials have determined have al Qaeda terrorist presence or activity.

Justice officials said the department received progress reports from the 94 U.S. Attorneys' Offices nationwide and terrorism task forces across the country, showing that the project was "proceeding smoothly and appears to be on pace to be substantially completed by today."

Nearly all of the individuals located were described by the department as "extremely cooperative and forthcoming in answering questions." They said most of the individuals expressed support for the country's fight against terrorism and a willingness to help.

Some of those interviewed, they said, volunteered to assist as interpreters or in some other fashion. There were a very small group of individuals who declined to be interviewed and their wishes were respected, they said.

Although, the department has only partial results from the interviews because the completed interviews must be documented in reports that will be subject to further analysis, several leads were generated that appear related to the September 11 investigation.

Also, the officials said, there was information gathered that will be helpful more generally in the country's anti-terrorism efforts.

"The success of this effort is attributable to the federal agents and state and local officers who conducted the interviews with unfailing professionalism," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "In addition to yielding valuable information about terrorist activities, the interviews have been an excellent example of federal, state and local partnership.

"My sincerest thanks go out to all of the interviewees who cooperated voluntarily in this process. These individuals made a choice to be responsible for helping save lives, instead of remaining silent against evil," he said.

Some on the list could not be located, the majority of whom had moved to another part of the country or left the United States entirely.

Under the program, the Justice Department came up with an initial list of 5,146 men. Mr. Ashcroft, in a Nov. 9 memo to federal prosecutors around the country, requested that the interviews be completed within 30 days.

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Bush's Budget To Include Big Security Boost

By Eric Pianin and Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14957-2001Dec21?language=printer

President Bush will make a dramatic increase in spending on homeland security initiatives the centerpiece of his fiscal 2003 budget, including more than a doubling of funds for local police, firefighters and other "first responders" and a major boost for public health agencies and hospitals, according to administration and congressional sources.

The budget will also propose increased funding for research into bioterrorism and for regional "doomsday rehearsals," in which state and local officials would practice their response to an attack. The administration will seek billions more to buy costly baggage inspection and security equipment for the commercial airline industry.

Administration and congressional budget officials said yesterday that Congress has approved nearly $20 billion this year for homeland security activities, with most of that authorized after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. The president's budget for the coming year would increase that spending by at least $15 billion -- a 43 percent increase -- while Congress is likely to press for even more, according to administration and congressional budget experts.

Without providing a specific figure, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday that the White House has settled on "substantial increases in spending" that would place the greatest emphasis on helping first responders and public health care agencies prepare for the possibility of renewed terrorist activities.

"There are some pretty glaring needs out there," Ridge said during an interview in his White House office. "Getting ramped up -- particularly equipment, training and coordination and plans -- is very, very important. . . . It is a major infusion of dollars for the first responders."

Between the homeland security programs and the war on terrorism, Bush is setting the stage for a potentially bruising budget battle next year on Capitol Hill. With once hefty budget surpluses all but gone, the administration and congressional leaders will have to cut deeply into other domestic programs to pay for the president's initiatives. Congressional leaders were forced to table several domestic proposals this year, including a prescription drug benefit and health care reforms, and pressure will build to spend more in those areas.

A former governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge took control of the new Office of Homeland Security in early October. He has worked closely with Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, and other senior administration officials to prepare spending recommendations for the coming year. The internal administration budget deliberations represent one of the first real tests of Ridge's clout, and so far he appears to be getting much of what he wants.

G. William Hoagland, the Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee, said that the debate over homeland security within the government will intensify as Democrats seek to increase spending, Republicans try to remain within Bush's budget parameters and some government agencies try to redefine their missions as "homeland defense" to attract more funding.

"We could easily end up spending $40 billion on homeland security by the end of the next budget cycle," Hoagland said.

Spending for increased transportation security will be one of the most expensive items in the new budget, Hoagland said. Congress this year authorized the creation of a transportation security agency and ordered the purchase of 300,000 pieces of sophisticated equipment for screening luggage and passengers at airports next year -- at an estimated cost of $6 billion.

With mounting fear of bioterrorism, the administration is seeking $1.2 billion to stockpile emergency medicines, including an anthrax vaccine and enough smallpox vaccine for every American.

Ridge has told state legislators that he views the money to be provided in Bush's fiscal 2003 budget to be just a "down payment," and he reiterated yesterday that it will be necessary to build on that in the future. "This year is identifying some of the immediate needs, and then beginning in 2004 building on those needs and moving forward," he said.

