------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Eleven warheads would suffice to crush Canada
DUF6 storage questioned
U.S. Debates Dangers Of Depleted Uranium
India Says It Would Use All Military Might in Defense
Erwin Advises Military Shield
Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
DOE MULLS EXTENDING INCINERATOR
Powell Has Urgency in South Asia
Bush Eases Computer Export Rules

MILITARY
Afghanistan faces an environmental crisis
'Precision weapons' fail to prevent mass civilian casualties
US had no choice but to bomb village: Afghan minister
US is said to buy Stinger missiles back from Afgans
Gunmakers Can Be Sued, Ill. Court Holds
Raytheon Wins Large Military Deal
Colombian guerrillas kill 10 in New Year's Eve attack
India says Kashmir rebels threaten to blow up Taj Mahal
BORDER POST JOURNAL
In Kashmir Sequel, Seeking a New Ending
Israel asks America to strike western Iraq first
Pakistan and India May Seek Diplomacy
50 Militants Arrested in Pakistan
Ignorance is not bliss
US Judge Dismisses Vieques Lawsuit
When Betrayal and Paranoia Are Part of the Job
U.N. launches measles vaccine project in Afghanistan
U.S. Airborne Troops Replacing Marines in Afghanistan
200 Marines on the Move Toward Abandoned Taliban Compound

POLICE / PRISONERS
Sharp rise in reporters jailed or attacked in 2001
Thermal camera may detect lying
Hijack Plot Suspicions Raised With FBI in Aug.
Trial Date Is Set for Suspect, Who Denies Sept. 11 Charges

ENERGY AND OTHER
Federal Utility to Buy Windpower To Advance Energy Security
Natural Protein May Influence Aging
Turkey's new year marks women's rights

ACTIVISTS
Pope says there must not be war in God's name
Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research




-------- NUCLEAR

-------- canada

Eleven warheads would suffice to crush Canada, researchers warn Computerized scenario

David Pugliese
Ottawa Citizen
Reuters
January 2, 2002
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020102/1011746.html

Eleven nuclear missiles targeted at cities would wipe out 25% of Canada's population, scientists believe.

Canada could be destroyed by as few as 11 nuclear warheads, according to a new computer program developed for nuclear weapons researchers in the United States.

The scenario would see Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Calgary and military installations each hit by a 475-kiloton warhead.

"If you take out Canada's major centres, what is there left in terms of medical and rescue services, government, industry and other functions?" asks Matthew McKinzie, a physicist who worked on the computer program for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

"There is not enough to continue functioning as a country. For Canada, 11 weapons will do that."

It took two years for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental and arms control organization, to develop the computer program, now being used by defence analysts and peace organizations.

Mr. McKinzie said he is working on modifying the software for eventual distribution to the public.

The idea behind creating the computer program is to raise questions about the existing U.S. policy of stockpiling thousands of nuclear weapons, he said.

"Why do we need several thousand deployed nuclear weapons when even a few hundred would assure an overwhelming loss of life?" Mr. McKinzie asked.

Using the software, researchers estimated it would take 124 weapons to destroy the United States and 51 to eliminate Russia as a country.

The computer program mimics the U.S. military's SIOP, or Single Integrated Operational Plan, which outlines the targeting of America's nuclear weapons and the likely consequences of each attack.

SIOP is so secret, even members of the U.S. Senate with high-level security clearance are not allowed to know the details.

The Natural Resources Defense Council scientists used such declassified U.S. government information as radioactive fallout projections, satellite photographs, census data and maps of military installations to develop their software.

The computer program comes at a time when tensions among some nuclear powers are increasing.

Over the weekend, India boasted that it could survive a first strike by a Pakistani atomic weapon but its rival would be wiped out in a swift nuclear counterattack.

The new software did not include numbers of weapons that would be needed to destroy either India or Pakistan, but that scenario could be determined.

Mr. McKinzie said to define what constituted the destruction of a country, the researchers followed the U.S. government's policy of mutual assured destruction (MAD).

In 1962, then defense secretary Robert McNamara defined MAD as the ability to use nuclear weapons to kill 25% of a country's population and destroy 50% of its industry. According to the MAD theory, no nation would resort to using nuclear weapons because its own destruction by the country it was attacking would be assured.

The computer program determined that using more nuclear weapons to hit a country does not substantially increase the number of people killed because most of the damage appears to be done in the first wave of attacks.

"The first 11 weapons [used] on Canada kills 25% of the population," explained Mr. McKinzie. "But 22 weapons would only kill 30% of the population."

According to the computer program, smaller countries such as Iraq and North Korea could be destroyed by as few as four nuclear weapons.

To destroy all of the NATO countries, Canada included, would require approximately 300 warheads.

China, because of its large population, would have to be targeted by 368 nuclear weapons.

The United States and Russia still have thousands of nuclear warheads in their stockpiles. Although the U.S. government says it no longer aims its weapons at Russia, it would take only a few minutes to reprogram missile guidance systems to direct them back on to their previous targets.

George W. Bush, the U.S. President, has pledged to cut the American nuclear arsenal. But some defence analysts have warned that Mr. Bush's plan to go ahead with a missile defence system will spark a new nuclear arms race, forcing Russia and China to build more weapons.

The United States has said the missile defence system it wants to build is designed to protect against attacks from such so-called rogue states as North Korea and Iraq.


-------- depleted uranium

DUF6 storage questioned

By VAN ROSE
NW Staff
From: "vcolley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 17:47:50 -0800

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), earlier this month, began accepting public comments on their plans to bring depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities to enrichment plants in both Portsmouth and Paducah, Ky.

It is still undetermined as to what company will be contracted to perform the work. The project is still in its preliminary stages, but some have already begun to question how the department will handle the project, which is meant to convert the DUF6 into a more stable form.

Vina Colley, a former electrician at the Portsmouth plant, feels something should be done with the 16,000 cylinders being stored on site, but is unsure if jobs created would endanger the safety and health of the public or the workers appointed to perform the work.

"I'd have to see their plans for conversion," she said. "Sometimes moving them can be worse than converting them."

Dr. David Manuta, formerly research staff member II at the Portsmouth plant and now president of Manuta Chemical Consulting, Inc., in Waverly, stated earlier this year that it is rare for a DUF6 cylinder to be seriously damaged while being moved into storage.

Manuta admitted that that a number of the steel cylinders are 40 to 50 years old and have been thinned over the years. But in the few times when a cylinder breach has actually occurred, the material has reacted with moisture in the atmosphere, forming nonvolatile substances, he explained.

Lisa Helms, national organizer with the Military Toxics Project in Lewiston, Maine, believes the process of eliminating old facilities to make room for new conversion facilities could pose a significant risk to worker health.

"In the removal of existing facilities during the construction of the conversion facility, current and past workers have expressed that the biggest exposure problems will be in the dust that lies within the facility walls, pipes, air ducts and physical plant," said Helms. But whether or not removal of facilities as mentioned by Helms will be necessary in the project is up in the air, explained DOE spokesperson Walter Perry.

"Until a contract is awarded, it is premature to confirm the removal of any facilities," said DOE spokesperson Walter Perry. "It is up to the successful offeror, as a part of their proposal, to remove any facilities in the area where the conversion facility is to be constructed. If removal is necessary, risks will be evaluated in accordance with health and safety standards to ensure protection of workers and the public."

The Department of Energy will receive public comments on environmental concerns until January 11, 2002. Helms agrees that community input is needed as it is being offered today, but for a longer amount of time.

"We favor a plan that includes and expects full and active involvement from the communities that are most directly effected because we believe that public participation is necessary to ensure a safe and healthy community," said Helms. "Please remove the dates that end the comment period and leave it open indefinitely for continuous input from the public."

The current issue concerning the storage of DUF6 cylinders must be given attention at some point, believes Dr. Manuta. "DOE has recognized they cannot go on forever in this situation," he said. "They cannot be left there forever."

Comments or concerns of an environmental nature regarding the uranium conversion project can be directed by mail to Kevin Shaw, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, EM-32, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874; by fax at (301) 903-3479; or by e-mail at duf6.comments@em.doe.gov. For more information, visit the website at http://web.ead.anl.gov/uranium.

--------

U.S. Debates Dangers Of Depleted Uranium

January 2, 2003
By JOHN J. FIALKA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1041460835983280953,00.html

Sometime next year, Lt. Col. William H. Hedges, a 43-year-old Army training planner, will come to Baltimore for his regular medical checkup.

Most people would find nothing regular about it at all. A team of doctors and scientists will examine his kidneys, his blood, his brain, his urine and his semen for the effects of depleted uranium, a controversial metal that the military uses for some of its antitank weapons. As the result of a "friendly fire" incident during the Gulf War, Mr. Hedges carries at least 15 BB-size pieces of depleted-uranium shrapnel in his body.

That makes him a walking laboratory in the debate over depleted uranium, which some Iraqi critics and some U.S. veterans groups have attacked as an environmental menace created by the American military. At stake in the controversy are both the battle for international opinion concerning Iraq, and whether the Pentagon may eventually be forced to abandon the use of depleted uranium -- its most effective tank penetrator. DRUMBEAT TO WAR See an interactive map detailing the U.S. military preparations for a possible war with Iraq.

For years, soldiers and civilians in several countries have complained of various medical ailments resulting from the use of "DU" in battles from the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. Now, as the U.S. prepares for a second war in Iraq, where both U.S. tanks and A-10 aircraft would carry DU rounds, DU complaints are growing. In October, Iraqi doctors in southern Iraq showed U.S. congressmen evidence of almost a tenfold increase in birth defects, which they and Iraqi officials ascribe to the spread of radiation and poisons in the environment from DU weapons used 11 years ago.

"This is real," insists retiring Rep. David E. Bonior, a Vietnam veteran and former House minority whip who picked three Iraqi hospitals to visit, based on reports he had heard from Iraqi immigrants in Detroit. Mr. Bonior once helped expose the dangers of the Vietnam defoliant Agent Orange and now says "I have a feeling that we're headed down the same path."

So far, many medical experts disagree. Specialists at the Veterans Administration in Baltimore who have tested Col. Hedges and 70 other U.S. veterans exposed to DU in the Gulf War, have accumulated a small mountain of medical evidence that hasn't demonstrated any connection between DU and serious human diseases.

"I think what's been proven by all these methodical studies is that DU is a political irritant," not a medical one, says William M. Arkin, a former Army intelligence officer. Mr. Arkin has studied the issue for Harvard University, Human Rights Watch and Greenpeace. [Illustration of use of depleted uranium]

But the controversy may be having an effect nevertheless. The Defense Department, after spending millions in studies to prove that DU doesn't cause illness, is slowly drifting away from its use despite its advantages. The Marines and the Navy have replaced DU with other types of armor-piercing ammunition. The Air Force's next generation tank killer won't use DU, and the Army is experimenting with alternative armor-penetrating tank shells.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the process by which natural uranium is turned into nuclear weapons. It is only 60% as radioactive as natural uranium, but it is heavier than lead and can keep its shape upon impact with other metal. These features made DU very attractive to the Pentagon.

The U.S. fired over 300 tons of it during the Gulf War, mostly from Air Force A-10 "Warthogs" and from M-1 tanks. U.S. tanks also used layers of DU as additional armor protection. In one battle, according to the Pentagon, three Iraqi T-72 tanks fired on and struck an M-1, only to see their rounds bounce off. The U.S. tank then destroyed all three, hitting the last one by firing a DU round through a sand berm the Iraq tank was trying to hide behind.

The government's evidence on the medical implications of DU begins with 50 years of records on uranium miners. Although hundreds of those miners were exposed to uranium for years, even frequently inhaling powdered uranium, researchers have found no evidence of increased cancer risks, says Melissa A. McDiarmid , a toxicologist who runs the DU testing program in Baltimore. What's more, recent studies of battlefield exposure to DU by the think tank Rand Corp., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.K.'s Royal Society, the European Commission and the World Health Organization all found no ties to cancer or other serious disease.

"We've found no direct links," says Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the DU assessment team for the United Nations Environment Program, which looked at sites in Bosnia and Kosovo. Iraqi doctors have complained about leukemia and birth deformities near Basra, Mr. Arkin notes, but that isn't where the U.S. tanks or A-10s did their fighting. [Image of William Hedges]

Col. Hedges was wounded shortly after dawn on Feb. 27, 1991. After a night of running tank battles against Iraqi forces in the closing hours of the Gulf War, he was leading his company of four tanks when two Iraqi rocket-propelled grenades hit the front of his tank. Another U.S. tank unit almost two miles away saw the grenade explosions and assumed that Col. Hedges's tank was an Iraqi tank firing at them. That unit hit Col. Hedges's tank with three 120mm DU rounds, killing its gunner and wounding him and two other crewmen.

After two operations on Col. Hedges, Army surgeons decided to leave small fragments of DU inside his body, reasoning that more surgery was riskier.

A decade and much research later, Dr. McDiarmid believes the calculation was justified. While most critics focus on radioactivity, she says Col. Hedges's risk from that is small because DU is only slightly radioactive. She is more concerned about the long-term toxic effects of the metal itself because the colonel and other shrapnel-carrying patients get a daily dose of it. Dr. McDiarmid says patients get an elaborate battery of psychological tests, including tests to detect short-term memory loss, that is known to result from long exposure to lead and other heavy metals. So far, the results have been negative.

"I was initially very concerned" about the decision not to remove the DU fragments, recalls Col. Hedges, a former West Pointer. Since then, after fathering three healthy children, he has concluded that talk of the danger of DU is "much ado about nothing." But "it may take 20 or 30 years" to prove that definitively, he adds.

Write to John J. Fialka at john.fialka@wsj.com.

-------- india / pakistan

India Says It Would Use All Military Might in Defense

January 2, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-southasia.html

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Nuclear-armed India said Wednesday it was prepared to use its full military might to defend itself amid threats by Pakistan-based Islamic guerrilla groups to mount further attacks on the country.