According to Ridge, the president's budget proposal -- which will be presented to Congress after his State of the Union address next month -- will stress the importance of providing substantial additional assistance to first responders, who were central to saving lives after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The government this year is spending $908 million to help local police, firefighters, ambulance drivers and health care officials respond to emergency situations. That figure would more than double to roughly $2 billion under Bush's new budget, according to administration sources.

Ridge said the administration would funnel those additional funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the form of a "menu" of block grants, which could be tailored to the specific needs of local authorities, such as bolstered training and equipment.

Ridge said there also would be a substantial increase in spending by the Department of Health and Human Services on regional and local public health agencies and hospitals to expand research and the availability of hospital beds, improve the detection and treatment of diseases, and better prepare for attacks.

Administration officials are concerned that the recent trends of hospital consolidation and increasing outpatient treatment have left many public and private hospitals without enough beds, equipment and supplies to handle large numbers of victims in the event of another large-scale terrorist attack.

"You see some hospitals are closing, some are reducing the number of floors, but at the same time we're saying to a region, 'Well, be ready in the event of a catastrophic situation to have beds available,' " Ridge said. "So we want to help hospitals do that."

One area that the budget plan does not address is the staggering cost of police overtime that has accumulated at the state and local levels and is expected to continue. The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that cities will need $1.5 billion to cover the extra security expenses over the year that began Sept. 11 -- a figure that does not include New York City. Ridge said that while the administration is sympathetic to such needs, no decision has been made on whether to provide funding to help defray the costs.

In the past month, a steady stream of law enforcement, government and health care officials has come to Washington, pleading with Congress and the White House for emergency and long-term financial help.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have heard testimony in recent weeks from governors, mayors, county executives, medical specialists, and police and fire officials. Ridge and his staff have met with many of the same people and heard the same arguments about the need to spend billions of dollars on crisis preparation and response.

The National Governors Association has estimated that states will require at least $4 billion a year for enhanced security, public health and dealing with bioterrorism. The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties also have been pushing for help, and a coalition was formed recently to lobby for more money and training for hospitals, public health systems, and fire and emergency rescue workers.

Richard J. Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, said the group recently estimated that the nation's 4,900 hospitals will require $11.3 billion to enable their facilities to handle a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. This includes improved communications systems, training, more beds, personal protective equipment and various supplies. That projection doesn't take into account related needs of public health systems and fire and rescue personnel, Pollack said.

"We welcome Governor Ridge's recognition that front-line responders are going to need the increased resources and commitment from the federal government for upgrading our capacity to care for people in the event of these kinds of tragedies," Pollack said.


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'Let sleeping sediments lie'

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
December 22, 2001
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20011222-75858155.htm#4

On Dec. 4, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman chose to go ahead with a Clinton administration plan and ordered General Electric to dredge or pay for the dredging of 40 miles of the upper Hudson River at an estimated cost of half a billion dollars ("Dredging up more junk science," Dec.6. The purpose of the dredging is to remove about 2.65 million cubic yards of sediment containing PCBs that has been benignly buried for a generation.

The problem is that The PCBs were legally discharged, under the authority of both federal and state permits, into the northern Hudson River from factories in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls until 1977, when the substances were banned by the federal government despite there being no scientifically established evidence that PCBs are a probable human carcinogen - or that they cause any sort of human malady.

In a March 1999 peer-reviewed study, the largest ever study of occupational exposure to toxic PCB chemicals, involving more than 7,000 men and women who worked from 1946 to 1976 in these two GE factories, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dr. Renate Kimbrough and Martha Doemland, an epidemiologist with the Institute for Evaluating Health Risks, found no association between actual exposure to PCBs and death from cancer or other diseases. The March 1999 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine published a peer-reviewed study of 7,000 men and women who worked from 1946 to 1976 at these two GE factories (the largest ever study of occupational exposure to toxic PCB chemicals). In it, Dr. Renate Kimbrough and epidemiologist Martha Doemland found no association between exposure to PCBs and death from cancer or other diseases.

They actually found that, despite workers having PCB levels in their blood as high as several thousand parts per billion (ppb), compared to average levels in the general population of from 4 ppb to 8 ppb, they were actually less likely to die from cancer than expected in a statistically similar sample.

The study's lead author, Dr. Kimbrough, says "there was no association between PCB exposure and deaths from cancer or any other disease, including heart attacks and strokes" and that these findings were "consistent with the finds not "findings" of four other earlier studies conducted by other researchers of workers in the same plants."