Nuclear rivals Pakistan and India have come to the brink of war following an assault last month on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatists.

``Whatever weapon is available, we will use it to defend ourselves,'' Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in his constituency of Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

``And if because of that weapon the attacker is defeated ... if he is killed, we should not be held responsible,'' said Vajpayee, who analysts say is under pressure to appear tough ahead of state elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.

India carried out nuclear tests in 1998 which were followed by tit-for-tat blasts by Pakistan. It has adopted a ``no first use'' policy for its nuclear weapons, saying they would only be used in retaliation. But Pakistan, whose conventional forces are far inferior, has not adopted a similar policy.

Following the parliament attack in which 14 people died, India demanded that Pakistan crack down on Muslim militants operating from its soil against India and said all options were open including war unless Islamabad acted.

Earlier the country's Defense Minister George Fernandes told Reuters that Indian forces had completed their biggest-ever buildup but were ``not in battle positions.''

He held out hope that diplomacy could still avert a war with Pakistan. ``Efforts are being made to defuse the situation through diplomatic intervention,'' he said.

URGING RESTRAINT

All political parties in India are urging the government to use diplomacy as the first choice.

But Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, accused of the parliament attack, threatened fresh violence.

Security was tightened at India's famed Taj Mahal monument after Indian officials they said they had received an e-mail from Lashkar-e-Taiba threatening to blow up the landmark to love.

And Jaish-e-Mohammad said in a statement published in newspapers in the revolt-racked Kashmir region that they would carry out new attacks on Indian security forces.

``We are in possession of more deadly and sophisticated weapons and they will be fully used against the military and paramilitary forces of India in the coming days,'' the group said.

Hours later a grenade exploded in Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, wounding 20 people including five policemen, police said. Elsewhere, in a space of 24 hours, 18 people were killed across strife-torn Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.

The border remained tense as Indian police said four Pakistani soldiers were killed when Indian and Pakistani troops fired mortars and heavy machineguns across the frontier.

Pakistan has so far rounded up around 100 activists in response to India's demands to arrest militants, according to officials of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India has called the arrests a step in the right direction.

But Jaish-e-Mohammad said it would seek to escape the net by shifting its offices into the Indian-controlled part of the Kashmir which covers two-thirds of the disputed region.

Amid mounting international alarm about the specter of war, President Bush has weighed in with calls for restraint by both parties, telephoning Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf urging talks.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was due to arrive in the subcontinent later this week but his government played down talk he might act as a peace broker.

NO BLAIR PEACE PLAN

``There is no Blair peace plan that the prime minister could or should take out of his pocket,'' Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in London.

Independent political analyst Prem Shankar Jha said it could take just one more big guerrilla attack in India to prompt New Delhi to order its army into action. Several defense experts have said a conflict could end in the world's first nuclear exchange.

An Indian official said Blair would meet Vajpayee Sunday and travel to Pakistan Monday for talks with Musharraf.

Despite the crisis, both leaders plan to attend the Kathmandu summit of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation which begins Friday.

Plans for a meeting of the two men on the fringes of the summit have been scrapped since the crisis erupted.

India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar ``shook hands with smiling faces'' in Kathmandu at a pre-summit meeting, a conference spokesman said.

But it was not clear whether this represented a thaw in their nations' hostility or mere courtesy, and a spokesman for the Indian prime minister's office said Tuesday there was ``no chance'' of talks at any level with Pakistan on the sidelines of the summit.

Predominantly Hindu India has long accused Pakistan of sponsoring about a dozen rebel groups fighting its rule in Jammu and Kashmir, part of the broader Himalayan region of Kashmir where Pakistan and China also hold territory.

Pakistan denies the charge but says it gives moral support to what it calls ``freedom fighters.''

-------- terrorism

Erwin Advises Military Shield
Protection sought for nuclear plants Ex-envoy says current systems would repel only a minor attack

January 2, 2002
Associated Press
http://www.charlotte.com/observer/local/pub/nukeplants0102.htm

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Former U.S. Ambassador Mark Erwin has warned S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges and N.C. Gov. Mike Easley that nuclear power plants need more protection from terrorists.

In a letter, Erwin, of Charlotte, said his experience as ambassador to the East African nations of Mauritius, the Seychelles and Comoros until last March provided him with insight into the terrorist mindset through intelligence gathering.

There are more than 100,000 trained operatives "moving around the world at will" with terrorist cells functioning in more than 60 countries, he wrote. "Most likely, hundreds of operatives are in America today. They are meticulous planners and are patient beyond our understanding."

The attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, for example, were five years in the making, he said. "It's not a question of whether we'll be attacked again, it's when," Erwin said in an interview with The Greenville News.

"These are people who believe in their mission, are dedicated, smart and well-funded," he said. "And if a terrorist were to be successful and take out a nuclear facility, it would make the World Trade Center pale in comparison."

Nuclear power plants should be considered targets of these groups, he wrote. But they "cannot withstand a direct hit from even a private jet loaded with high explosives" and are not protected from an assault by missiles.

But existing security measures are sufficient, said South Carolina's homeland security director, retired Maj. Gen. Steve Siegfried.

He hadn't seen Erwin's letter, but Siegfried has inspected nuclear plants in the state, including Duke Power's Oconee Nuclear Station.

"I felt just as safe at that nuclear power plant as I do in my own living room," he said.

"We believe our stations are safe," said Duke Power spokesman Tom Shiel. "We have a great deal of faith in our security forces on each site and nothing has happened to change our opinion on that."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is studying whether reactor containment facilities can withstand a plane crash, Shiel said. The federal Office of Homeland Security also is taking a look at nuclear plant safety.

"We have been working very closely with local, state and federal agencies to make sure stations are secure," he said, "and we will continue to do so."

Erwin says the protection is adequate only for minor attacks.

"Our power plants need the equipment only available to our military, including ground-to-air missiles and heavy arms as well as the trained soldiers to operate these weapons properly to protect these dangerously vulnerable sites," he said. "These are people who believe in their mission, are dedicated, smart and well-funded. And if a terrorist were to be successful and take out a nuclear facility, it would make the World Trade Center pale in comparison."

Mark Erwin Former U.S. Ambassador

----

Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2002
From: Kevin Kamps <kevin@nirs.org>

Re: Power Firm Touts Nevada Site For Spent Nuclear Fuel, December 25, 2001

Dear Hartford Courant Editor,

Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant President Russ Mellor has said that expediting the removal of high-level atomic waste from Haddam to Nevada is key for security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But his overly simplistic proposal, motivated more by worries about his company's bottom line than by security concerns, is actually an invitation to disaster. The proposed dump site at Yucca Mountain is a very active earthquake zone, and the fractured geology is guaranteed to leak harmful radiation into the drinking water supply over time. In addition, tens of thousands of truck and train shipments through 45 States would be required to move the high-level atomic waste from where it is now to Nevada. That many shipments can't happen overnight, but would take more than 25 years. Each and every shipment, passing major urban population centers, the agricultural heartland, and countless more sensitive areas, would be a potential catastrophic terrorist target. Nuclear industry PR to the contrary, waste shipments are vulnerable to high-explosives or rocket launched attacks that could spew their very deadly contents into the environment. In fact, just ten days after the 9/11 attacks, the FBI arrested Nabil Almarabh, an alleged accomplice of the terrorists who had recently obtained a trucker's license for hauling radioactive waste. Current federal security regulations for safeguarding such shipments are woefully inadequate. Mellor is shamelessly using 9/11 to advance an agenda he had already been pushing for years before the terrorist attacks, while completely ignoring the very real terrorist threat his proposed waste shipments would create.

Kevin Kamps,
Nuclear Waste Specialist,
Nuclear Information & Resource Service,
1424 16th Street, N.W., #404,
Washington, D.C. 20036,
office phone: 202.328.0002, http://www.nirs.org

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

-------- tennessee

DOE MULLS EXTENDING INCINERATOR
FACILITY WAS SLATED TO CLOSE IN 2003

Knoxvlle News-Sentinel
January 2, 2002
by Frank Munger
From: "vcolley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

OAK RIDGE - The government's Oak Ridge incinerator has burned more than 27 million pounds of radioactive waste since its start-up in November 1990.

It's not clear, however, how much longer those operations will continue.

The U.S. Department of Energy is rethinking its stated plan to close the incinerator permanently in September 2003 and may opt to burn waste here for years to come.

Helen Belencan, who heads the low-level nuclear waste program at DOE headquarters in Washington, said the federal agency is evaluating the waste-treatment needs at Oak Ridge and other DOE facilities around the United States.

Depending on those waste needs, the availability and cost of other treatment options and the response from local citizenry, DOE could extend the Oak Ridge operations beyond 2003, Belencan said.

But she emphasized in a telephone interview that no decision has been made.

For the past few years DOE officials have said without qualification that the Oak Ridge incinerator would be closed at the end of fiscal 2003.

Belencan said the department has continued to review the volume of wastes in storage and what's generated annually and also has tracked the progress of waste-treatment technologies under development. Last year, based on the waste review, it was not so obvious that shutting down the Oak Ridge incinerator would be a good idea, and DOE decided to look at the issue more closely, she said.

IT Corp. operates the incinerator under a contract with Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's environmental manager in Oak Ridge. The facility is located at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium-enrichment plant also known as the K-25 Site.

The Oak Ridge incinerator is the only facility of its kind licensed to burn so-called mixed waste - radioactive waste that's mixed with hazardous chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs.)

DOE has been looking at non-incinerator options for treatment of wastes at Oak Ridge and other sites with nuclear research and production facilities. There reportedly is a strong demand for treatment of mixed wastes with PCBs through at least 2007.

Belencan met recently with the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board, a panel of local citizens that advises DOE on environmental matters. She provided information on DOE's waste inventories around the country and gathered input from panel members and other participants, including some of the incinerator workers.

The DOE official said she would brief her bosses in Washington on the overall waste situation and offer a recommendation on the Oak Ridge incinerator, probably in January. She said there's no set timetable for a decision on whether or not to extend the life of the incinerator, but she said it almost certainly would come in 2002.

In recent months, DOE's relationship with the state of Tennessee on environmental matters has been a bit shaky. The state has not yet approved the proposed burn plan for the incinerator in 2002, citing a number of concerns about the Oak Ridge cleanup budget.

Last month the state objected strongly to DOE's plans to withdraw from a five-year-old agreement regarding the treatment and disposal of a particularly hazardous category of wastes known as "mixed transuranic.''

Belencan declined to comment on what, if any, impact these disagreements would have on DOE's decision to operate the incinerator. She did note that DOE and the state have historically cooperated regarding burn plans at the incinerator.

As long as the incinerator's operating permits are in order, the decision on how long to operate the facility is DOE's. However, the state can nix plans to bring out-of-state wastes to Oak Ridge to burn in the incinerator, and state officials have rejected DOE's requests on numerous occasions in recent years.

DOE already has suspended operations at incinerators elsewhere, including one at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and another at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

-------- us nuc politics

Powell Has Urgency in South Asia

By George Gedda
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 2, 2002; 10:26 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51411-2002Jan2?language=printer

WASHINGTON -- The numbers tell the story of why Secretary of State Colin Powell, worried about a South Asian conflagration, has been on the phone almost daily with leaders of India and Pakistan: 1.03 billion people in India and nearly 150 million in Pakistan.

With that many people, the two nuclear-armed rivals can't afford to let their differences over Kashmir spin out of control.

The reality of their nuclear capability is summed up in a new analysis, based on CIA data, by Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He says India "probably has a small stockpile of nuclear weapons components and could assemble and deploy a few nuclear weapons within a few days to a week. The most likely platform are fighter-bomber aircraft."

As for Pakistan, Cordesman says its nuclear weapons also are probably stored in component form. "Pakistan could probably assemble the weapons fairly quickly and has aircraft and possibly ballistic missiles available for delivery," he adds.

The somewhat dry prose tends to conceal the enormity of the stakes in the dispute over the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region in India that produced wars between Pakistan and India in 1948 and 1965. The current dustup is the result of a terrorist attack two weeks ago on the Indian Parliament.

President Bush and Powell have looked on nervously in recent days as the two countries have issued threats, carried out troop movements and suspended land and air contacts, among other actions. This week, however, both sides seem inclined to climb down from the brink.

Pakistan's government arrested a key militant leader accused by India of masterminding the Dec. 13 attack on Parliament, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday said his nation was open to dialogue with Pakistan if it shed its "anti-India mentality" and took "effective steps to stop cross-border terrorism."

The Bush administration has selfish motivations for encouraging a peaceful outcome. It is counting on the Pakistan military to help the United States finish off remnants of the al-Qaida/Taliban terrorist nexus that operates in Afghanistan along Pakistan's border to the west.

The U.S. belief is that if tensions worsen, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will have no choice but to redeploy his forces in the west to the country's eastern border with India, setting back the U.S. anti-terrorism effort.

Musharraf is aware that his constituents are far more eager to deal with India than they are about the situation in Afghanistan.

Teresita Schaffer, a former ambassador and, like Cordesman, an associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says neither Musharraf nor Vajpayee are trigger-happy. But she does worry about miscalculations leading to a humanitarian catastrophe.

As examples, she says a short-term raid by one side could be interpreted as an invasion by the other. Or a false intelligence report could prompt one side to believe that it is in mortal danger, and strike the other with a nuclear blow.

"You don't even like to think about the consequences," Schaffer says.

Given the stakes, she is surprised that the Bush administration has not yet sent an envoy to the region to reinforce the telephone diplomacy being practiced by Powell and, to a lesser extent, Bush.

Sumit Ganguly, a South Asia expert at the University of Texas, agrees. He says a U.S. envoy should be dispatched to demand that the Pakistanis quickly root out all terror bases in the country.