As in the case of asbestos, the removal operation may prove more harmful than just leaving the stuff where it is. The EPA should let sleeping sediments lie.

DANIEL JOHN SOBIESKI
Chicago


-------- activists

25 Things We've Learned Since 9/11

by Bernard Weiner
December 22, 2001
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/weiner4.html

As the first year in the new millennium draws to a close, it might help us sort out what's happened in the past three months - and thus how to respond - by compiling a summary list of What We Know.

WHAT WE KNOW

1. As was the case with various other major mass-murder bombings (East African embassies, USS Cole in Yemen, U.S. barracks in Saudi Arabia, etc.) we know that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda was behind the Twin Towers/Pentagon attacks.

2. We know that the Bush Administration, like the administrations before it, was exceedingly lax when it came to security matters, including the amassing and analysis of intelligence about terror groups. (But the CIA and FBI, rather than being investigated and perhaps punished, got their budgets increased instead.)

3. We know that the Bush Administration and its corporate friends had its eyes on Afghanistan as a possible war zone - and possible location for a Central Asian oil pipeline - before September 11.

4. We know that the Bush Administration was wise enough to see in 9/11 the homeland beginnings of the new type of war - low-tech means to carry out high-tech-like results - and began to organize a war on terrorism that is worldwide in scope and ambition.

5. We know that the Bush Administration made secret bilateral deals with various countries in order to bring them into this anti-terrorist coalition, specifically with Russia, the "stans," perhaps China and Indonesia also.

6. We know that the Bush policy of massive bombing from the air, combined with support for the local anti-Taliban forces on the ground (and then introducing select US units on the ground), was able to do much more psychological and logistical damage than was originally thought could be possible in such a limited time-frame.

7. We know that the Taliban and Al Qaeda made strategic withdrawals and "surrenders" in order not to engage the overwhelming force against them, and disappeared into Pakistan, the mountains, the villages, conserving their strength for other battles later. In short, we're in a deceptively quiet period at the moment.

8. We know that even with a US policy of limiting "collateral damage" to civilians, perhaps as many as several thousand innocent Afghans were killed and injured, and several million became internal refugees.

9. We know that bin Laden and his network have chemical, biological and nuclear ambitions, and may well have created crude weapons of mass destruction.

10. We know that even with the arrests and detentions of Al Qaeda agents and supporters, "sleeper" agents are still living in the 60 nations where bin Laden has operatives. US intelligence agencies estimate that about 70% of Al Qaeda's sleepers are still in place around the world.

11. We know that even if Bush had no exact foreknowledge of 9/11 events, he has used those terrorist attacks - and the popular response of the citizenry to his handling of the crisis - as a "cover" to try to force his right-wing social and economic agenda through the Congress, and has been fairly successful in so doing.

12. We know that Bush feels emboldened enough by his high popularity ratings to even attempt an end-run around the Constitution's Bill of Rights in terms of shrinking civil-liberties protections for those suspected of terrorist connections - all this rationalized by "protecting the homeland" and "national security." And, by and large, a frightened citizenry has gone along, preferring security seemingly at any price - and not paying much attention to how quickly citizens can be treated like non-citizens.

13. We know that the Democrats in Congress have felt constrained to support Bush's anti-terrorist policies - even when many of them knew the damage those policies could cause to representative democracy and the Constitution - because of fear of being seen as insufficiently "patriotic." And so, frustrated as hell by their war constraints, they are (thank goodness!) being much less friendly to the Bush agenda on other domestic matters.

14. We know that so successful and swift has the U.S.-led coalition been in the early weeks, with Muslim opposition fairly muted and containable, that the Bush Administration feels it can begin attacks in other countries suspected of harboring terrorists.

15. We know that there is no clearly understood definition of the word "terrorist." One man's or country's "terrorist" is another man's or country's "freedom fighter." So far, this fuzziness of definition has not caused major problems - but it surely will.

16. We know that there has been no declaration of a State of War by the Congress, only a resolution authorizing the President to do what must be done in combating the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attack on the US mainland.

17. We know that, especially in the heartland captured by Bush in 2000 but way beyond as well, a new kind of McCarthyism is rearing its head, taking its lead from Bush's "you're-either-with us-or-you're-with-the-terrorists" kind of demagoguery and Ashcroft's equation of criticism with aiding terrorists. Already, those deemed insufficiently patriotic are being blacklisted in academia and journalism, with the result being self-censorship.

18. We know that because of Bush's popularity and the way anti-terror war news dominates the headlines and energies, so many aspects of Bush's right-wing policies are going insufficiently examined, especially with regard to environmental and judicial matters. And the Enron scandal, which involves Bush on the periphery, is barely visible, whereas Whitewater was front page scandal for months.

19. We know that because the Muslim reaction in the Middle East has been relatively muted, the US decided it didn't need to do anything major to keep the Palestinians happy. It said the right words about the need for a "Palestinian state," but it essentially left the Palestinians to the tender mercies of Ariel Sharon's military campaign.

20. We know that if Arafat is eliminated as the Palestinians' viable leader, the Israelis will have to face Hamas and Hizbollah, which the US has declared are terrorist organizations.

21. We know that Israeli intelligence officials have acknowledged that peace and security will not, and cannot, be obtained through military means, and that only a political settlement will work.

22. We know that peace and security will come in the Middle East when, and only when, Israel withdraws from the Occupied Territories - including withdrawing all Israelis from the settlements (thus turning them over to returning Palestinian refugees) - and the Palestinians formally acknowledge Israel's right to exist and agree to international status for Jerusalem. But knowing that - and knowing that the Israelis and Palestinians also know that - means nothing in the current violence unless somebody else steps in to help arrange the peace. The US must be at the heart of that peacemaking process.

23. We know that helping bring peace to the Palestine area will also, in the long run, reduce the impetus for terrorism among fundamentalist Arabs. Along the same lines, we know that altering other policies in the Mideast likewise will help alter the soil in which terrorism grows - such as more economic justice and jobs, such as removing U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia, such as encouraging more democratic reforms in the area, etc. We know that Bush, thinking that armed intervention and threats can do the job, does not want to alter US policy along these lines.

24. We know that we could significantly reduce our dependence on Mideast oil (perhaps as much as 20%) - with the concomitant political ramifications - simply by legislatively ordering that our automobiles be made more energy-efficient, say, by five miles more per gallon. We know that Bush does not want to do this.

25. We know that the progressive left is in disarray, not certain how to respond to Bush's expanded-war policies and civil liberties outrages. But we also know that we have to devise a strategy - one that includes reasonable policies to go after the fanatic terrorist cells and networks - before full-fledged fascism is the "wartime" norm in this country.

Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught government and international politics at Western Washington University and San Diego State University; he was with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly two decades.

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Minister Gives List of Unsavory Toys

By Kathryn Masterson
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2001; 4:39 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17429-2001Dec22?language=printer

HARTFORD, Conn. -- It started in 1986, when the Rev. Christopher Rose was a new father and went to a toy store to find a gift for his son. He was shocked by toys depicting nuclear disasters and offended they were being sold during the Christmas season.

He took to his pulpit at Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford and preached about the toys in a Sunday sermon.

"It took off from there," Rose said.

Fifteen years later, the Sunday sermon has become a news conference, a Web site lists the season's "Top Ten Warped Toys," and Rose is busy giving interviews.

No. 1 on this year's list, issued after Thanksgiving, was Bounce n' Shake Wacky Mike from the Disney movie "Monsters, Inc." When bounced or shaken, the green, one-eyed monster says, "Yikes! Be careful, I bruise easily!" and "Youch! That's gonna leave a mark!"

Rose thinks the talk of bruising and leaving a mark sounds like child abuse.

"What were they thinking when they designed this toy?" Rose wrote on this year's list.

Disney says Wacky Mike is fun, entertaining and family friendly.

"Mike has a slapstick personality that comes through in this fun little product," said Sondra Haley, a spokeswoman for Disney Consumer Products.

Rose knows many people find the "warped toys" funny, such as Oh Deer - The Super Dooper Reindeer Pooper, No. 9 on this year's list.

But toys that make light of prejudices and violence pass along those values to children, Rose says.

To prepare each year's list, Rose subscribes to trade magazines, attends the annual Toy Fair in New York and visits toy stores.

He gets help from a Warped Toy Committee of adults and children.

Last week, church members distributed hundreds of Christmas toys to needy families. Included was a plastic Jurassic Park set with biting dinosaurs.

The Warped Toy Committee refused to put the Jurassic Park toy on the warped list. Their reasoning: "Kids play with dinosaurs," Rose said.

On the Net:
Grace Episcopal: www.gracehartford.org


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