The envoy also should call on the Indians to begin autonomy negotiations with Kashmiri leaders who oppose violence, Ganguly adds. The goal would be eventual autonomy for the region under the Indian flag.

"The best hope for any kind of redress lies with negotiations," he says.

Administration officials are hinting that an envoy may indeed be sent to the region later this month.

Meanwhile, Bush is sounding somewhat more optimistic this week about the situation, praising the measures Musharraf has taken against radical Islamic groups based in Pakistan.

"He's cracking down hard, and I appreciate his efforts," Bush said Monday.

--------

Bush Eases Computer Export Rules

January 2, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Computer-Exports.html

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush eased Cold War restrictions Wednesday on high-performance computer exports to Russia, China, India and Pakistan.

From his Texas ranch, Bush notified congressional leaders that he was raising the threshold for government approval of computer exports to ``Tier 3'' nations, a category that also includes Israel.

Since 1990, the export controls have been relaxed almost once a year, providing for increasingly powerful computers to be exported.

Under the relaxed export control standards, individual licenses and prior government review will be required only for the export of computers that perform more than 190,000 MTOPS, or millions of theoretical operations per second. High-end computers available at some retail computer stores as well as the Internet can provide that level of general processing power.

The current threshold is 85,000 MTOPS, a performance standard that has become commonly available for years.

``These reforms are needed due to the rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry. Single microprocessors available today -- by mail order and the Internet -- perform at more than 25 times the speed of supercomputers built in the early 1990s,'' said White House deputy press secretary Scott McClellan.

``These changes will advance the president's goal of updating the U.S. export control system so that it protects U.S. national security and, at the same time, allows America's high-tech companies to innovate and successfully compete in today's marketplace,'' the spokesman added.

The computer chip industry pushed for the increase last year in a compromise offer. Ideally, the technology companies would like to do away with the MTOPS standard completely, saying it would give the president more flexibility in restricting exports of high-powered computers.

Several major technology companies supported Bush's decision.

The decision allows ``export controls to keep pace with rapid advancements in computing technology,'' said Jennifer Greeson, a spokeswoman for the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports. She represents companies including Dell, IBM, Intel, Unisys, Apple and Sun Microsystems.

At the same time, the computer companies argue a better tactic to protect national security would be to restrict just the export of certain software, such as programs to model nuclear explosions or missile guidance systems.

The United States maintains its virtual embargo on computer exports to Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Syria.

Bush's revised export rules implement the general policies of the Export Administration Act, legislation controlling commercial exports that could be put to military use. The act expired in 1990 and has since been kept alive through temporary extensions.

By his action Wednesday, Bush also removed Latvia from the list of Tier 3 countries and reclassified it as Tier 1, putting Latvia in league with Western European and other U.S. allies whose computer imports from the United States require no prior government review.

Both the House and the Senate have passed separate bills to end Cold War restrictions on exports of computers and other high-tech items. The differences between them are yet to be resolved, something that must be done before Congress can send the legislation to Bush for his signature..


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Afghanistan faces an environmental crisis

January 02
Fred Pearce
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991733

A new catastrophe faces Afghanistan - the US bombing campaign is conspiring with years of civil conflict and drought to create an environmental crisis.

Humanitarian and political concerns are dominating the headlines. But they are also masking the disappearance of the country's once rich habitat and wildlife, which are quietly being crushed by war.

The UN is dispatching a team of investigators to the region in February to evaluate the damage. "A healthy environment is a prerequisite for rehabilitation," says Klaus Töpfer, head of the UN Environment Programme.

Much of south-east Afghanistan was once lush forest watered by monsoon rains. Forests now cover less than two per cent of the country. "The worst deforestation occurred during Taliban rule, when its timber mafia denuded forests to sell to Pakistani markets," says Usman Qazi, an environmental consultant based in Quetta, Pakistan.

And the intense bombing intended to flush out the last of the Taliban troops is destroying or burning much of what remains.

Farming and firewood

The refugee crisis is also wrecking the environment, and much damage may be irreversible. Forests and vegetation are being cleared for much-needed farming, but the gains are likely to be only short-term.

"Eventually the land will be unfit for even the most basic form of agriculture," warns Hammad Naqi of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Pakistan. Refugees - around four million at the last count - are also cutting into forests for firewood.

The hail of bombs falling on Afghanistan is making life particularly hard for the country's wildlife. Birds such as the pelican and endangered Siberian crane cross eastern Afghanistan as they follow one of the world's great migratory thoroughfares from Siberia to Pakistan and India.

But the number of birds flying across the region has dropped by a staggering 85 per cent. "Cranes are very sensitive and they do not use the route if they see any danger," says Ashiq Ahmad, an environmental scientist for the WWF in Peshawar, Pakistan, who has tracked the collapse of the birds' migration this winter.

Mountain hideout

The rugged mountains also usually provide a safe haven for mountain leopards, gazelles, bears and Marco Polo sheep - the world's largest species. "The same terrain that allows fighters to strike and disappear back into the hills has also, historically, enabled wildlife to survive," says Peter Zahler of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York. But he warns they are now under intense pressure from the bombing and invasions of refugees and fighters.

For instance, some refugees are hunting rare snow leopards to buy safe passage across the border. A single fur can fetch $2000 on the black market, says Zahler. Only 5000 or so snow leopards are thought to survive in central Asia, and less than 100 in Afghanistan, their numbers already decimated by extensive hunting and smuggling into Pakistan before the conflict.

Timber, falcons and medicinal plants are also being smuggled across the border. The Taliban once controlled much of this trade, but the recent power vacuum could exacerbate the problem.

Bombing will also leave its mark beyond the obvious craters. Defence analysts say that while depleted uranium has been used less in Afghanistan than in the Kosovo conflict, conventional explosives will litter the country with pollutants. They contain toxic compounds such as cyclonite, a carcinogen, and rocket propellants contain perchlorates, which damage thyroid glands.

----

'Precision weapons' fail to prevent mass civilian casualties

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 02 2002
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2002000258,00.html

AMERICAN bombers may have caused twice as many civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the past 87 days as Nato did in the 78-day air war against the former Yugoslavia in 1999.

Despite an improvement in precision-guided weapons and a determination to avoid "collateral damage", the number of civilian deaths has been steadily increasing. With the latest casualty toll from the weekend bombing of an ammunition dump in the heart of Nizai Qala in Paktia Province, conservative estimates put the total figure as high as 1,000.

It may be considerably higher. One recent unofficial report by an American academic said that the death toll among civilians could be closer to 4,000.

Although the number of civilians killed in the former Yugoslavia three years ago was never confirmed, Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring organisation, concluded that there was evidence that about 500 died in 90 separate incidents.

These included an attack on a convoy of refugees that Nato believed was a column of Serb military vehicles in which between 70 and 90 people died. In another incident a railway bridge was attacked when a train carrying civilian passengers was crossing. Ten people are believed to have been killed.

In the latest campaign only American aircraft have been involved in the bombing of targets in Afghanistan. Since the insertion of American and British special forces, who have picked targets and guided the bomber crews from the ground, the accuracy of the airstrikes has improved.

Claims by the former Taleban regime that American bombs had killed thousands of civilians have been regularly dismissed by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, and by Pentagon officials since the bombing began on October 7. During heavy airstrikes in the Tora Bora region in eastern Afghanistan last month local Mujahidin commanders said that more than 170 people were killed over several days, including civilians and a number of their own fighters.

In another bombing raid in November local people said that about 150 civilians died in Kunduz and Khanabad.

Earlier in November it was claimed that up to 35 civilians had died in the village of Chokar-Karez, 25 miles north of Kandahar, during an attack by an American gunship. The Pentagon said that there had been a legitimate military target in the village.

Up to 60 people were killed last month in an attack on a convoy of vehicles. The Americans said that they were Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters, but Afghans insisted that they were tribal elders on their way for the inauguration of the new Government in Kabul.

There have been dozens of other incidents in which small numbers of civilians have died, including four workers at a United Nations demining centre in Kabul in October.

Many of the Taleban claims of civilian casualties have proven to be false or exaggerated. It was claimed that more than 300 civilians died in American airstrikes against a hillside military base near the village of Karam on October 10. The Americans admitted some civilians may have died in error, but the figure of 300 was never accepted by Washington.

In the incident at the weekend, between 90 and 107 people were reported to have been killed in Nizai Qala in eastern Afghanistan. Amanullah Zadran, the Afghan Border Affairs Minister, said that the Americans had no choice because there was a cache of weapons stored in a house guarded by Taleban and al-Qaeda supporters.

He added: "There was no intention to kill innocent people. In Afghanistan we have a proverb: when dry wood burns, you can also burn wet wood."

---

US had no choice but to bomb village: Afghan minister

AFP
January 2, 2001

KABUL: US forces had "no choice" but to bomb an eastern Afghan village at the weekend even though innocent people were killed, an Afghan minister said Tuesday.

Border Affairs Minister Amanullah Zadran said bombing was the only way to destroy a large cache of weapons stored in a house in the village guarded by Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathisers.

The Afghan Islamic Press said Monday that at least 92 people whom it described as civilians were killed in the raid on Nizai Qala in Paktia province.

"I'm not supporting the bombing (of innocent people) but there was no other choice," Zadran said. "By land it would have been risky. It was a very insecure situation. There is still some opposition in the area."

He added: "There was no intention to kill innocent people."

"In Afghanistan we have a proverb: when dry wood burns you can also burn wet wood."

-------- arms sales

US is said to buy Stinger missiles back from Afgans

By John Donnelly,
Boston Globe
1/3/2002
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/003/nation/US_is_said_to_buy_Stinger_missles_back_from_Afgans+.shtml

WASHINGTON - Concerned about the safety of US military helicopters and cargo planes landing in southern Afghanistan, US defense officials recently purchased five Stinger antiaircraft missiles from local warlords around Kandahar for $150,000 each, according to two officials familiar with the effort.

One of the officials, who was briefed by US military commanders in Kandahar, said yesterday that the United States has made it clear to mujahideen commanders that it wants the US-made shoulder-fired Stingers out of Afghanistan because an increasing number of planes are arriving at the Kandahar Airport.

The number of Stingers left in Afghanistan is not known, but some estimates put it between 50 and 100, with the majority in the southern region. In the mid-1980s, the CIA delivered up to 500 of the heat-seeking missiles to Afghan mujahideen fighting Soviet troops.

Since then, US officials have mounted periodic campaigns to buy back the missiles, including one in the mid-1990s for the price of $100,000 each.

The new Stinger buyback program, begun in the last few weeks, is just one example of how US officials, either from the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Defense, have covertly spent large amounts of cash to reduce the risk to US troops and equipment in Afghanistan.

In another example, during the battle at Tora Bora, US officials paid local warlords up to $100 for each mujahideen soldier sent to the front lines against Al Qaeda fighters, according to one of the warlords in an interview last month in Jalalabad.

The presence of Stinger missiles is affecting US operations. ''There are still a number of these Stinger weapons out there, and that's why they are generally not allowing daylight landings at the Kandahar airport,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''I was told they were buying them and then blowing them up.''

A Pentagon spokesman said it was plausible that US military officials in Kandahar have begun to purchase Stingers. But the price seems high, said the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lapan.

''We want to get them out of the hands of Afghans,'' Lapan said. ''But $150,000? That's going to be a lot of money in Afghanistan.''

But some analysts said that even though the $150,000 offer was more than four times the original cost of a Stinger, the cost was easily justifiable.

''I think the price is immaterial, because a Stinger, even if it originally cost $100,000, can take out a $10 million helicopter with a dozen guys in it or a passenger plane,'' said John Pike, head of a Washington think tank, GlobalSecurity.org. ''It's not the sort of thing you want to have floating around.''

The 35-pound Stinger, produced by General Dynamics and Raytheon, has an infrared sensor that homes on the heat emitted by aircraft engines. The 5-foot-long missile, which travels at twice the speed of sound, functions at low altitudes, up to 10,000 feet, and has a 3-mile range. It is no threat to bombers, spy planes, and jets cruising at high altitudes.

During the 1980s, mujahideen using Stingers destroyed or damaged as many as 270 Soviet aircraft, helping to turn the battle against the Soviets.

The effectiveness of the missiles is believed to be diminished because of their age. Military analysts say the rocket fuel for a Stinger may last 15 to 20 years, and the lifetime of the battery is about a year if left in an active state.

Still, US pilots believe that there remains a serious risk that a Stinger could bring down a helicopter or cargo plane.

One pilot who will soon be sent to the region said many colleagues are concerned about Stingers, as well as the plethora of rocket-propelled grenades in Afghanistan. In October 1993, Somalian fighters shot down two US helicopters by barraging them with rocket-propelled grenades.

''It's very difficult knowing if a missile is fired at you,'' said the pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''You never see it. It's not like the Hollywood movies, where you see a big contrail coming behind it.

''There's a great debate about whether they would still work,'' he said of the Stingers. ''But it's clear they are out there, and there is concern about them.''

Helicopters are particularly vulnerable when disembarking troops, a procedure that can last several minutes while the aircraft hovers, the pilot said.

Vulnerable US aircraft can use decoys to confuse the missile's sensors. Flying at night, which is the usual procedure for US aircraft carrying special forces to Afghanistan, also reduces the risk, because a Stinger operator cannot see the target as well.

The official who was briefed by US military officials on the Stinger program said there should be plenty of incentive now for local warlords to find any stray missiles in the region.

''If you are a wise warlord, you find them and sell them,'' the official said. ''If they use them, they are in trouble. Plus, they are very old, and they depend on batteries, electricity, electronics. So if you manage to fire one, it's going to be hard to hit something. But there are guys out there who can use them, and that's what you have to be worried about.''

John Donnelly can be reached by e-mail at donnelly@globe.com.

----

Gunmakers Can Be Sued, Ill. Court Holds

Associated Press
Wednesday, January 2, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49739-2002Jan1?language=printer

CHICAGO -- An Illinois appeals court has ruled that the families of a slain Chicago police officer and four others killed by gang bullets can file public nuisance lawsuits against gunmakers and gun distributors.

But the 35-page opinion issued Monday by Justice William Cousins of the Illinois Appellate Court sharply narrowed the scope of the families' lawsuits.

It said the families were free to sue manufacturers and distributors of the guns used in the crimes but barred them from suing other gunmakers as a public nuisance.

That represented a step back from a Feb. 14 ruling by Circuit Judge Jennifer Duncan-Brice that would have allowed the families to sue more than two dozen firearms manufacturers and distributors, including those whose products were not used in the five shootings.

Even so, the appeals court's decision represents a major victory for gun control forces, said Jonathan Baum, an attorney for the families of Officer Michael Ceriale and the four others.

"What the court has ruled was that the manufacturers set in motion a chain of events with the foreseeable result being the death of our clients," Baum said.

The manufacturers remaining as defendants include Bryco Arms, Navegar Inc. and Smith & Wesson Corp. Dealers named include Breit & Johnson Sporting Goods Inc. and Chuck's Gun Shop, where the pistol in the Ceriale shooting was purchased.

The defendants could appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Otherwise, the case goes back to the trial court.

The Illinois State Rifle Association said yesterday that if the court's logic was extended to other industries, any number of products could be found unlawful.

The gunmakers had maintained it was not fair to link them with street crime just because their lawful products were misused. The appeals court ruled that a genuine case of public nuisance might be made.

Ceriale was shot in August 1998 on a late-night drug stakeout outside a public housing project in Chicago. He died a week later.

-------- business

Raytheon Wins Large Military Deal

JANUARY 02, 2002
AP
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&PACKAGEID=missiledefense&STORYID=APIS7GPMPKG0

WICHITA, Kan. - Raytheon Aircraft has won its largest military contract ever, a potential $1.22 billion deal that will solidify its work force but add no new jobs, the company said Wednesday.

The one-year contract with four one-year options calls for the production of 234 T-6A Texan II aircraft as well as associated ground-based training devices and technical support.

Defense budgets are allocated and approved on a year-by-year basis, and the options are for anticipated orders in subsequent years.

Raytheon will build 40 aircraft the first year, an order valued at $193 million, spokesman Tim Travis said. When all the options are exercised, the contract could be potentially worth $1.22 billion.

``Practically, it wouldn't add new jobs - it will provide a real stable job base, specifically for this program,'' Travis said.

About 500 employees will work directly on the program, while another 500 employees will help make parts for the airplane, he said.

``This contract is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of good people,'' said Raytheon Aircraft Chairman Jim Schuster in a prepared statement. ``The T-6A Texan II is the best primary training aircraft in the world, and we'll be building it for many years to come.''

The Joint Primary Aircraft Training System program calls for nearly 800 aircraft through the year 2017. So far, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have ordered 168 planes.

This contract, with options, covers production of the aircraft and training devices through the years 2002 to 2006, with deliveries beginning in 2004, the company said.

-------- colombia

Colombian guerrillas kill 10 in New Year's Eve attack

Wednesday January 2, 3:06 AM
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-81462.html

BOGOTA, Colombia - More than 300 Colombian FARC rebels stormed into two adjacent villages on New Year's Eve, killing two policemen and eight soldiers who arrived with army reinforcements, the police said on Tuesday.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas attacked the small towns of Purace and Coconuco in the southern province of Cauca as local people prepared for New Year's Eve festivities on Monday afternoon, a police officer told Reuters.

Two policemen were killed in combat which lasted all night. The Marxist rebels also ambushed army reinforcements and killed eight soldiers, before pulling out after dawn on New Year's Day.

The police said they knew of no civilian or guerrilla casualties, even though the rebels came under fire from helicopters and ground attack aircraft.

The 17,000-member FARC is the largest irregular force fighting in Colombia's 37-year old guerrilla war, which also includes smaller Marxist groups and far-right paramilitary outlaws. About 40,000 mainly civilian lives have been lost in the past decade of fighting, which is increasingly fuelled by the proceeds of Colombia's massive cocaine business.

The United States is providing more than $1 billion in mainly military aid to Colombia to crack down on the drug business. The U.S assistance has also increased the armed forces' effectiveness against its irregular foes.

President Andres Pastrana is also trying to negotiate peace with the FARC, and with the smaller National Liberation Army -- known by the Spanish initials ELN.

-------- india

India says Kashmir rebels threaten to blow up Taj Mahal

Wednesday January 2, 2001
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-81576.html

LUCKNOW, India - A Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, who New Delhi blamed for an attack on its parliament last month, has threatened to blow up the Taj Mahal, an Indian official said on Wednesday.

Security around the 17th century marble monument had been tightened following an e-mail threat from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a senior government official in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh where the Taj is located told Reuters.

"They have threatened to blow up the Taj Mahal, some other monuments and important government buildings in Lucknow," the official, who did not want to be identified, said.

Lucknow is the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

"We have enhanced security in and around the Taj Mahal which was mentioned among Lashkar-e-Taiba's main targets in the e-mail sent to the chief minister," the official said.

The Taj Mahal, India's monument to love in the northern city of Agra, is a huge draw for tourists from across the world.

India has blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad groups for the December 13 attack on its parliament in which 14 people, including five attackers, died. Both groups have denied involvement in the attacks.

The official said Lashkar had also threatened to blow up a makeshift temple built at a disputed site in the ancient Indian town of Ayodhya where a 16th century mosque once stood.

Hindu zealots tore down the Babri mosque in December 1992, triggering widespread religious riots in which some 3,000 people were killed. The site is sacred to both Hindus and Muslims.

Security had already been tightened in and around the Ayodhya temple after a group of Hindu hardliners barged into the heavily-guarded complex in October.

----

BORDER POST JOURNAL
With Wrath and Wire, India Builds a Great Wall

January 2, 2002
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/international/asia/02BORD.html

NURSERY BORDER

SECURITY FORCE POST, Jammu and Kashmir, Jan. 1 - The partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, an enduring symbol of longing and loss, is being enshrined here in concertina wire.

On the India-Pakistan border, along a strip of land pocked with elephant grass, the Indian Border Security Force is erecting a barbed wire fence, laced with concertina wire. Overlooking the border, like giraffes with bright eyes, stand 25-foot-tall floodlights. All night long they wash the thatched-hut villages nearby with their hot white glow.

The point of this ambitious and wildly expensive project is not to keep out illegal immigrants, or even to stanch the illegal traffic of gold, liquor and dried fruits across the border that had been, until recently, a source of bounty for villagers on both sides.

This fence is India's effort to keep out what it says are terrorists trained and backed by Pakistan to wrest control of Kashmir, the valley just to the north that has been the subject of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan. (India says that the gunmen who stormed the Indian Parliament on Dec. 13 were from groups involved in the guerrilla effort in Kashmir, backed by Pakistan, a charge Pakistan vehemently denies.)

When completed - Border Security officials say it could be as early as the end of 2003 - the fence will stretch across much of the Indian side of the roughly 1,800-mile border with Pakistan, except the mountains and marshes where it is impossible to erect one.

Those spotted trying to cross from Pakistan to India are shot and killed. Last year, 87 people suffered such a fate and several guns were seized, border officials said.

One mile of fence costs 3.2 million Indian rupees, or $68,000, a lot for a country where many villagers live on a dollar a day. Laborers from villages near and far - pumped up by motivational speeches about one's duties for Mother India - do the construction work. They carry out their job on this perilous chunk of border interrupted by spurts of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani forces.

"No matter the cost, it's for our national interest," said Vijay Raman, the chief of the border force in the southern part of this state. "This is a physical barrier to check infiltration."

But nature sometimes rebels against Mr. Raman's designs. In Rajasthan, the sprawling Indian desert state that shares the largest stretch of border with Pakistan, shifting sand dunes obscure the fence from time to time, or a fierce sandstorm smothers entire sections of barbed wire. (Border guards there supplement the fence with patrols on camelback.)

In Gujarat, the border is so marshy that the Border Security Force has not yet figured out how to erect a proper fence. In Punjab, weeds sprout every day beneath the fence; border guards have to crawl through the wire and pluck out the underbrush. Given the lessons from Punjab, a concrete bed has been built under the barbed wire fence in Jammu.

Of course, before the violent division of the subcontinent in 1947, such a fence was unthinkable. There was no this side and that side. The people who lived in this area were kinfolk and friends. They spoke the same tongue. They ate the same chapatis.

They still speak the same tongue and break the same bread, though they are now citizens of enemy nations on the precipice of war - and if they happen to live on the border, they bear the brunt of gunfire across dividing lines.

The border fence, along with the land mines that have been planted during the last two weeks, have swallowed up acres of fertile farmland here in Jammu. Many villagers said they had not seen a penny for their land. Mr. Raman said they would ultimately be compensated.

There is arguably no more powerful a symbol of souring relations between the two nations than the border fence, and never more so than today when travel links have been frozen and diplomats have been called back. The last direct flights between Pakistan and India left today, and trains and buses had already stopped running between them.

Border officials here say it was different only a few years ago. They would hunt in each other's territory. They would conduct joint border patrols to inspect the condition of the pickets that mark the border. During Eid and Diwali, the biggest holidays of the year for Muslims and Hindus in these parts, they would exchange sweets and greetings. The holidays passed this year in November and December without such pleasantries.

Before the fence was built, animals that strayed across the border became subjects of border diplomacy. If a Pakistani farmer's cow crossed into Indian territory, say, a flag would be raised by the Border Security Force, a meeting between two sides convened and the offending bovine returned to its owner, recalled Sukhjinder Singh Sandhu, the commander of the Border Security Force's 39th Battalion, which controls this part of the Jammu stretch.

If a wild boar migrated from India into Pakistan, instructions would be dispatched to come get the unmentionable animal. (Pakistani Muslims will not touch a pig, or even speak its name, so border guards there would invite border guards here to come recover the "hunt.")

The animals are no longer able to stray hither and thither, thanks to the fence. Today, only birds, like the black partridge native to this land, can fly freely over the border.

--------

NEWS ANALYSIS
In Kashmir Sequel, Seeking a New Ending

New York Times
January 2, 2002
By CELIA W. DUGGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/international/asia/02INDI.html

NEW DELHI, Jan. 1 - Confrontations between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the beautiful Himalayan land, have unfolded like movie sequels with the same discouraging plot line. But recently, the sheer force of events seems to have fast-forwarded the story line between these old enemies and suddenly a different, more hopeful ending seems possible, if still unlikely.

Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, has taken steps to crack down on two "holy warrior" groups that defense analysts say Pakistan has sponsored to fight Indian rule of Kashmir - and that India has accused of carrying out an attack on Parliament on Dec. 13. The groups' leaders and dozens of their members have been arrested in the last week.

In just the past day or two, Indian officials have begun to consider for the first time the possibility that General Musharraf may be prepared to alter Pakistan's longstanding strategy of fomenting anti-India violence in Kashmir.

Though the Indians deeply mistrust him as the architect of a Pakistan Army incursion into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999, they say perhaps General Musharraf is bending under severe pressure from the United States and an extreme military threat from India.

India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, acknowledged as much in his New Year's message today. If Pakistan is sincere about rooting out terrorism, he said, then India is "willing to walk more than half the distance to work closely with Pakistan to resolve, through dialogue, any issue, including the contentious issue of Jammu and Kashmir."

But the suspicion of Pakistan's motives runs deep here - and it is possible that the arrests of Islamic militants in Pakistan only signals a tactical retreat to buy time or disguise some new strategy.

Will these men, now held on general charges, be released once the world's attention moves on from South Asia? Indian officials ask. Will Pakistan try to shift its support to anti-India rebels who are Kashmiris and therefore more easily defended as indigenous freedom fighters?

"It is still too early to form a final opinion," Arun Jaitley, a senior minister in the Indian government, said in an interview today. "A signal here or there may be only a transient indicator. I still have my fingers crossed."

The general and his men are saying the right things. General Musharraf declared on Christmas Day that "wicked, bigoted extremists" would not be allowed to destroy Pakistan from within.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, has called these Pakistan- based groups "unconstitutional armies," suggesting that Pakistan is searching for a rationale to act against them that is not about India, but about Pakistan's own internal security.

A high-ranking military intelligence official in Pakistan said today that General Musharraf had decided to "completely cut off all support to nonindigenous groups in Kashmir," and had ordered the closing of the military intelligence division that has long dealt with the militant groups.

The Kashmiris' struggle for independence began as an indigenous one in the late 1980's, but was largely taken over in the 1990's by the Pakistanis, who sought to use it as a vehicle for their own proxy war with India for control of Kashmir.

India is now trying to test General Musharraf's intentions. On Monday it handed over a list of 20 people, most of them Indians, who are suspected of committing sensational acts of terrorism over the last 10 to 15 years. India says these accused men are fugitives who have been given sanctuary in Pakistan and must be handed over for trial here.

But today, Pakistan said it would not hand over any of the 20, saying India lacked evidence against them.

In the meantime, India is keeping up its dangerous game of military brinkmanship with Pakistan.

India is not pulling back any of the hundreds of thousands of troops it has moved to the border since the Dec. 13 attack, which India laid at the doorstep of Pakistan and two militant Islamic groups operating there.

"It is too short a time to think of de-escalating now," said a defense official. "We'll have to see if things are stabilizing. We'll be watching the steps Pakistan takes on the list of 20 people we have provided."

If India becomes convinced that General Musharraf's actions are a ruse, the two countries could still topple into their first full-scale war as declared nuclear powers.

Now, India insists the mobilization of its million-man army - the largest buildup mounted since India and Pakistan's last war 30 years ago - is purely defensive, while Pakistani officials have said they fear that an attack is imminent.

Indian officials clearly hope diplomacy, backed by the threat of war, will achieve their aim of ending violence in Kashmir and other parts of India.

But what if Pakistan does not go far enough in satisfying the ultimatums India has issued?

Immediately after the attack in New Delhi, which Indian officials have described as an attempt to murder India's senior elected leadership, India's cabinet declared that India would liquidate the terrorists wherever they were. Mr. Vajpayee has defined the current crisis as his country's last, decisive battle against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

Sept. 11 and Dec. 13 have become paired dates in the minds of many senior officials here. India's response to the attack on Parliament has been influenced by the Bush administration's Sept. 11 template, with its moral absolutism about terrorism and its overwhelming application of military power against the terrorist suspects and - crucially - the government that harbored them.

Before Sept. 11, India's military had consciously chosen not to cross the line into Pakistan-held Kashmir, even when severely provoked by Pakistan in 1999. Indian officials judged then that the risks of war with nuclear-armed Pakistan were too great.

But recently, senior Indian officials have spoken openly, if still not publicly, about striking across the line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan at the Pakistan- based groups that India holds responsible for terrorist acts - and about being prepared for the large- scale conflict that could follow.

There is a deep frustration here with what some defense officials and strategic experts see as Pakistan's nuclear bluffing and the way it has turned India into a kind of paralyzed giant, unable to use its greater conventional military power against Pakistan for fear of a suicidal escalation of warfare.

Unlike India, Pakistan has never committed itself to a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons. Some say they believe that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal - and the protection it affords against Indian conventional power - has emboldened Pakistan to bleed India in Kashmir, sponsoring groups that kill hundreds of soldiers and policemen a year in dozens of attacks.

"Because of our softness, the feeling in Pakistan is that India will take it - that India is like a lazy cow in the field that will only use its tail to brush off the mosquitoes and insects that are biting it," said Naresh Chandra, who recently retired as India's ambassador to the United States.

There is a strain of thinking here that says Pakistan would never use its nuclear weapons because it knows it would suffer a catastrophic counterattack.

"I do not subscribe to the theory that India and Pakistan are crazy countries who would resort to nuclear war out of anger," said K. Santhanam, the physicist who was project coordinator for India's 1998 nuclear tests and now heads the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses here.

India's implicit threat of war has motivated the United States to turn the screws on Pakistan to crack down on "holy war" groups that have been fighting Indian rule of Kashmir for years.

The Indians hope the Americans will be as effective in getting Pakistan to change course on Kashmir as they were in persuading General Musharraf to ditch the Taliban. President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have been on the phone to General Musharraf in recent days.

"Pakistan cannot continue to support these groups for even one day if the American government puts enough pressure on because Pakistan is so vulnerable economically," said a senior Indian minister.

India's leverage with the United States is great now because the Bush administration wants to avert a war that could jeopardize America's endgame against Osama bin Laden, who may have fled to Pakistan. The United States needs Pakistani troops in the hunt for Mr. Bin Laden, not fighting India.

So far, India's brinkmanship seems to be energizing American diplomacy and squeezing concessions from the Pakistanis. Later this week, both India's prime minister and Pakistan's president will be attending a South Asian regional conference in Nepal.

Up to now, India has given no public hint that Mr. Vajpayee might be willing to meet the general to talk about the current crisis. But a senior Indian official said: "Our prime minister is capable of taking very daring, unconventional decisions. You never know. It's possible."

-------- israel

Israel asks America to strike western Iraq first, if it decides to fight Saddam

By Amir Oren
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=112741&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer paid a visit to the secretive Ness Ziona Biological Institute yesterday.

The Home Front commander, Maj. Gen. Yosef Mishlav, said recently that the plan to transfer the Home Front to the Ministry for Public Security has been frozen, so defending the population from nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare is still in the hands of the defense minister.

Ben-Eliezer was accompanied to the institute by an unusually small entourage, to keep a low profile. Presumably, the concern about a possible attack by Iraq, with unconventional payloads delivered by either missiles or planes, was one of the main subjects in the briefing given the minister by his hosts.

According to security sources participating in Israeli preparations for a possible American move on Iraq, any decision by President George W. Bush about when to attack Iraq depends on three main elements: building the case against Saddam, including charges and evidence; identifying an alternative ruler to replace Saddam; and building up the forces that will execute the planned attack.

The defense establishment here believes that the Bush administration has given up trying to find an Iraqi version of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, so Washington is busy studying intelligence profiles of top Iraqi army commanders who could take control in Baghdad concurrent with or immediately after the start of an American campaign.

In a U.S. attack, Saddam won't hurry to attack Israel, say defense sources, because, among other reasons, he won't want to expose the weaponry that he managed to hide - and deny he had - over the past decade.

The sources note that unlike the spring of 1990, when Saddam was already threatening to "burn half of Israel" (before he invaded Kuwait) if attacked, no such threats toward Israel have been coming out of Baghdad.

However, should Saddam conclude that the Americans are about to topple him, he'll try to attack Israel with a barrage of missiles or airplanes. Topping Israel's worries are a possible ground-to-ground missile attack, with chemical or biological payloads.

The defense establishment reckons that much lower on the list of possibilities would be Iraq sending pilots on suicide missions, whether to drop non-conventional payloads, or to crash their planes. The loyalty of Iraqi pilots to Saddam, and their readiness to die for him, while his regime is crumbling, is not at all the same as that of Japanese kamikaze pilots, who were ready to die for their emperor at the end of World War II.

In contacts between Israeli and American defense officials over the past few weeks, the Pentagon's representatives were asked to plan their operations in Iraq in such a way as to minimize the Iraqi ability to move missile launchers into western Iraq, from which missiles can reach Israel. The Americans were told that Israel expects them to conduct operations, including on the ground, in western Iraq from the start of a campaign, and not to wait until Iraq starts launching missile attacks on Israel, as happened in 1991. Israeli officials say they believe the Pentagon will accede to this request.

The Pentagon meanwhile is very interested in technologies, weapons systems, and military doctrines developed in Israel over the past few years. In meetings in Washington with top defense officials and representatives of the Israeli defense establishment, led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, and including the head of weapons development and technology infrastructure Maj. Gen. Dr. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, videos were shown demonstrating examples of Israel's policy of "pinpoint targeting" in the territories. The emphasis was on combat helicopter attacks that caused no collateral damage to anything other than the target, even if many civilians were in the area.

American officers, from both the air force and special operations, visited Israel to learn about "pinpoint targeting" from IDF special operations commanders in the territories. Among other things, the Americans wanted to know about long-distance assassinations, along the lines of the operation - to kill Saddam Hussein - that foreign reports said was being rehearsed at the time of the Tze'elim 2 accident. The Americans were offered Israeli assistance in many areas, including inoculations against anthrax.

Along with the focus on Iraq, the defense establishment is keeping a close eye on developments in Iran. According to the latest Military Intelligence estimate, an event at Tarbit Madras University in Tehran a week ago, may be significant. Attended by government officials, including an adviser to Iranian President Muhamed Hatami, parliamentarians, and academic experts, the event was devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most of the speakers opposed the conservative policy of the Iranian spiritual leader Ali Hamani and demanded moderation of the government line against Israel, a line that is more extreme than the Palestinians.

Military Intelligence's estimate appears to strengthen the position that Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy publicly stated last month when he said that there is hope for moderation in the Iranian regime.

-------- pakistan

Pakistan and India May Seek Diplomacy

January 2, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-India.html

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Breaking weeks of tension, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan shook hands and smiled on Wednesday, hinting that diplomatic talks could ease the disharmony that has pushed troops toward their shared frontier.

But suspected Islamic militants detonated two grenades near the legislature in Srinagar, killing one policeman and wounding at least 24 other people in the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state in India, police said. And in southern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani forces traded mortar and small-arms fire across the disputed border -- a more intense version of what is a common occurrence even in calmer times.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar shook hands, spoke amiably and smiled Wednesday in a conference room in Katmandu, Nepal, where a meeting of South Asian nations is convening.

``The ice is melting,'' Pakistani government spokesman Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal said after the Cabinet ministers of seven nations talked about economic development and then went to dinner together.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, are scheduled to join other leaders in Nepal Friday.

Singh has not specifically ruled out a meeting, though a Vajpayee spokesman said earlier that none were planned ``at any level.'' Pakistan has said repeatedly it would be willing to meet with India and that tension should be defused through talks.

Sattar also suggested Pakistan would consider extraditing terrorism suspects if India met ``legal requirements,'' The Nation newspaper reported Wednesday.

The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation summit is pivotal because it offers the possibility of direct diplomatic contact between the two nations, which has been scarce of late. Last week, India sent home half of Pakistan's diplomats, and Pakistan responded in kind.

Tense relations worsened sharply after a Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament on Dec. 13 that killed 14 people. India said the attack was orchestrated by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, two Pakistani-backed militant groups fighting India's rule over two-thirds of Kashmir. Pakistan controls the rest of the Himalayan territory.

Pakistan denies the charges and says India's demands to arrest militants can be answered only if New Delhi backs up its accusations.

India has given Pakistan a list of 20 people it accuses of hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 to Kandahar, Afghanistan and attacking government targets in India in recent years. India says the suspects are in Pakistan and wants them handed over.

``If a court in India were to indict them, if India were to provide proof, Pakistan may consider extradition,'' Pakistani spokesman Gondal said Wednesday.

Still, in recent days Pakistan has acted to arrest dozens of militants, including the former leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, though it cited internal security as the reason, not India's demands.

India is insisting Islamabad take what New Delhi calls ``meaningful and resolute steps'' to stop terrorists based in Pakistan from carrying out acts of violence in Kashmir, a mountainous region over which the two countries have fought two wars.

The attack Wednesday near the legislature in Srinagar came two months after an Oct. 1 suicide attack on the state legislature building, which killed 40 people.

Police said the attackers exploded the first grenade at the main entrance of the heavily guarded legislature building and followed up with another blast outside a nearby abandoned movie theater.

At least 12 people, including eight policemen, were wounded in the first blast. One policeman later died of his wounds, officials said. Ten civilians and three soldiers were wounded in the second explosion.

Mindful of the danger involved in a dispute between South Asia's only nuclear powers, the world has been paying attention.

China has expressed alarm, and U.S. officials have been on the phone almost daily with Musharraf and Vajpayee. British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Islamabad and New Delhi next week to discuss the tensions.

Security officials reported an intense exchange of fire in the Rawalakot and Bhimber sectors of Pakistani Kashmir, where villagers living near the frontier continue to relocate. More than 19,000 Pakistani Kashmiris have fled the border since mid-December.

``People are afraid and expect the intensity of fighting to rise,'' said Sardar Mohammed Zafeer, a resident of the border town of Abbaspur. He spoke to The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday morning.

--------

50 Militants Arrested in Pakistan

January 2, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Militant-Arrests.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan has arrested about 50 followers of two militant Islamic groups that India has accused of orchestrating a suicide attack on its Parliament, officials of the groups said Wednesday.

The arrests in recent days included 38 members of Jaish-e-Mohammed and 12 followers of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, they said. Among the detainees were Jasih-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who were accused of making inflammatory speeches and inciting violence.

Most Jaish-e-Mohammed members were arrested in the southern port city of Karachi and the eastern city of Bahwalpur, group spokesman Abu Hasan Barki told The Associated Press by telephone.

Pakistan's military-led government, a strong U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, is being pushed both by Washington and rival India to take action against Islamic militants.

The arrests came amid mounting tensions between the South Asian nuclear rivals, who have massed tens of thousands of troops at their border.

In addition to blaming the two groups, India has accused Pakistan's spy agency of complicity in the Dec. 13 Parliament assault. The attack left 14 people dead, including the five attackers.

Pakistan and the two groups deny the allegations. But Pakistani authorities, who already were trying to curb activities of extremist groups, have escalated their efforts.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said the action against militant groups was taken for domestic reasons and not just because of India's pressure.

Islamic groups claim the arrests were unjust.

Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for Jamaat ud Daawa, or the Organization of Preachers, the non-militant wing of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, said his group did not violate any Pakistani laws.

``It is unfortunate that those people are being arrested who have given tremendous sacrifices for the country,'' he said. ``Arrest of such people is demoralizing for the struggle in Kashmir.''

Lashkar and Jaish are the key Pakistan-based guerrilla groups fighting Indian troops in Kashmir. More than a dozen other Muslim groups are also involved in the secessionist movement there.

India claims Pakistan has fomented the violence. Pakistan, which also holds part of Kashmir, calls it an indigenous struggle. The two countries have fought two wars over the region.

Khan said Pakistan is keeping an eye on militants and would take action if they break any law. But he said there is no plan to outlaw the two groups.

Washington added Jaish-e-Mohammed to its list of terrorist organizations in November because of alleged ties to Afghanistan's Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was added after the Indian Parliament attack.

Another group, the Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, has been considered a terrorist operation by Washington for several years.

The three have already shut their offices in Pakistan and announced they will operate only in Kashmir.

The closures illustrate a major shift in the strategy of the Islamic groups, which were previously allowed to openly collect donations and recruit volunteers.

Under orders from security agencies, the groups have removed their billboards, banners and flags from major cities and agreed to stop raising donations.

-------- propaganda wars

Ignorance is not bliss
Lack of reporting civilian casualties from the war in Afghanistan is keeping Americans in the dark -- and endangering their future

Roberto J. Gonzalez
Wednesday, January 2, 2002
San Francisco
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/02/ED232248.DTL

FOR THE PAST three months, Pentagon officials have veiled an essential aspect of the 'war on terrorism': civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Blocking access to information about the human costs of U.S. bombing -- and its consequences -- might create a dangerous future for Americans.

Such restrictions keep us from understanding how the rest of the world views the war, and why it might provoke future attacks on the United States. They may also breed complacency, ignorance and national insecurity.

Measures taken by military officials obscure information about the effects of U.S. bombing.

For example, since Oct. 11, the Pentagon has purchased exclusive rights to all satellite images from Space Imaging, a U.S. company that produces accurate pictures that might allow independent media to survey bomb damage.

In addition, U.S. bombs destroyed Al-Jazeera's television station in Kabul in October. The Qatar-based independent network reaches much of the Arab world and frequently broadcasts images from Afghanistan.

Official acknowledgment of civilian deaths has been minimal.

Descriptions of heavily bombed frontline positions never mention that they sometimes traverse densely populated neighborhoods. Frequently, officials claim that civilian deaths 'cannot be independently confirmed.'

Yet, according to a recent report by Professor Marc Herold, an economist at the University of New Hampshire, the number of Afghan civilians killed by American bombs has surpassed casualties from Sept. 11.

Herold's report -- the first independent survey of its kind -- claims that 3,767 civilian deaths were caused by U.S. bombing between Oct. 7 and Dec. 10. Not included are indirect deaths caused by land mines, lack of water, food or medicine.

The data, drawn from independent news sources and first-hand accounts, include: dates, locations, types of munitions used and sources. Much of it is based upon mainstream British, French and Indian press agencies such as the BBC and The India Times.

While respected news agencies abroad have reviewed Herold's report, the American media have largely ignored it. Only a few journals, Internet sites and the radio program 'Democracy Now!' have analyzed it.

Why have the U.S. media missed the story?

Part of the explanation may be related to the industry itself. Recent mergers between media corporations have homogenized news, especially television news. AOL/Time Warner, Viacom, News Corporation, Disney and GE own CNN, CBS News, Fox News, ABC News and NBC, respectively.

Many Americans rely exclusively upon this cartel for information on the 'war on terrorism,' which is presented more as entertainment than news.

Broadcasts include repetitive accounts of the search for Osama bin Laden, trivia about weapons, war images that resemble video games and footage of cheerful Afghans trimming their beards and playing music.

These pictures are punctuated by angry pundits and politicians who reduce complex events to simplified formulas ('good versus evil') using language reminiscent of Hollywood Westerns ('dead or alive').

Whether such misinformation stems from Pentagon pressure, fear of offending advertisers or shabby journalism is largely irrelevant. The effect is the same:

Warfare is presented as light entertainment.

While American viewers remain oblivious, Europeans, Asians and others have access to information about the catastrophic effects of U.S. bombing. They have seen images of dead and wounded civilians and the many widows, widowers and orphans created by Operation Enduring Freedom.

Many are convinced that this is a U.S. crusade against Islam, and with each passing week, violent 'blowback' -- the CIA's term for unintended foreign policy consequences -- appears more likely.

Ignorance may be dangerous in the current climate.

Murky official statements and a distracted mass media deny us information which might help prevent future attacks.

George Orwell once noted that in free societies, censorship is more sophisticated and thorough than in dictatorships because 'unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without any need for an official ban.'

But keeping Americans in the dark about inconvenient facts in Afghanistan is reckless at best, and potentially dangerous.

Civilian deaths should be openly acknowledged by the Pentagon and reported by the mass media if we wish to minimize the possibility of future attacks on American soil.

Roberto J. Gonzalez is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at San Jose State University.

-------- puerto rico

US Judge Dismisses Vieques Lawsuit

January 2, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Vieques.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020103-98590912.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge dismissed Puerto Rico's lawsuit to stop the Navy from resuming bombing exercises on the territory's island of Vieques. The Puerto Rican government said Wednesday it would appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said that while the political and policy issues surrounding the case were complex, ``the legal issue, in contrast, is simple and straightforward.''

President Bush has said the Navy should abondon its training on Vieques no later than May 2003. Many in Puerto Rico, however, fear that the U.S. war in Afghanistan will cause him to back away from the pledge.

Puerto Rico filed its lawsuit last April after Gov. Sila Calderon signed a law banning loud noises along the island's shores. That law cited the U.S. Noise Control Act of 1972, which allows states -- or, as in Puerto Rico's case, U.S. territories -- to set noise-control laws.

In a ruling issued Monday and released Wednesday, Kessler said she must dismiss Puerto Rico's case ``for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.'' She said the Noise Control Act ``does not provide plaintiff a cause of action to sue in federal district court for the violations alleged.''

Puerto Rican Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez pledged to appeal.

``We think the decision is erroneous,'' she said at a news conference Wednesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

``It's sad,'' said Nellie Rodriguez, wife of the Vieques mayor, Damaso Serrano. ``We'll have to keep fighting another way; for example, by putting a lot of pressure on the president.''

Despite Bush's pledge to eventually end naval training on Vieques, Congress passed legislation last month to bar the Navy secretary from closing the site until he and top military leaders certify the availability of a site or sites that would provide ``equivalent or superior'' levels of training.

A Pentagon spokesman would not comment Wednesday because he had not seen the ruling.

Dana Perino, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said government attorneys were analyzing the ruling but were pleased with the decision.

Puerto Rican researchers have linked heart disease and other health problems found among Vieques residents to naval gunfire and pollutants released during military exercises.

The Navy denies the allegations.

Opposition to the Navy's use of Vieques intensified after a jet dropped two errant bombs in 1999 that killed a civilian Puerto Rican guard.

The Navy owns about half of Vieques, and the bombing range covers 900 acres on the island's eastern tip.

-------- spy agencies

When Betrayal and Paranoia Are Part of the Job

New York Times
January 2, 2002
By TOM MANGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/opinion/02MANG.html

LONDON -- A vintage spy joke: The counterintelligence officer looks in the mirror while shaving and asks, I wonder who that man is working for?

Counterintelligence, the black art of preventing other people from stealing your secrets, was Robert Hanssen's job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now, as he sits in his cell in a federal jail quietly confessing his monstrous thefts of America's most secret secrets, attention turns again to the psychological profiling of counterintelligence officers. These are supposed to be the most trusted men and women of the intelligence world, the spies who must know all the secrets so they can protect them.

Mr. Hanssen was one of the F.B.I.'s top counterintelligence officers. He was a tall, slightly overweight, boring individual who lacked basic social graces. Yet he has turned out to be a clutch of paradoxes. He adored his wife and children but spent his spare time with a stripper; he was a devout Catholic, yet used his priest confessors as a moral shield to continue spying; he hated Communism but betrayed his country rotten. You can almost hear Kim Philby, the British spy and archtraitor of the West, chuckling in his grave. Mr. Hanssen admired him. Of course.

The truth is, those whom the gods favor in the world of counterintelligence, they first drive mad. It is a ghastly job. Imagine being told to assume that your boss is stealing from your company. Imagine endless months of painstaking detective work to unravel just one possible clue in an investigation that may run for a decade at least. Imagine that even when you get home and put your feet up and take that first sip of whiskey, all you can talk about is the weather.

One positive result of the Hanssen case may be the establishment within the F.B.I. of annual psychological tests for the unfortunates who work in the febrile world of counterintelligence. Like military officers who have access to the nuclear trigger, F.B.I. officers may in the future be scrutinized for signs of incipient paranoia or lesser forms of mental distress. Such afflictions are occasioned mainly, I believe, by the sheer loneliness of keeping secrets.

Mr. Hanssen is often portrayed as some Hieronymus Bosch sinner falling headlong into the flames of perdition. It may be a convenient way of explaining the enormity of his treachery, but I remain skeptical. I think Mr. Hanssen thought he was a darned clever operator (he was right) and he simply wanted peer approval.

That would explain many of the apparent paradoxes. Why consort, as he did, with a humble stripper? Not for sex; he never touched the gallant Priscilla Galey, she has told interviewers. More likely he wanted her to know that he was a good F.B.I. officer.

A former senior F.B.I. officer who worked with Mr. Hanssen told me the confessed spy "was a sort of nerdy guy - he didn't fit into our canteen culture." Perhaps he became a double agent to indulge in the luxury of letting someone outside the bureau realize how smart he was.

Read his correspondence with his Soviet and Russian masters, and the clues bite you in the leg. The exchange of letters shows a desperate Robert Hanssen seeking approval from the one group that fully understood how good an operator he was: the opposition.

The Russians certainly knew how to appreciate his skills - and they played him like a harp. When he sent one valuable load of secrets to them, they wrote back: "We acknowledge your superb sense of humor and sharp-as-a-razor mind. We highly appreciate both." Here was the acknowledgment he must have craved. Mr. Hanssen's response to another message reveals the extent of his estrangement, and of his self-conceit: "The U.S. can be regarded as a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous but young, immature and easily manipulated."

How significant that the only people he could boast to were pledged to secrecy - his priests (to whom he regularly confessed about spying) and his Russian contacts.

Surely Mr. Hanssen wanted the money he was paid (although he gave much of it away, to Ms. Galey and to Catholic charities), and possibly he was psychologically unstable (and so said a psychiatrist retained - and later fired - by his defense lawyers). But the explanation for his actions may be much simpler. In the twilight world of counterintelligence, where your closest colleague may be your next target, navigating the dark terrain of conflicted loyalties has tested greater minds than Mr. Hanssen's.

The legendary head of counterintelligence for the Central Intelligence Agency, James Jesus Angleton, was driven half insane by the job. For 20 years he held the same position, and at the height of the cold war his paranoid obsessions led him into one of the most shameful acts in the history of American intelligence.

In 1964 a young K.G.B. officer named Yuri Nosenko defected to the United States, but Mr. Angleton concluded he was a double agent dispatched by the K.G.B. When Mr. Nosenko denied this charge, Mr. Angleton had him arrested and thrown into solitary confinement - without ever charging him with any crime. He was imprisoned for more than three years - two of them in a special concrete cell built for him on C.I.A. property. During this time, his only reading material was a label from a tube of toothpaste. Mr. Angleton became so obsessed with his counterintelligence work that he violated the principles of the Constitution he had sworn to uphold. Mr. Nosenko was later vindicated and rehabilitated. Mr. Angleton's legacy remains controversial.

None of these painful events would have occurred if counterintelligence agents were allowed to breathe the same air and drink the same water as the rest of us. Counterintelligence officers should be rotated out of the discipline at least every two years. They should be encouraged to spend as much time as possible in the real world to counterbalance time spent in their closed offices. Mr. Angleton's successor as chief of counterintelligence, George Kalaris, stepped down after only two anxious years.

We cannot assume that traitors have defective genes or have been infected by some alien madness to which ordinary mortals are immune. We must recognize that counterintelligence itself thrives on hot-house secrecy, engendering a kind of loneliness that breeds irrationality and moral confusion.

Robert Hanssen, like James Angleton, is as much a victim of this paranoid system as a cause of it. His punishment for more than 20 years of spying on his country is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and most would agree it is deserved. Equally necessary is the reform of a system that allows such men to flourish.

Tom Mangold is a BBC-TV correspondent and author of "Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton, The C.I.A.'s Master Spy Hunter."

-------- un

U.N. launches measles vaccine project in Afghanistan

Wednesday January 2, 1:32 AM
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-81441.html

KABUL - The United Nations began immunising nine million Afghan children against measles on Tuesday in a project it hopes will prevent 35,000 deaths from the disease each year in the war-torn country.

Thousands of mothers queued up with their children at some 200 vaccination centres at mosques and hospitals around the capital in the first stage of the project that will cover the whole nation by March, U.N. officials said.

"Measles is the number one killer among vaccine-preventable diseases in Afghanistan," said Baba Danbappa, head of the survival section of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in Afghanistan. "By doing this, we are going to save about 35,000 children every year.

"We had restrictions before -- we couldn't go to certain areas because of the frontlines," he said of a land where peace is being restored after a U.S.-led coalition crushed the Taliban government in November, halting years of civil war.

"With only 40 percent coverage, we couldn't prevent outbreaks and were not reaching the number of children we should have."

At the immunisation centre of the Khair Khana 52-bed hospital on the edge of Kabul, Latifa vaccinated about 380 children on Tuesday morning alone, compared with an average 130-180 people per day before the launch of the project.

"The problem before was that the syringes we used became infected very easily," said Latifa, 39, who has been a vaccinator for 13 years. "Now we have all the equipment and vaccine we need."

One mother who brought her four children for vaccination said she decided to come to the centre after her neighbour's four-year-old son died of measles and then his elder brother contracted the disease.

"If he had been vaccinated, that boy might not have died," said Fauzai, 24, comforting her bawling seven-month daughter after her injection.

"Measles is spreading very fast in this region so I came as soon as I heard about the project on the radio."

The $8.2 million project -- widely advertised on Afghan radio and television -- aims to vaccinate 1.2 million children between six months and 12 years old in Kabul before expanding to the rest of the nation, said Danbappa.

Vaccine-preventable diseases claim some 1.7 million lives every year, of which 45.5 percent are due to measles, U.N. officials say.

-------- us

U.S. Airborne Troops Replacing Marines in Afghanistan

January 2, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-attack-military.html

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of U.S. airborne troops have begun replacing Marines in southern Afghanistan as American forces press the hunt for Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke also told reporters that U.S. forces were now questioning 221 al Qaeda and Taliban ``detainees'' at facilities in Afghanistan and aboard the Navy warship Bataan in the northern Indian Ocean.

She said several hundred members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division had arrived at a military airfield in Kandahar over the last several days to begin replacing more than 1,000 Marines there. The Army force would total more than 1,000 when the rotation was completed, she said.

The airborne troops will operate the air base and continue to work with the interim Afghan government and humanitarian aid groups as well as press the hunt for fugitive Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in the war on terrorism, Clarke said.

``The U.S. forces in Afghanistan continue to be focused on what we have said are our primary objectives right now. That is to pursue and get the Taliban and the al Qaeda leadership,'' she told reporters.

As Clarke spoke, a force of 200 Marines continued to search an area north of Kandahar for any intelligence that would help the U.S. operations against al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

There were also reports that U.S. Army Special Operations troops had joined the hunt for fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but she refused to confirm or deny those reports.

OMAR NEGOTIATIONS UNDER WAY

Officials in the southern city of Kandahar, former powerbase of Omar, said on Wednesday that negotiations were under way to try to capture the fugitive cleric without bloodshed.

Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gullalai is hunting the reclusive supreme leader of the vanquished Taliban, who is believed to have taken refuge with 1,500 die-hard fighters near the town of Baghran in southern Helmand province, some 100 miles northwest of Kandahar.

The 200 Marines have also been scouring a suspected hide-out in southern Afghanistan as the U.S. forces hunt for bin Laden -- the world's most wanted man -- his al Qaeda fighters and the Taliban who gave him protection.

The United States has not filed any charges to date against Taliban and al Qaeda fighters captured in Afghanistan, although hundreds more are expected to be turned over to the U.S. military by the Afghan government and Pakistan forces, who captured many as they fled the fighting in Afghanistan.

``The number of U.S. detainees is now 221. That is 200 in Kandahar, eight on the Bataan (who have) been transferred from the (assault ship USS) Peleliu, 12 in Baghram and one in Mazar-i-Sharif,'' Clarke said.

--------

200 Marines on the Move Toward Abandoned Taliban Compound

New York Times
January 2, 2002
By NORIMITSU ONISHI with JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/international/02KAND.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 1 - Backed by helicopter gunships and Harrier jets, a convoy carrying about 200 United States marines rumbled out of Kandahar before dawn today to secure an abandoned Taliban compound, in what amounted to the most extensive American ground operation in the war.

The marines headed west of Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold, into neighboring Helmand Province, which has become the focus of American military activity in recent days. Until now, the marines had been largely restricted to the Kandahar Airport and a desert base southwest of here, reflecting American concerns that ground operations would increase the possibility of casualties.

Army Special Operations troops are also working with Afghan fighters to search for Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, in the mountainous region of Baghran in northern Helmand Province, where perhaps as many as 2,000 Taliban are still hiding. The Pentagon is also considering plans to send a larger number of ground troops, possibly marines, to Baghran to help hunt for Mullah Omar.

Afghan officials said today that the Taliban holdouts in Baghran had begun surrendering weapons and vehicles, according to an agreement that is supposed to lead to a full surrender this week.

Some Afghan commanders said they were unsure of Mullah Omar's location. But Hajji Gullalai, the regional intelligence director, said he was negotiating with people close to Mullah Omar over his surrender.

"We know where Mullah Muhammad Omar is," he said in an interview outside his office today. "We have some demands, and the Taliban have some objections. They have some demands, and we have some objections. But I'm confident the negotiations will be successful." He did not say whether Mullah Omar was in Baghran.

Senior Pentagon officials said "a body of evidence" indicated that Mullah Omar was in the Baghran area. For that reason, American military officers in Kandahar have been pressing Gul Agha Shirzai, the American-backed warlord who controls the region, to mount an offensive against the Taliban holdouts, offering the assistance of American commandos, warplanes and possibly other combat troops.

The mission in Baghran, however, suggests diverging interests between the Americans and Afghans. As President Bush indicated on Monday, capturing Mullah Omar remains a priority for the United States, particularly since the trail of Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, appears to have grown cold. The Pentagon has drawn criticism for not having posted American ground troops in the Tora Bora region to prevent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from fleeing.

But just as in Tora Bora, where Afghan fighters showed little interest in searching through the mountains and caves for Taliban and Al Qaeda members, the Afghans here have displayed little interest in hunting for Mullah Omar and other senior Taliban in Baghran. When Mr. Gullalai said on Dec. 17 that Mullah Omar was in Baghran, he also said seizing him was not a priority for Mr. Shirzai's government.

At the Kandahar Airport base, Col. Andrew Frick, the commander of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said this morning that the marines had left Kandahar in the night, accompanied by Mr. Shirzai's soldiers. He said the marines had secured their location - a sprawling Taliban compound with 14 buildings - without encountering any hostility, and were expected to return by Wednesday morning.

Colonel Frick suggested the compound was in a rural area not too far from the main highway that cuts across southern Afghanistan. He said no marines were in Baghran, which is in a remote area 100 miles north of the highway.

Officials with the United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said the compound probably had also been used by Al Qaeda forces who may have left behind documents, videotapes or computers that could shed light on the terrorist network's activities. The marines mainly provided security, while Mr. Shirzai's soldiers combed the buildings for such materials, the officials said.

American forces have canvassed a dozen locations that had been occupied by the Taliban or Al Qaeda in the region, Colonel Frick said. But he added that the area's size required the deployment of the significant marine force for the first time.

There had been reports by American news photographers in Kandahar that the marines had departed for Helmand Province by helicopter on Monday, possibly to assist in an attack on Baghran. But the Central Command said today that those helicopters were probably carrying marines to ships off shore or to another Marine base southwest of Kandahar.

The Afghans here - who are of the same Pashtun ethnic group as most of the Taliban - have favored negotiations over fighting. On Sunday, Mr. Shirzai's commanders reached an agreement with Abdul Waheed, the Taliban commander in the Baghran region, for the surrender of the holdouts. Mr. Waheed is a former official in the Taliban foreign ministry and a close ally of Mullah Omar.

Afghan officials said today that Mr. Waheed had started giving up vehicles and weapons, and that the surrender process was on track. Negotiations had centered on whether Mr. Waheed would be allowed to keep some weapons and vehicles, Mr. Shirzai's commanders said.

It is not clear how the Afghans and Americans will react if the Sunday agreement fails to yield all the Taliban holdouts, weapon stockpiles and, especially, Mullah Omar. Afghan commanders said they were prepared to fight the Taliban in Baghran.

"We have 5,000 soldiers ready to fight in Baghran," Mr. Gullalai said. "When we capture all of the Taliban, we will search every place in Baghran for Mullah Omar."

He did not say, however, where the soldiers had come from. Most of Mr. Shirzai's commanders are here in Kandahar, and they have yet to send their troops to Baghran.

The Central Command also reported today that a new batch of 25 Al Qaeda soldiers had been brought to a Marine Corps detention camp at Kandahar Airport, bringing the total number of prisoners there to 189. Cmdr. Dan Keesee, a Central Command spokesman, said most of those new detainees were captured by Pakistani troops after they had fled across the border from Tora Bora.

Commander Keesee said eight Al Qaeda prisoners - including John Walker Lindh, the American captured with Taliban forces near Mazar-i-Sharif - were transferred on Monday from a brig on the Peleliu to another amphibious assault ship in the Arabian Sea, the Bataan.

The Peleliu - which carries the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, whose troops are also in Kandahar - is scheduled either to return to the United States later this month or to deploy on a new mission, Pentagon officials say.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Sharp rise in reporters jailed or attacked in 2001

Thursday January 2, 2001
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-81598.html

PARIS - Thirty-one journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2001 and there was a sharp rise in curbs on reporting worldwide, a media watchdog said on Wednesday.

The number of journalists jailed or attacked for their work rose dramatically last year, the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said in its annual assessment of press freedom.

The number killed was almost the same as in 2000 when the death toll was 32, it said.

But arrests soared by almost 50 percent to 489 while threats and physical attacks on reporters jumped around 40 percent to 716.

"More and more journalists are in jail across the world," the group said in a statement. "There are currently 110 behind bars. Whereas this number had steadily decreased since 1995, it suddenly started rising again in 2001."

The situation sharply deteriorated in states including Bangladesh, Eritrea, Haiti, Nepal and Zimbabwe. Few countries recorded progress in granting the media greater freedom, Reporters Without Borders said.

"Every day, a new media outlet is censored somewhere in the world and close to a third of the global population lives in a country where there is no freedom of the press," it added.

Asia was the most dangerous place for reporters, with 14 deaths recorded last year. This included eight correspondents killed covering the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.

Reuters journalists Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman, and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer, both 33, were among a group of journalists murdered by gunmen in an ambush near Kabul in November.

One journalist and eight media technicians lost their lives in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Another U.S. journalist died from anthrax in Florida after receiving a letter laced with the bacteria.

Journalists were assassinated for what they wrote in Haiti, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Spain and Yugoslavia. No reporters were killed in Africa or the Middle East last year.

----

Thermal camera may detect lying

1/2/2002
UPI
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=01012002-053506-3828r

ROCHESTER, Minn., Jan. 2 -- An experimental new lie detector that measures sudden flashes of heat from around the eyes may soon provide another line of defense against terrorism.

"This is the first technology that allows lying to be measured or lying to be detected without any contact with the subject whatsoever instantaneously, in real time," said lead researcher James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "You don't need to hook them up to anything -- you don't need any sophisticated experts to analyze the data."

The researchers say prototypes of the device may aid security operations within the next two years, in areas such as airports and border checkpoints. However, Levine also is concerned about the potential ethical ramifications of the technology if it ever becomes developed for the open market.

"If this technology really becomes developed to the desktop phase, you could be sitting in front of your boss and he could ask you 'Do you think you can meet your deadline?' And you can say, 'Sure, of course,' and he'd say, 'I know you're lying,'" Levine said in an interview with United Press International. "Or, on a date, one's boyfriend could say to a person, 'Are you serious about wanting to get married?' and when she answers the question, she's being photographed."

"On the other hand, when thinking about the possibility of someone with explosives in his shoes boarding a plane, given the technology's security potential, I think most of us would want this application to be accelerated as quickly as possible," Levine added. "We're making advances in science, and I think the ethical issues need to be dealt with when the advances are being made. Otherwise ethics gets left behind," he said.

The device consists of a high-definition thermal imaging camera the size of a shoebox. The scientists also have developed a miniaturized version of the camera, roughly the diameter of a postage stamp. Both are hooked up to a filing cabinet's worth of computer hardware.

"As people lie, there is a massive increase in blood flow around the eyes, and associated with that there is sudden warming around the eyes, where the color changes to white in the thermal imaging system," Levine explained.

The researchers made their discovery accidentally three years ago while studying, of all things, gum chewing. They were using the thermal imaging device to study the facial muscles at work to analyze how physical activity affected metabolism.

"We got these beautiful thermal images every time someone chewed gum, and by accident we detected the very subtle changes that occur in the face with fearfulness -- there was a loud bang when a book fell on the lab floor," Levine told UPI. "The changes in the face that came with that were very consistent with several individuals. And we thought, 'My goodness, if this can detect these very subtle changes instantaneously, perhaps we can see these same changes with lying.'"

The research team had 20 volunteers commit a mock crime and then assert innocence under experimental conditions at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute in Fort Jackson, S.C.

Eight of the volunteers stabbed a mannequin and stole $20 from it, while the rest had no knowledge of the crime. The device accurately detected lying roughly 80 percent of the time, a precision level comparable to standard lie detecting polygraph tests performed by experts.

"Is the method detecting stress or deceit?" commented physicist Gerry Yonas, principal scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. He suggested the researchers needed to further compare this new data with other methods of stress and deceit detection.

Levine agreed more evaluation was needed under a variety of conditions outside the laboratory, taking into account factors such as wind speed or what people had to eat.

"If this technology has the remote possibility to do what it could do, it's mandatory to get this carefully evaluated as soon as humanly possible," Levine said.

The researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature.

(Reported by Charles Choi in New York.)

-------- terrorism

Hijack Plot Suspicions Raised With FBI in Aug.
Letter Recounts School's Warning on Moussaoui

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 2, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49567-2002Jan1?language=printer

An FBI agent and a Minnesota flight school official discussed the possibility that alleged terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was part of a hijacking plot before the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

The official with the Pan Am Flight Academy in Eagan, Minn., talked about the threat in a conversation with a Minneapolis FBI agent on Aug. 15, one day before Moussaoui was detained for immigration violations, according to a Dec. 26 letter from the flight school official to the FBI.

"Through our conversation and [the agent's] questioning, I was able to give a detailed account of the suspicious behavior I witnessed and the worst possible scenario as to what this training could be used for, a hijacking," he wrote.

The Pan Am official also praised the FBI for its "swift and diligent" response to concerns about Moussaoui, whose behavior had raised suspicions at Pan Am. "I called one day, and Zacarias Moussaoui was being interviewed by the FBI the next day and we never saw him again," he wrote.

But the correspondence provides a more explicit description of the warnings raised about Moussaoui prior to the Sept. 11 attacks and again raises questions about the FBI's handling of the case. Moussaoui, 33, a French national of Moroccan descent, is the only person indicted by U.S. authorities in the attacks. He is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Alexandria today on terrorism conspiracy charges.

Moussaoui was apprehended weeks before 19 hijackers commandeered four domestic jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside, killing more than 3,100 people. U.S. authorities believe Moussaoui may have been intended as the 20th member of the hijacking teams but was scratched after his arrest in Minnesota.

"It's understandable to some degree how the FBI might not have understood the seriousness of this case at the time," said Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), who was briefed on the case by Pan Am officials. "But we knew there was a danger of terrorism, which makes this case very troubling."

FBI officials, including Director Robert S. Mueller III, have repeatedly said that agents in Minneapolis and officials in Washington pursued the Moussaoui case as aggressively as possible. The officials say a lack of evidence prohibited them from searching a laptop computer that contained information about jetliners, crop-dusters and wind currents.

Authorities were suspicious enough, however, that they immediately considered Moussaoui a potential terrorist hijacker and moved to have him deported while continuing attempts to search his belongings, Justice Department officials said.

"The hijacking possibility was one of the reasons Minneapolis was pursuing the guy so vigorously," one senior law enforcement official said. "But you have to realize that we were still stuck with a guy with no connections to anyone else, and no connections to any plot that anyone knows about at the time."

Many of the details surrounding Moussaoui's detention before Sept. 11 remain sketchy or in dispute. That's largely because many key participants -- including prosecutors, FBI agents and Pan Am officials -- have declined to discuss the case publicly due to grand-jury secrecy rules.

But according to documents and senior U.S. officials, investigators in Minneapolis immediately viewed Moussaoui as a terrorist suspect but were frustrated in their attempts to learn more about why he was seeking to pilot jumbo jets and whether he was connected to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

Moussaoui was briefly interviewed by the FBI and detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on Aug. 16, after Pan Am officials had alerted the FBI to a new student at the school who seemed suspicious, authorities said.

Moussaoui paid the school's $6,300 fee in cash, was woefully lacking in flight skills and was evasive and belligerent when asked about his background, school officials said. In one example, the instructor, noting Moussaoui's place of birth, greeted him in French; Moussaoui refused to respond in kind and said he was from the Middle East rather than France.

Accounts of the FBI's response vary. According to a Pan Am vice president who briefed Oberstar, Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D-Minn.) and others in early November, a flight instructor and others at the Minnesota school were frustrated by the FBI's slow response. The executive's account has been previously reported by other news organizations.

The executive told lawmakers that it took between four and six telephone calls to find an agent who would help. The caller finally warned an FBI agent that a Boeing 747-400, which Moussaoui was seeking to learn how to fly, could be used as a bomb, the executive said.

"It was said out of frustration," said Michael Erlandson, Sabo's chief of staff and head of the Minnesota Democratic Party, who attended the briefing. "It was the flight instructor's judgment that they may be dealing with a terrorist. They were scared of this individual, and thought he might be planning a terrorist event."

The FBI's Minneapolis office has referred all questions about the case to officials in Washington. Sources there said that the idea of using an airplane as a bomb was not discussed at the time.

"The notion of flying a plane into a building or using it as a bomb never came up," a senior law enforcement official said. "It was a straight hijacking scenario that they were worried about."

FBI officials also said there was no delay in responding to the reports about Moussaoui. The Pan Am official in Minnesota who alerted the FBI said in his Dec. 26 letter that the Minneapolis office "did an excellent job."

"He could have just as easily wrote it off as some lunatic, but he followed through on it," the Pan Am official wrote, referring to the FBI agent who took his report.

FBI agents searched Moussaoui's apartment thanks to an obliging roommate but were unable to examine a seized laptop without a warrant, sources said. A standard search warrant was ruled out because agents had no evidence a crime had been committed, authorities said.

Investigators in Minneapolis then sought a special warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires evidence that the target is an agent of a foreign power, including organized terrorist groups such as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

A classified cable in August from the French intelligence service said Moussaoui had radical Islamic beliefs and identified a friend as having fought in Chechnya with an Algerian Muslim group that included a known bin Laden associate, U.S. officials said.

But the French information did not tie Moussaoui directly to al Qaeda or any other terrorist group, prompting the FBI general counsel's office to rule there was not enough cause to obtain a warrant under the FISA statute, sources said. The case was never forwarded for review to the Justice Department, which submits FISA cases to a special intelligence court.

"They looked at it several times, but nobody thought it was sufficiently close to meeting the standard," an official said. "It wasn't even a close call. Otherwise, it would have gone across the street," to Justice.

FBI agents in the Minneapolis office, which rarely handles international terrorism cases, traced Moussaoui's U.S. travels to Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., where he had logged 57 hours of flight time earlier in the year and was viewed as a poor student, officials said. But investigators were unable to find enough evidence to let them proceed with a computer search, and Moussaoui refused to cooperate with authorities, sources said.

Sept. 11 provided the evidence, authorities said. The deadly hijackings were used to secure a warrant later that day to search Moussaoui's computer, helping prompt authorities to ground crop-dusters for fear of another terrorist plot.

An indictment handed up in Alexandria on Dec. 11 alleges that Moussaoui was trained and funded by al Qaeda and was part of the hijacking conspiracy, receiving $14,000 from an alleged terrorist in Germany and mirroring the behavior of many of the 19 dead hijackers.

But FBI and Justice Department officials say that those connections were not evident before Sept. 11 and that the information on Moussaoui's laptop would have provided few tangible clues for investigators at the time. The computer files, written in English, contained no specific references to terrorism, terrorist groups or a hijacking plot, sources said.

"They really didn't have anything on this guy, other than he was here illegally," one U.S. official said. "We've gone through everything to see if anything was missed, and there wasn't anything."

----

Trial Date Is Set for Suspect, Who Denies Sept. 11 Charges

New York Times
January 2, 2002
By TERENCE NEILAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/national/02CND-TERR.html

A trial date of Oct. 14 was set today for Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with Osama bin Laden to kill and maim thousands of people in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, faces six charges, four of which carry the death penalty. The other two carry a maximum of life imprisonment.

The French government has said it would oppose the death penalty and has said it would have to discuss the matter with the United States.

"In the name of Allah I do not have anything to plead," Mr. Moussaoui, 33, told United States District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Va., today. "I enter no plea. Thank you very much."

Judge Brinkema said she took that to mean that he pleaded innocent, and the plea was entered into the record. Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers had said in advance that he would plead not guilty.

The judge rejected defense arguments that a trial date of Oct. 14, with jury selection to begin Sept. 30, would be too close to the one-year anniversary of the suicide hijackings, one of which was at the Pentagon, just a few miles from the Alexandria courthouse.

A defense lawyer, Gerald Zerkin, said that "the need to be further away from Sept. 11 is obvious."

He also said that he and the two other defense lawyers, two of whom are public defenders appointed by the court, "simply cannot prepare a case in that amount of time." Mr. Zerkin had asked for the trial to be delayed to next year.

He said the defense team would need interpreters for Arabic documents and security clearances to cope with an indictment that lists events in several European countries.

United States Attorney Robert Spencer said today that publicity about the attacks "is going to have to be dealt with by the court no matter when" the trial begins. Prosecutors have been given until March 29 to decide whether they will seek the death penalty.

Mr. Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges in August. He had aroused suspicions at a Minnesota flying school after insisting that he wanted to learn how to fly a Boeing 747 despite his clear incompetence as a pilot.

He has consistently denied any role in the Sept. 11 attacks, but Attorney General John Ashcroft has called him an active participant with the 19 hijackers aboard the four planes that left about 3,000 people dead when they crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in western Pennsylvania.

The indictment says Mr. Moussaoui, like many of the hijackers, made inquiries about crop dusting and buying flight-deck training videos.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Federal Utility to Buy Windpower To Advance Energy Security

2002-01-02
SolarAccess.com
http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story.jsp?storyid=1298

WASHINGTON, DC, In year-end contracts that are some of the largest wind energy deals in the United States, Bonneville Power Administration will double its purchase of wind power.

"BPA's latest commitment to purchase wind power helps ensure that we are diversifying our energy portfolio," says energy secretary Spencer Abraham. "Diversity is important for America's energy security."

In a 25-year deal, BPA will purchase 34 percent of the output from the Stateline Wind Project located on the border of Oregon and Washington. Ninety 90 megawatts will be delivered through PacifiCorp Power Marketing, a subsidiary of ScottishPower, beginning December 29.

BPA supplies half of the electricity consumed in the pacific northwest, and this purchase will supply electricity to 18,000 homes.

In a second contract, PPM signed the largest public utility wind power contract in the United States, a 20-year deal to supply Seattle City Light with 50 MW of power starting in January. The municipal utility will double its purchase to 100 MW in August 2002, 150 MW in January 2004 and, potentially, to 175 MW in August 2004.

"Wind projects are becoming increasingly cost competitive," says BPA administrator Steve Wright. "The acquisition of these projects will allow us to better understand the real costs of wind integrated with our hydro system."

The first phase of the Stateline project involves 400 turbines arranged in strings on privately-owned hilltops, with total capacity of 265 MW, all of which is marketed by PPM.

BPA currently purchases 34 MW of wind power from the Foote Creek windfarm in Wyoming, and recently announced a 50 MW purchase from a windfarm in Condon, Oregon. The federal agency markets hydroelectric power from federal dams in the Columbia River Basin, but it one of the largest suppliers of wind power in the United States.

-------- health

Natural Protein May Influence Aging

January 2, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Cancer-Gene.html

A natural protein that suppresses cancers may also help regulate aging, says a study that suggests mice age faster if the protein is overactive.

The results ``raise the shocking possibility that aging may be a side effect of the natural safeguards that protect us from cancer,'' noted Gerardo Ferbeyre of the University of Montreal and Scott Lowe of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

They wrote a commentary accompanying the mouse study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The study was done by scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and elsewhere.

The protein is called p53. Cells produce it at the direction of the p53 gene, which is the best-known example of a ``tumor-suppressor'' gene. Mice that lack p53 rapidly succumb to cancer.

The new work found that mice that appeared to have an overactive p53 protein - because of a genetic mutation - showed signs of premature aging, such as osteoporosis, organ shrinkage and shortened lifespan. Despite their rapid aging, the mice resisted tumor development, which fits with p53's anti-cancer effect.

The results may simply mean the genetic mutation produces a highly abnormal disease, but they might also reveal a role for p53 in normal aging, Ferbeyre and Lowe wrote. One disturbing possibility is that drugs used to treat cancer in young people might spur p53 activity and so speed up age-related disorders later on, they wrote.

-------- human rights

Turkey's new year marks women's rights

1/1/2002
UPI
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=01012002-043645-6133r

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Jan. 1 -- As of Jan. 1, Turkish women will enjoy equal rights when marrying under a dramatic change of the country's Civil Code.

The law is not retroactive, but women tying the knot in the new year can take a job without their husband's permission, receive half of joint assets on divorce, and decide jointly where the family resides.

Building on the overhaul to Turkish law that leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk launched in 1926, the law, which was passed by Parliament in November, protects abandoned wives and gives women an equal voice in the family. In addition to political rights, Ataturk had instituted several legal changes, including more rights in divorce, inheritance and custody, mandatory coeducation and an end to polygamy.

However, the 21st century's new law has not been without vociferous opponents. Turkish Islamic hard-line parties waged a vigorous battle against changing the Civil Code for women.

In recent decades, the liberal societies of Istanbul and the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines have seen dramatic social changes with the movement of people out of the country's stricter southeast. This cultural conflict has spilled over to the political sphere with the rise of Islamic-oriented parties.

Nevertheless, out of a total population of more than 66 million, nearly half are women who in theory enjoy secular freedoms instituted by Ataturk and many may reap the benefits of the new law. But for the 17 million women already married, Jan. 1 will not change much. And for women in the southeast, the code has never provided much protection.

"The ratio of religious marriages, polygamy, underage marriage, sexual abuse, rape and honor killing here is very high," women's rights advocate Nebahat Akkoc from the Kamer organization based in Diyarbakir told the Guardian. "The traditions that are a way of life here have been in force for hundreds of years."

Janin Arin, a divorce lawyer, was more upbeat about the law.

"This is very important, because usually when women are married, their husbands do not want their wife to work out of the house. They will say that he is terribly in love with her, and he does not want her to get more tired," she told the British Broadcasting Corp. "Of course, women can easily give up working out of the house, and at the end of 20 or 30 years, she becomes just nothing."

The purpose of the law is more than just a secular push for women's rights. Turkey has an interest in a Western-tailored approach to legal protections.

In December 1999, the predominantly Muslim country found itself a candidate for full membership in the European Union. In wooing for full participation in the EU, Turkey has found that changes to its Civil Code are necessary.

Yet for the modern Turkish woman who embraces a new way of life, Jan. 1 brought a special gift that goes beyond international conformity.


-------- activists

Pope says there must not be war in God's name

Wednesday January 2,
By Stephanie Holmes
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-81436.html

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul said on Tuesday that violence in God's name was never justified and that a "cry of blood" in the Holy Land must persuade Christians, Muslims and Jews to seek peace.

Speaking on the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, the Pontiff said "perverse interests" threatened to turn the world into a "theatre of war."

"Throughout the world a piercing cry invoking peace rings out," he said in a sermon in Saint Peter's Basilica.

John Paul said the September 11 attacks on the United States had shaken the world. He condemned the use of violence in the name of God, but urged people not to fall prey to despair.

"No one, for any reason, can kill in the name of God," he told the packed congregation in an impassioned address.

"However humanly difficult it may seem to look toward the future with optimism, we must not give in to the temptation to be discouraged," he said. "On the contrary, we must work towards peace with courage, confident that evil will not prevail."

He called on monotheistic religions to condemn the use of violence and said Christians, Muslims and Jews must restore peace to the Holy Land.

"The cry of blood calls to God from that land, the blood of brothers spilt by brothers, all sons of the same Patriach Abraham, sons, as are all men, of the same Holy Father."

After the mass he told a crowd gathered in Saint Peter's Square for his regular noon address that, even in tormented periods of history, "we must respond with the logic of love and justice to those negative forces, guided by perverse interests which seek to transform the world into a theatre of war."

He did not elaborate on what he meant by "perverse interests".

The message that there can be no peace without justice and no justice without forgiveness was the theme of this year's World Day of Peace.

On December 11 the Pope said self defence against terror attacks was legitimate, but that the offended parties had to be careful to single out individuals responsible rather than entire groups or religions for blame.

"JUSTICE, FORGIVENESS NOT AT ODDS"

The United States and its allies have been waging a war in Afghanistan to punish Taliban rulers for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the Islamic militant blamed for the September attacks.

The Pope said on Tuesday that forgiveness was an essential step towards peace and went hand in hand with justice.

"Justice and forgiveness are not at odds with each other, rather they are complementary, because both are essential for the promotion of peace," he said.

"Only forgiveness can quench the thirst for revenge and open the heart to a real and lasting reconciliation between peoples."

The 81-year-old Pope, whose health appeared shaky over Christmas, seemed in relatively good form on Tuesday and read his homily in a firm and clear voice.

In his traditional New Year's Eve sermon, to the delight of his congregation, John Paul prayed for the strength to continue.

"I ask God for the strength to carry on, for as long as He wants me to, in faithful service to the Church of Rome and to the entire world," he said as the crowd broke into applause.

The Pope is due to host a summit of religious leaders to pray for peace in the Italian city of Assisi on January 24.

----

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